The Food Experiment: Solid Gold

Food #2 in our Great Food Experiment is Solid Gold. The girls have been on it for almost two months now and I'm loathe to continue on to the next food. Why? 'Cause Solid Gold is the miracle I had hardly dared to hope for. Less than one week after switching, Maggie's itchiness virtually disappeared. Well, no not virtually....ACTUALLY. I have seen her scratch herself maybe a handful of times in the past couple months. And this is the dog who compulsively scratched herself each and every time I petted her. Miracle! Her coat, which had started to improve on Wellness, is now lush and soft. Looking at her, I see a dog that is finally comfortable in its own skin and I wonder if we will see a change in some of her leash aggression and behavior problems as well.

Why did I chose Solid Gold for our 2nd food? Many of the reasons were the same as Wellness - commitment to high quality ingredients, whole foods, lack of artificial preservatives and no corn, wheat or soy.

Solid Gold, one may say, is the original all-natural premium dog food. While many of the brands you see in your specialty pet store are relatively new to the marketplace, Solid Gold has been around for decades. It came highly recommended at several pet stores here in Portland and with all the new trends (BARF, anyone?) in dog food, it says something that this old of a brand continues to receive high accolades from shop owners and occupies plenty of their shelf space.


I did find the Wellness website more informative in comparison and wish that Solid Gold displayed their About Us section a bit more prominently, though I did like the section on their Holistic Philosophy.

Web design and content aside, Solid Gold has exceeded my expectations.  Sadie's weight is still looking healthy (I'm crossing my fingers that we'll find those last 5 lbs gone at the next vet weigh in!) and all's normal on the fart/poop front.  It did take them a few days to adjust to the taste - I don't think it was as tasty as Wellness but they adjusted quickly and now dive in (it helps having puppies around to steal food if it's not immediately gobbled up).  

So now what do I do?  I had expected to see some improvement with Maggie.  I had not expected her itchiness to disappear entirely.  I still believe in the benefits of a varied diet but don't want to cause her health issues to reappear.  Part of me wants to give up the food experiment entirely.  If I could nail down one ingredient as the probable cause, I would be able to avoid it in future food selections but no, no common denominators in Wellness and Iams that aren't in Solid Gold.  The only clue I saw was that Solid Gold contained several oils (salmon, almond & sesame) and perhaps those oils are helping her coat?  Who knows.  So I'm going to proceed with caution.  I will try out a different formula in Solid Gold first (they've been on the lamb formula).  If Maggie continues to do well, I will try another brand of food.  However, at the first scratch, back to Solid Gold Hund-n-Flocken we go.

I heart Solid Gold's food names.  I like a company with a bit of creativity!