I tried to get to the bottom of it, but I didn't find much. I did find an article that said food prices in general may be rising due to El Niño, so that may be a factor. Also, an article about general consumer dissatisfaction with higher pet-food prices: http://www.petbusiness.com/January-2016/The-Cost-of-High-Prices/
And, stats from last year that show that pet food prices fell to a fairly low point in August 2015 (which may explain why they're going back up now): http://www.petbusinessprofessor.com/petmarket/buying-pet-products-price-matters-petflation-update-and-more/
I was feeding my Basenji brand blue and she started getting crystals in her kidneys. With the recommendation from my pet store owner (Pet Ranch), switched to Nature's Variety Instinct RAW. Withing 2 months…all crystals are gone. Now Basenji, Rotty, and Puppy Mastiff/Pitt all get Nature's Variety. Their coats are very shiney and teeth are so white.
@Ellusionz:
I've just swapped my dog to Wellness Core. It's high in protein which I was told is really good for the basenji breed with how active they are. Also grain-free. But they say it shouldn't be fed to dogs younger than a year. They sell it at Petco. There's also the regular Wellness that Petsmart carries thats been rated just below the Core. I researched the ingredients in the brands on dogfoodchat.com
I thought about going with a high protien …. i'll deff look into that for next time after this huge bag is done :)
I agree with Pat. If the 'best' dogfood gives your dog gas, or loose stools, it isn't the best for that dog.
Like Petra said, you feed a good to great quality food, hi or medium protein, whatever your dog likes that agrees with them.
The truth is all dry dog food has been processed and heated to death as to make it a poor food item no matter how good the ingredients are. Just look at it. That dry, crunchy pellet was actually meat, veggies, etc at one time.
I went to two health food type pet stores yesterday and asked a bunch of questions about the different types of holistic dog foods and other foods that they had. I came away from both stores with several brochures and tons of food samples!! From one store I got a plastic grocery bag FULL of Timberwolf Organics and from the other store I got a bag full of EVO Innova samples. Enough to feed these guys for more than a week!! I had no idea that you could get samples from the stores!! The dogs seem to love both brands. We're taking it slow though so I can keep track of the reactions. They currently eat Nutro Max Ultra Puppy.