In January 1995, my class walked over to the animal shelter to see the Siberian husky that one of the students was going to adopt. But when we went down the aisle looking at the dogs, my eyes locked on the adult dog in the pen beside the Siberian husky. He was an Australian shepherd and Border collie mix. He was mainly white with a black patch over one eye and a black ear on that same side, and two big black spots on his back. At about thirty-five pounds, he was a bit underweight. As soon as I got home, I told my mom that we had to adopt him. She gave in and we went to the animal shelter that same day. We bought him a collar and leash, but then came the question of what brand of dog food to buy.
Really, there wasn’t much of a decision. We had always used Purina for the cats, and I wanted to use Purina for my dog. We chose the Purina dog chow complete formula. As I’ve already stated, the dog was a bit underweight considering he was an adult dog. Obviously the Purina complete formula was the best food for him because he steadily gained weight. One he reached his ideal weight of about forty-five pounds, he stopped gaining. It was the perfect dog food. However, he always acted like it was such hard work to eat and often he’d lie down while he ate. From the way he acted, it was obvious he didn’t like that the pieces of food were so big. It almost looked like it was exercise for him to crunch of each piece of food.
After Purina came out with the lamb and rice formula, we decided to try that. My dog loved it. I think he partly liked it because the pieces of food were smaller than the complete formula. The problem with that food was that we couldn’t ever find it anywhere. There were times that I had to call around to all of the stores in the area to find it. There was the Purina One lamb and rice, but we didn’t want to switch back and forth between the Purina and the Purina One because switching food like that isn’t good for your dog. Not to mention Purina One was about five dollars higher.
We had such a hard time finding the Purina lamb and rice that we switched to the Purina little bites dog food. My dog didn’t seem to care that the little bites food wasn’t the lamb and rice formula. He wasn’t picky about it and ate it without any problems. However, this dog food became hard to find as well.
One day when I was shopping for the dog food instead of my mom, I noticed that Purina had come out with the healthy morsels dog food. At this point, my dog had reached fifty pounds (probably because he was getting older and not as active) and I felt like that this might be the most appropriate dog food. At the same time he was being fed the Purina healthy morsels, we were feeding the cats the Purina indoor formula cat food. We thought we were doing what was in the pets’ best interest. Note: To see how that didn’t go so well with the cat food, see my article comparing the Purina complete formula vs Purina indoor formula.
Since the cats were switched back to the Purina complete formula, I wondered if the dog should be switched back too. He was eating more of the healthy morsels, exactly like the cats had been of the indoor formula cat food. Making the decision, I switched the dog back to the little bites dog food since by this point it wasn’t as hard to find.
It should be noted that your pet’s food shouldn’t be switched often. This dog food comparison runs over a ten year time span, which means I didn’t switch my dog’s food that often. I no longer have my dog, he died in July 2005. Note: To see what happened to him, see my review of PetSmart’s grooming.
Basically, my choice of dog food came down to my belief that eating shouldn’t be such hard work that the dog looked like he was about to crack a tooth at any moment. While my dog did flourish on the Purina complete dog chow, I recommend the Purina little bites dog food. It’s just as healthy, only it’s smaller pieces of food.
