[Peggy]

Yep I saw that and posted it above.

[Peggy]

Ok, then that makes it even more confusing, lol. For someone who’s been on this site for months, it’s fine, I guess. But for new folks, it makes no sense. 🙂

[Peggy]

It is beneath The Bottom Line, still a part of the review –

“Pure Balance Grain Free is a plant-based dry dog food using a moderate amount of Salmon and Salmon meal as its main sources of animal protein, thus earning the brand 4 stars.

Highly recommended.”

[Peggy]

Bobby dog, understood.

In reference to your post further up, I understand that the rating is the average of the two together. But still………….

It is clearly stated that Salmon & Pea is rated 3.5 stars.
But in the yellow section it clearly states that the review is for the Salmon & Pea, and under the Bottom Line, says that Salmon & Pea is rated 4 stars and is Highly Recommended.

It’s just odd.

[Peggy]

Ron, we have freezing rain, ice and snow here in Youngstown too. The roads are a slick mess.
Anyway, I started off with the smallest bag of dry and a few tubs of wet food, to test the waters so to speak. They love it.

Good luck!

[Peggy]

Oh I didn’t even read the comments yet, ha

[Peggy]

Ronald, no more wrong than I was, or 75% of the US population, so don’t beat yourself up.
After leaving Pedigree, I moved to Blue Buffalo Basics which my Tebow liked – a little too much. He gained weight like crazy. LadyBug vomited.

I think she has food sensitivities, so we switched to Wellness Core grain-free reduced fat.
They both hated it, lol. Would not eat a single bite. I was discussing other brands with members here, and how being a single mom I can’t afford the high-priced stuff. Someone mentioned Pure Balance, which I looked up here and saw the good ratings. So I googled it and discovered you can only find it at Walmart.

I was floored that a food sold at walmart had such a high rating. And except for the chicken recipe, they love it. Especially the can lamb and dry Salmon & Pea recipe. And although it’s at the very top end of my budget, I can still swing it. Carefully. 🙂

[Peggy]

I’m seriously beginning to think that my dogs have a sensitivity to chicken as well.
They are fine with Turkey, Lamb, Beef (which they don’t like, but don’t have a sensitivity to), Salmon, etc. But Chicken… even on the grain-free, my LadyBug vomits, and Tebow gets diarrhea.

[Peggy]

Ronald, I fed my dogs Pedigree for about 4-5 yrs as well…. until I can to this site!

They’re now eating Pure Balance. All of the recipes both dry and can, are rated 3.5 – 4 stars. My dogs LOVE the Salmon & Pea grain-free recipe and most of the can, except for chicken. But they didn’t like Pedigree chicken either, so I guess they just don’t like chicken.

BTW, you can get Pure Balance at Walmart.

[Peggy]

I thought the 4 stars was the combination of both recipes as well.
But it clearly says: “Pure Balance Grain Free is a plant-based dry dog food using a moderate amount of salmon and salmon meal as its main sources of animal protein, thus earning the brand 4 stars.”

This can be very confusing for people new to the website.

[Peggy]

This morning, I fed my dogs Pure Balance (PB) Salmon & Peas dry (1/4 c for Tebow, 1 c for LadyBug, moistened w/ warm water), 1/4 can of PB Chicken for Tebow, 3/4 can for LadyBug, 2 medium scrambled eggs divided between them.

Neither of them ate ONE SINGLE BITE. grrrr.
I picked it up after 1/2 hour. Dinner is at 4 pm.

NOTE: I am slowly learning that my dogs do not like Chicken, in any form, and they are sensitive to beef.
Which narrows me to seafood, pork, and lamb.

• This reply was modified 10 years, 2 months ago by Peggy.

[Peggy]

I wish my dogs were like that. Both of them are what I call “smelly eaters”.

They sniff it for what seems like forever. If they don’t like what they smell, they will not eat it. Ever. Period.

[Peggy]

Thanks c4c. My local pet store does not carry it, so I’m ordering it.
Sucks that I won’t get it for a few days. 🙁

[Peggy]

Thanks everyone.

Naturella, the only place I can find The Honest Kitchen on DFA is here –
/dog-food-reviews/honest-kitchen-dog-food/

I don’t see Perfect Form?

• This reply was modified 10 years, 2 months ago by Peggy.
• This reply was modified 10 years, 2 months ago by Peggy.

[Peggy]

My babies had Pure Balance Salmon & Pea dry with a bit of warm water, 1/2 tsp of pumpkin for Tebow and a tsp for LadyBug, white rice, and broiled ground turkey.

[Peggy]

Yep DF, still forned but mucus-y around it.

Just got back from the store with a can of pure pumpkin (not pie filling).
Thank you ladies for your input. I am on a mission. (again)

[Peggy]

Thanks D_O. It’s not really diarrhea, but softer than usual stools with that mucus-y yucky stuff around it. Doesn’t smell any different.

Kind of like what happens to us when we eat something that doesn’t agree with us.
BLEH!

I’m going to try some pumpkin. How much should I use?
A tsp or so?

[Peggy]

It started 2 days ago when I added a few pieces of PB’s Lamb & brown rice kibbles to his Salmon & Pea kibble. I was trying to get him used to that dry food too. The same thing happened last week when I added a few pieces of the PB Chicken & brown rice to the Salmon & Pea.

Could the brown rice be upsetting his tummy? It never happens when he’s eating the Salmon & Pea with canned food.

Edit – I just remembered. The PB stews have brown rice in them as well. I mixed the Beef, veggies, and Brown rice stew into their meal last night. 🙁

[Peggy]

No I haven’t done the pumpkin yet.
I guess you could say it’s mucus-y.

• This reply was modified 10 years, 2 months ago by Peggy.

[Peggy]

HELP! I’m having another issue with Tebow now. His stool has become very soft and gel-like. Is there a remedy for this?

BTW – he’s lost another 1/2 lb! 😀

[Peggy]

Mike, Walmart does this for their Pure Balance brand.

[Peggy]

My dogs are doing very well on the Pure Balance Duck & sweet potato treats. I also have a bag of the PB Crunchy Caramel Apple treats, but LadyBug does not like those as well.

[Peggy]

Yep. Discus is fun to post on. 😉

[Peggy]

This website may permit only the smilies that come with the forum to appear in posts. Not every forum software shows emoji’s.

[Peggy]

I also had never heard of a rotational food diet until I joined this website.
I’m still trying to figure out how to do it.

[Peggy]

If you’re wanting to show a photo within a post, it looks like you have to upload it to the internet. If you don’t have a website, you can use sites like photobucket which hosts photos for you. Then use the <img src”” html tags below.

[Peggy]

Well, I did it. My wallet is screaming already, but I joined. 🙂

[Peggy]

I’d love to, but can’t afford it at the moment. 🙁

• This reply was modified 10 years, 2 months ago by Peggy.

[Peggy]

Ok so this begs the question(s) –

why is this dog food still getting good ratings on this website? Is it only because of the ingredients? Shouldn’t there be a warning somewhere?

[Peggy]

I was at the pet store a few days ago and saw packages of meal mixes.
I have never seen or heard of this before.

What are they exactly?

[Peggy]

Dang, I am SO glad I took my babies off BB after only a couple of weeks.
This crap is crazy.

[Peggy]

I think it’s just because he’s been eating PB salmon & Pea recipe and tonight I decided to try them on the Lamb and rice. I could KICK my own behind for not introducing him to it slowly. It completely slipped my mind.

But LadyBug – the one with the food sensitivities – SHE is fine.
Go figure.

[Peggy]

I introduced them to the Lamb & rice recipe tonight and she loved it, ate it all.
Tebow loved it as well. Apparently it didn’t love him, as he had 2 bouts of soft stool…. all over my diningroom carpet and a little while later my upstairs hallway carpet.

Only afterwards did I realize that I’d committed the cardinal sin and didn’t introduce him to it slowly. He’s fine now, but I have some carpet scrubbing to do tomorrow. 😐

[Peggy]

Since I fed my babies fresh food for breakfast yesterday, for dinner last night they got can and kibbles last night.
Half a handful of PB Salmon & Pea recipe for Tebow and a handful for Ladybug, with 1/4 can of Turkey & Chicken recipe for Tebow and the rest for Lady. 1 tsp of rice in his bowl and 1 tbsp in her bowl, plus 3 no-salt-added green beans for him and 5 for her. Warmed.

They were pretty happy with their meal. 😀

This morning was a bit of a set back. 🙁
I was in a hurry so rather than cooking, I changed up and gave them the PB Chicken and Brown Rice recipe. Since the kibble pieces are larger, and Lady isn’t fond of this recipe, I added a bit of water (suggested here earlier) and mixed it up good, then added a tub of PB Lamb pate’ for her, and 1/2 tub for him. Added a the same amount of green beans as last night, with a few drops of fish oil. They both ate every single bite and thought they were going to lick the finish off the darn bowls! But about an hour later Lady vomited her breakfast. I’m not sure what caused it, other than the chicken & brown rice is not grain free. BUT if I add our rice, whether white or brown, to her meal she does not vomit. So I don’t know what happened. 😐

(sorry for the novel)

[Peggy]

HMM that’s my goal too, is to slim Tebow down a few lbs. probably around 8 lbs.
It seems our snow is determined to stick around for a while. 2″ just since 7 am this morning and still falling. ugh.

[Peggy]

Thanks Bobby_dog I’ll look at that one too.

I don’t feed them treats often, not even every day. But when I do, I want it to be as healthy as the food they’re getting and something they really enjoy. Why bother with a treat at all, otherwise.

[Peggy]

I hear y’all. Thanks for the honest opinions. I’m going to stick with Pure Balance’s two treats.
Duck & Sweet Potato recipe, and Crunchy Caramel Apple recipe.

[Peggy]

Many prayers for hubby and you, Dori!

[Peggy]

My LadyBug was on BB Basics only 2 days before she began vomiting. I didn’t know anything about the BB issues at the time (maybe 2 months ago). But I did discontinue feeding her BB. I didn’t call BB to complain because she had recently developed food sensitivities.
I’m sure that eating BB didn’t help the matter any. 🙁

[Peggy]

DFA’s reviews on dog foods talks about how good Flax seed is for dogs. Then when I started researching cooking and feeding fresh foods, a couple of websites said to add either flax seed because most dogs like the nutty taste (and they do!) or fish oil (which I intend to do).
This is all new to me, understand, and I’m taking baby steps. I don’t want to overwhelm either me or my dogs, ha.

• This reply was modified 10 years, 2 months ago by Peggy.
• This reply was modified 10 years, 2 months ago by Peggy.

[Peggy]

Thanks for the encourgement ladies.

This morning, they had broiled ground turkey, rice, a bit of finely shredded cheese, and again, flax seed.

They ate it all and went bounding outside! I can definitely see a difference in their energy levels after just 2 home cooked meals. Amazing.

It’s snowing now, so they’re napping. 😉

[Peggy]

This morning I gave Tebow a 1/4 cup of PB kibble with a 1/4 can of PB wet food and a 1/2 a scrambled egg.
LadyBug got a 1/2 cup of PB kibble, 1/2 can of wet, and 1 scrambled egg.
NEITHER ONE OF THEM WOULD EAT THEIR FOOD! It sat there for 3 hours and I picked it up.

At dinner, I baked a large chicken breast for Lady and a small one for Tebow, cut it up into small pieces, put 1/8 c of kibble in both of their bowls, with 3 stalks of cooked broccoli, 6 or 7 carrot slices, and …… get this…. a 1/4 tsp of ground flax seed.

They DEVOURED their dinner! Of course, I’m not sure if it’s because they didn’t eat breakfast, or because they love fresh chicken or because of the flax seed (I tasted it, it is GOOD!), but I’m so proud that they ate their entire meal. 🙂

[Peggy]

I will definitely go light on the PB. Thanks everyone!

I did a bit more digging on Pure Balance Salmon & Pea formula dry food, which is the flavor my dogs have really taken to. Below is an image I found on its Walmart page.

(sorry, it’s a bit difficult to read)

[Peggy]

D_O good memory! Depending on what scale I put him on he was either 28 or 30 lbs. So he’s lost either 2 or 4 lbs. Ha.

But that’s not because of my dog food expertise as we all well know! I found his tennis balls in the snow outside, threw them in the dryer (sounded like a thunder storm) and started throwing them up the stairs so he could run up. His favorite form of play.

Progress!

[Peggy]

Ya Lady is a real couch potato too. She has a bed in the livingroom, in my office, and of course, my bed. But when she’s ready for a walk, then she’s all energy and you’d better be ready too because she won’t let you alone til she gets her walk. She’s driven me nuts this winter.
I’m in NE Ohio. We had a good snow in November, then all was mild in December, didn’t even have snow for Christmas. 🙁
Then *BAM* got hit in January and have had nothing but snow and ice, on top of ice, on top of ice. 4″ of ice total last week. It’s going to be a while yet before walks can commence.

[Peggy]

I meant to ask, is it necessary to give your dog flaxseed when feeding them non-dog food?

• This reply was modified 10 years, 2 months ago by Peggy.

[Peggy]

This is wonderful! Thanks Naturella. I didn’t think about putting water in the dry food. The only dry food I ever did that with was many many years ago when Gravy Train was the thing to feed your pooches.
I tried to get my dogs to eat apple slices and baby carrot sticks to no avail. But they’ll eat cooked carrots, broccoli, cauliflower mixed in their food. And they’ll eat peanut butter and pumpkin. I’m going to try a lot of these. Thanks again.

[Peggy]

I’ve already reduced her a bit and him a lot! LOL
I’m workin’ on it.

Tebow is exactly 6 lbs overweight.

I’m trying to get them both more active as well. Tebow is a runner/stairs/toy dog. Meaning he loves to run in the back yard, loves for me to throw his ball up the stairs so he can run after it and push it back down with his paw so he can run back down after it. And he LOVES squeaky toys. We seem to have become very lazy with play time this winter and he has suffered for it.
LadyBug likes to go for walks, and will play tug-o-war with T in the summer. but that’s about all we can get her to do.

As soon as the ice melts the walks will again commence. I need to lose weight too! I’m on a roll now, my babies are a’slimmin’ down! 😀

[Peggy]

Thanks so much for the insight and tips Naturella.

Unfortunately, I tried both dogs on Blue Buffalo, and neither one of them could tolerate it. In fact Tebow was gaining weight at a rapid pace. Now that they’re both on Pure Balance, the gain seems to have stopped and LadyBug has lost 1 lb (if my scale is correct).

LadyBug is getting 1 cup of kibble each meal (the recommended amt is 2 1/2 – 3 cups per day) + a 1/2 can of wet food. Neither of them gets many treats at all, and we’ve eliminated Milk Bones (didn’t know they were 35 cal’s per treat!).

Neither of them can hardly wait to get on the leash and go for a walk. LB brings me her leash. But the icy sidewalks make that an impossible task.

[Peggy]

Thanks for the reference D_O. 😉

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