[Quinnsmom]

My 11.5 year old guy has been on Honest Kitchen Beef since the summer, has gone through three boxes so far and polished his bowl at every meal. I opened a new box yesterday and he refused to eat any of it. This is a dog who has never refused a meal in his life so I am shocked. He is not sick in any way and has a good appetite for rice and some Merrick canned which I pulled out when he surprised me with turning his nose up. HK is the last company I would suspect of sending out a bad batch. The box is going back to my Global store tomorrow and I know they will refund me. Has anyone heard of similar problems in Canada with HK?

 

[ausdland]

I fed it for 8 months in the USA, no issues ever, I'm sure they'll replace it, they have good customer service. It is a carb heavy food though.

 

[Quinnsmom]

Global took the HK back today for a full refund and will let the manufacturer know in case it is a bad batch. So I am back to kibble, Acana, which he was on before, and I'm on the look-out for a good non-kibble food. Quinn is allergic to dust mites and has major dermatological problems. I wanted to know if changing from kibble, which can harbour storage mites, would help his skin. I'll be making a separate thread to find out comparable dehydrated in Canada. Acana is loaded with legumes anyway and I'm following the discussion about those types of carbs and DCM.

 

[ausdland]

Prepared raw? It's not much more expensive than THK and you feed less.

 

[Quinnsmom]

Frozen raw or anything involving bones is not for him. He damaged his teeth on a blasted deer antler, fortunately not down past the enamel layer, but I am leery of giving him anything hard to bite on. He had a dental a couple of years ago to check the damage and had severe respiratory problems post-anesthetic. No further sedation or general anesthetics for him unless it is a dire emergency!
The pet store gave me a bunch of samples and some other brands to look up. Are there any brands of prepared raw that you would recommend?

 

[Magwart]

If you want something like THK, I would look at Sojo's. It is a little less expensive. My dog likes their food with goat meat (but they have lots of others). It's owned by the same company that owns Wellness dog food, so it's a much larger company.

Dr. Harvey's also makes some excellent base-mix alternatives (Veg-to-Bowl and Paradigm). Paradigm is a really good food IMHO.

 

[farnln]

Wouldn't you still have the storage mite issue with HK and Sojo's or any other dehydrated food?

I would think that only raw or canned would be free of them.

 

[Jenny720]

Anything I will buy the smaller bags of kibble 15lbs it does mean frequent trips to the feed stores in a airtight container in original bag. Stella and Primal has prepared raw food that is kept frozen my dogs seem to like the beef one the most. Due to cost I feed only on rare occassion. On occassion I will feed honest kitchen. On a regular basis Max will not eat it and is not picky but seems to tire of it quick.
https://primalpetfoods.com/collections/canine-raw-frozen-formulas#
https://www.stellaandchewys.com/dog-food/frozen-raw-dinners

 

[Jenny720]

I saw this attatched link -frozen raw prepared on sale never tried this but sounds like a great deal.

https://www.germanshepherds.com/forum/showthread.php?t=751193

 

[Quinnsmom]

Wouldn't you still have the storage mite issue with HK and Sojo's or any other dehydrated food?

I would think that only raw or canned would be free of them.

I couldn't get a definitive answer from my vet dermatologist or anything online so figured the only way I would find out was by trying. Right now he has gone 12 weeks since his last Cytopoint injection and is not itchy. Why..., still not sure, maybe seasonal fluctuation in the number of dust mites, who knows.

 

[Quinnsmom]

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions. I'm putting the dog food question on hold for now. In the last few days Quinn has urinated twice in the house and this NEVER happens. He is drinking a lot more and urinating with more volume and frequency. I brought him to the vet today thinking UTI but his urinalysis came back clear. His blood work showed very marginally elevated creatinine and high levels of potassium. We are waiting for the SDMA test to come back from the outside lab since it is a more sensitive measure of kidney function. I may be looking at early kidney disease which will impact what kind of food comes next.

 

[Jenny720]

I you get more anSwers and all is well with Quinn!