Review on 🐶 Solid Gold Mighty Mini - Grain-Free Holistic Dry Dog Food for Toy and Small Breeds with Sensitive Stomachs - Probiotic Support for All Life Stages by Brittany Collins

Since switching to a Chihuahua/Miniature Schnauzer mix 8 months ago I have tried many different dog foods: Blue Buffalo Life Protection Small Breed Lamb, YaDoggie (small online brand from California ) Lamb, Merrick's Little Plates Lamb, Fine Gold and Toy Rock Chicken and Chickpeas, Fromm's Four Star Lamb and Lentils (in that order). I switched to Solid Gold Chicken because I found it here at a great price and it had great ingredients comparable to other grain free foods I've been feeding and because I can rotate (rotate well) and rotate the protein source wanted less high-carbon meat. (In hindsight I would say chicken wasn't the best idea and turkey or duck might be better for the less carbon intensive part because chicken is the most commonly produced and least reliable in terms of quality. But that's another matter .) What I found is that ingredient lists don't tell much and that the origin of the ingredients, especially the meat, is the most important thing and also one of the most difficult things to analyze (Solid Gold claims "real protein" well, and what do you mean by "holistic" anyway, a shop window term if I've ever seen it and if you're lucky you'll see "meatmeal-free" but rarely anything like "organic". "" or "grass grown" which at least somewhat indicates quality). What turns out to be protein in dog food can be really shocking (google it), and this lack of full transparency seems to be the case with Solid Gold to be. If quality, transparency and sustainable practices (like OpenFarm, which I'll talk about in a moment) matter to you from what I've read and covered about this brand, this may not be for you. See also: my edit at the bottom of this review. I've also learned to trust brand reputation and word of mouth. Solid gold just isn't sold at pet stores or local pet stores for some reason; I only found it online at Revain and a few other places. It doesn't have a bad reputation per se, but rather a lack of reputation. And if no one is passionate about pet food or it's not widely available, I think it's safe to assume there's a lack of demand and associated bullshit because it may just not be of that quality or most dogs just don't like it. Now for what I thought specifically about Solid Gold Chicken: I carefully transitioned from Merrick's Little Plates Lamb (which my dog loved) and when I got to about 50%/50% problems started to appear every time. My dog ate slower and even left the food in his bowl and came back later when he seemed hungrier - this has never happened before! When I increased it to 60% pure gold, he started shoving the bowl around the room with his snout, protesting and refusing to eat! So the next day, after seeing my dog express his feelings, I went to my local pet store (Tomlinson's) and checked out their line of "best" (from good, best, best) foods and found out that some great products can be bought for a little more than I paid for at a discount, and for the same price as Solid Gold. if there is no discount! I've narrowed the list down to Zignature and Fromm's, both with excellent reputations, and lamb, which my dog seems to have a soft spot for. Now I've started switching him to Fromm's (he's already had Merrick's but that was a bit out of my price range and I wanted to try a different brand of lamb to make sure he liked lamb) and Fromm's 50/50 Lamb/Solid Gold Chicken. .. he seems to keep buying the Solid Gold package I bought (albeit unsatisfied). And: the store where I bought Fromm's and tested so many other products (Kriser's, a national chain that I highly recommend!) was kind enough to provide me with samples of the following products, which I all dutifully Showed my dog Try: OpenFarm Whitefish and Lentils, Stella and Chewy Coated Freeze Dried Beef, Zignature Duck, Fit and Trim Orijen. Verdict? He loved Orijen and couldn't get enough of it, probably because the offal absorbed the flavor and freshness of the food; he was also very fond of Stella and Chewy's. Both products have always been recommended to me as products of the highest quality and I have been particularly impressed with Orijen's approach to ingredient selection and percentages. And it wasn't very expensive, even compared to Solid Gold! Stella and Chewy's are oven baked, which has its perks. I'm giving this three stars to be updated in the future, maybe if my dog suddenly likes it or his health improves in some way. Maybe my dog just doesn't like bird or fish which is chicken and that's fine and that's my working hypothesis - I won't judge the brand. But I disagree that there are much better products out there with more transparent and just better manufacturing and sourcing methods, and they cost about the same price as solid gold! I found a few of them around this price: Fromm's Four Star, Zignature (all), Candidae and Merrick's. And there are better ones that I've now decided on and the price difference makes it worth it to me; The value proposition in terms of sustainable environmental practices and quality is still good. These are OpenFarm dry granules and in particular Orijen. ZiwiPeak should be legendary, but way out of my budget. You can also split the difference: Food blending is fine, and I plan on using Fromm's four-star blend (tasty, good quality, medium protein, medium price, AND I can switch lines to taste slightly to switch!) and to use Orijen Trim and Fit (clear environmental practices and less high-carbon meat included, amazing quality, not very expensive, dogs love it and stratospheric dog food protein content). The result should hopefully be a happy dog, wallet and environment. Conclusion: Solid Gold is not exactly hard. If this isn't the last dog food in the world, look elsewhere. EDIT: I wanted to briefly discuss what I think is a sure sign of a quality dog food where the meat is canned/raw/nutritious - look, the food should be supported by any added minerals (like Solid Gold does). . If so, you might be wondering why - does the flesh itself yield? Most of the brands I mentioned - Fromm's, Orijen and Zignature to name a few - don't rely on them. This leads me to believe that the meat they use is unprocessed and good enough on its own. This is partly because these brands don't go for "meat" and "meatmeal," instead using offal, which is rich in nutrients. Orijen, for example, specifically lists which organs are used, and as a bonus, they tend to be palatable to dogs and are often the "discarded" part of animals, which I think also makes the diet more sustainable.