# Another dog food thread... Costco Vs. SAM's club



## jmejiaa (Dec 8, 2009)

In our recent move we have moved farther from Costco and closer to a SAM's club. Out Costco membership is up so I'm considering switching.

We have been feeding the Kirkland food and I was wondering if Sam's sold something similar in quality? I see the popular brands(iams, beneful) online but i don't want to feed those as I've heard and read they aren't as good.

I'm also considering switching to Chicken Soup Dog food as I have heard nothing but good things...

Any advice on my situation? Should I just go for the Chicken soup? 

Also Sasha is going from Puppy food to Dog food now so I need to switch anyway.


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## MY MIKADO (Apr 7, 2006)

I fed the Chicken Soup food for a month to Vendetta. She was doing fine on it I just couldn't get a big bag of it. I hate having to run across town ( already driving 34 miles one way to work, without adding another 8 miles) every week for a bag of food.

i'm thinking about switching Vendetta to Native. She had some this morning and she actually wanted to eat she was bouncing around the kitchen something she never does.


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## performanceknls (Apr 4, 2009)

I use to feed exceed from sams but my dogs do not do good on it. IMO sams has no food that is comparable to price and quality to the kirkland brand. IMO renew to costco  you can go to sams and look around before getting a membership and look what they have to feed.


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## jmejiaa (Dec 8, 2009)

performanceknls said:


> I use to feed exceed from sams but my dogs do not do good on it. IMO sams has no food that is comparable to price and quality to the kirkland brand. IMO renew to costco  you can go to sams and look around before getting a membership and look what they have to feed.


Well the thing is Sasha's stool has always been very soft and diarrhea like. I have been reading chicken soup reviews and have read nothing but harder stools.

I am going to check out pricing on the Chicken Soup and maybe buy a small bag and start the change, maybe her stool will get better.


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## performanceknls (Apr 4, 2009)

If your dog is having soft stools then you should go grain free or something else is going on. I have no clue is chicken soup is grain free or not but don't waste your money if it's not. Try something like TOTW. Dogs that eat horrible food like ol roy have hard stools unless something Elga on so you need to look at the bigger picture and find the source of the lose stool before trying another food. IMO


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## jmejiaa (Dec 8, 2009)

performanceknls said:


> If your dog is having soft stools then you should go grain free or something else is going on. I have no clue is chicken soup is grain free or not but don't waste your money if it's not. Try something like TOTW. Dogs that eat horrible food like ol roy have hard stools unless something Elga on so you need to look at the bigger picture and find the source of the lose stool before trying another food. IMO


The thing is her stool is weird, it starts hard but will usually end in a diarrhea like consistency and she takes very long to poop. My vet said it was normal and other forum member's recommended adding water to the food. I stopped paying attention to it actually and figured it was normal but now I started to worry again.

So, TOTW is a better choice?

A guess a better question is what can be causing the hard to soft stool...


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## performanceknls (Apr 4, 2009)

Soft stool can be caused by many things but start with the most common.
First off did your vet do a stool sample and check or giardia, coccidia, or any other bacteria? if not you really need to do that you will be surprised what a little bad bacteria in the gut will do on your dogs poop. A perfect example is Monsoon has lose stool for about a week after coming home from a dog show. I did treat him with some Metronidazole for 5 days but i persisted for 2 weeks. After all my attempts failed I took a sample to the vet and he had a lot of bacteria in his stool and it was not giardia or anything like that but an upset in his GI system. I had to put him on Albon and metronidazole for 10 days on high doses to clear it up. He had no other signs of being ill other than that and it can go on for an extended period of time with no other signs of illness. Now if that is not the problem then we look at food. Another example is my Boston Terrier, anytime he eats food that has grain in it his stools are soft. He can not tolerate grain well and has to eat a grain free diet and that was enough to make his stools solid, this is also true of my older 11 year old dog but she also has an allergy to grain. Simple fix if her poop is ok is to try a grain free food and see if it helps. When you switch foods give it 4 weeks to see if it makes a difference. Now the only big problem is some grain free foods are really rich and will cause lose stool too if your dog can't handle it. Wysong and Wellness are examples of rich foods and while I think they are great foods some dogs have issues with them.
My suggestion based on experience with trail and error on my Boston Terrier and other APBT is try TOTW Bison or Salmon. Those seem to be tolerated well and not as rich, my dogs stool went back to normal in about 2 weeks when I slowly switched them over.
Another thing you can try is adding probiotics to the food (the new food like TOTW) to help aid with digestion, yogurt is also ok but your dog could have issues with dairy so to eliminate that just use powdered probiotics.

this is how I would approach this problem if it was my dog and based on my experience one of these should work. If not you could have bigger issues going on that would require vet tests however in a young puppy I am guessing bacteria you never fully got rid of or a grain issue.


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## jmejiaa (Dec 8, 2009)

performanceknls said:


> Soft stool can be caused by many things but start with the most common.
> First off did your vet do a stool sample and check or giardia, coccidia, or any other bacteria? if not you really need to do that you will be surprised what a little bad bacteria in the gut will do on your dogs poop. A perfect example is Monsoon has lose stool for about a week after coming home from a dog show. I did treat him with some Metronidazole for 5 days but i persisted for 2 weeks. After all my attempts failed I took a sample to the vet and he had a lot of bacteria in his stool and it was not giardia or anything like that but an upset in his GI system. I had to put him on Albon and metronidazole for 10 days on high doses to clear it up. He had no other signs of being ill other than that and it can go on for an extended period of time with no other signs of illness. Now if that is not the problem then we look at food. Another example is my Boston Terrier, anytime he eats food that has grain in it his stools are soft. He can not tolerate grain well and has to eat a grain free diet and that was enough to make his stools solid, this is also true of my older 11 year old dog but she also has an allergy to grain. Simple fix if her poop is ok is to try a grain free food and see if it helps. When you switch foods give it 4 weeks to see if it makes a difference. Now the only big problem is some grain free foods are really rich and will cause lose stool too if your dog can't handle it. Wysong and Wellness are examples of rich foods and while I think they are great foods some dogs have issues with them.
> My suggestion based on experience with trail and error on my Boston Terrier and other APBT is try TOTW Bison or Salmon. Those seem to be tolerated well and not as rich, my dogs stool went back to normal in about 2 weeks when I slowly switched them over.
> Another thing you can try is adding probiotics to the food (the new food like TOTW) to help aid with digestion, yogurt is also ok but your dog could have issues with dairy so to eliminate that just use powdered probiotics.
> ...


Thanks for your help!

I have had 2 stool samples but they were when she was younger at about 3 months and again at 5, she is now 10 months.

Would you still recommend another stool sample or trying a new food?


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## wheezie (Aug 4, 2006)

pure pumpkin it will harden there stools but if given to much it will work the same as a laxative


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## performanceknls (Apr 4, 2009)

get another stool sample done and tell them what you want them to look for. say she has had soft stool and you are looking for giardia, coccidia, or bacteria that could be causing the soft stool. Pumpkin is a good idea but something is causing her to have lose stool for an extended amount of time so using something to try and make it more firm is a quick fix and you need to find the cause of it.


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## wheezie (Aug 4, 2006)

never read the whole thread, i agree with performance i was thinking it was caused from a change of diet


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## jmejiaa (Dec 8, 2009)

Well I needed food so I got the TOTW Bison.. WOW never saw Sasha eat like that...

I'll let you guys know how she does on it.


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## performanceknls (Apr 4, 2009)

if you did not mix it she could have the runs so give it like 2 weeks. Let us know hos she does, oh it has more protein than the costco food so you might have to feed less so she does not get fat.


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## mattytang (Jun 21, 2010)

i just switched to beneful he loved it but is that good food ?? i always heard not to give purina but i just looked at the bag and purina makes it. someone told me beneful was good but purina was bad but purina makes it hmmm kinda stumped.


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## jmejiaa (Dec 8, 2009)

performanceknls said:


> if you did not mix it she could have the runs so give it like 2 weeks. Let us know hos she does, oh it has more protein than the costco food so you might have to feed less so she does not get fat.


I appreciate all your help, this why I come here.

I did mix it but it's not an equal ratio due to the other food being pretty much done... I was on vacation and I guess they waited for me to come back and buy food since it wasn't gone.

Thanks again I'll post if there are issues.


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## MY MIKADO (Apr 7, 2006)

In my opinion any food that is colored green and red is not a good food. Dyes are not healthy at all. I would never feed beneful. 

I hope Sasha does well on this new food. It will interesting to see if her stool clears up.


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## jmejiaa (Dec 8, 2009)

MY MIKADO said:


> In my opinion any food that is colored green and red is not a good food. Dyes are not healthy at all. I would never feed beneful.
> 
> I hope Sasha does well on this new food. It will interesting to see if her stool clears up.


I didn't go Beneful, I got taste of the Wild..


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## MY MIKADO (Apr 7, 2006)

I know you went with TOTW. I was talking to the other person that was asking about beneful. Sorry I should have quoted.


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## jmejiaa (Dec 8, 2009)

MY MIKADO said:


> I know you went with TOTW. I was talking to the other person that was asking about beneful. Sorry I should have quoted.


oops, didn't even notice.. I thought u were going crazy lol... :hammer:


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## MY MIKADO (Apr 7, 2006)

Well I'm going crazy but I thought I was keeping under cover enough so you guys didn't notice...lol

We will have to keep each other updated as I'm switching Vendetta's food this week too.


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## performanceknls (Apr 4, 2009)

mattytang said:


> i just switched to beneful he loved it but is that good food ?? i always heard not to give purina but i just looked at the bag and purina makes it. someone told me beneful was good but purina was bad but purina makes it hmmm kinda stumped.


That food is ok, it is not as bad as lets say ol roy but it definitely is not a good food. Like Sharron said the food dyes are not good and the fact it is full of fillers. There are much better food on the market that are a good price.



jmejiaa said:


> I appreciate all your help, this why I come here.
> 
> I did mix it but it's not an equal ratio due to the other food being pretty much done... I was on vacation and I guess they waited for me to come back and buy food since it wasn't gone.
> 
> Thanks again I'll post if there are issues.


You should not have a big issue switching becuase it is a good qauility food even if you did not have food to mix with it. Keep us updated


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## jmejiaa (Dec 8, 2009)

I know it's too early still but after 4 feedings of this food Sasha is pooping a little better. It is still not very hard but the end of the poop can be picked up instead of being so soft it just makes a mess...

So far so good..

I just typed this while eating lunch


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