Review/Giveaway: Brothers Complete Dog Food

Our old girl, Sadie Beagle, is well into her 15th year, and as she gets older, it continues to be more important to give her the best possible care to keep her as healthy, happy, active and painfree as possible.

She's been pretty fortunate - while she definitely isn't young anymore, she's had no major illnesses or long term conditions.  But she is slowing down - a 'bad day' can quickly slide into a troubling bad week of either nothing but sleep, or crankiness, or deciding she doesn't want to eat anymore.  So, we try to keep bad days to a minimum.

She gets regular walks - and in spite of some lost stamina, she'll still happily do an hour long slow ramble around the neighborhood and through a nearby wooded park if we are willing to spend the time doing it.  The other major way we try to keep her healthy is by feeding her high quality food.

Over the last month and a half, she's been getting Brothers Complete Dog Food and treats, and we've all been quite happy with it!  Prior to starting this dog food, she'd been nibbling at her food, but often leaving some in the bowl, and generally acting bored and disinterested, while begging a lot for nibbles of our food or snacks.

After starting her on Brothers Complete, we quickly became aware of two changes - she was eating her meal shortly after it arrived, and she wasn't being constantly beggy about wanting other things.  Once or twice a day, we were giving her one of the Brothers Complete treats, but that was it, and she's pretty consistently been content with it.  At her most recent weigh-in, she'd lost almost 3 pounds, pulling her out of overweight status for a dog of her breed.

So, what makes Brothers Complete Dog Food special?

Let's start with what's in it.

Brothers Complete is a high-protein dog food (33-40% human grade free-range proteins compared to 15-25% non-human grade protein average in regular commercial dog foods) that uses no grains or nutrient-free fillers.
It also includes a balanced formula of enzymes and probiotics to help maintain dogs' health throughout their lifespan.

The lack of filler means that less food will satiate and nourish the dog, and the built in supplements mean less wrestling with your dog to try to get them to take another pill or foul tasting liquid (the last time we tried that, she went on a total hunger strike for nearly two weeks).

Brothers Complete is GMO, antibiotic & hormone, grain, sugar, and artificial color/preservative free, and contains no white or sweet potatoes.

In addition, Brothers Complete is made in the USA from products that are sourced in the USA - any pet owner that has followed some of the negative news about pet foods sourced from China knows why this matters.

One of the things Sadie has been fighting with over the last couple of years is hot spots, and one of my hopes in using Brothers Complete is  that the problem would stop with a shift in her diet (read their FAQ to see why their food may be helpful for dogs with food sensitivities and problematic skin).

I can't say they've entirely stopped - she's currently being treated for yet another hot spot.  But we have only used this brand for about six weeks, so I think it may be too early to tell what the longterm results might be on that score.  Even so, I feel very comfortable with what she is getting from Brother's Complete and we plan to continue making this our dog food brand of choice with her.

Because Brother's Complete is so nutritionally different from standard dog food, they recommend cutting it in with the dog's regular food at first to help them adjust without any gastric stress.  We did that and noticed no difficulties, other than realizing after a few days that she was actually eating around her regular kibble and just eating the good stuff!

Brothers Complete comes in four varieties of dog food and treats: Turkey, Chicken, Venison & Lamb. I'll be honest with you - to me, they all smelled and looked about the same and if the taste is like the smell, it is definitely not one of those silly products designed to appeal to the human palate over the dog's interests and needs.

But Sadie, while she likes them all and hasn't grown one bit tired of any of them, gets positively giddy about the Venison variety.  Beyond your dog's preferences, I don't see that anything about the blends to suggest that one should be recommended over the other.

In fact, Brothers Complete does not make separate blends for seniors or puppies, nor do they make multiple sizes of kibble - the kibble is on the small side, suitable for small dogs but perfectly fine fotr larger dogs (in fact, Sadie's old teeth seem to like the smaller size much better).  Their FAQ explains why seniors and puppies as well as dogs in their active adult years do very well on Brothers Complete.

As for the bone-shaped dog treats - I feel like I'm conning her everytime I give her one, because they are pretty much the exact same formula pressed into a fun little cookie, so there is no guilt at all in letting her have one.

We've used these to lure her out from behind furniture, and to coax her to try walking up the flight of stairs to our apartment. The appetite is willing, but she is unused to stairs, and so far since we moved here, she is having none of it.  The Brother's Complete treats are so far the only thing that have gotten her to go up them, instead of planting herself stubbornly at the bottom of them until she's picked up and carried.

All in all, I can't say a single negative thing about this brand - it's real food and our dog loves it.  Since we love her, that makes us very happy!

Currently, Brothers Complete products are available for purchase primarily online from Brothers Complete and other online venues including Amazon, and locally via selected stores in Florida.

If you'd like to let your dog experience this fully balanced nutritious food, Brother's Complete is generously offering three of our US readers a 5lb bag of dog food (value $23.99 + S&H) in the blend of their choice.  Read on to see how you can enter to win!

http://www.brotherscomplete.com/
https://www.facebook.com/BrothersComplete
https://www.instagram.com/brotherscompletepetfood/

To enter the giveaway, you must leave a comment in this entry as instructed by the Giveaway Tools Entry Form below. This will open up additional optional entries to increase your odds of winning.

This giveaway is open to US RESIDENTS ONLY and will end just before midnight ET on 10/25. 

The winners will be notified by email within 24 hours after the end of the giveaway. In order to claim the giveaway prize, the winner will need to respond within 24 hours of notification, or an alternate winner will be selected.

Once the winners have responded and confirmed, their first names will be posted on our Giveaways  page.

Good luck!

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