I have access to a lot of great dog food, however, a lot of times, I will order them online because the discounted price makes up for the shipping. The website I order from has stores in Florida and a couple of other southeast states. If I have coupons for Ginger's food, I'll use that to support my local pet store, but otherwise, I can save some money ordering online.

Not disputing anything you have said. Just relating my experiences with my dogs, and that I have had positive results with Innova Puppy. I think the book I read said their were diarrhea issues in nonworking dogs due to high protein levels in EVO???? Also I don't think EVO has a puppy formula, but I could be mistaken. I'm still of the opinion that if it isn't broken, don't mess with it, so for now I will continue to feed Innova puppy. I actually have thought about Orijen but can't justify the increased price when my dogs are doing so well at this time.

SabakaMom wrote:

I'm still not convinced that grain-free food containing potatoes as a filler is worth the price difference that many of these manufacturers suggest. I, too, have thought that Acana might be a good choice, but have found Acana to be one of the foods I cannot find in my area. I have 3 great little pet stores, each specializing in brands different than the other ones. One store has the "If you want it and we don't stock it perhaps we can order it" sign on the dog food wall.

I'm currently feeding a Merrick puppy food. But Merrick is a VERY new company and I wonder how long it will survive. I really should think more positively

Have you looked online as an option? I typically order my dog food online since it's almost always cheaper than buying it locally, even with shipping included!

Merrick is not bad, they have some good formulas. They've had some recalls last year but otherwise have been okay. I sometimes buy Merrick canned food and I also buy the Merrick treats like dehydrated liver and lung.

beck3465 wrote:

I think the book I read said their were diarrhea issues in nonworking dogs due to high protein levels in EVO????

Evo is a very rich food and it can be too rich for some dogs, I think Tori tried Evo with her dogs and it was too rich for them. Hopefully she'll jump in and clarify. Knowing that it is a rich food, it is very easy to overfed which will also result in diarrhea. I know with my sibe he ate 1.75 cups of Evo daily, if he ate 2 cups of Evo he got diarrhea...it was a very fine line to walk.

beck3465 wrote:

Also I don't think EVO has a puppy formula, but I could be mistaken.

Nope, there is no puppy formula for Evo. Now Evo is labeled as an all life stages food but due to the calcium to phosphorus ratios and high protein it really is better suited for adult dogs, not puppies. But again, you will find many people out there who fed their dogs Evo throughout puppyhood and their dogs developed just fine. Of course where you're more likely to find issues with growth on such a food would be more with the larger/giant breeds.

beck3465 wrote:

I think the book I read said their were diarrhea issues in nonworking dogs due to high protein levels in EVO????

The book isn't wrong. There are a lot of dogs who do not do well on Evo because it is too rich. It depends on your dog's sensitivity. However, Val is simply stating that there are plenty of non-working dogs who do well on it.

Every dog is different, and it's best to keep that in mind. Just because a dog does well on a food doesn't mean that every owner feels comfortable remaining on the formula. Dog food is a personal choice between the owner and the dog, because it doesn't matter how "good" a food is for a dog if that particular dog doesn't do well on it.

However, personally, I like to feed the best quality food that I can afford and that my dogs do well on.

When we were on our kibble hunt we tried EVO. Everyone LOVED it, but they had the most horrid gas ever. So that was that. But we didn't have the diarrhea issue, thankfully