Switching Food

When the whole kerfuffle about Canidae changing their formula and manufacturer came out, I held fast to my guns. He's been on this food almost his whole life, he does great on it, he loves the taste, etc. Plus, while some of the reports of problems came from sources I trusted, the majority were anonymous posts on the Internet. Don't believe everything you read, right? So I thought "Unless he does poorly on the new formula, we'll stick with it." We had the majority of an old bag left, too.

Then a local PWD owner complained her dogs were having serious problems with it. I know this woman. We trained together. She owns 2 of Lucky's close relatives. I'm pretty certain she'd put her dog's welfare above her own if given the choice.

So, while we were at the vet, I took the opportunity to ask her if any of her clients fed Canidae and were having problems. Her response was basically yes, quite a few of them. When I told The Spouse about these developments, he immediately changed tunes (previously he'd been resisting changing foods. if it ain't broke) and said we should switch.

Since then I've been researching food options and there's a lot to consider - Quality ingredients? Grain free or not? Cost? Regional availability? - and I think I've narrowed it down to Nature's Variety Salmon & Brown Rice. Top-notch ingredients, though not grain free. The Spouse said he wanted to try switching to a fish-based formula and it's also the most cost-effective one on our short-list, ringing in at a daily cost of $1.72 (compared to $1.81 for Taste of the Wild, $1.95 for Orijen or $2.13 for Fromm) (those number based on the cost of a 30lb bag on PFD and the recommended feeding guidelines for each). It's also readily available from the two pet stores we frequent the most.