Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler The Wife and I started a new business last year.

Good Day

My wife and I started a new business last year, that's why I have been absent from the board for so long. We started a retail pet supply store in our local town here in Dorchester, Ontario (just outside of London).

Here is the website: www.dorchesterpetcare.com

or check out our facebook pages under Dorchester Pet Care

We specialize in good to high quality pet (Dog and Cat mostly) food. It's scary to see what they put in "grocery store" brand pet foods.

I'd be interested in your feedback on the website.


Thanks

paul

Thanks for bringing out this awareness. I very much respect your business. I must point out that high quality dog food is NOT SNAKE OIL.

One thing pet owners should be aware of is they think that vets recommend high quality food but it IS NOT high quality. It is based on recommendations from their reps which they get perks off of. Science diet and Iams ring a bell? To put it in terms of speakers it is like Bose BUT WORSE. Bottom of the barrel crap that should not enter into the mouths of any animal. Vets actually do not have much knowledge about animal nutrition

I haven't been able to have another pet since my late dog Max passed away at the age of 13. Nothing can live up to his standards. Hopefully in time I will be able to get over it.

Dog foods like Orijen and Go! Natural just to name a few that I have experience are night and day differences in quality to dog foods like Iams, Science Diet and all those usual suspects. They are high protein with very high quality ingredients which I find work very well for active dogs. However all dogs are different, some might need a different type of diet because of certain health conditions for that pet. You have a great selection of dog foods at your store.

I wish you success with your business and I agree totally with your vision.

Cheers!

Thanks BJ1

We did a lot of research on pet food before we even had the idea of the store. We were really shocked at what companies are able to get away with. Government regulations in Canada and the US are almost non existent.

Before we bring a food into our store and recommend it to our customers pets (living breathing members of our customers families) we look at a number of factors including of coarse, ingredients and what many people forget, sourcing. Where are the ingredients coming from. It's a huge consideration. Many of the foods we carry source over 90% of ingredients within 100 kms of the processing facility. This allows them to maintain a very stringent and robust quality control program. Many others, including the ones you mentioned source most of the ingredients from China and other Asian countries.

One of our biggest fears is to have pets get sick form a food we recommended.

What's a good cat food? All I saw there was info on dog food.

Warmest wishes for great success, Paul.

The ethics, quality of manufacturing, the sourcing and quality of ingredients is what separates the good food from the crap. Good dog food uses real ingredients fit for human consumption and quality manufacturing. The big brand food has none of that. Its scary what goes into some dog food (filler) that is sold, and even scarier the ethics behind it all. If you remember that dog food scare from years back? All the popular, big brands of dog food were the ones that was killing all those pets. IIRC it was an ingredient sourced from China that was contaminated with melamine.

Most of the foods we carry have a line of food for dogs and cats. Cats have even a harder time processing grain based carbohydrates than dogs. Dogs can handle a small amount of plant based carbohydrates such as peas, apples, carrots, etc. Cats however, not so much. And never should you see grains like corn, wheat, or soy in dog or cat food!

Look for a cat food that has a high protein content such as Orijen, Acana, Wellness, etc.

paul

That was from a central source for that ingredient that just about all "grocery store" brands used. The company was called Menu Foods. It happened in the winter of 2007. And yes, it was very scary!

pn

Thanks Tom

Grocery store brands is an excellent term. I wouldn't touch them with a ten foot pole. I get a sick feeling in my stomach when I go past the Ol'Roy dog food at Walmart.

Funny you mentioned that, just this morning I was in Walmart and I saw someone buying a big bag of O'Roy, and it was all I could do not to stop him and say " what on earth are you feeding your best friend".

If Sam Walton knew what they put in the food that was named after his fav. hunting dog, he would roll over in this grave.

pn

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective asked that all important question.

What do you feed your dog?

I buy primarily Purina Cat Chow indoor formula.

Here's the ingredients:

Corn meal, poultry by-product meal, corn gluten meal, soy flour, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), powdered cellulose, animal liver flavor, soybean hulls, malt extract, calcium carbonate, phosphoric acid, salt, choline chloride, potassium chloride, taurine, zinc sulfate, Vitamin E supplement, ferrous sulfate, manganese sulfate, parsley flakes, niacin, added color (Red 40, Yellow 5, Blue 2), copper sulfate, Vitamin A supplement, calcium pantothenate, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin supplement, Vitamin B-12 supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, folic acid, Vitamin D-3 supplement, calcium iodate, biotin, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), sodium selenite.

I'm sorry to say but the first few ingredients alone show this to be poor quality ingredients wise and its gets worse after that. A protein should be listed first. Any time meal is used after an ingredient is not a good thing especially when the first ingredient is corn (a filler) which is not a suitable food for cats and or dogs.

INGREDIENTS
Fresh boneless chicken, chicken meal, turkey meal, russet potato, fresh pacific salmon (a natural source of DHA and EPA), herring meal, sweet potato, peas, fresh lake whitefish, fresh northern walleye, chicken fat (naturally preserved with vitamin E and citric acid), chicken liver, salmon meal, fresh turkey, fresh whole eggs, fresh deboned herring, sun-cured alfalfa, salmon oil, chicory root, dehydrated organic kelp, pumpkin, carrots, spinach, turnip greens, apples, cranberries, saskatoon berries, black currants, choline chloride, psyllium, licorice root, angelica root, fenugreek, marigold flowers, sweet fennel, peppermint leaf, chamomile flowers, dandelion, summer savory, rosemary, sea salt, vitamin supplements (vitamin A, vitamin D3, vitamin E, niacin, vitamin C, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, vitamin B5, vitamin B6, folic acid, biotin, vitamin B12), mineral supplements (zinc proteinate, iron proteinate, manganese proteinate, copper proteinate, selenium), dried Lactobacillus acidophilus, dried Enterococcus faecium fermentation product.

This is in contrast the difference in which you should see between a good food and bad food ingredients wise however this is a dog food. Sorry, I don't do cats.

I'm searching for a good quality cat food on internet, but I'm not coming up with anything that's a consistent answer. What one says is good, another one says is bad. I'm going to go to Petsmart down the street now and read some of the ingredient labels.

It is difficult sometimes. Remember that companies like Iams and Eukenuba are owned by Proctor and Gamble. And I think Purina is owned by Nestle. These are large publicly traded co-corporations that are more interested in keeping there share holders happy than you or your pet. The problem is many of the vets and articles on the web are sponsored by these companies. The first place to start CatBrat is where you are shopping for your pet food. If you are getting it from box store or supermarket, it's probably not a good food.

Follow my logic. Your house cat is 99.5 percent the same as a lion, tiger, or any other wild cat. These cats have thrived in the wild for millions of years feasting on game, small animals, elk, deer, antelope, etc. Unlike dogs, which are 99.5% wolf, wild cats when they take down a deer do not eat the gut. Wolves do, this is for the plant based carbohydrates. So your cat needs the same protiens that a lion or tiger needs. That mean meat. Meat from fish, chicken, or even beef. Let me ask you this, when was the last time you saw a pride of lions, or pack of wolves having a corn roast, or attending a been festival.

Here is the problem with corn, it isn't digestible by cats or dogs. It makes you dog feel full, but it is also a fiber and a very good one at that. So it pushes the food through the intestines so quickly that the intestines can't absorb all the nutrients of the food. This forced you to feed more often to get the same amount of nutrients to the cat. The is a huge problem, first, is it costing you more, because you have to feed more, it also requires more trips to the litter box, or the back yard if your a dog owner. But it also increased the daily amount of sugars and fats and this can cause a whole host of medical issues down the road, like obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, liver failure and possibly cancer.

We have people come in the store and see the food we have and then say, "well he's been on Science Diet for 5 years now, he likes it and it hasn't hurt him." That is like saying, "I haven't gotten the oil changed on my car in a couple of years, it still runs, so i am good."

We just shake our had as they walk out the door.

pn

Feeding you pet grocery store brand pet foods is like you and I eating fast food everyday. If you saw the movie a few years ago, you know what that will do to you.

pn

Back from the pet store with a bag of Wellness Indoor Health.

Deboned Chicken, Chicken Meal, Rice, Ground Barley, Ground Rice, Whitefish Meal, Natural Chicken Flavor, Tomato Pomace, Oat Fiber, Chicken Liver, Chicken Fat (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols, a natural source of Vitamin E), Cranberries, Olive Oil, Chicory Root Extract, Cranberry Extract Powder, Cranberry Fiber, Flaxseed, Potassium Chloride, Vitamins (Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin, Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), Thiamine Mononitrate, Calcium Pantothenate, Riboflavin, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Beta&ampampampshyCarotene, Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin D-3 Supplement, Folic Acid, Biotin, Vitamin B-12 Supplement), Choline Chloride, Minerals (Zinc Proteinate, Zinc Sulfate, Iron Proteinate, Ferrous Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Copper Proteinate, Manganese Proteinate, Manganese Sulfate, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite), Glucosamine Hydrochloride, Chondroitin Sulfate, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Dried Kelp, L-Carnitine, Lactobacillus Plantarum, Enterococcus Faecium, Lactobacillus Casei, Lactobacillus Acidophil us, Taurine, Rosemary Extract.

This is a naturally preserved product.

Kibbles and Bits rules!

Oh no, SirQuack, your killing me!

I hope you were kidding, but in case your not.

Kibble and Bits top first 10 ingredients are:

Corn
soybean meal
Beef and Bone Meal
wheat flour
Animal Fat (BHA)
Corn Syrup
Wheat Middlings
Water
Animal digest
Propylene Glycol
Salt

None of this should be in pet food. Propylene Glycol is used in aircraft de-icing fluid and auto antifreeze. BHA is a cancer causing chemical used a a preservative. I have not issue with saying that through our research Kibbles and Bits is by-far the worst thing you could feed your pet that is legal to purchase.

Visit the webiste: http://www.dorchesterpetcare.com and read the three white papers on the home page.



pn

That is an excellent food CatBrat, we stock that one ourselves. Your Cat will thank you.

Don't be supprised if you notice in the next few days a shinier softer coat, and a all round happier Cat.

pn

I asked my sister what she feeds her Weim (damn those dogs are high energy) and she said she has been cycling Go! Natural and Fromm Duck. Both brands you stock in your store .

I learned a lot from reading subscriptions of The Whole Dog Journal. From everything to dog nutrition to training.

http://www.whole-dog-journal.com/


If you read this link on various dog foods you can see that Wofraza stocks good quality products, the best.

http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/

This is what dogfoodanalysis says about kibble and bits beefy.

The primary ingredient in this food is corn. Corn is a difficult to digest grain of limited value in dog food, and which is also commonly associated with food allergies. Even if this had been a good quality grain, we would still note that grains are an unnatural foodstuff for canines, and that dog food products should be based on meat rather than grain.


Soybean meal is the second ingredient, and the main protein source in the food. Soy is a product we prefer not to see used in dog foods, especially this high on the ingredient list. Soy is a very common cause of food allergy problems, and although boosting the (otherwise minimal) protein content of this food, it is very low quality protein compared to that sourced from meat.


The third ingredient is wheat flour. In dog food products, this is commonly a byproduct (think floorsweepings) of human food production and is a grain fragment we consider primarily filler. Wheat is believed by many to be the leading cause of food allergy problems in dog foods.


Beef and bone meal is an extremely low quality ingredient. It is the rendered product from mammal tissues, including bone, exclusive of blood, hair, hoof, horn, hide trimmings, manure, stomach and rumen contents, except in such amounts as may occur unavoidably in good processing practices. Animal fat is an ingredient of unidentified origin for which it is impossible to determine species, source or quality. Unidentified ingredients are usually very low quality. AAFCO define this asobtained from the tissues of mammals and/or poultry in the commercial processes of rendering or extracting. It consists predominantly of glyceride esters of fatty acids and contains no additions of free fatty acids. If an antioxidant is used, the common name or names must be indicated, followed by the words "used as a preservative".


This product uses chemical preservatives. BHA is allowed in dog food products but is banned or heavily regulated in human food production due to the belief that it is carcinogenic.


Corn syrup is an unneccessary source of sugar (dog foods should not contain sugar). Wheat middlings are a further waste product, being the remnants of wheat after milling for human food products. Soy flour is an equally low quality product. Wheat gluten is that part of the commercial shelled wheat that remains after the extraction of the larger portion of the starch, gluten, and term by the processes employed in the milling manufacture of wheat starch or syrup. In plain English, the remains of wheat after most of the nutritious bits have been removed.


There is no excuse for adding artificial colorings to dog food products.


Overall, this is one of the lowest quality products reviewed on this site. It receives a 1* rating due to the unavailability of anything lower.

We feed our cats BLUE Weight Control.

MY wife even feeds a stray cat every day with the stuff. The neighbors feed him dollar store food but he prefers our menu.

Ingredients

Deboned Chicken, Chicken Meal, Oatmeal, Whole Ground Brown Rice, Whole Ground Barley, Salmon Meal (source of Omega 3 Fatty Acids), Natural Chicken Flavor, Whole Potatoes, Peas, Chicken Fat (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols), Whole Carrots, Whole Sweet Potatoes, Cranberries, Blueberries, Flaxseed (source of Omega 3 and 6 Fatty Acids), Barley Grass, Dried Parsley, Alfalfa Meal, Dried Kelp, Taurine, Yucca Schidigera Extract, L-Carnitine, L-Lysine, Turmeric, Dried Chicory Root, Rice Bran, Oil of Rosemary, Beta Carotene, Vitamin A Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate (Vitamin B1), Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), Niacin (Vitamin B3), d-Calcium Pantothenate (Vitamin B5), Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Biotin (Vitamin B7), Folic Acid (Vitamin B9), Vitamin B12 Supplement, Calcium Ascorbate (source of Vitamin C), Vitamin D3 Supplement, Vitamin E Supplement, Iron Amino Acid Chelate, Zinc Amino Acid Chelate, Manganese Amino Acid Chelate, Copper Amino Acid Chelate, Choline Chloride, Sodium Selenite, Calcium Iodate, Salt, Caramel, Potassium Chloride, Calcium Carbonate, Dried Yeast (source of Saccharomyces cerevisiae), Dried Lactobacillus acidophilus fermentation product, Bacillus subtilis fermentation product, Dried Enterococcus faecium fermentation product.

Guaranteed Analysis
Crude Protein 28.0% min
Crude Fat 9.0% min
Crude Fiber 8.5% max
Moisture 10.0% max
Magnesium 0.08% min
Taurine 0.15% min
L-Carnitine* 150 mg/kg min
Omega 3 Fatty Acids* 0.3% min
Omega 6 Fatty Acids* 2.0% min

Dog food analysis is one of our fav ref sites.

I haven't seen the Whole Dog Journal though, I will spend some time on there. Looks like some good content. Thanks

K n B is made by Del Monte, the same company that makes canned pineapple and other products. This is a perfect example that large corporations don't care about the health of your pet, just the health of their bottom line.

pn

LOL, i don't doubt it, looks like a great cat food!

pn

The ingredients used and their quality are night and day from the Purina you listed above.

We looked at Blue Buffalo but they had a recall last year for too much vitamin D, some dogs got really sick, I don't think any died though and I don't believe it affected any cats. I think they have corrected the quality process and all is good.

pn

The Whole Dog Journal is awesome. I highly recommend you try a subscription. I know you would love it.

Purina One Chicken and Rice here:

Ingredients

Chicken (natural source of glucosamine), brewers rice, corn gluten meal, whole grain corn, poultry by-product meal (natural source of glucosamine), whole grain wheat, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), soy flakes, soybean meal, animal digest, glycerin, calcium phosphate, caramel color, calcium carbonate, salt, potassium chloride, Vitamin E supplement, choline chloride, zinc sulfate, L-Lysine monohydrochloride, ferrous sulfate, sulfur, manganese sulfate, niacin, Vitamin A supplement, calcium pantothenate, thiamine mononitrate, copper sulfate, 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.

The Chicken as the first ingredient is good, but it goes down hill from there. Brewers rice, corn, by-product, wheat, soy, animal digest all very very bad.

Take a look at our white paper on the home page on by-products and animal digest and tell me if you really want to feed that you your pet.

Can we say rendering plant? Yuck!!!!!

Paul, interesting info. Best of luck with your business venture. Hopefully enough people are interested in seeing that all members of the family have proper nutrition.

As a life-long dog freak, you have my highest admiration for your efforts.

Our dog eats only meals prepared for him by me.
There are lots of dog recipe books out there.

My pack of four was gone before the Chinese melamine thing, so when this little guy came along, I just couldn't trust anything labeled "dog food."

I would love to try to get him on something like your products, but I'm not a masochist. Imagine the hound that gets fresh, warm food everyday, staring into his dish, (that's right, a dish--he hates bowls), then straight back into my eyes saying, "WTF?! Some wood-stove pellets fell on my plate! Waiter, waiter!"

Best of luck to you and your wife, Paul. You already have one key element to family business success in the pocket---you named your wife first in the thread title. Smart man.

I know nothing about this level of discussion around pet food so I have nothing to add but I'll share a related story about cat food and feline communication.

One of my wife's now deceased cats was on store bought cat food and we decided to upgrade him to a better food as we were told the old may be contributing to his urinary tract infection. The cat went a couple of days without eating a thing. I figured, 'Pfftt, if he gets hungry enough, he will eat it.

On day three, we returned home to work to discover that he had crapped in his food dish. He had never missed his litter box before and it would have been a bit of an effort for him to pull this off as the dish was on a raised wooden platform in the shape of a cat that her brother had made for my wife as a gift. He would have had to maneuver his rear end up onto this platform and ... well, you already know the rest.

People say animals don't truly communicate? I say they do just fine.

"Man. That food taste's like Crap!" LOL. What a funny story.

Funny story. They say u r supposed to slowly mix the new food in with the old, increasing the new food amount a little at a time.

Our dog had horrible allergies and dermatitis - to the point that her skin reddened and blackened - and was diagnosed with a grain allergy, as well as allergies to most grasses and trees. Yes, I'm that guy who takes his dog to the allergist for skin scratch testing. Since she's a chihuahua-Pekingese mix, they had to shave about half of her left side to get enough skin surface area for testing ...

Since we switched to grain-free food years ago, her allergies are significantly better. We get Taste of the Wild Salmon flavored dry food for her at our local Tractor Supply Store. It has a such a strong odor that we had to invest in a large sealing plastic bin to keep it in.

TSC also carries the Blue line of products, which I notice are 34% protein vs the 25% in Taste of the Wild.

It was tough to find grain-free snacks that we can hide her Benadryl in. We've settled on Pupperoni.

Cool thread, and let me add my best wishes for your business!

You can. Its probably a good idea if you are switching from a really poor dog food to one of the high quality kibbles as they generally are very high protein. The difference in the protein content can be staggering. I would keep an eye on their stools for awhile when I switched foods. Consistently runny stools would be the first sign that food was not going to work.

BTW my dog LOVED canned tripe. Would go wild for that stuff.

I usually leave 2 bowls of 2 different brands out so my cat can have a choice. If she's not eating one particular brand, I discontinue that one and try another. So far, since I've introduced the Wellness brand, she's ignored it, but not much time has elapsed. Wed's and Sat's she gets a small can of Fancy Feast in a saucer. She's more of a licker than an eater. she'll lick up all the juice first, then lick on the fancy feast blob. Doesn't eat much, most of it is left behind, but it's her treat food that she really likes.

On a website note, I'm not fond of all Flash sites. Obviously you're not going to change that now. However, the site doesn't appear to work in Chrome on a Mac. Clicking on the pet food links in shop online produces no results.

This was one of the last foods I feed my dog called NRG. It's a dehydrated food in which you add water. I didn't get much into the box before we had to put him down but I remember the ingredients where of high quality and you could actually pick out individual ingredients in the dry mix.

I am curious of what your thoughts on this food as I have been out of the loop for a few years now.

http://www.nrgpetproducts.com/

That is wonderful that you can dedicate yourself to feeding your dog this way.

My wife is the face of the business. She is the one in the store everyday dealing with customers, ordering, collecting money, etc. I am more the IT, marketing and finance manager.

Cats are def more of a challenge when it comes to being picky eaters. Not we haven't met a few dogs that are like this. We usually recommend mixing food for at least a week, and sometimes two weeks. It's not uncommon for a pet owner to switch cold turkey and the pet doesn't react favorably. Then they think the new better food is no good, they get frustrated and then go back to the old stuff.

We are will probably be bringing in Taste Of The Wild within the next six months, another great food.

Yes, also doesn't work on Ipad (1st gen) or Blackberries. Need a flash plug in.

Good to know, I am not a HTML / XML expert. So the flash site was easy to put together. I am however open to changing if you have any recommendations.

pn

Well, what I'm mainly saying is that the Flash isn't (entirely) working in a Flash equipped browser (i.e. Chrome, which has a built in Flash player). So that might be something to check out.

As for redesigning the website altogether, I'll defer that to someone who actually knows something about web design.

Good info and great site. I have been feeding my new dog Acana Pacifica for almost the whole time I've had her(One year now). I also give her a couple of tablespoons of Go grain free canned food with each meal. By the way you should also watch how much you feed your dog with the higher protein foods as too much can cause some consistency problems so to speak. You don't have to feed as much due to the high quality of the food.

It looks like my Cat ate equal portions of the new and old food last night. It'll be interesting to see what happens when I remove the old food dish.

Here is a good read on how to choose the right food for your pet.

http://www.whole-dog-journal.com/issues/8_7/features/15728-1.html

That was very polite of your cat. Did he use the correct fork as well?

Now, she won't touch the new food, at all. I even "on purpose" forgot to fill her bowl with the old cat food Friday. So, by Saturday morning there was a lot of meowing comming from the kitchen. Yep. Old food gone. New food untouched. I didn't know what to do so I just filled a bowl with old food again.

Try mixing the old food and the new food in the same bowl.

That's good advice by Lorenzo. I would definitely try that. There is not much else you can do beyond that except for finding another quality food to try. Unfortunately this is quite common for pets to shun a new food they are not used to. Unless of course you have a lab and they will eat absolutely anything.

I'm a little late for the party but good luck with your business, as mentioned Whole Dog Journal and Dog food Analysis are both excellent sources of information. We feed Canidae to our three adult Dobermans and Innova right now to our Doberman puppy, I can't stress the importance of a good diet for both dogs and cats if you want to get the most out of their lives.

I have a real soft spot for Dobermans. They are awesome dogs. One of my favorite breeds. BTW I couldn't agree with you more.

Again Cats can be more challenging than dogs. Mixing the food the best way start 80/20 then after a few days move to 40/60 etc. It may take a few weeks, it can be a slow process for some pets. Don't give up.

Success with the new food, when I mix it with the old like it has been suggested here. She'll eat both that way. I'll continue to mix it for now, then gradually increase the amount of the good stuff later.

Watching her eat, I think she's a whole food swallower and not much of a chewer. The old food is smaller and smoother, easier to swallow that way.

That's good to hear CatBrat. As you increase the amount of the new food it always good to keep an eye on the litter box and any strange new behavior like excessive scratching (which could point to a food allergy with that new food). It seems like everything is good though. The stools will tell you if the new food is a keeper or not.

Hi Paul!

Speaking of haven't been around the boards for a while . . . in March I did some project management for a website in a similar business, drbeckersbites.com. What a great industry to be in as pet owners become so much more aware of the source of their foods and what they are feeding their pets.

I'm from sunny southwestern Ontario myself, btw, so I know how many pet lovers there are around Dorchester. Hope the business is doing well - you're obviously very knowledgeable in this area. Congratulations!

Holy Crap! It's Amie!

Hi Amie!

And isn't it a delight to see her again!

I don't believe we've met?

Jack! Mark! Hello! So nice to see you again! It's been - almost a year!!

Argon - nice to meet you! Uh, I guess my official title is 'Wife of Ian'. Or 'new speaker guinea pig'. Or 'old friend'

The pleasure is all mine! I think Bob Kay dubbed me "Inert Element" - or maybe "Sole Element". You can call me, Rob.

Welcome back Amie, it's great to see you back with us!

So funny - just read Rob's post and thought "Now there's a Sole Element" to go with RickF's <SRV reference>"Soul Element". </SRV reference>! What timing! Hope you got out in the boat lots this summer!

Welcome back, Amie! Please stick around!

Hi Ken! I was just looking at that great picture of your wee one next to an Audiobyte on the weekend - always brings a smile to visitors to Axiom! Hope all is well!

Hi Amie!!

Hey Adrian!! Great to see you here too! What'd I miss? Who's hosting the first anniversary of Axiom's 30th?

Amie, you turned red again!

I think it's working for me . . . just caught Ian clicking on my profile. . . hubba hubba!

Hi Amie....good to see you again.

To get back on track a little bit, what should I expect to pay for a ~35lb bag of high quality dog food? I'm using Nutro now, which only got two stars. Would not be opposed to switching to something better. Don't know where to get it or what the cost would be though. (or what to switch to, have to do some reading there it looks like). We have a 7 year old Cockapoo male that is about 20 lbs.

Wellness Core looks like a good option, and Petco actually carries it, so maybe we'll give that a try for the next bag. $55 for a 26lb bag vs. $42 for a 35lb bag for our current food.

He seemed to throw up a lot when he was little, which is why we ended up with the current food, which is supposed to be good for sensitive stomachs, and it did seem to help with the vomiting issues, which he only has sometimes on long car rides now. This would be my main reason to not switch.

The Wellness Core is a very good food but you mentioned a sensitive stomach. I am not sure if that food will be too rich but you can certainly try it. I might look for something that is not as high in protein, similar protein content wise to what you use now. I would also look for a food that uses a single meat or fish as its protein instead of one that uses a combination.

Naturapet California Natural Chicken Meal & Rice

http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/showproduct.php?product=433&cat=4

Fromm Family Foods Fromm Four Star chicken a la veg (all-life-stages)

http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/showproduct.php?product=8&cat=3

Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance Organic Formula Dry Dog Food

http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/showproduct.php?product=168&cat=4

Dog food analysis seems to like California Natural for sensitive stomachs. I noticed your Petco carries DVP's Natural Balance.

My cat went on a 2 day fast, didn't eat a drop of food, until I dumped her bowl that had both the old and new food in it, washed it, and refilled it with the old food. Now she's chowing down. Go figure. (She is female, btw, if that matters.)

Thanks for the info....so it appears the 6 star ones on the site aren't always the best, depending on the dog. I'm assuming anything 4 star and up would be considered good, but I'll focus on the 3 you recommended if we make a switch. I'll have to look to see if the first two are available locally.

The 6 star foods use the best quality ingredients fit for a dog. The protein content in the 6 star foods is usually high. For a healthy, active dog with the no health problems or allergies I would go towards the 5 and 6 star high protein kibbles. The 4 and 5 star foods are still good quality foods.

There is no right or wrong. The Wellness overall uses better ingredients but the trade-off is it might be too rich than what your dog is used to. You can definitely try it and slowly weed him on it. If you find that food makes his tummy upset try the DVP's Natural Balance or California Natural. However, those might not work either.

At the end of the day Nutro is one of the better grocery store brands.

She has you well trained, CatBrat.

That's what everyone else is always telling me too.

Catbrat, it could take a few weeks to a month, don't give up. You probably feel like you are taking 2 steps forward, then 3 three back, then 1 forward, etc. Remember, it's a living animal, not a machine. Patience is the key. You may find that after a month you cat just doesn't do Wellness, then you move to a different brand.

If we though that on food was good for all pets, then we would only carry one food, but we don't. We carry many, for this reason.

Best of luck.

Ahh. Good advice. I was getting too impatient.