[Jon P]

I’ve been feeding Victor dog food to all of my dogs up until the store I’ve buying from decided to stop carrying the line. Now I have to drive some 50 miles just to get it. So I’ve been looking for a similar replacement to Victor dog food.

I’ve been trying to get a local feed store to carry Victor but they went with this brand Total Canine dog food. I cannot find any information about the food except what is on their website. Does anyone know anything about this food? Would it be rater 3-4-5 stars?

http://www.totalfeeds.com/Total_Canine.html

Thanks

[theBCnut]

I think it would be maybe 2 stars and it is preserved with BHA and BHT. I wouldn’t feed it.

[Shasta220]

It seems like Victor lovers enjoy NutriSource and Diamond products (Diamond Naturals, Taste of the Wild, Chicken Soup, etc). I’d agree with Patty, it’s probably not the best food…maybe 2-3 stars.

[DogFoodie]

Hi Jon,

That’s how far it would be for me to buy Victor in the store as well. You do know that you can order it from Amazon, right. It’s more expensive because you get “free” shipping. You won’t like the price because I know what you’ve been paying in the store and the difference is significant. You can also order Victor from sportdogfood.com.

If I couldn’t get that local store to carry Victor and the food was what worked best for my dog, I’d make the drive two or three times per year and stock up.

If you’re near a TSC, you might try Grain Free 4Health. The two newest varieties, pork and duck, are made by Diamond so I’d skip those; but, the other three proteins are made by Ainsworth, so I would choose one of those. I’d check out Earthborn Holistics and NutriSource as those are both affordable and widely available. Dr. Tim’s is also a great budget friendly food and if you can’t find it in a store near you, you can easily find it online.

Sorry your store stopped carrying your food. It’s better to rotate through a variety of foods of different brands and proteins anyway, so maybe find a couple you like and add them into a rotation with Victor when you can get it.

[Naturella]

I am noticing more and more people liking/feeding/talking about Victor, this is great! For some reason, I am obsessed with the Black bag, the Ultra Pro. I like the ingredients and the protein level, but other than that, I really don’t know why I obsess about it so much!
It may be because up until a few days, I was SURE I couldn’t get it in less than 30lbs, unless I get the teeny free sample. Well, nowadays sportdogfood.com have these bags for $10.50 and you can fill them up with any kibble by the pound! The GF ones are a flat $1.89/lb, which is a little much, BUT I will get at least 5lbs of the Ultra Pro FINALLY!!! 😀 Can you tell I am ecstatic???

And now, back to reality and this post – I agree, this food – Total Canine – may not be a great replacement of Victor, but Earthborn Holistic surely should do, and as much as people don’t like Diamond, Taste of the Wild may be a good choice too, as well as Dr. Tim’s (not made by Diamond). As for NutriSource, it is SEVERELY pricy at my local Petland – $34.99 for the 14 or 15-lb bag when Earthborn GFs are $24.99-27.99. That’s about $10 more. Is it cheaper elsewhere??

[theBCnut]

That’s only a little less than I pay for NutriSource in the 25# bag, yikes!

[Jon P]

I’ve been paying about $30 for 30lbs. Victor depending on the variety I pick which is why I want Victor dog food as it is high quality food for much less than other brands.

I ordered two 24lb. bags of Canidae Grain Free pureELEMENTS All Life Stage Dry Dog Food delivered for $73. So far all of the dogs are enjoying this food. I may just drive the 50 miles each way to the feed store and get several bags.

They are supposed to be building a Costco near me so I may look into their Kirkland brand.

How long is the dog food good for before going bad? I was unable to find an expiration date on the Victor bags.

[theBCnut]

Sometimes it is very hard to find dates on bags but it should be there somewhere. Naturally preserved foods usually have a year to eighteen months from manufacture before they go bad. Foods with synthetic preservatives usually have eighteen months and more. The problem is, you don’t know when it was manufactured, if you can’t find the dates on the bag.

[DogFoodie]

I recall the Victor dates were fairly hard to find. I just looked at a bag I have on hand and found the expiration date below the label on the back of the bag. It’s all the way down at the bottom of the bag if it were empty and laid out flat.

I started a spreadsheet sort by best by date when I started accumulating a lot of kibble in order to make sure I used up what I had on hand while it was still at its freshest.

[Melissaandcrew]

Naturella.. I really have nothing productive to say except I giggled about the obsession with food. Lol. I drove an hr each way the first time I bought Victo because I was obsessed with trying it out.

[Naturella]

Patty, wow, yeah, I haven’t seen NutriSource elsewhere yet (besides at that Petland), and it’s too expensive, so I try to snatch a free sample when I can, lol.

Betsy, I was having a hard time to find the best by date on my Victor free samples too, so I hope I have better luck with the actual bags of food.

Melissaandcrew, yeah, I don’t know what’s wrong with me, lol. I am pretty stocked up with Earthborn and Holistic Health Extension for a while now, so I won’t need Victor till next year probably, but I did order me some samples and I CAN’T WAIT for the little black baggies! I hope Bruno likes it, I really really hope so! After he’s out of the Earthborns and HHEs, he will get him some Victor Ultra Pro-Victor Joint Healt-Back to Basics Open Range mix.

And THEN, some others that I have coupons for – Avoderm (interested in), Wellness (also obsessed over), Canidae Pure (somewhat excited about), Blue Buffalo Wilderness (had it before with great success), Solid Gold (hmm, we shall see how this goes. They have interesting names, lol), Nature’s Variety Instinct + Raw Boost (I know, recalls, but COUPON – I will just watch the pup and make sure he is feeling well on it), and Merrick (interested in). And THEN, I have a $5-off coupon for ANY bag of ANY food for Petco. So I will get another one of a brand he has liked/did well on. With those, plus the ones he currently has, Bruno will be set for most of 2015. But I will get the coupon foods toward the end of the year so they are hopefully fresher longer into 2015. I watch my best by dates closely. 😀

[theBCnut]

As far as NutriSource, it sounds like you don’t need to find it for a while, but when you do, go to their website and use their product locator to find a retailer.

[Jon P]

I found another feed store today about 41 miles from me. They stock most of the Victor line and they accept credit cards too!
I bought the VICTOR SELECT HIGH ENERGY Formula cost $28. Not a bad price for a super premium quality dog food IMO.

I made a trip to one feed store two weeks ago assuming they accept credit cards and when I was about to pay, they tell me that they are not set up to accept credit cards. I drove about 100 miles and came home with NO Victor dog food. I was furious, I’ve never been to a store that did not accept credit cards.

So I will be able to buy Victor foods for the time being. I may still try this Canidae Grain Free pureELEMENTS for awhile since my dogs seem to enjoy it as long as I can get it for $40 per bag.

[DogFoodie]

I definitely would’ve been annoyed at that too, Jon. I hardly ever carry any cash and put everything on one particular credit card. At the end of the month, I have one bill to pay. I would’ve also driven there assuming they’d take a credit card. Maybe some smaller feed and hardware stores that sell Victor don’t ~ I could see that being the case.

41 miles isn’t bad, I drive almost that far to work. I’m glad you found someplace that will work for you. In the meantime, keep working on that local feed store near you!

Oh, and did you find the expiration date on the bag?

Edit: Doh! You don’t have any on hand right now, do you? Nevermind!

[theBCnut]

Oh, that reminded me that I wanted to point out that samples almost never have expiration dates on them.

[Jon P]

After I found a new feed store that carries Victor I went there to get a bag and found the expiration date on the bottom back side of the bag.

I seriously doubt I can convince my local feed store to carry Victor since they sell that Total Canine junk so well that people are buying it like crazy. The price for Total Canine is not that much from Victor, just more per bag. But I will keep on trying.

[Naturella]

Patty,

True, I don’t need NutriSource anytime soon; plus, it is on the lower end of what I’d feed – it is 4 stars for the GF versions.

Also, I did have best by dates on all of my free samples I’ve gotten so far, except for the Victor ones (from the store, not the ones I actually ordered). I may have been lucky, I guess! 🙂

[theBCnut]

Dates on samples is entirely up to the manufacturers and some are definitely better than others for going beyond what they have to.

[Shasta220]

Crazy how different prices are! For me, Victor is nowhere around. I’ve looked online, but it’s all about 50-70$ for a 20-30# bag (yes, including shipping – usually) then my lucky-dog friend is able to buy 40# bags for 30$! Yes, I’m jealous!!!! LOL!!!

I can’t remember how much NutriSource is around here. I wanna say for a 35-40# bag, it’s about 50-60$. I just ended up getting a bad first impression on it. I may try it again in the future as I’m pretty sure I know what happened:

Cassy (our senior lab) had been on 1-3 star food her whole life. She had horrible skin problems, so I decided it was time to save up and get a 4-5 star food. I /did/ transition her from the 2 star up to the 4 star, but it made her flare up to disgusting levels (50% of her skin was raw. She had to wear a cone and a sweater until the vet’s meds started working! Even then, her feet tore through the sweater and she could chew on her tail…poor baby).

I’ve never tried NutriSource again, just because I’m so scared it may have had some odd ingredient she reacted to, but now she is on similar 4 star foods and doing fabulously!

[theBCnut]

The closest place to me that has Victor is 74 miles away as the crow flies, but the roads don’t go there so it would probably be closer to 100 miles.

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