Dog food question

I have been considering changing my dogs food to a much better quality. I have been doing lots of reading about it, and I understand that it's really not that much more expensive due to the calorie content and because of that you feed less. My question is this. Aren't the dogs hungry eating so much less food? I have an 18 week boxer puppy who is normal weight and an older boxer and husky mix that is quite pudgy. I don't want them going hungry all the time. I am considering getting more of a medium quality food such as Diamond so that they can eat a bit more. What do you think?

I don't think you will find your dogs getting more hungry when you switch to a better food. The fillers in the cheap food only fill them up for a short time and then they are hungry again in a little while. How long would would it take you to become hungry again if you ate a dinner of mostly corn? Not very long. I feed Iams and it works pretty well for me. My dogs are healthy and have awesome coats. I like it because it is one of the better dog foods that you can still find in most grocery stores. I did try a grain free food recently called Taste of the Wild but my finicky eater didn't eat it any better than she did the Iams and you need to go to specialty stores to get it. I fed the rest of the small bag but I was back to buying Iams today.

We use the local Co-op brand. I look at brands less than I do ingredients. In the summer when our dogs are working (border collies) we keep them on a 27% protein and 11% fat. In the winter when they are mostly sedentary, we use a 19% protein and 9% fat. That keeps them from getting too chubby during the winter. Of course, our dogs are kept in a barn. I think a dog that is kept outside would need more fat in their diet.

I am a grain free fanatic! I feed my shih tzu/poodle mixes Taste of the Wild and they do so well on it. They're coats are super shiny and soft, their skin isn't itchy anymore, no more ear infections, and no more tear stains.

As for feeding less, I was feeding 1/2 cup 2xday and with the TOTW, they get 1/3 cup 2xday. The first grain free food I fed was Orijen and I was feeding 1/4 cup each meal because Opal was putting on soooo much weight. It's very rich, but I would look at those few pieces of food in their bowls and think "that's not right".

You really can't go wrong with a better quality food and with grain free you can feed all your dogs the same one without worrying about a puppy formula or a senior formula, etc. Do you free feed or feed meals? No matter what you decide on, feeding at least two meals a day will help them feel fuller.

Like smrobs said, look at the ingredients and the first one listed should be meat, not corn.

I guess I forgot to add that. LOL. :P

We feed Nutro. When we got our dogs from the service dog agency they said that they'd had fewer problems with that food. Our dogs have done very well with Nutro.

Thanks everyone, the food I picked was Nutro Max for adults. They have been on it for a few weeks now and seem to be doing very well on it. Now that they are used to it, they seem to be eating less than the other food they were on.

I realize that this has been resolved already, but we feed Orijen. It is a grain free food, and has been graded as pretty much the best food you can buy. My dogs have done really well on it. My golden was on a quality food before, but since we switched to Orijen she's been doing better than ever. Her coat is really soft (everybody compliments her on it). Also, their stools aren't stinky or liquidy at all. We love it, and so do the dogs!

Eukanuba!

The regular Nutro is a better quality, I've found.