I buy Diamond Dog Food. I know its not the best, but I can’t afford spending a bag. Diamond Maintenance is for 40 lbs and has ‘crude protein 21%, crude fat 12%, moisture 10%, crude fiber 3%. The next one up is Diamond Premium Adult at for 40 lbs. It has crude protein 26%, crude fat 18%, moisture 10% crude fiber 3%. Its a little more protein & fat. Is it worth spending the extra for the premium? I don’t want ignorant comments saying to buy this and that. Diamond food (by ingredients) is better than the most expensive Purina ( for 34 lbs.) and alot of other high priced dog food. I’m just asking for advice on Diamond. I have 2 dogs… Boxer/Lab mix (2 yrs old) and a Mastiff (1 yr old). Thanks in advance!
Thank you everybody! My dogs are very healthy and like both kinds of dog food. Their coats look great, and they are active. Teeth look good. Everything is great with them. Just wasn’t sure if an ‘upgrade’ was worth it or not. Thanks for all the info!
This is the review for Diamond Foods:
Pros:
Cons: Inadequate meat content, by-products, low quality grains and other controversial filler.
The first ingredient is by-products. It is impossible to ascertain the quality of by-products and these are usually products that are of such low quality as to be rejected for use in the human food chain, or else are those parts that have so little value that they cannot be used elsewhere in either the human or pet food industries. The AAFCO definition of chicken by-product meal is “a meal consisting of the ground, rendered, clean parts of the carcass of slaughtered chicken, such as necks, feet, undeveloped eggs and intestines, exclusive of feathers, except in such amounts as might occur unavoidable in good processing practice.”
The next two ingredients are low quality grains. Wheat flour is a grain fragment. The use of wheat is a significant negative: wheat is believed to be the number one cause of allergy problems in dog food. This is another ingredient we prefer not to see used at all in dog food. Corn is a problematic grain that is difficult for dogs to digest and thought to be the cause of a great many allergy and yeast infection problems. We prefer not to see this used in dog food, yet it is the primary grain in this food. We prefer not to see this used in dog food.
It is a concern to see a fat as the fourth ingredient. Research at Purdue University has identified fat in the top four ingredients of a dry food as a factor that increases the risk of bloat in large breed dogs. Smaller breeds are untested.
Brewers rice is a low quality grain and by-product.
Beet pulp is further filler and a controversial ingredient – it is a by-product, being dried residue from sugar beets which has been cleaned and extracted in the process of manufacturing sugar. It is a controversial ingredient in dog food, claimed by some manufacturers to be a good source of fibre, and derided by others as an ingredient added to slow down the transition of rancid animal fats and causing stress to kidney and liver in the process. We note that beet pulp is an ingredient that commonly causes problems for dogs, including allergies and ear infections, and prefer not to see it used in dog food. There are less controversial products around if additional fibre is required.
Fish meal, 7th on the ingredient list, is the sole quality named meat meal ingredient in the food. This is too low to make up an appreciable portion of the food. We note that the manufacturer does not claim to use ethoxyquin-free sources (ethoxyquin is a chemical preservative commonly added to fish destined for meal, and is believed to be carcinogenic).
****************************************************
Granted you don’t want to spend $50 for a bag of food but it all works out the same because you feed less of the higher quality food than you do the cheap food. The cheaper the food the worse the ingredients to the point where they use diseased, dead, dying and disabled cows in the food, you don’t get quality meat in either the chicken or the cow. And it has no chicken it has only by products which are head, intestines, undeveloped eggs, feet exclusive of feathers. Also they use road kill that cannot be buried along with euthanized animals from local vets. I’ve included a link that explains this. Trust me if you knew what was in that food you wouldn’t serve it to your dogs.
This food has a one star rating because there is nothing lower to give it. Your dogs might thrive on it but it would be like feeding them McDonalds every day for the rest of their lives. McDonalds is delicious and we love it but is it good for us?? Hell no and over time it’ll end up killing us, same with your dogs, they might do well but as they get older they will develop cancer, liver failure and not live to a healthy old age.
You are taking a risk feeding them that garbage sorry.
Honestly, it doesn’t matter what’s on the label. It matters how your dogs do on the food.
Are their coats in good shape? Teeth and gums healthy? Are the dogs in good health? Not scratching excessively? Not chewing on their feet?
The quality of the food shows in the quality of the dogs eating it.
http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/ has excellent reviews of dog food. It also has some good explanations. The ingredients in dog food are the most telling, the percentages don’t really say much because they don’t give the sources of the protein, etc., which really is what matters.
When comparing dog foods you should also look at k/cal per cup and the recommended feeding portions. Some of the premium or more expensive brands or mixes may seem more expensive, but because the food is higher-quality, you end up feeding less. Also, I don’t know about Diamond, but some companies have excellent customer service that will actually give you advice on which variety to choose if you email/call them.
It really depends on the dogs. Sometimes too much protein doesn’t work for the individual dog. I tried my dog on Canidae ALS (24% protein) for awhile but she didn’t do well on it. I switched her to Natural Balance Fish and Sweet Potato (21% protein) and she’s doing much better. NB is also grain-free, so I don’t know for sure if it’s the decreased protein, elimination of grain, or both, but something’s working. I find feeding to be a bit of a trial-and-error thing.
Long story short, maybe get a small bag of each and give them a try?
If your dogs are not skinny…. ie the perfect weight.. they are fine on the maintenance. If you are having trouble keeping weight on them move up to the premium. Alot of dogs do fine on maintenance if they are just a normal activity level. So it depends on your dogs.
Not much difference ingredient-wise between the two. If you have a Costco nearby and have a membership or know someone with one, have you thought about their Kirkland brand dog food instead? It is very inexpensive and of much better quality than anything else in the price range, I’d choose it hands down over Diamond any day if budget was an issue for me. It runs $17.99 for 40 pounds at my local store. You can compare the ingredients below and the Kirkland is actually cheaper!
Kirkland Chicken & Rice & Vegetables ingredients:
Chicken, chicken meal, whole grain brown rice, cracked pearl barley, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and vitamin E), egg product, beet pulp, potatoes, fish meal, flaxseed, natural flavor, brewers dried yeast, millet, potassium chloride, salt, choline chloride, carrots, peas, kelp, apples, dried skim milk, cranberry powder, rosemary extract, parsley flake, dried chicory root, glucosamine hydrochloride, vitamin E supplement, iron proteinate, zinc proteinate, copper proteinate, ferrous sulfate, zinc sulfate, copper sulfate, potassium iodide, thiamine mononitrate, manganese proteinate, manganous oxide, chondroitin sulfate, ascorbic acid, vitamin A supplement, biotin, calcium pantothenate, manganese sulfate, sodium selenite, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), vitamin B12 supplement, riboflavin, vitamin D supplement, folic acid.
Diamond Maintenance: Chicken by-product meal, wheat flour, whole grain ground corn, rice bran, whole grain brown rice, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), beet pulp, egg product, fish meal, flaxseed, natural chicken flavor. Vitamins, minerals and chelated minerals.
Diamond Premium: Chicken by-product meal, whole grain ground corn, wheat flour, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), brewers rice, beet pulp, egg product, flaxseed, natural chicken flavor, fish meal. Vitamins, minerals and chelated minerals.
What’s important is where the ingredients comes from. For example By-products is a generic term for all the parts they can’t use anywhere else in any industry, these parts usually have little to no nutritional value. So "chicken by-products" would be feet and beaks and combs and useless organs.
A food can boast it has 100% protein, but if all that protein comes from ground up feathers and cow horns, it’s still not a good food.
To learn more: http://www.dogfoodproject.com/
I have to agree with the first answer. It doesn’t matter what people here say or what some dog food analysis web site says. What matters is how well your dog does on the food he’s eating. Use your own eyes and be observant of your dog. If everything is good there is no need to change foods. If there is a problem with his coat, weight or energy level a different dog food might be in order. You don’t have to spend a fortune to get good dog food. There are many excellent brands that do very little advertising. That keeps prices low. The cost of advertising is added into the price at the store. With some foods it can be as much as $8-9 a bag.
We buy dog Diamond for our kennel of dogs & they are fine. We feed the sporting kind. Diamond is a great food, although, we did switch our older female to dog chow & she seems to be doing better. But I would say, that as long as your dogs are active, healthy, & happy – keep them on the food you have.
My ex and I were spending extra for Blue Buffalo food because it was highly recommnded on this site and by various other people. However, Bo developped food allergies and our vet said that it’s better to go with Iams because there are less "possible allergens contained in the food." He looked at the label and found a dozen foods listed that are allergens to dogs. He said Iams may be cheaper, but it is also better for the dogs to have a limited number of ingredients- Iams had one thing that could possibly be an allergen.
I don’t want to endorse some food here. But my Taffy died from cancer that was directly related to the dog food she ate. An aside – the higher the quality of the food the less of it you have to feed. Then the cost comes out to be the same. It always blows my mind when folks tell me their dog eats 3 or 4 cups of food a day. My 65 lb dog gets 1 1/4 cup and her peoplefood and she is in wonderful shape!
I get a 20 pound bag of petigree dry or closest substitute. my dog is health, does her busienss with regularity. I pick it up and it is firm.
so you do not have to spend a small fortune on food.
and she loves her dinner. time.
so she is happy and so am I.
In my opinion, it is worth it. Even if your dog /looks/ ‘healthy’ you don’t know what the long term effects of a low quality food are going to be. Not all of the higher quality foods are super expensive. In fact, a few are actually /less/ expensive than some of the lower end foods.
Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover’s Soul and Canidae All Life Stages are two very affordable, high quality dog foods.
Darksong~