charady2

I was wondering what brand of foods you all feed your lovely pets? And if anyone is using (or remembers using) a specific puppy food, that would be wonderful!

I wanted to put flash on chicken soup for the puppy lovers soul-however the store in town that sells that brand does not carry the puppy line And claims they cannot get it. So I would have to drive an hour away (or pay a fortune in shipping costs to order it online).

I did look up some foods on petsmart's website and compared them to Dog Food Analysis - Reviews of kibble rating system. I am just overwhelmed!

Flash is currently on purina puppy chow because that is what he was being fed. It seems to come out looking the same way it went in if that makes sense. That wonderful corn meal type look to it, if you know what I mean. I would like to get him on something that is better nutritionally for him. If we have to drive an hour for dog food, I want it to be for something good-I know my rottie did awesome on the chicken soup line of food, and my cats are on the kitty formula now, but I am willing to check out something else too (that is about the best I can buy here in town, based on that website, which I know isn't perfect but the best I know to go by).

Sorry this was so long! But thanks for any suggestions you all have-also, if you fed your dogs something and thought it wasn't so good, I would love to hear about that too!

Wworm

Hiya! FOOD is my favorite topic!!

We were confused and overwhelmed too. We read here that it's good to have Large Breed Puppy food, so these days i am eating "Solid Gold" brand Wolf Cub Large Breed puppy food (bison & salmon i believe?). Here's a link:

Solid Gold Wolf Cub Large Breed Puppy Dog Food at PETCO

We also decided that when I graduate to Adult Food, maybe when I'm 1 1/2 yrs old or so, I will probably eat Turducken. We kept getting coupons at Petco and Petsmart, so now we just started stocking dry dog food, since we don't need much else right now. I was eating Turducken and liked it, until my person found i should be on large breed puppy food still. i started on Kirkland Puppy Food from my breeder's and ate it until 6 months of age, btw. Here's a link for the Turducken:



yum, yum, talkin' about food is makin' me hungry!!! Worm

ps. forgot to tell ya that after looking up all the reviews, we were super confused too... finally, I CHOSE my dog food. I was in the dog food aisle and i kept pawing at the Solid Gold bag "Barking at the Moon." My person couldn't really figure out what it was good for, being grain free-- suitable for me or not? plus it wasn't puppy food, so that's how we arrived at Solid Gold's large breed puppy food.

Mikey T

That is because much of dog food information is pure marketing and has nothing to do with science, That said how onther dog does on a particular brand is no indication on how your dog will do. If you do not like how your dog is doing on a particular food try another just buy enough for a 2-3 week trial and evlaute then. Keep in mind that any rating system carries biases and they are rated purely on an ingredient list which may sound good but there is no way of knowing how much or the quality of that ingredient listed. And eventhen you can't be sure because dog food manufactures have six months to change the labeling when they change the formulation.

the best article on the web I have found in regard to dog food
Dog Foods - Help in making the choice easier




I feed a high protein high fat diet to my dogs. I expect them them to work is some tough condition and this dier has proven benefitial for many dogs that work. High protein levels reduce soft tissue injuries, have not had one in one of the dogs since switching to a high protein diet, a high fat diet has proven to be a superiur fuel for working dogs as well. and the perform better in tough condition when on a high fat diet regardless of conditioning but of course a well conditioned dogs will perform better,

Many people will tell you how great wellness is and how nuch better their dogs do when fed it. I have tried different varieties on thre different occaion on different dogs with all the same result. It was the worse food I ever fed. My experience does not make wellness a bad food, or a high protein high fat diet the best one for your dog. The only thing that matters is how your dogs does when fed that food.

mhvonalmen8908

Have to agree with Mikey. We feed our dogs IAMS and some people would say that's one of the worst foods to feed them. But they've both done fantastic on it. Their coats are shiny, they don't smell houndy (although I'm not sure this has anything to do with food), and they honestly seem to enjoy it. Although they also don't mind when I mix it up with some gravy, chicken broth, or wet food . But we fed Doppler the large breed IAMS puppy food and Virga, since she's so small, we fed her the regular IAMS puppy food. I'm not saying my dogs wouldn't do even better on a higher quality food but we just can't afford the really high quality foods right now. Maybe down the road. But Mikey is right. What's good for someone else's dog might not be right for yours. Just keep looking and go with your gut.

__________________
Megan & Chris
-Mom & Dad to Doppler (2 year old Basset/Redbone/Golden mix) and Virga (1 year old Basset)

Mikey T

Probably more to to with the shiny blue bag but it is one of a variety of foODs i feed. Fischer the harrier tends to prefers more chicken and rice based food so it is not currently high on the rotation, it is High on Mariah's list however. but she gets like 1/2 a cup twice a day so while expensive the higher caloric content means you feed less so the cost in real terms is general not any more than some of the cheaper brands. I also feed Eukanuba, royal canin and Nutro and am alway on the look out for something else to add to the rotation. I not big on believeing the pet food manufactures that a single food is complete and balanced given the little we know of canine nutrition,

Boomer's Mom

I currently rotate between Eagle Pack and 4Health from Tractor Supply Co.
Boomer does fine on both.

Wworm

Good thought, but nope... this happened just on the heels of Worm eating 1/5 of a bag of dogfood in the trunk of my car. he was quite confident he could get into this one too at the store, so much so that the guy at Petco made him stop... goin for Feast, part II.

Esther

think maybe wuh-worm is fuh-food driven?

charady2

Thanks guys. I know just because my old dog did good on it that flash may not but I wanted to try. And again, I have to drive an hour or more away to get anything beyond purina basically here.

We always thought our dog was doing good on dog chow, he was a healthy weight, soft coat, etc...and then he had gotten sick and quit eating. So I bought a bag of the chicken soup stuff and he loved it. He looked like a whole new dog basically after awhile on it. Now we did have another rottie on it who couldn't handle the food at all-diarhea was bad no matter how slowly we would try to reintroduce it. She did great on some cheap store brand though, go figure!

Just trying to get some insight is all. See what works for others and kind of use that as a guide to try and figure this out. But now I better head to bed, flash is sleeping in his crate, cats are lounging on the couch and now its my turn

charady2

Oh, another question to add....I have noticed that there are more foods that are for "all life stages, puppies to seniors". what is everyone's take on that? I saw some Taste of the wild dog food like that today in my searching

Hey worm, did you know that turducken making company does make a puppy food? Didn't see one listed as large breed though. Just thought I would throw that out there, called puppy plate!