Thank you for so much info.....I noticed though that your high energy dogs eats alot more than two cups per day while the low energy dogs eat as much as toots. Tootsie while a bulldog which is known for their low energy is actually quite energetic.....we have to walk her everyday and play with her for several hours otherwise she goes crazy...you can actually see the pent up energy in her when she sits still too long....she is also a jumper (just not on command)and while she runs around the yard she also jumps up on the chairs and tables. (she's allowed). People at the bullympics this weekend said they had never seen a bully run like her before. I do agree with you though...there probably is not much difference between a four star and six star for most dogs....bullies are known as medical nightmares though so we are trying to do the absolute best for her and since we can afford it we do. Toots is actually quite funny to watch as she takes her toys and throw them herself sometime to go after...she is also one of the few bullies from what I've heard who will play fetch.....her breeder actually said we should train her for agility competitions....but we're not show people. I'd be curious to see how much she eats when she slows down a bit.

I copied this from another forum on that home site. Thank you to the person that posted it. I snagged this from my chihuahua forum but it's very, very useful information. We switched to chicken soup brand dog food after I learned more about some of the other premium brands I was looking into. How to grade your dog's food: Start with a grade of 100: 1) For every listing of "by-product", subtract 10 points 2) For every non-specific animal source ("meat" or "poultry", meat, meal or fat) reference, subtract 10 points 3) If the food contains BHA, BHT, or ethoxyquin, subtract 10 points 4) For every grain "mill run" or non-specific grain source, subtract 5 points 5) If the same grain ingredient is used 2 or more times in the first five ingredients (i.e. "ground brown rice", "brewer's rice", "rice flour" are all the same grain), subtract 5 points 6) If the protein sources are not meat meal and there are less than 2 meats in the top 3 ingredients, subtract 3 points 7) If it contains any artificial colorants, subtract 3 points 8 ) If it contains ground corn or whole grain corn, subtract 3 points 9) If corn is listed in the top 5 ingredients, subtract 2 more points 10) If the food contains any animal fat other than fish oil, subtract 2 points 11) If lamb is the only animal protein source (unless your dog is allergic to other protein sources), subtract 2 points 12) If it contains soy or soybeans, subtract 2 points 13) If it contains wheat (unless you know that your dog isn't allergic to wheat), subtract 2 points 14) If it contains beef (unless you know that your dog isn't allergic to beef), subtract 1 point 15) If it contains salt, subtract 1 point Extra Credit: 1) If any of the meat sources are organic, add 5 points 2) If the food is endorsed by any major breed group or nutritionist, add 5 points 3) If the food is baked not extruded, add 5 points 4) If the food contains probiotics, add 3 points 5) If the food contains fruit, add 3 points 6) If the food contains vegetables (NOT corn or other grains), add 3 points 7) If the animal sources are hormone-free and antibiotic-free, add 2 points 8 ) If the food contains barley, add 2 points 9) If the food contains flax seed oil (not just the seeds), add 2 points 10) If the food contains oats or oatmeal, add 1 point 11) If the food contains sunflower oil, add 1 point 12) For every different specific animal protein source (other than the first one; count "chicken" and "chicken meal" as only one protein source, but "chicken" and "" as 2 different sources), add 1 point 13) If it contains glucosamine and chondroitin, add 1 point 14) If the vegetables have been tested for pesticides and are pesticide-free, add 1 point 94-100+ = A 86-93 = B 78-85 = C 70-77 = D Here are some foods that have already been scored. If you don't see your dog's food here, ask and someone will score it for you. Dog Food scores: Alpo Prime Cuts / Score 81 C Artemis Large/Medium Breed Puppy / Score 114 A+ Authority Harvest Baked / Score 116 A+ Authority Harvest Baked Less Active / Score 93 B Beowulf Back to Basics / Score 101 A+ Bil-Jac Select / Score 68 F Blackwood 3000 Lamb and Rice / Score 83 C Blue Buffalo Chicken and Rice / Score 106 A+ Burns Chicken and Brown Rice / Score 107 A+ Canidae / Score 112 A+ Chicken Soup Senior / Score 115 A+ Diamond Maintenance / Score 64 F Diamond Lamb Meal & Rice / Score 92 B Diamond Large Breed 60+ Formula / Score 99 A Diamond Performance / Score 85 C Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance Ultra Premium / Score 122 A+ Dick Van Pattens Natural Balance Venison and Brown Rice / Score 106 A+ Dick Van Patten's Duck and Potato / Score 106 A+ EaglePack Holistic / Score 102 A+ Eukanuba Adult / Score 81 C Eukanuba Puppy / Score 79 C Flint River Senior / Score 101 A+ Foundations / Score 106 A+ Hund-n-Flocken Adult Dog (lamb) by Solid Gold / Score 93 B Iams Lamb Meal & Rice Formula Premium / Score 73 D Innova Dog / Score 114 A+ Innova Evo / Score 114 A+ Innova Large Breed Puppy / Score 122 A+ Kirkland Signature Chicken, Rice, and Vegetables / Score 110 A+ MemberÂs Mark Chicken and Rice / Score 84 C Merrick Wilderness Blend / Score 127 A+ NatureÂs Recipe / Score 100 A NatureÂs Recipe Healthy Skin Venison and Rice / Score 116 A+ NatureÂs Variety Raw Instinct / Score 122 A+ Nutra Nuggets Super Premium Lamb Meal and Rice / Score 81 C Nutrience Junior Medium Breed Puppy / Score 101 A+ Nutrisource Lamb and Rice / Score 87 B Nutro Max Adult / Score 93 B Nutro Natural Choice Lamb and Rice / Score 98 A Nutro Natural Choice Large Breed Puppy / Score 87 B Nutro Natural Choice Puppy Wheat Free / Score 86 B Nutro Natural Choice Senior / Score 95 A Nutro Ultra Adult / Score 104 A+ Pet Gold Adult with Lamb & Rice / Score 23 F Premium Edge Chicken, Rice and Vegetables Adult Dry / Score 109 A+ Pro Nature Puppy / Score 80 C Pro Plan Sensitive Stomach / Score 94 A Purina Beneful / Score 17 F Purina Dog / Score 62 F Purina Come-n-Get It / Score 16 F Purina One Large Breed Puppy / Score 62 F Royal Canin Boxer / Score 103 A+ Royal Canin Bulldog / Score 100 A+ Royal Canin Natural Blend Adult / Score 106 A+ Science Diet Advanced Protein Senior 7+ / Score 63 F Science Diet for Large Breed Puppies / Score 69 F Sensible Choice Chicken and Rice / Score 97 A Solid Gold / Score 99 A Summit / Score 99 A Timberwolf Organics Wild & Natural Dry / Score 120 A+ Wellness Super5 Mix Chicken / Score 110 A+ Wolfking Adult Dog (bison) by Solid Gold / Score 97 A

One of the reasons that Whole Dog Journal will not put a dog food on their "approved" list without the manufacturer freely giving out the name of the manufacturing plant when asked by a legitimate inquiry is that such full disclosure helps guard against the kind of accident that occurred in 2007. Many of the small dog food companies have their foods made at plants that manufacture for many different companies. Knowing that the precise ingredients that the individual manufacturer specified for their food were used in the manufacture of it is part of the trust that small companies must have in these "batch" manufacturing plants. At least one pet food plant used ingredients not specified by the pet food manufacturers whose food they were making, according to Wikipedia's article on Protein Adulteration in China Having the name of the plant that manufactures your food easy to look up in case of a food contamination event allows consumers to decide whether to buy other foods made at that plant. Given all of that work that WDJ does to get this info for us, it is pretty obvious that the plants that are making these foods are right here in the US and Canada. The protein supplement that was imported from China was criminally poisoned with the addition of melamine plastic in 2006 and 2007 and there is evidence that there was a similar outbreak in 2005 (see the Wikipedia link below). Chinese companies who participated in this in 2006 and 2007 that poisoned our pets were not immediately sanctioned, and the milk industry went on to commit horrific poisoning of baby formula and milk products in China that was not discovered until May 2008 and not made public until August or September. Milk products from China shipped all over the world were found to have melamine in them even into 2009. From Wikipedia: "Two people were executed, one given a suspended death penalty, three people receiving life imprisonment, two receiving 15-year jail terms,[6] and seven local government officials, as well as the Director of the Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), being fired or forced to resign. Yes, all that had to do with the poisoning of babies and others who drank the milk in China. It only came to light because a New Zealand affiliate of the Chinese milk company kept insisting that something was wrong and had to be investigated. Melamine can be manufactured from urea (a concentrated part of urine), coal, and other sources. Urea and other nitrogen sources are added to the feed of ruminants (multi-stomach animals, animals who chew a cud) to increase the nitrogen level because they can get protein's nutrition from these non-food sources due to their unique digestive processes. THAT is how melamine started being put into food - the waste from making it was used in cattle feed. when it was made from urea. A crude way to measure how much protein is in a food is to measure the nitrogen level. Melamine, urea, and some other non-foods increase the nitrogen level without adding to the nutritional level (except for ruminant feed). So now, they have to use more sophisticated testing methods to test foods for animals and people. Because people cannot be trusted, in capitalist or socialist countries, not to poison each other for profit or to make their expected output! This all goes back to my sneaking feeling that this planet can only healthily sustain a very tiny fraction of the people we have living here. If we can't eat whole foods, or feed whole foods to our meat livestock and pets, then we are going to have this kind of thing happen. I have been discussing the need to change our diets to "no processed foods" with my fellow chronically ill friends online. Most of us had no children. It is turning out that this is a good thing.

Precious. I had never seen it before. My favorite is the dry catfood commercial where the cat starts to eat and is transported to a beautiful colorful world with fish,cows, a rolling brook and green grass. I think that's what Cat Heaven looks like.