EAST TEXAS HOG DOGGERS FORUM

when i first started buying this dog food, it was $23......since February 09 it has gone down to $18.49 for a #50lb bag.  I'm not saying I don't like the price change...but it makes me think they have taken maybe some important ingredients out and the dogs won't do as good off of it...I have noticed that 3 out of my 4 dogs stool has been more loose than when I first started feeding it to them.  Kind of makes me want to change to something like Black Gold or Sportmix or something. What do yall think?

I am about to switch to Black Gold if I can find a distributer by Mckinney Tx because of the same problem with diamond, its just not absorbeable.

I have been feeding the Diamond for about 12 year ( the green Bag ) we tryed the Hi- energy ( purple bag ) but did not like it,I thank it has to much protein.

Unless they have changed...the high energy was 24% protein....the premium (green bag) 26% protein...

Price is going down because they upped the price when fuel went up and never brought it back down.  My guess would be that their profit margin let's them lower the price now that people aren't buying it.  Its probably best for you to switch anyway.  I payed $12.25 a bag for it when I used to feed it.  I highly doubt it costs them double to produce it less than 10 years later.

I don't know if they have a distributor in the area of McKinney, but we feed Victor made by med america pet food. Its a great food, price is good, and the plant was cleaner than a lot of food processing plants. Also the crew over there are really great. You can contact them at 903-572-5900 to see if you can get it in your area. Tell Mary Kelley said to call her.

Fuel plays a major part in the price like Kevin said, which has gone down so that should reflect in the dog food price going down.  But even more than that, is the price of corn which is a major ingrediant in all dog food.  In 2008 we saw RECORD Corn prices in part due to the corn ethanol fad.  Corn prices are now back to normal limits wich started around the first of 2009.  Allthough it definately took Daimond quite a while to drop thier dog food prices to reflect the cheaper price of corn.  My thoughts are that they keept the prices hiked even after the price of corn fell hoping to reap the profits, but eventually had to lower it back down because people were quitting thier feed (like I did).  Because after all, the reason most people feed Diamond High energy is not because its the best feed but because it is cheap and decent feed.

Waylon

its 23$ a bag at tsc in conroe tx

I just switched to a feed, called Victor, all meat, dogs are doin excellent on it. I noticed a change in the diamond as well, and I have an deal with the feed store so I get a great price and buy bulk.. I get a dealer discount, helps alot.

My dogs do GREAT on Diamond.  They are all in good shape, have plenty of energy, and their coats are in good shape too.  Their stools gets a little runny from time to time, & ooooohhh....the STANK!!  I've been debating on changing for a while.  Still not sure.  Where is the Hi-Energy bag going for $18 a 50 pound bag??

the retriever dogfood i feed now is 27/15 and i like it alot i think its 19$ for a 5olb bag at tsc

I remember getting Diamond Hi-Energy for $12 a bag... the good ol' days! ;D When the Diamond scare happened several years back, my feed store dropped the Diamond line for a while and I switched to Sportsmix 24/20. Went back to Diamond a couple of times because it was a little cheaper, but the dogs didn't do as well on it, loose stool, dull coats, and hard to maintain weight.

Right now, both brands are running around $23 a bag in Willis... nearly doubled in the last ten years! :o

I am getting Sportsmix for $20/bag.  I really don't like the way the dogs crapped when on Diamond, on Sportsmix you can clean the kennels out with a golf club haha.  I also remember a real nice lady that used to sell some good dog food for like $15 a bag but those days are long gone...you could even bs with her when you went to get dog food and visit a while  ;D
MG

Both corn and wheat will cause loose stools in dogs if it is under or over cooked.  The dogs can't digest it if it isn't cooked right.  Be careful of chicken fat also. If it is coming from feathers and such it counts towards the percentege of fat in the food but is not digestable by your dog.  Any good dogfood should have contact info. on the bag and be willing to discuss these issues with you. If they are not I would be a little leary of their products.

  Where is the Hi-Energy bag going for $18 a 50 pound bag??
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at our local tractor supply and at the atwoods here

I would love to try sportmix, but diamond high energy is so accessable. Any tsc has it, I can get it on sundays, and if I don't want to bring a tub full of it on a hunt, I just grab the 10 lb bag on my way out of town. It is easy to carry, and I use the whole bag in a weekend so there is nothing to have to pack home.

We do the same thing for the horses - only feeding nutrena or purina feeds. I used to show all over the country and learned that if you feed a brand they don't have at every feedstore around, it is mighty hard to buy feed when you are far from home.

That said, I do have some issues with a couple of dogs on the garmin. Chris' tyson dog is hard to keep weight on despite a good worming program. He eats three times what my lizzie and buck dogs eat. I'm sure some of that is that tyson is a hard keeper and buck and lizzie get fat just smelling food. However, I wonder what tyson would need of the sportmix.

Cheers
M

Hi energy is still $23 a bag at the local TSC.
I read that people say it takes dogs a long time to get used to diamond. I fed my dog the performance for $30 something a bag and he ate the whole thing and always had runny stools. not soft but runny. I just started feeding the high energy and im gonna see if it get better. if not Im trying sportmix but i have to drive like 30 minutes to the nearest feed store to get it.

My dog was raised on high end food, but close to 50 bucks for a 40 lb bag seemed a little steep now that he is over a year old.

I ve been using the diamond hi energy for about 3 month and notice as long you take the time measure right and feed it consently my dogs do great stools are solid, have more energy, good slick coat, now the smell it all smells like sh"""t but if you can get past that Diamond works best for me .

hi energy is all I feed, I've tried lot of food, it seems to work well, the dogs stool is a little runny but I'll put my dogs up against anybody on looks from good dog food! I'd stick with it, where are you getting it for $18?

Caney it's 18.49 at the TSC and Atwoods in Wichita Falls

I was feeding Ol roy performance ( brown bag) and then switched over to Diamond but here it costs $31 for a 40 lb bag and for some reason the bag only lasted me 2 weeks with 4 dogs so I now switched to Pedigree. I was really impressed with the feces which my dogs passed while I fed them Diamond but at that price and as fast as the bag went I just cannot afford to feed it!

lol.  BigAinaBuilt i saw this post and didn't want to reply becuase i figured everyone would laugh at me but i have been feeding the Ol Roy Performance for a very long time, and everytime someone comes to my house i get the same question.  "what do you feed your dogs, they look so good?"  There stool is not runny and there coats are very shinny.  They don't look like they have a pop belly, and they just look solid.  Granted it cost more then Diamond from where i am from, but it has 27% protien from what i can remember.  Glad i'm not the only one on here that has at least tried it.  I have tried mostly everything and keep going back to Ol Roy High Energy Performance (brown bag).  So i guess it doesn't matter if i get laughed at if it works good for my dogs.   

sorry didn't realize my last reply kinda robbed a post, so with that said i do think Diamond is a top dog food.  i have only tried it once so can't say anything bad about it, and all the guys i run dogs with live and die by Diamond, and there dogs look great, and work hard.  Yes there stool smells horribly but who cares.

Thats not right, TSC is charging $22 maybe I should mention something to them, if one store has it for that price they all should, thanks for the info!!!

i started out feeding ol roy in the brown bag but walmart never would keep it in stock so i switched to star premium and really like the way my dogs look and work.

it started at 23 when we first started buying it but has gone down about 50 cents everytime we go to get more. i dont understand it but i like it ;D

the diamond high energy is actualy diamonds low end food  if a batch of foods protien or fat % is to low they just spay it with corn oil to get the % right (dogs cant digest corn) and i know this cuz i called diamond to ask them because i had fed diamond up till 2yrs ago and noticed my dogs where fallin off and i was havin to feed more to get the same results so i swapped to a food called Victor  it has no corn or soy in it 2 things a dog cant digest  and thats what most dog food manufactures use as a filler  thats why when you feed ur dog food that has high corn or soy filler you get more waste and have to feed more to maintain your dogs weight   (FYI if you dont know)    if you look at the ingredients the first ingedient listed is the main ingredient by% but u have to watch that though it may list meat meal,meat by-products,or chicken  by-products as the main ingredient and the next 3 ingredients are corn,soy,or any of there dirivetives by % u have more fillers than you have meat  in the food  and like I said dogs cant digest those fillers so all those fillers do is hit the ground or kennel floor wich you have to clean  
 good fillers a dog can digest are barley  wheat  wheat midling bran rice and some others
hope this helps with your question and others about dog food  i did the reserch because got tired of my hard earned money hiting the ground and have a food not properly give my dogs the nutition the need to survive and performe at there best     my dogs give me there best so i think its only right for me to treat them right by worming,vacinating,and feed them a good quality food

Thats what I've been using now, Victor is a good food, just got my dealer stuff to go through for it to, and that helps me and a few others.

I've used a feed called Shawnee High Quality for a long time.  I feed it to yard dogs, hog dogs, and even the wife's English Bulldog and Shuh Tzu. lol  But it is a 27% feed, and all my dogs do real good on it.  It says on the bag that is is good for 6 weeks and up.  It is a real small pellet so puppies and grown dogs alike can eat it.  Just my .02

I just mixed in my first 50 lbs of sportmix into my barrel of diamond high



energy. My dogs look fine on the diamond, but I am intrigued by the idea of smaller stools from the sportmix. I feed diamond because the dogs do well on it, it is affordable, and it is not preserved with BHT, BHA, or Ethoxyquin (all suspected carcinogens, but one of them is still used to preserve human food). I am very persnickety about chemical preservatives in dog food. I should be more concerned with by products and feather meal - which is a source of protein used to get the numbers up but can't be digested by the dogs. I am more willing to feed a dogfood that is naturally preserved with vitamin e or tocopherols even if it has fillers. When I was able to feed raw, it was hands down better. Now with so many dogs, I have to look at cost as well as ease of feeding.

If I let my dogs' condition dictate what dog food does best for them, I would say that diamond works fine. Now that I have a source for a better quality feed for close to the same money, I'm changing.

Cheers
M

i don't know about smaller stools, but i can promise you that they will crap a lot harder than the diamond.

i had to pick up a bag of diamond the other day because i couldn't get the sportmix. well, lets just say it's been a long time since i've stepped in some mushy crap and tracked it into my house! :( :P ;D

i love sportmix 24/20....my dogs run all night long and they do well on it.....never had any problems at all. black bag..

Black bag, or black and silver bag? I got black and silver last night. 

My dogs have reasonably hard stools on the diamond, but not so hard that if you stepped on a fresh one it wouldn't mush down.  After one day in the kennel, I can rake up and scoop out without getting poo on my poop fork. Fresh ones will stick to the fork, yuck! Matt said his dogs poos are like hard golfballs, and krystal said her dogs' are hard as well.

I know its sick to talk about poo, but I really would like it to be easy to clean up. Chris has a dog that sometimes poops the box, and the smell is awful.  Perhaps the smell will also improve some on the sportmix.

Cheers
M

In my experience....feed what your dogs do well on.  ;)