Feed

Question
Howdy,
I own a 10 month old boxer. I have experimented with different brands of kibble including Pedigree, Nutro, and Diamond. While on pedigree(vet recommended it), she did ok but I wanted something with a little more protein/fat volume. Im currently feeding Diamond hi-energy formula and she has been doing fine on it. I have constantly heard that feeding foods with corn and other fillers can potenially harm your dog. I guess my question is what brands of good quality foods do you recommend for a college kid on a budget? Is feeding pedigree/purina brands that bad for my dog? Any advice would be extremely helpful, Thanks.

Answer
I copied this from an answer I gave on another site:

There are many more opinions on dog chows than facts to support them. Much of what you read is put out by those selling something. I am in a position to see how large numbers, thousands, do on a few brands. My son is feeding his Fox Hound Purina, because he remembers how well the dogs he saw while still at home were doing on it. Currently we are feeding the 2 dogs in our home Pro Plan. I have also seen dogs doing fine on Iams, Science, Purina 1, and Eukanuba.

None of the recalls included any of the major brands dry dog chow. It was mostly the canned and semi moist chows, plus some of the more expensive specialty chows.

I know very little either way about storebrands and cheaper brands. Many people condemn them, but may do so knowing no more than that they are cheap. I know of no controlled studies of how dogs do on different chows that are available to the general public.

The only downside I know of the regular Purina is the dogs produce larger, softer stools that are harder to clean up than the more concentrated, meat based chows. That may or may not be much of a concern to you. It has no effect on your dog's health. It is very important with service dogs. If you are vision impaired or in a wheel chair, and have to clean up after your dog and carry it off to dispose of it, you want the small, firmer stools.

When my family started raising puppies for a large dog guide school in 1991, they were feeding plain old Purina.  They now feed Pro Plan.  I can't see that the dogs are doing the least bit better.  My first impression when they switched was that if you don't clean up after your dog on Pro Plan, somebody might step on it and hurt their foot.  If you can tolerate a bit more mess cleaning up, you can save a little feeding Purina.  You lose part of the difference in price to feeding more.  Oh, you should have it on adult chow now.