# Kirkland dog food



## jikkyo

Hey guys,

I've read some pretty good reviews on the Costco brand of food. People seem to be happy with its ingredients and price. I just want to see how everyone's dogs are doing on the food.

There is some negative reviews, but it seems I pulled up negatives for every brand of dog food anyways... lol :headbang:


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## Konotashi

Isn't researching dog food fun? LOL

I don't have any personal experience with it, but my mom's friend owns 3 boxers and feeds this. They all have very soft, beautiful coats and are very active. (Then again, I'm not sure I've ever seen a 'mellow' boxer). 

As far as I know, for the quality, it's a good price. There are definitely better foods, but it's far from the worst. I think a large bag is the same price as the same size bag of Purina. I think there's at least one member on here who feeds it successfully.


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## JakodaCD OA

Kirkland is a Diamond product, I feed Diamond L & R right now, (and have in the past) and my dogs do great on it. 

Like Konotashi said,,there are definately better foods out there, but this is far from the worst.

Keep in mind, when you get your puppy, I would keep feeding what your breeder had been feeding, and then make a gradual change over..


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## Ucdcrush

I was feeding the Kirkland lamb and rice (a Diamond product, as mentioned) and noticed the stools were OK -- the first part was solid but the last parts were usually very soft. I fed the food for about 3 months and the same stools the whole time, for 2 dogs.

I switched to Innova and the stools were uniformly solid, and smaller compared to Kirkland. Same as when I tried California Natural.

Another thing - Diamond was involved in a large recall a few years ago, and I think I remember seeing them involved in other recalls (of various brands that they manufacture or process in some way) more recently. Since then I have not wanted to buy a Diamond made or processed food.

If you are looking to save $ and get a decent food you may want to look at Healthwise, by Natura (makers of California Natural, Innova, Evo and others..).


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## boeselager

I was feeding the Kirkland chicken/rice, and lamb/rice for awhile, and they were doing good on it until recently. Their stool (in all my dog's) were not consistently solid. I did put them on another brand of food and they are doing very good on it. The Kirkland chicken/rice was only around $24 for a 40 pound bag, verses what I'm paying now, $37 for a 35 pound bag. Yes Diamond has had a lot of recall's but the Kirkland brand has not, at least not that I know of. Just go with what works best for you dog.


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## Doc

Technically, Kirkland is a propriortory blend developed by a company vet. It is not a Diamond product so to speak. Diamond bags it for Kirkland. Recently, folks have had some problem with Kirkland. It appears they have altered their blend resulting in soft and/or runny stools.


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## boeselager

I had a feeling they changed something, b/c my dog's stool was never consistently solid. I also heard (not sure of the truth of it) that Diamond is made in the same factory that Solid Gold is. Can anyone verify that for me?


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## justk9s

*Kirkland Dog Food*

I use Kirkland Lamb and Rice only.. It is great food, my dogs do really good on it. I have not had any issues with stools. 
Solid Gold is also made in the same factory. To my knowledge it is located in California. Not sure where though.

KIM

www.justk9s.com


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## rjvamp

boeselager said:


> I was feeding the Kirkland chicken/rice, and lamb/rice for awhile, and they were doing good on it until recently. Their stool (in all my dog's) were not consistently solid. I did put them on another brand of food and they are doing very good on it. The Kirkland chicken/rice was only around $24 for a 40 pound bag, verses what I'm paying now, $37 for a 35 pound bag. Yes Diamond has had a lot of recall's but the Kirkland brand has not, at least not that I know of. Just go with what works best for you dog.


Diamond would do more than bag it...it can be a proprietary blend but the manufacturer (i.e Diamond) buys the ingredients from their supplier, blends them and makes the kibble. And Kirkland pays them to make it for them. I remember someone telling me about another company that claimed Diamond only bagged their food but they made it in their facility and trucked it in to be bagged. Kibble is bagged at the end of a manufacturing run - it is part of the process. So a company would spend all the money to make the food but then pay to truck food to Diamond to bag for them? I don't think so. Just watch Natura video on their website and you can see how kibble is made - basically same with all companies....inputs...cooked....output being kibble....bagged and shipped.


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## balakai

Yes, Solid Gold is manufactured by Diamond.

~Kristin


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## boeselager

I may be mistaking, but I don't think I said anything about bagging?? I was saying how my dog's did on it, and how much Kirkland was compared to what I'm paying now for my dog's. If I misunderstood why you quoted what I said, then I apologize.


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## rjvamp

Apologies boeselager.... this is the quote I got the bagging from but picked up your quote instead. Sorry about that.



Doc said:


> Technically, Kirkland is a propriortory blend developed by a company vet. It is not a Diamond product so to speak. Diamond bags it for Kirkland. Recently, folks have had some problem with Kirkland. It appears they have altered their blend resulting in soft and/or runny stools.


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## Rerun

I feed it to all four of mine with fantastic results, and my mother feeds her two GSD's kirkland also. She feeds the chicken/rice, I feed the lamb/rice (my prone to the itchies girl does great on the lamb, somewhat itchy on the chicken).

My father feeds his heinz 57 kirkland, and based on the volume it sells at at the local costco, many more people do as well.

As far as the comment earlier "it's not the worst, but not the best either" (or to that effect), it's FAR from the "worst" and I would never feed my dogs anything I didn't believe was nutritionally healthy. Over the years I've fed everything from Wellness and Solid Gold to Purina One and Nutro.

I do not feed any more of this than I have ever fed of any other "super high quality" food, and I have better results with this. I pay $23.99 for 40 lbs of the L/R and the C/R is 21.99 or so. You simply can NOT beat that price for the ingredient quality. All four dogs are very active, have beautiful coats, good stools, and no problems with skin condition, etc. 

To my knowledge, kirkland has never been recalled, and Diamond makes or participates in the making of a number of so called superior ingredient foods, so I personally have no second thoughts about feeding it. I am lucky in that we have several costco's in the area, one less than 10 minutes away. The $50 annual membership fee pays for itself in the first month with the two bags a month we go through for the 4 furkids. I'd drive a couple hrs if I had to and fill the back of the SUV with it if there wasn't one nearby. It is definitely worth it. You also can't beat the price of their dog beds.

Cat people - they have a great cat food too. I think it was around $15 for a huge bag of it, 20 lbs give or take.


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## Doc

If its all the same product, why is Diamond had numerous recalls on their products but Kirkland hasn't? Could it be that the the suppliers are different? Could it be that Kirkland has their own suppliers that are different than the supliers for Diamond. 

Why is Diamond's record horrible and Kirkland's is outstanding when it comes to recalls and deaths to animals cause by tainted food? If Kirkland food is made by Diamond then why hasn't Kirkland been sued for the deaths of animals?


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## Rerun

Doc said:


> If Kirkland food is made by Diamond then why hasn't Kirkland been sued for the deaths of animals?


Your post doesn't really make any sense. Kirkland hasn't been sued because it wasn't involved in the recalls, and thus did not cause any deaths of animals as a result of the recall problem that occured a couple years ago.

I believe the food recall issue already reached a settlement some time ago. Have you looked at the list of foods that were effected by the recall? This wasn't just a few brands. It was a huge recall, with countless brands and varieties being recalled. This was not just one bad company - there were a ton of brands. Human food is recalled on a very regular basis. All we can do as pet owners is select a food and do our best to ensure that it's good quality. At some point in time, you can not spend every minute of every day stressing about every last ingredient in the food.


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## rjvamp

Doc said:


> If its all the same product, why is Diamond had numerous recalls on their products but Kirkland hasn't? Could it be that the the suppliers are different? Could it be that Kirkland has their own suppliers that are different than the supliers for Diamond.
> 
> Why is Diamond's record horrible and Kirkland's is outstanding when it comes to recalls and deaths to animals cause by tainted food? If Kirkland food is made by Diamond then why hasn't Kirkland been sued for the deaths of animals?


It can depend on which plant produced the food. Here is an article from a few years back that discussed the SC plant having issues but not the other plants. 

Dog Food Aflatoxin Advisory from the College of Veterinary Medicine at Washington State University

The only kirkland recall that I can recall (no pun intended) was during 2007 with the wet food recalls - again this is wet not the dry kibble.

http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/newpetfoodrecalls/brand_list.cfm?Trade_Name=KIRKLAND&pet=Dog


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## roxy84

personally, i think if your food is made at Diamond, it is not a question of if, but when will their poor QC and massive production of food for so many companies bring about another problem.

The Diamond Dog Food Recall, Aflatoxin News, and Pet Health and Nutrition Issues (A+ FRR FAQs)

yes, this was put out ny FRR, but their is some good info there. Natural Balance got burned by recalls of food made at Diamond, so i dont see how any manufacturer who uses Diamond can be immune to the possibility of future problems.

i just think it is not a good idea to have a false sense of security because a Diamond produced food has another name on the bag. as Robert stated earlier, it may be a proprietary blend (example:Signature-which looks suspiciously similar to certain Diamond products, so i use the word proprietary loosely), but Diamond is buying the ingredients from their buyer, blending them and making the kibble. all Kirkland does is pay them to do it. that is primarily the extent of their involvement.

id say for anyone who doesnt trust Diamond, its a good idea to be wary of anything coming out of their plant.


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## 3ToesTonyismydog

For the money it is pretty hard to beat. Some well argue that Diamond makes it and that makes it bad. I disagree with that and it is up to the quality control of Costco to make sure that they are making the food up to their standards. They do NOT all buy from the same suppliers, but to be honest I try to stay away from chicken kibble. If I was on a tight budget I would pick that brand and I am very involved in the dog food industry. Here is a list of some other pretty good food food for the money

1. Taste of the Wild - About 45 bucks for 30 lbs.*****
2. Kirkland (Costco) - About 25 bucks for 40 lbs.*****
3. Whole Earth Farms - About 35 bucks for 30 lbs.
4. 4Heath - About 30 bucks for 30 lbs.
5. Natures Domain(Costco) - About 35 bucks for 30 lbs.
6. ByNatural – About 40 bucks for 30 lbs.
7. Nutri Source - About 45 bucks for 30 lbs.
8. Healthwise – About 39 bucks for 30 lbs. 
9. Diamonds Premium Edge/Naturals – About 35 bucks for 35 lbs.
10. Eagle pack
11. Chicken soup
12. Fromm
I want to point out that I do not like the Diamond Brand product and so it must be one of these two. The last 3 are here because they seem to go on sale quite often.
Whole earth farms is sold at Petco, but if you shop you can find it cheaper and it is made by Merrick which is an outstanding dog food.


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## Emoore

I feed by guys Kirkland Signature and they're doing great-- healthy shiny coats, clear eyes, firm poop, high energy. I do supplement my senior with Nupro Silver.


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