Pedigree is gross. I think there was a recent recall on that food because of a Salmonella Schwartzengardfeld something or another in some of it that was manufactured in a Pennsylvania plant. Foods to think about switching to that I think are great are: Orijen, Nature's Variety Instinct formula, Wellness Core, Innova Evo, Taste of the Wild. If you switch over to a new food, do it gradually over a week or two.
I too highly praise Orijen. My pup loves the stuff and his poop has been fairly consistent. The downside is that it's availability is rare for me (even down here in Southern California). Fortunately for me there's a doggie boutique store (Dogma) that is less than 2 miles away for me to go pick up the food. I think they're the only ones within a 15 mile radius that carries it.
That being said. I've seen Taste of the Wild at Target over here, so I'm pleasantly surprised some of the highly rated dog food can be found at regular retailers.
A lot of dog foods seem to give Shibas the stinky farts. Switch her to something that is grain free. I have my Shiba on Orijen. Probably the best food choice I made for him.
Also, something like Plain Nonfat Yogurt can help in transition process and make her tummy feel much better.
Um.......Honey has toxic gas too! lol I mean like.......Almost makes you black out when you walk through the "cloud". LOL And she usually has a look like......"What? Like I can help it?" when she gases us!
Yeah man, I would absolutely change her food. You'd have bad gas too if you were eating the equivalent of Taco Bell or McDonald's twice a day every day.
I'd go with one of the suggestions above. Any of them would be a 10 fold improvement over pedigree. And I think you'll notice a big improvement in her gas too. As in she won't fart as often and when she does it won't smell *as* bad.
Our shibas did OK on Orijen, their stools weren't fabulous after weeks but they did much better on Wellness Core Ocean when we were feeding kibble. I found that any foods with grain had some undesired effect on the shibas, whether allergies or eye boogs or stinky gas and stool.
Check out Whole Dog Journal, buy the Feb & Mar issues of this year. They break down the ingredients and it gives you a great list of foods to choose from.
More than gas issues, feeding a higher quality of food is a huge benefit in many ways. Niko's coat is thick, soft, healthy. You tend to feed less because they are getting more out of the food. It is more expensive but SO worth it (remember they dont eat as much so it should last longer. Niko gets about 1/4-1/3 cup 2x/day and Sasha gets a little over 1 cup 2x/day). I didnt think that it would make such a huge affect on my pups but even when they need a bath we get so many compliments on their coats cause they are so shiny. We switch every other bag from Orijen regular adult and the fish. It was the best decision I ever made as a dog slave.
By the way, I love the Pedigree commercials and that the company gives money to shelters. The commercials make me very sad and a part of me, just a little part, thinks "Well, I should go out right now and buy that food to help save the homeless dogs in shelters." However, I'd rather go donate some good food/time to a shelter as I remember that Pedigree spray coats their kibbles with rendered fat from sources including 4D animals (dead, dying, disabled and diseased) and rancid oil from deep fat friers of fast food resteraunts. The manufacterers found that dogs simply won't eat the kibbles plain so they had to disguise the taste. Dogs are basically eating deep fat fried corn + mystery meat by product kibble each and every day. Anyways, I like what Pedigree does for shelters, but I don't like their products. If it's not something that I would safetly want to/be able to eat, I wouldn't expect my dogs to eat it either, but hey, when I was a kid, all of our dogs ate Pedigree and Gravy Train (they had horrendous breath/gas and skin issues.)
Comments
That being said. I've seen Taste of the Wild at Target over here, so I'm pleasantly surprised some of the highly rated dog food can be found at regular retailers.
Thanks,
Jesse
Also, something like Plain Nonfat Yogurt can help in transition process and make her tummy feel much better.
I'd go with one of the suggestions above. Any of them would be a 10 fold improvement over pedigree. And I think you'll notice a big improvement in her gas too. As in she won't fart as often and when she does it won't smell *as* bad.
I think the Orijen White Pages: http://www.championpetfoods.com/orijen/documents/ORIJEN_White_paper.pdf
Does an amazing job of distinguishing why common dog foods are formulated the way they are and why canines need an entirely different nutritional base than corn, wheat and soy.
Have you looked into dogfoodproject.com and dogfoodanalysis.com?
I personally feed Orijen 6 fishes, Akira does Great on it but it does get expensive.