Dutch Shepherd Forum

H's 1st birthday is in August and I'll be switching him off his puppy kibble. I should have switched him a while back but didn't want to mess with the precarious balance we had between the worms/bacteria cycle. Now that that's broken and he's stabilized I can switch him. He's currently on Orijen Large Puppy, and while I absolutely love Orijen and have no problem with it, I want to see how H does on a kibble that I can rotate the flavors and possibly save a few bucks for my wallet's sake (it's extremely over priced in stores here and the few places I order online from have been horrible with sending damaged products).

So far in my research the top three are (in no order):
- Merrick grain free
- Fromm grain free
- Nature's Variety Instinct
(Holistic Earthborn has been recommended to me but I'm still researching it.)

The lady who runs the store where I currently buy all of H's food stuffs and nutrition things recommended Fromm since it's apparently highly digestible and less rich, but still has the same nutrition as Orijen. She said to keep him on the formulas with less potato (she named two in their GF line and said there's two more coming out) and she also recommended Nature's Variety for reasons I can't remember.

Anyone have any input on any of these brands? Any advice on a brand I should be considering?

Xander is on merricks and loves it. I also switch flavors. They have about 5 flavors at our pet store. I think his favorite is buffalo and sweet potato. I believe at least the first 3 or 4 ingredients is meat. No fillers grains or other bad stuff.We have no problems with gas or runny stools. I'm not familiar with the other two you mentioned. I would recommend merricks. And if I catch it on sale I get the big bag (maybe 35 or 40 pounds) for $50 ish.

well, everyone here knows at i prefer merrick - for the ingredients but also for how highly their processing facilities have been judged by professionals, for the extreme level of control they have over many stages of food processing from farm to can or bag, and - somewhat repetitive of the prior point - for the care they take in sourcing even minor ingredients like various additives.

most all the brands rated highest by really professional rating services have good ingredients as judged by the label. some of those rating services delve deeper and do chemical analyses to hunt for chemical contaminants that come in ingredients that are sourced from overseas [ primarily talking about china ]. some additives are exceedingly difficult to NOT source from china - not even addressing the cost advantage of buying what china has to offer. the # of brands that avoid including carcinogenic and other chemical poisons from China is tiny; i know merrick and orijen are among that very small group but other brands would have to be researched.

other companies may also take care in sourcing and quality control like merrick, but none of today's rating services have addressed that to my knowledge. ditto for processing facilities and practices and merrick's maniacal, end-to-end control. the research i read indicated that merrick was the ONLY company in the world that exercised such control and good practices, but that research probably pre-dated the commercial availabilty of some of the forum's favorite brands. i have written here before asking if such facility and process research and analysis is available on brands like orijen, fromm, and acana, but have had no response; i am not aware of any. so by default, i am left with my long-time favorite merrick, which is the single highest-rated kibble [ they do not rate on a set scale of 1 to 5 ] of saveourshepherds.com

when picking a ''flavor'', it is best to choose sweet potatoes over potatoes for positive nutrient contribution and lack of sugars despite the name; buffalo over beef and duck and turkey over chicken for the likelihood of healthier life and nutrient content of the processed animals [ especially buffalo ]. similarly i avoid salmon in dog food because it would be farmed salmon, thus lacking in nutrients and containing toxins. no reason to minimize sweet potato [ actually very good for the dog ] as opposed to regular potatoes no matter how fancy their description may sound.

my bags of merrick are $50 at non-big-box store. but it is 25#. Karen, do you have a bag bigger than that? i thought 25 was the biggest of the grain-free bags that merrick offers.