from blue wilderness salmon to california natural herring and potato good choice???

[occfan]

hello i am new to the forum and i wanted some input

i was told cn is ideal for allergy bullies.. limited ingriedents and coomon food.. cheaper and still gets the omega fatty acids and protein is at 21% as appose to wildernss at 34%.. did i make the right move??

thanks mike

 

[cali baker]

Hi Mike. Welcome to EBN!

I have never heard of California Natural so I cannot give you any opinion about that, but my boys are currently on BW salmon right now and seem to be doing well on it.

 

[JAKEISGREAT]

Mike..check out the dog food ratings page..I have heard of it..great things..we have a few bullies on it here! Someone very recently switched and loves it! Sorry..I can't remember who..but they will find this eventually. [MENTION=2291]cowsmom[/MENTION]..knows a lot about food..she will check in too!

 

[Vicaroo1000]

Well, I can tell you that Bea was on Origen and the protein was WAYYY too much for the bullie system. Origen (I learned) is great for active dogs - but not so great for our sedate little bullies. I forget what the % was on the Origen but I thought the norm was soft serve poops. Terrible! What annoys me is that a PROFESSIONAL suggested Origen. Thank goodness my friend Cindy straightened me out.

 

[occfan]

yea people fail to mention that the 6 and 5 star foods normally are not for our breed due to protein levels... but cn is loaded with the good nutrients for them just a matter of getting them settled on it cause bella loved the taste of wilderness

 

[BruceP]

The only way you are going to know if it is good for YOUR bully is to feed it to him/her for a good while. Ratings here are based on results of bullies being fed a food vs. other rating charts that are more general than this one. It is used to only get you headed in the right direction. Remember to transition slowly.

 

[cowsmom]

there is nothing wrong with either food. the only problem that i would have with cn is that it was bought out by proctor and gamble which does not have a good reputation foodwise. other than that what your bully does good on is what you feed them. i myself go for lower protein as sarah is a couch potato but others feed up to 34 percent with no problems.

 

[occfan]

i am more than certain that 34 % is not bad especially if wilderness is 6 star and recommened by everybody my thing with it is she is ver lazy and sitting around with that much protein could get to be an issue down the line....

but it may not as well..

i herd tat about california natural but i also researched and found that the ingriedents were never touched and remained the same for a while..

every food co will have an issue at one point.. i had bella on bb wilderness and came to find out buffalo had 3 recalls in the past 3 years

 

[JAKEISGREAT]

yea people fail to mention that the 6 and 5 star foods normally are not for our breed due to protein levels... but cn is loaded with the good nutrients for them just a matter of getting them settled on it cause bella loved the taste of wilderness

But..there are a lot of very active bullies and the protein level is fine for them..plus they usually are fed less than any recommendation from the mfg. I don't think a blanket statement on ANY food OR star rating can be correct. I feed the highest rated that does well for my dog. 5 stars..6 stars..what makes him healthy...a big red flag is proctor and gamble..the ingredients might stay the same...But where do those ingredients come from? Most mfg work hard to hide that their vitamins..or a teeny..tiny.. supplement gets imported from China..chances are..you will change foods many times through the life of your dog..it's the hardest part of figuring things out!...good luck to you..hope it all works out for Bella!

 

[reillysmom]

I just put Reilly on California Natural Lamb Meal & Rice almost 2 weeks ago. it is great!! I have tried everything it felt like and this has done wonders with Reilly. He isnt chewing on his feet and his face is not red at all. the redness between his paws is now a light pink, not blood red!! i highly recommend this food.

 

[occfan]

yea i mean shes only on it for about 3 days now but so far so good we will see

peace love english bulldogs!!!!

 

[kazzy220]

To repeat what [MENTION=1034]BruceP[/MENTION] said in a previous post ... the dog food ratings page we have on this site was put together specifically for english bulldogs. After saying that, you will just need to try each food to see what is best for your individual bulldog.

In our case, we put Maggie on Fromm 4* after finding this site and discovering that Beneful was a bunch of crap in a bag. We've stuck with the Fromm because Maggie did so well on it but have gradually worked out that out of all of the different varieties it is the Beef Frittata which is grain and chicken free that she does the best on. So Daddy and Tinkerbell are on the same just because it's easiest and it seems to work for them too. However, we've only had Tinks for two weeks and she was on Pedigree for the whole of her life so ANYTHING is probably better than that!!

 

[anatess]

Guys, high protein diet is not necessarily bad for sedate bulldogs. Dogs - regardless of breed - are carnivores (their teeth are not designed to break down plant matter but for ripping flesh). That's straight up protein. Here's an article that explains it better:
Low Protein Dog Foods

Now, about Blue Wilderness versus California Natural - the reason CN is rated at 3 stars as opposed to the 5 star BW is because of the presence of grains. CN has a 55% carbohydrate content which, for a carnivore, is high (above 50% is considered too high in most circles). BW is grain-free which puts its carbohydrate content at 38%. High carbs contribute faster to obesity than high protein. Of course, to lower carbs intake, you can feed the lower end of the recommended daily feedings, but that means you are also lowering protein. Now, if you are feeding higher protein food, you can lower protein intake by feeding the lower end of the recommended daily feedings - which also lowers carbs which is even better.

Grains may also cause allergies but so do certain meat products like beef. Therefore, allergy testing is a food-by-food dog-by-dog basis. It can be quite a task to determine which food your dog is not allergic to.

And about CN being bought out by Procter and Gamble - I think this is a wash... because we are all familiar with all the recalls Blue Buffalo has been through. CN is a quality product - it's just a matter of where in the carbs/protein spectrum you side with and what your dog is allergic to.

In any case, I am feeding my dogs BW Salmon or Duck flavors (I alternate) and they're doing great with it - that's a 4-year-old bichon frise and a 3-year-old english bulldog, both breeds prone to allergies and health issues. The bichon is a yippity high-energy 18lb dog and the english bulldog is a lumbering giant at 60lbs who will exert super high energy for... 5 minutes.

For more comparative analysis:
BW: Blue Buffalo Wilderness Dry Dog Food | Review and Rating
CN: California Natural Dry Dog Food | Review and Rating

Hope this helps.