Scientists !!

[YELLOWBLACKMASK]

The dog food thread has been beat to death on which one is better and which one causes tail cancer and so on.

In the search to actually find out what brand or blend out there that takes your dogs the futherest including energy, vitamins, and nutrients along with the most minimal waste. 

Who has actually put your goggles and lab coats on to do side by side comparison. 

We would like to know out of the brands which if any of the higher priced feeds did you end up actually feeding a noticeable lesser amount that has had the pencil put to it. (Meaning its actually cheaper to feed in the long run)

Not asking the guys that bought two bags of different feed once and swear they got the absolute answer to everyones question.

Looking for the lil Scientists that have actually measured it out in quantities,  placed their dogs on concrete to observe stools and have kept an accurate tallie on cost per unit fed. If anyone has done this they should have some type of record or technical explanation to back up their trials.
So let's all get some education instead of going round and round with Perty bag logos and lame sales pitches.

Any Dexter's out there?

[SCHitemHard]

umm... well.. i feed exactly 1 cup a day, 1/2 cup in mornin and half at night

at first he was on some kibbles and bits and the stool could have counted as a old WW2 landmine, i switched him to eukanuba: dachsund which supposedly is for dacshunds but didnt see a change at all!  Moved to diamond naturals, same feeding other than now im adding fruit and vegetables but still keepin the same intake size, the stools are firm and smaller, better processed to my eyes

im no dexter

[YELLOWBLACKMASK]

Lol ain't no Dexter myself but I know a few guys are sure enough serious with their trials on their feed differences.

I have done a few of these trials but not to the level I would like to have knowledge of. So far I have observed the same. The mid grade feeds have all be closely compareable to the high end ones after you do the math on price per quantity fed. But would like to here the feedback from the field on folks who have done the tests and crunched the numbers far more in depth than myslef and close buddies. We buy feed in bulk usually 80 to 100 bags at a time so good info is hard to come by.

Didn't mean to discourage folks from replying from above post just trying to weed out tha (I like the red bag better than the blue bag because its red kinda replies)

Hoping to actually get some good intel for everyone to utilize with the tests done to back it up.

Thanks for your info bud.

[mod93dirt]

I have never done any tests with commercially available dog food, but I'll throw my two cents in here. I think a complete raw diet is the absolute best for a dog.

I fed my German Shepherds a complete raw diet for years, until my buddy lost his job at the packing plant, and I lost my good prices. The dogs coats looked great, the dogs never smelled "doggy", and they were full of energy. And as far as stools, I wouldnt hardly know. Never cleaned them up. These dogs roamed my yard, not in a kennel, and after 3-4 days, the poo would turn to a white powder and pretty much disappear. I never once scooped poo when I was feeding raw. I was feeding two dogs, almost 3lbs of food a piece, and while I had a good price hook up it didnt cost me much more than some top of the line dog foods. Unfortunately I lost my good price hookup and couldnt find another and it just got too expensive to feed raw.

After that I started feeding Innova EVO, which is supposed to be the best substitute to a raw diet. But it was costing just as much as feeding raw, and while the dogs still looked great and were full of energy, their stools wouldnt disappear like before. It was at this point that I began to look for a cheaper food. Tried a few of the supposed higher quality ones claiming to mimic a raw diet, but eventually settled on the Diamond sporting dog formula. For the cost difference, I couldnt tell too much difference between it and some more expensive feeds.

I now have two potential hog dogs that I am raising, and they are eating the Diamond as well. No loose stools, no hard stools, and the dogs look good. I imagine there are better feeds out there, but not too many in the same price range that are available around here. I read a lot on here about Black Gold and Outlaw and some others, but cant find any in my area. I would be interested in trying some of those if I could find them, but for now that is what I have so its what I use.

[YELLOWBLACKMASK]

I have also looked into supplementing raw meat into a mixture of bag food but the only meat I can obtain is fat trimmings from local bbq restaurants. The mixture there is usually 100% fat and not lean meat therefore have been a little skeptical of the actual benifit. Might be the best thing but I am just not up to speed on it. Diamond is what we are using now that has held up but we are on a limited timeframe on getting it at reasonable prices. Tried the Blackgold several years ago and dogs nearly starved they hated it so bad on top of if you do find it around here you will pay gold for it.

Did a bag to bag test last year with Diamond High Energy and Purina Benifuls. The end result was it took almost exactly the same feeding ration of each to maintain compareable results except Purina was about $ 10 bucks more per bag. So in that regard it failed miserably. 

[mod93dirt]

[mod93dirt]

Dont know why my last post came up blank, but I will type it again.

Purina Benefuls is one of the feeds that I tried before I settled on the Diamond high energy, but like you said with the cost difference, there was no noticeble difference in my dogs. I would like to try the Diamond Natural, but I havent found it at any local retailers.

When I fed raw, the majority of it was chicken backs and necks, bones and all. Along with a lot of organ meat, hearts, livers, and so on from most any animal.  They got a lot of beef trimmings as well. To feed a raw diet, you need to balance muscle meat with organ meat, with the emphasis on muscle meat. A great source of info on raw diets can be found at www.leerburg.com . Their website has a lot of info to wade through, but it is where I got 99% of my info on feeding a raw diet.

Also I forgot to add in my orginal post that I still supplement my dogs feed with raw eggs, shells and all, a few times a week. Along with Salmon oil and vitamin E caplets. The salmon oil and vit e does wonders for their coats, along with the salmon oil being a great source of DHA, which is all around good for the dogs development.

If I could still afford it I would still be feeding an all raw diet,

[BALLSOUT HOGDOGGIN]

i also feed diamond high energy it is cheaper than most, my dogs are full of energy and it recomends feeding less than other brands fo example some feeds call for 4 to 5 1/2 cups for 45-60# dog diamond calls for 2 to 2 1/4 cups a day and my dogs r very healthy and when it dosent run out the other end feeding diamond