Does anyone use Eukanuba to feed their dogs on?
What do you think of it?

We use Eukanuba for our English Pointer.  We started her with it because that is what the breeder used.  Our Pointer is not a big eater.  I hear and read is very common for this breed during the first few years.  At 1 year old, we switched her to Pro-plan.  We thought maybe a different brand might help encourage her to eat.  She did a bit better, but the pro-plan was quite a drive to get.  We just recently switched back to Eukanuba because it too is suppose to be good, and we can get it locally.  I have noticed our Pointer seems to shed more on Eukanuba.  Although I don't know if shedding is "bad" for a dog, but it can be a pain for housework.  After reading other posts, I have just started adding broth to the dog food to see if that will affect the volumes of shedding.  It is too early for me to say on that.

Do a search on Euk and you'll find all you need to know. Not very popular round here methinks.

Sorry don't know if this is alright to post, if not please remove
thanks
Terry
I came across some recent disturbing news regarding IAMs company and it's unethical treatment of animals. For details, please see IAMSCRUELTY.com

Do you know about the 4Ds found in dog foods? You may be unknowingly feeding your fur baby DEAD DOGS, SICK DOGS, and other gross things that you would never knowingly choose to feed your dogs... 4D = disabled, diseased, dead and dying animals

I personally have switched to something healthier for my maltese.

Also, Cesar's (sp?) is really bad for your dog. The meat is not really real meat. All of the protein contents in that little white carton is from BY PRODUCTS and it's not recommended for dogs. Yet, due to it's clever marketing and packaging, many owners (including myself) falls for it and thinks we are feeding our dog the BEST and GOURMET food.

Please, as responsible owners, think about what you are feeding your fur babies and look into the matter further. I don't want to say that one brand is better than another, but I have personally switched and feel better about it...

More information can be found at the websites below:

http://www.iamscruelty.com/

http://www.adoptagolden.com/k9stuff/mainten/kibble.htm

Follow Ups:

With these '4Ds' - why is it wrong to feed a dog dead animals? Do they mean us to feed them live ones? That's illegal! And disabled? Yes, injured farm stock should be destroyed - so why not feed the meat to dogs?

Can I just remind posters that the anti evidence is all supplied by PETA who are anti any animal being kept as pets & thing all domestic animals should be released into the wild to survive on their own

These people stole & dumped, on a busy freeway out of a moving vehicle, two of my friends old dogs which were killed in the traffic, her crime was to be an owner handler of show dogs-PETA admitted they were responsible & stated the dogs were released to be free !!

JG we are talking about DEAD,DISEASED,DYING,DISABLED! Maybe feeding a disabled animal isnt to bad,such as broken legs etc. but disabled can mean other things i'm sure,but i surely dont want to feed my animals,diseased stock which includes roadkill,that may have been lying around decomposing for weeks or even months.
Pentobarbatol(sp?) has been found in pet foods,there's only ONE way this chemical could get into a pet food and that is from euthanised pets! If thats not bad enough,bits of leather collars have also been found in pet foods.
The manufactures get around all this by stating vague ingredients on their products,such as meat derivatives,meat meal,meat by-products etc.,this also allows them to change their formula from batch to batch depending on what is dumped on their doorstep that month,which is not good for dogs,especially the ones with sensitive tums.

I dont know about you but i want to know exactly what is in the pet food i feed my dogs,and you cant possibly know when the manufacture wont even state it on their packets :(

Most meats found in pet foods excluding  the ones who use "human grade meat" are doused in chemicals are denatured and then more chemicals are added to kill the bacteria from the mould and parasites that have grown on the meat while it has been sitting around,sometimes out the back of rendering plants sitting in the sun for god knows how long to make them unfit for human consumption,i cant for the life of me remember what the chemicals are called but i shall endeavour to find out.

Why feed suspicious foods like this containing mystery meats from one batch to the other when there are human grade organic versions available. I wanted to list pedigree's ingredients just to point out the tricks they use,but i cant seem to find the ingredients on any sites,why are they so hard to find?Could it be that they are not proud of what they put into their food?? Reputable companies with nothing to hide list their foods ingredients everywhere for everyone to see :)

Anyway getting back to the original posters question,my opinion on eukanuba is not good,putting all the animal cruelty etc aside,eukanuba is a low quality food with a high quality price tag,you can get much better for the same price without having to feed byproducts and fillers that go straight through the dog because he cant use it,they are only there to bulk up the food so they can use less meat!

Science death,crapaneuka and iams used to be half by decent foods until the big players took over who care MORE about their profits than the health of the dogs they are feeding! Vets reccomend these foods because their training is funded by these companies and they get huge kickbacks for selling them.I wouldnt go to my general vet for nutrition guidance,i would seek out an animal nutritionalist for that. I have studied more about nutrition over the years than the majority of vets have,they get something like 4 hours to 1 day of nutrion training at vet school.

I guess the bottom line is do you feel comfortable in feeding  a product that has chemical preservatives(BHA-BHT-ethoxiquin) and mystery ingredients??? Myself,i would rather feed a human grade product and know each ingredient it contains :)

Let me just clarify thre is nothing wrong with FRESH by-products straight from the butcher  such as liver,kidneys,brains or whatever. The by-products used in pet foods most likely contain feathers,hooves,feacal matter,horns etc. all these items are indigestable,yes they may up the protein of the food but they no good for the dog who has to eat it. I could make up a dog food with a high protein level by using  a bit of leather and some of the above things,this doesnt mean that it's good for my dog,obviously :D

Mick dont worry,you are not he only one who thinks like you do and who knows the backdoor tactics that some of these manufactures use. We need more likeminded people on this forum,then maybe more people will listen and actually stop and think for a second what it is they are actually feeding their dogs :(

If we can't trust our vets on pet food advice, why would we visit them for anything?

Vets are good at diagnosing and treating illness.They are not gods who know everything about everything animal related.

Check out the thread "should we trust our vets" 

In answer to if we cant trust our vets.My vet reccomends science plan and euk. so NO i do not trust him when it comes to nutrition ;) . On the rare occasion that i visit my vet i end up answering more questions for him "nutrition wise" than he can answer for me,i can definately say that when it comes to feeding dogs,i do know more than my vet :)  I leave the treating and diagnosis to him!

I beleive that Vets only get a day and a half training on canine nutrition, and the talks they receive are given by the Nutritional experst of a large Pet Food Manufacturer. :D

As has been said a Vet is not an animal expert, they have been trained to diagnose and treat disease, and that is what we should be seeing them for.  Not advice on feeding, husbandry, training etc.  these areas have their own expersts, the first of which to conatact should be the breeder (again why breeders should be up to the job of advising their puppy buyers, and not be breeding before they have aquired relevent knowledge and experience).

I think it would be extremely difficult to study anatomy, physiology and aetiology without including the effects of nutrition in which case a day and a half's discussion on the various means of delivering good nutrition becomes a bit more reasonable :)
It perfectly normal too to not completely cover a subject during a degree course after all new data is going to be coming along all the time for assessement, a grounding is quite normal to allow further study as required.  I doubt many vets would not appreciate the importance of nutrition and I would expect it to be a subject appearing in their journals and seminars.

Rose, which country's pet foods are you talking about? The law in the UK is very clear about what quality of meat goes into pet foods.

"Dead, diseased, dying, disabled". Yep, that's what predators eat 'in the wild'. My dogs are very keen to eat any roadkill we walk past - they're animals, and close to nature, not 'fur babies' (ghastly phrase)! There are many people who feed entire raw animals to their dogs - and that includes fur, feathers, feet, faecal matter - the works. They'll swear to you that it's the most wholesome way to feed a dog.
:)

Animals in the wild have NO choice in what they eat,they either catch what they can or die. Unfortunately for some dogs,the onus lies with us,their owners to feed them and i think it is our duty and responsibility to feed them the best diet possible,not the cheapest,nor the most convenient but as close to a species appropriate diet as we can.
Once AGAIN you CAN NOT compare fresh roadkill or fresh carcass from the butcher to the substandard meats found in low end,supermarket brands etc. there just is no comparison

I would really like to see actual facts stating that british pet food manufactures only put "human grade,edible meat" in their products. Science plan,pedigree,purina,eukanuba,iams(i'm sure there's more) are all U.S brands i believe???? We have no control of what they put in there pet food and then export over here.
If you are 100% sure that ONLY human grade meat is put into british pet foods than i would stick to buying only pet foods made exclusively here,but you must also be sure that all the meat is grown here and not imported in.

I really dont think the bottom of the barrel foods or indeed the majority of pet foods made here contain human grade meat,it would be too expensive for them to make and then sell at a cheap price. It should be stated on the packet that the meat is "human grade" if it is not then it isnt human grade.Cant say i've seen it printed on a bag of pedigree or the like :rolleyes:

>There are many people who feed entire raw animals to their dogs - and that includes fur, feathers, feet, faecal matter - the works. They'll swear to you that it's the most wholesome way to feed a dog.<

I 100% agree with the above statement,but you forgot to add one word that keeps being left out of the opposing posts and that is "FRESH" not scraped off of an abboitoirs floor,then sent to be rendered,then doused in chemicals to be denatured an dclassed as "unfit" for human consumption and after all that sat in a big bin most probaly out in the sun for weeks,sometimes months,and then there is the mouldy grain "fractions,not whole grain but the by-products and waste of the human industry,but that a whole other thread.
There just is no comparison,it's like apples and oranges :(

It is such a dilemma to me on why people would want to feed foods with derivatives etc in them when there are so many other more natural and species appropriate options(as far as kibble can be),here is a comparison.

food A.) cereal by-products,corn gluten,corn gluten meal,meat meal,animal derivatives,preserved with BHA-BHT and ethoxiquin.

Food B.)chicken meal(not poultry),whole brown rice,fish meal,organic chicken,chicken fat(preserved with natural mixed tocopherols)dehydrated apples,ground carrot cubes,,peas,alfalfa.

Which one would you choose to feed your beloved pet.

Not all dogs do well on the one food,but surely there is enough variety to not have to feed  a food such as food A.??

What brand is your food B, sounds interesting?

Eaglepack holistic select. Which is what i feed.I didnt list ALL the ingredients tho as i dont have the bag here,i'm going from memory,but you get the general jist,my only complaint with this food is that it is a little grain heavy,but i dont feed alot of it.

On the front of the pack "proudly displayed" is: Certified organically grown chicken,,"human grade" chicken fat.,human edible oatmeal,among other things.

OK first off I have a vested interest in getting people to feed their dogs a healthy wholesome diet. BUT in the UK dog food cannot contain anything that is not fit for human consumption, SO should not have drugs in it, be off etc. However you only need to do a little research to find that there are a number of ways in which undesirable things can get in to the human food chain, through illegal activity, carelessness or people not understanding that a lot of what they eat is imported from countries with lower standards or is 'mechanically relaimed'.

I there for recommend that you take steps to reduce the liklihood of this, such as buying meat and bones from a reputable source, using the best quality kibble that you can afford etc. Oh and do beware, as I understand it the term 'organic' on dog food is NOT the same legally as on human food!  

Most dog foods contain bhA bhT but this is usually used in the meat they buy so they do not have to mention it on packaging and the likes. Once at the manufacturing point they can claim as JWB do that their food contains no added artificial antioxidants    , true to a point but depending on the source of the meat IT could have had these antioxidants added. I asked the question of JWB Some time ago as to this point and I the answer was that they do periodic checks on their meat supplies to ensure that no RECORDABLE levels of bhA bhT are found. Again it all comes down to the fact that the packaging requirements in the pet food industries leave a lot to be desired. OnE other point on preservatives even so, some called natural preservative have been manufactured in the lab as the cooking process destroys them and the have to be added back in. I think I would rather trust a company that's declares in full its ingredients so that I can research anything I am not happy with and make a decision  based on this. Low levels of bhA and  bhT may be better than illness caused by food going off .-JO

I agree that I like the opportunity to find out what goes in and YES you have to be realistic. I would challenge anyone to find any food stuff that doesnt contain some lead, pesticide, hormones etc. They are so rife in the environment that any living thing must take up some of them.

Rose, do u get that on the net or is eagle in pet stores?

We won a years supply of Euk and had to say to them, take it away. my white dogs had started to turn pink. turned out the Beet content was beetroot YUK
Took a whole moult before they came back with white bits.
Bummer
Terry

Carrot will do the same - it's natural. I wish it'd do it to my hair though!

Juliemil you can check out eagle at www.postalpets.co.uk  i havnt seen it at pet shops and i dont think they would sell to PAH or the like,so for now it's only available from the above website.