Chihuahua Crossing Forum Closed

Honestly, I would not feed a food made by Purina.  Even with their "higher end" formulas, they are over priced and low quality.  Here are the ingredients to the Pro Plan Selects formula:

Turkey, brewers rice, corn gluten meal, chicken meal (natural source of glucosamine), pearled barley, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), oat meal, dried egg product, pea fiber, dried beet pulp, fish oil, natural flavor, potassium chloride, calcium phosphate, calcium carbonate, salt, dried tomatoes, blueberry pomace, dried sweet potatoes, choline chloride, L-Lysine monohydrochloride, zinc proteinate, manganese proteinate, ferrous sulfate, Vitamin E supplement, niacin, copper proteinate, Vitamin A supplement, calcium pantothenate, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin supplement, Vitamin B-12 supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, garlic oil, folic acid, Vitamin D-3 supplement, calcium iodate, biotin, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), sodium selenite.
B-4401

Let me start... turkey is the first ingredient (which isn't bad).  The thing is, meat contains mostly water... once this meat is cooked down (into meal), there is a lot less meat.  Meaning, the turkey ends up further down the list.  Brewers rice and corn gluten meal are cheap fillers which hold little to no nutritional value.  Brewer's rice is the cheapest rice there is... it is the sweepings of rice off of the floor and holds no nutritional value.  Animal fat comes from an unspecified source... can be diseased animals, euthanized pets... the source of fat should always be specified (like chicken fat, beef fat, etc).  Salt isn't good in any dog food, and is only included to add flavor.  Menadione is a cheap form of artificial vitamin k... which has lead to death and seizures in many dogs.

I always recommend a holistic food...

Here is what I feed (Timberwolf Organics):

Fresh Bison Meat, Salmon Meal, Millet, Sweet Potatoes, Oats, Flaxseed, Carrot, Watercress, Spinach, Celery, Parsley, Fennel Seed, Wild Salmon Oil, Atlantic Kelp, Hydrated Alfalfa Leaf, Potassium Chloride, Currants, Cranberries, Pears, Figs, Thyme, Anise Seed, Ground Cinnamon Bark, Fenugreek, Garlic Pieces, Sunflower Seeds, Sesame Seeds, Apples, Chicory Root, Spirulina, Choline Chloride, Lecithin, Probiotics: (Lactobacillus Acidophilus, Lactobacillus Casei, Lactobacillus Lactis, Bacillus Bifidum, Streptococcus Diacetilactis, Bacillus Subtillus), Taurine, Mixed Tocopherols (a source of vitamin E), Lysine, Zinc Proteinate, Iron Proteinate, Manganese Proteinate, Thiamine, Methionine, Carnitine, Niacin, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Riboflavin Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Iodine Proteinate, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Biotin, Folic Acid, Pyridoxine (a source of vitamin B6), Cobalt Proteinate, Papain, Yucca Schidigera Extract.

There are no bi products or fillers in most holistic foods.

Here is a Pro Plan story for you... my mom has fed her toy poodle Pro Plan for its entire life.  At age 10, Daisy started getting really sick (heart problems, seizures), and the vet gave her 6 months to live at the most.  I told my mom that she should switch to a holistic food, so she switched to Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul.  It has been over a year, and Daisy is doing better than she was.  Daisy used to need weekly baths, and now she can go for 2-3 weeks without having one.  She also used to have food allergies, and the holistic food completely cleared them up.  Her coat is so much softer and fuller than it was before. 

Dogs are carnivorous animals, and do not benefit from grains such as rice and corn.

The most common allergens are chicken, corn, beef, and wheat.

Thanks Jessie! We did Innova and Innova EVO and several of the dogs got the runs. We did several versions of Solid Gold, and everyone got listless. I bought Flint River Ranch for a while, and we actually liked the food. But it started being delivered less as food and more as crumbs.
For now, I'm going to try the Pro Plan small breed. I like the protein percentage for Yoshi. I have a hard time finding anything in this area, and I don't want to start something I can't get on a regular basis. Manny, my little rescue man, has a hard time with new foods so I've got to feed something I can get EVERY time.
I will continue poking around and see what else the feed store can get for me. They are the ones that got me the EVO and Solid Gold to try.