I think I have mentioned being in a similar situation with my roommate who feeds his lab-hound mix the Science Diet. While not as horrible as Beneful or Pedigree, he can still do MUCH better, especially because he has the means to! But he just believes he knows a lot about dogs and would not listen to another opinion. This weekend he was out climbing and I was in charge of feeding his dog. Many times I debated whether I should sneak some good food into her crap, or at least a sardine, some coconut butter, or some healthy additive, but never did, precisely because of what neezerfan said. The dog is somewhat picky and if she doesn’t eat the food and he gets home and sees it, he will be upset. Or, if she eats it and gets sick, he will be upset. So while it is heartbreaking to me to not feed her good food, I am working on coming to terms that this battle is one I will never win.
I have, however, gotten a really close friend of mine and a former roommate to stop feeding her lab and chorkie (chihuahua-yorkie mix) dogs the Aldi brand dog food Shep (1 star), to feeding 3.5-5-star foods, such as Blue Buffalo, Great Life, Earthborn, Holistic Heath Extension, Evangers, Nutro, Victor, etc. She can clearly see the effects of better food on her dogs, especially her lab, whose coat has gotten soft and shiny. Her and her dogs are my pride and joy! Now, if only I can get her to stop bathing them every week and giving them “greenies” every night, I would feel complete, but that’s another story, lol. She does give them bully sticks-antlers-marrow bones-hooves-himalayan dog chews-other natural chews, so I guess they are ok for the most part. 🙂
Another “battle” is with a classmate, who is a vet actually, but studied in Colombia, back in the day. Her husband feeds their rottweiler Pedigree (1 star) and stuff like that, so I am going to slowly introduce her to other foods for a great price too (Victor for example, and Earthborn, and HHE). I am giving her a bag of free samples of better foods I got from the nearby pet boutique, and I will hopefully get her to switch to Victor Joint Health or something like that soon. 🙂
Overall I have spoken to many friends who have dogs about dog food, and some take my advice, and some don’t, but if I can even help one dog, I would be happy. I would always want to help more though, but you just have to be careful, and really gauge how to speak to a person about what they feed their “baby”.
