Choosing a Dog Food

Well I am an over-researcher when it comes to things that matter to me.  So before we brought Jackson home, I wanted to make sure we knew what we wanted to feed him.  There are just so many options.

As it happens, there is a great little pet food co-op right near the University of Ottawa, at the corner of Friel and Wilbrod.  I popped my head in one day and found that they carry all of the top rated dog foods for less than you pay at other retailers.  The one I read incredible things about was Orijen, which they had.  However, it still costs $72.50 for a 13.5kg bag of puppy food.  A little steep.  There are several that are a little cheaper than that, such as Acana and others, but I wanted to look into a step down in the cost department.

I read a lot on many of the brands you buy in the grocery store, and how generally it was best to stay away from those.  Except, many wrote, the Costco brand Kirkland.  While a 7kg bag of Orijen puppy food was $41.00, a 9kg bag of Kirkland puppy food was $14.99.  There is a difference in these dog foods of course, but blogs, rating sites, and dog food users rated Kirkland as being by far the best dog food if you didn't want to take the leap into the heavy hitters and it is very affordable.  The first five ingredients have lots of meat, and there is no corn or wheat.  They only complaint by some is that it has beet pulp in it, which is something I feed my horses, a filler starch.  But if it doesn't bother your dog, it seems from my reading, then it isn't a problem.

So, until I start to make the big bucks, we have started Jackson on the Kirkland food, switching him over slowly from what he came with from his foster. He seems to like it so far, although I feel that its possible he'd eat just about anything when he's hungry!