[James P]

have been feeding Royal Canin Boxer 26 for many years and many Boxers. Since subscribing I researched Boxer 26 and the ingredients, which start off with brewers rice, brown rice and chicken-by-product-meal. This got a 2.5 star rating and my dogs shouldn’t be doing all that well…But…they are ! They eat it, seldom any gas, good stools and they seem to thrive. I have tried several times to switch but they will not eat any other.The “S’ shape kibble slows their eating down and works well for the one that has an under bite. I am confused how they do so well on a low rated food. If you have Boxers and can suggest a good food for them I would like to hear from you.

[Susan]

Hi James, what were the other brand foods you tried, were they similiar to the Royal Canin ingredients or were they different proteins, look at the ingredients of the R/C Boxer & maybe pick a kibble with Chicken meal instead of the chicken by-products, I just looked at the ingredients of the R/C Boxer, have you tried “Eagle Pack Orignal” Chicken meal & Pork meal or the Eagle Pack Power adult that has 30% protein & it has chicken meal & pork meal & oats like the R/C Boxer & is higher then the R/C in protein at 24%, just a thought, also Eagle Pack has different flavors, so you can rotate them later if they like the Chicken & Pork meal…. I had a boxer 3 years ago & she loved home cooked or wet tin over her kibble…Angie also had an under bite, I never noticed anything different when she ate…..Just watch for any lumps, my poor Angie was so healthy, then around 9years old she had what looked like a little wort on the back of her back leg, the first vet said “oh thats nothing” then 1 year pasted & Angie wasnt herself, tired, didnt want to go on her walks as much so I took her to a different vet, the RSPCA vets where I first adopted her from & straight away the vet took her in for surgery & cut out any lumps & did bi-opsies, she had high grade 2 cancer….Mast call tumors…I love Boxers, this time I rescued a 4year old English Staffy & he has nothing but health problems, beautiful friendly boy, but has problems with Pancreas & itchy skin allergies, The vet put Patch on the Royal Canin vet diet Hypoallergenic kibble in the begining for his itchy skin but the fat% was 19% fat then Patch got Pancreatitis cause the fat% was too high in the R/C & Patch was put on Eukanuba Intestinal vet diet with a lower fat% & Patch is doing real great, looks shinny, people say, gee he looks good, but 1 month ago I started Patch on the Wellness Simple, Duck & Oatmeal as the Eukanuba has corn in it, so far all is good no gas, no stomach rumbles, perfect poos, I think he’s better then when he was just on the Eukanuba Intestinal, at the moment I mix the 2 kibbles, so he gets good from both kibbles, its always good to have a few kibbles that they like & agrees with them, just incase you cant get one of the kibbles you’ll have the other kibbles to fall back on.. I want to try the Eagle Pack Reduced fat next as it has similiar ingredients to his Eukanuba intestinal but minus the corn.. he did good on the Eukanuba Intestinal..

[crazy4cats]

Hi James P.-
Welcome to Dog Food Advisor! I was curious if you supplement the kibble with any toppers? Any fresh or canned food added? Also wondering if when you tried to switch food if did it very slowly? What I have learned coming to this site for the past year or so is that no kibble is really that great. I don’t switch kibble that often but I like to supplement every meal with something more healthy and species appropriate. Every morning, I add some canned. For the afternoon meal, I add fresh ingredients such as eggs, sardines, or raw nuggets.
I feed mostly grain free Victor kibble. I can get it in a 50lb bag for my two lab mix dogs. I have fed Royal Canin before on the advise of a vet. It’s unbelievably expensive for as much Brewers Rice and by-products that it contains.
I’d encourage to at least start supplementing if you are not already.
Good luck to you. I hope you get some helpful advise from this site. I know I have.

[aquariangt]

That would come down to the discussion on survive vs thrive. You may see a vast improvement if you got them onto something a little better. Seeing that RC is such a low quality food, switching directly onto something high protein, lower filler, etc would be difficult for your dogs to do straight up (not sure what else you tried) I would recommend transitioning them onto a mid range food-I like Precise Foundation for a transition food-and then onto something else. Precise foundation is still chicken and brown rice, but with less trash than the lower quality foods. It’s easy on the stomach and the protein is still not too high. Once they’ve made it onto that, you can go into a 4-5 star food and hopefully continue to rotate to build a healthy gut

[aimee]

Hi James P,

How well a dog does or doesn’t do with a particular diet is independent of the star rating. I feed my own dog a 2.5 star rated food and the lower star rating is of no concern to me. On another rating site my 2.5 star rated food is given a 9.2/10 rating in the health category and RC Boxer rates 8.3/10 in the health category. http://www.goodguide.com/products?brand_id%5B%5D=309255-royal-canin&filter=&page=2&utf8=%E2%9C%93

Why the huge difference? The two sites are using different criteria. I’m open to the idea that there are different ways to evaluate a food and I’ve found that veterinary nutritionists and PhD nutritionists use different parameters by which to evaluate foods than do most rating sites.

Interestingly enough I’ve found that when zoo nutritionists use commercial products they often choose Hill’s Science diet products to feed the valuable animals in their care. When I was last at the zoo I saw the keepers measuring out Science Diet in the feeding room. I later verified with the zoo that they purchase this food and was told they chose SD based on the nutrient content and bioavailability of the nutrients.

Dr. Remillard, a boarded veterinary nutritionist, when asked which food she’d feed responded: “It’s kind of a race to the top between Royal Canin, Purina and Hill’s for me….” https://www.petdiets.com/Ask-the-Nutritionist

The criteria important to me may not be what is important to someone else and that’s Ok.

Like others I add fresh into my dog diets as well.

[Author]

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