I know that 'brand names are not to be recommended' but you can tell me what you feed your dogs which is inexpensive yet 'healthy'. I would love your feed back...(I don't want to make it myself). Also, my dog has a constant leakage from his eyes which started a week ago....looks like pus drainage...any home grown remedies?

I've been using Kirkland Signature chicken, rice and vegetables, costs around $24 for a 40lb bag from Costco.

I was using Nature's Recipe Venison for quite awhile, and since it started out as being very expensive and the bag kept getting smaller and the cost higher, I gave it up. Went through all the "healthier" brands, spent a small fortune, and had to return some for recalls. The one thing I won't feed is the dirt cheap brands like Ol' Roy from Walmart, those are the foods with not only chemicals, but rendered dead pets and animals in it, etc., etc.

I haven't used any homemade preps on my dogs eyes, but I was getting antibiotic drops from the vet that I didn't want to use too often. Now I use a simple saline wash (Opticlear). They get a lot of irritation and debris in their eyes from running through the woods, bushes, etc. This also flushes out any pus, then I use a tiny comb from an old electric razor to clear the hair around their eyes.

Not sure how valid the test below is, but I found the list interesting.


Here is a test that can help you judge the quality of your dog food.
You give points for quality items and take away points for fillers and low
nutrient ingredients. At the end of the test there are a list of several
popular dog foods and how they rate using the test.


How to grade your dog's food:

Start with a grade of 100:

1) For every listing of "by-product", subtract 10 points
2) For every non-specific animal source ("meat" or "poultry", meat, meal or
fat) reference, subtract 10 points
3) If the food contains BHA, BHT, or ethoxyquin, subtract 10 points
4) For every grain "mill run" or non-specific grain source, subtract 5
points
5) If the same grain ingredient is used 2 or more times in the first five
ingredients (i.e. "ground brown rice", "brewer’s rice", "rice flour" are all
the same grain), subtract 5 points
6) If the protein sources are not meat meal and there are less than 2 meats
in the top 3 ingredients, subtract 3 points
7) If it contains any artificial colorants, subtract 3 points
8 ) If it contains ground corn or whole grain corn, subtract 3 points
9) If corn is listed in the top 5 ingredients, subtract 2 more points
10) If the food contains any animal fat other than fish oil, subtract 2
points
11) If lamb is the only animal protein source (unless your dog is allergic
to other protein sources), subtract 2 points
12) If it contains soy or soybeans, subtract 2 points
13) If it contains wheat (unless you know that your dog is not allergic to
wheat), subtract 2 points
14) If it contains beef (unless you know that your dog is not allergic to
beef), subtract 1 point
15) If it contains salt, subtract 1 point
Extra Credit:
1) If any of the meat sources are organic, add 5 points
2) If the food is endorsed by any major breed group or nutritionist, add 5
points
3) If the food is baked not extruded, add 5 points
4) If the food contains probiotics, add 3 points
5) If the food contains fruit, add 3 points
6) If the food contains vegetables (NOT corn or other grains), add 3 points
7) If the animal sources are hormone-free and antibiotic-free, add 2 points
8 ) If the food contains barley, add 2 points
9) If the food contains flax seed oil (not just the seeds), add 2 points
10) If the food contains oats or oatmeal, add 1 point
11) If the food contains sunflower oil, add 1 point
12) For every different specific animal protein source (other than the first
one; count "chicken" and "chicken meal" as only one protein source, but
chicken" and "" as 2 different sources), add 1 point
13) If it contains glucosamine and chondroitin, add 1 point
14) If the vegetables have been tested for pesticides and are pesticide-free
add 1 point

94-100+ = A This is a food with excellent nutrition
86-93 = B - this food is very good for nutritional value
78-85 = C This food is not very good and can cause nutrional problems
70-77 = D This food will probably cause health issues down the line
<70 = F This food FAILS the test and should be tossed in the trash.

Popular Dog Food scores:

Alpo Prime Cuts / Score 81 C
Artemis Large/Medium Breed Puppy / Score 114 A+
Authority Harvest Baked / Score 116 A+
Authority Harvest Baked Less Active / Score 93 B
Beowulf Back to Basics / Score 101 A+
Bil-Jac Select / Score 68 F
Blackwood 3000 Lamb and Rice / Score 83 C
Blue Buffalo Chicken and Rice / Score 106 A+
Burns Chicken and Brown Rice / Score 107 A+
Canidae / Score 112 A+
Chicken Soup Senior / Score 115 A+
Diamond Maintenance / Score 64 F
Diamond Lamb Meal & Rice / Score 92 B
Diamond Large Breed 60+ Formula / Score 99 A
Diamond Performance / Score 85 C
Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance Ultra Premium / Score 122 A+
Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance Venison and Brown Rice / Score 106 A+
Dick Van Patten's Duck and Potato / Score 106 A+
EaglePack Holistic / Score 102 A+
Eukanuba Adult / Score 81 C
Eukanuba Puppy / Score 79 C
Flint River Senior / Score 101 A+
Foundations / Score 106 A+
Hund-n-Flocken Adult Dog (lamb) by Solid Gold / Score 93 B
Iams Lamb Meal & Rice Formula Premium / Score 73 D
Innova Dog / Score 114 A+
Innova Evo / Score 114 A+
Innova Large Breed Puppy / Score 122 A+
Kirkland Signature Chicken, Rice, and Vegetables / Score 110 A+
Member's Mark Chicken and Rice / Score 84 C
Merrick Wilderness Blend / Score 127 A+
Nature's Recipe / Score 100 A
Nature's Recipe Healthy Skin Venison and Rice / Score 116 A+
Nature's Variety Raw Instinct / Score 122 A+



Nutra Nuggets Super Premium Lamb Meal and Rice / Score 81 C
Nutrience Junior Medium Breed Puppy / Score 101 A+
Nutrisource Lamb and Rice / Score 87 B
Nutro Max Adult / Score 93 B
Nutro Natural Choice Lamb and Rice / Score 98 A
Nutro Natural Choice Large Breed Puppy / Score 87 B
Nutro Natural Choice Puppy Wheat Free / Score 86 B
Nutro Natural Choice Senior / Score 95 A
Nutro Ultra Adult / Score 104 A+
Pet Gold Adult with Lamb & Rice / Score 23 F
Premium Edge Chicken, Rice and Vegetables Adult Dry / Score 109 A+
Pro Nature Puppy / Score 80 C
Pro Plan Sensitive Stomach / Score 94 A
Purina Beneful / Score 17 F
Purina Dog / Score 62 F
Purina Come-n-Get It / Score 16 F
Purina One Large Breed Puppy / Score 62 F
Royal Canin Boxer / Score 103 A+
Royal Canin Bulldog / Score 100 A+
Royal Canin Natural Blend Adult / Score 106 A+
Science Diet Advanced Protein Senior 7+ / Score 63 F
Science Diet for Large Breed Puppies / Score 69 F
Sensible Choice Chicken and Rice / Score 97 A
Solid Gold / Score 99 A
Summit / Score 99 A
Timberwolf Organics Wild & Natural Dry / Score 120 A+
Wellness Super5 Mix Chicken / Score 110 A+
Wolfking Adult Dog (bison) by Solid Gold / Score 97 A

__________________
"We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." ~Immanual Kant~

NatMedTalk and Beyond

Hi 4 peanuts -
the test that is posted above is excellent, I have used it many times -
we use EaglePack/Holistic Select for our dog and he does very well on it - the Kirkland is also great.
something else you could try is raw food, you don't have to make it, find someone in your area that makes portions and try that if you like

Bone meal used in dog food contains a lot of fluoride and brands that have a large amount of bone meal are giving high doses of fluoride to dogs which can cause cancer.

https://www.ewg.org/pets/fluorideindogfood

Thanks Liverock! I read the label on my dog food, and there's no bone meal, animal byproducts or fluoride listed.

I pulled out an old chart on kibble I printed a long time ago. It only shows 14 brands.

The brands with beef/meat and bone meal or poultry/chicken by product meal, beef tallow, bone phosphate, animal digest are: Atta Boy. Beneful, Cycle, Eukanuba, Iams, Pedigree and Science Diet.

The brands with animal fat with BHT or BHA are: Atta Boy, Cycle, Pedigree and Science Diet & Nutro (animal/poultry fat only listed).

Corn gluten is in Beneful, Pedigree and Nutro. Sugar is in Beneful and Salt in Pedigree. Fish meal is listed to avoid, and that's in Atta Boy, Iams, Eukanuba and my brand, Kirkland Signature.

Thanks for all the great information!...I think I remember Diamond is sold at Tractor Supply and is the least expensive in my area....I appreciate all the feed back.

I personally wouldn't feed this type of Diamond food to my dogs. The first ingredient is chicken by-product, and that's not a good sign. Also contains salt. The first ingredient on the food I have is chicken.

Chicken by-products include head, feet, entrails, lungs, spleen, kidneys, liver, brain, stomach, blood and intestines. https://www.naturalnews.com/012647.html

On the list, it states Diamond Large breed rates an 'A'.

Sorry 4Peanuts, I never did insert the link. The type of Diamond food I was referring to was this one.
https://www.diamondpet.com/products/d...mula_for_dogs/

From their site, it look like the large breed is 'naturals' and chicken IS the first ingredient, not by-products, which is MUCH better.

There's a few sites that give you ratings and will break down the products and tell you what's wrong with it. The one I use the most is https://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/

There's a rating from 1 star to 6 star, which personally I would never give my dog anything lower than a 4 star. You should also rotate the dog food you feed your dog for a dozen health reasons.

Here's another site that you can double check what you are considering giving your dog
https://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/

The best bang for your buck is probably taste of the wild, it's always on most lists of top dog food, especially for the price. You'll always see Evo on the list, but I personally think it just costs too much.

Rule of thumb is if you can get it at a grocery store, it's terrible dog food.

4Peanuts,

This isn't exactly a "home grown" remedy for a dog's eye problems; however it is an extremely effective and relatively easy to use and purchase remedy which has been used to cure eye infections, specifically conjunctivitis, in both people and pets. It is a colloidal silver solution called Mesosilver. To read some very interesting testimonials about its use with both people and pets to treat such eye conditions, go to

https://www.colloidal-silver-colloids...stimonials.htm

and scroll down to the Link entitled, Eye Infection, or just click on

https://www.colloidal-silver-colloids...m#eyeinfection

and read the several testimonials from people who have used it to successfully treat eye infections in people and/or pets, including the first such testimonial by a Naturopath and Board Certified Clinical Nutritionist.

The website where you can purchase Mesosilver is

https://www.purestcolloids.com/mesosilver.htm

I can tell you from personal experience that it is an amazingly effective product. You may want to click on the first Link I provided above and scroll down through and explore some of the other Links about its use to treat the various listed conditions as well. I always keep some on hand for my own use, and it has proven to be invaluable.