Puppy food

[kinwahkly]

Hey I know this has been discussed before . What type of puppy food are you feeding you're sporting dogs ?

[dfrobert]

I fed Pro Plan Puppy. Had no issues at all, dog did great with it.

[nimrod]

Acanna, puppy, then sport

[tatonka2]

All of the premium dog food brands offer a puppy formula... Stay away from the standard Purina Puppy Chow...it's garbage. Purina Pro Plan for puppies is excellent, but not their regular puppy chow. Diamond has an excellent puppy chow and they offer two choices.. One for large breeds and their regular puppy chow. Just don't overfeed whatever brand you go with... You want a lean puppy, not a roly poly, overweight pup. Extra weight puts a lot of stress on growing joints, tendons, ligaments, etc.

I've bred dogs for close to 30 years now and have 7 gundogs here right now. Keep them lean and in shape and you'll have no problems.

[DiabeticKripple]

This thread comes with good timing. I get my pup in 13 days.

I bought some Nutro lamb and rice but I think I will be returning it based on the reviews it has online. 2.3 stars out of 5 with over 1000 reviews, many say it makes their dog sick and have loose stools.

Looks like Acana is super popular for a reason.

[tfm00]

Depending on the breed of puppy, you might want to look at a large breed puppy formula. I used Acana Large Breed Puppy and just changed to the Acana Sport Dog. Really good luck so far. My pup is a 14 month old Large Munsterlander.

[MPH]

We also feed our lab Acana Sport. One cup morning and one cup evening for 50 pound dog.

[Pixel Shooter]

Talking about dog food ranks up there with religion lol. Always feed my lab puppies on purina pro sport. All life stage 30/20. Acana is a good food although find it interesting crude fat is only 15 and you have to feed twice the amount of food for daily requirements. I too like to keep my pups on lean side

[SammyS778]

I feed my rottweiler puppy with Acana. It's a great food but the price just keeps going up and up so I'm looking for an alternative. Found some informative resources, but still cannot decide. I'm going to investigate that some more and keep you posted

[newdrenalin]

We also feed our dogs Acana. Great value for the money

[Ursus]

We use Orijen. A fair bit more expensive but protein content is higher so we feed less than other brands. Made in AB!

From the Orihen FAQ on their website:

While there are many differences between ACANA and ORIJEN, both diets reflect our belief in the importance of providing diets that are Biologically Appropriate, using ingredients that are Fresh, Regional, and Never Outsourcing any part of the cooking or packaging of our Brands.

When comparing the 2 brands, let’s ask the 3 Meat Questions:

1. How Much Meat?
ORIJEN has 85-90% Meat, while ACANA foods have 50-75%.

2. How Fresh?
ORIJEN’s foods have 2/3 Fresh meats and ACANA’s have ½ fresh.

3. How Many Meats?
ORIJEN foods have up to 10 meats, while ACANA’s foods feature up to 5.

Put simply, ORIJEN and ACANA foods mimic the natural eating habits of your cat or dog with high fresh meat inclusions and low inclusion of carbohydrates. Although slightly lower in protein than ORIJEN, ACANA provides an unbeatable value and price point that makes Biologically Appropriate pet foods accessible to a wide range of pet lovers.

[Fwee6]

We've used TLC from day 1 with our lab. 4 years now and zero issues.
Since we started, they now have a puppy formula.

Great value, and auto-shipped to your front door.

[FCLightning]

Nutram http://nutram.com/

[Okotok]

Fromm's is another good choice. A good bet though is usually what the breeder recommends.

[Versatile]

Originally Posted by MPH

We also feed our lab Acana Sport. One cup morning and one cup evening for 50 pound dog.

You risk bloat feeding the morning before a work out.

[Versatile]

I have fed a bunch of food and have settled on Purina Pro Plan performance.
The dogs do well on it.

More of the top dogs on the continent are fed Pro Plan Than any other dog food.

They support the animals and events with our animals. Im not sure of another company thats puts as much dollars into dog events than Purina.

Pro Plan has yet to have a recall.

My only complaint is in the past 2 years it has gone up nearly 40% with purina doing a small price increase i the last 12-18 months. So the stores are inflating the price.

I try to buy on sale and save my weight circles or buy direct but need to buy a pallet at a time.

[YYC338]

Both Acana and Orijen are "whole prey" type kibble that don't use any grain products for the most part. Better for your dog and usually less allergenic. Orijen is very high high in protein and most vets will caution you on feeding too much of it.

Whole prey is where the dogs get their minerals and vitamins from as it includes bone, organ, cartilage as well as muscle meat. Even better is raw feed whole prey, but can be expensive if you can't source it economically.

The good news is that the wild game most of us have access to fits into the whole prey model quite well.

[FCLightning]

Originally Posted by YYC338

Both Acana and Orijen are "whole prey" type kibble that don't use any grain products for the most part. Better for your dog and usually less allergenic. Orijen is very high high in protein and most vets will caution you on feeding too much of it.

Whole prey is where the dogs get their minerals and vitamins from as it includes bone, organ, cartilage as well as muscle meat. Even better is raw feed whole prey, but can be expensive if you can't source it economically.

The good news is that the wild game most of us have access to fits into the whole prey model quite well.

IMO Acana and Orijen are "feel good" foods - they cater to the feelings of the owner moreso than the good of the dog.
Pro Plan is about as good as it gets. There used to be a bunch of quality foods that were designed around research into the needs of performance and working animals, but not so easy to come by in this day and age of feeling over science.

[YYC338]

Originally Posted by FCLightning

IMO Acana and Orijen are "feel good" foods - they cater to the feelings of the owner moreso than the good of the dog.
Pro Plan is about as good as it gets. There used to be a bunch of quality foods that were designed around research into the needs of performance and working animals, but not so easy to come by in this day and age of feeling over science.

Care to elaborate? Anything to back up your opinion or is it just a feeling you have?

[MK2750]

Originally Posted by FCLightning

IMO Acana and Orijen are "feel good" foods - they cater to the feelings of the owner moreso than the good of the dog.
Pro Plan is about as good as it gets. There used to be a bunch of quality foods that were designed around research into the needs of performance and working animals, but not so easy to come by in this day and age of feeling over science.

I agree 100% and as already mentioned Purina puts their money where there mouth is by backing the vast majority of champion hunting kennels in the USA.

I don't believe there is anything seriously wrong with Acana/Orijen but it is very inconsistent as evident from the smell and texture of the product. I see very inconsistent performance when I feed this alone and have purchased some batches so high in protein that the dogs get diarrhea. I do mix in the fish formulas in the fall for a little added boast.

[YYC338]

Originally Posted by FCLightning

IMO Acana and Orijen are "feel good" foods - they cater to the feelings of the owner moreso than the good of the dog.
Pro Plan is about as good as it gets. There used to be a bunch of quality foods that were designed around research into the needs of performance and working animals, but not so easy to come by in this day and age of feeling over science.

The OP was asking for suggestions which they were getting until you chose to dump on a suggestion while promoting your own, Nutram.

With ingredients like turmeric, chamomile, green tea, chicory root and quinoa I have to wonder if they catering to a carnivorous animal that has evolved over thousands of years or perhaps the latest touchy, feely, holistic natural remedy solutions that some PEOPLE are turning to these days. Just don't treat your child with cayenne pepper when they have a serious infection, past court cases seem to frown on that.

[ruffy71]

They are a feel good brand. Read the ingredients. They are clever. They list things like "sun cured alfalfa." That sounds better than "alfalfa".

In Alberta, roughly what percentage of our alfalfa crop is sun dried versus non-sun dried?

The ingredient list is worded to tweak our mind, nothing to do with science. Not saying it is bad food, just that the differences between one kibble and another is quite small among all the decent, reputable companies. So marketing marketing marketing is the first second and third priority.

[FCLightning]

Originally Posted by YYC338

Care to elaborate? Anything to back up your opinion or is it just a feeling you have?

How about any credible research - you know, the scientific kind - that supports "Better for your dog" in your post.

Certainly Champion Pet Foods doesn't run a research facility, but Purina and Iams do...

Then there is this

Originally Posted by versatile

More of the top dogs on the continent are fed Pro Plan Than any other dog food.

[FCLightning]

Originally Posted by YYC338

The OP was asking for suggestions which they were getting until you chose to dump on a suggestion while promoting your own, Nutram.

With ingredients like turmeric, chamomile, green tea, chicory root and quinoa I have to wonder if they catering to a carnivorous animal that has evolved over thousands of years or perhaps the latest touchy, feely, holistic natural remedy solutions that some PEOPLE are turning to these days. Just don't treat your child with cayenne pepper when they have a serious infection, past court cases seem to frown on that.

Yes, Nutram has tied into the sales pitch propaganda, as have most all the dog food companies (https://www.purinabeyond.ca/ https://www.iams.ca/en-ca/dog-food/natural-dog-food ) - in these times of "feelings over science" it is the way to economic success, but if you check the formula it remains basically the same Chicken, rice and beet pulp. Their original recipe had corn in it, unfortunately it is almost impossible to find a feed with corn anymore. Even the sled dog companies have switched to Barley.
I know this was about puppy foods, but if I needed to power an adult dog for serious work again I would give this food a try http://www.eaglepack.com/product-ori...8#.W9yVLydRei4 Originally this food was chicken by product meal and corn based and outperformed PPP in my dogs, and they now advertise their food as being free of those ingredients (bought into the marketing hype) so it might me more similar to PPP these days.

[YYC338]

Originally Posted by FCLightning

Yes, Nutram has tied into the sales pitch propaganda, as have most all the dog food companies (https://www.purinabeyond.ca/ https://www.iams.ca/en-ca/dog-food/natural-dog-food ) - in these times of "feelings over science" it is the way to economic success, but if you check the formula it remains basically the same Chicken, rice and beet pulp. Their original recipe had corn in it, unfortunately it is almost impossible to find a feed with corn anymore. Even the sled dog companies have switched to Barley.
I know this was about puppy foods, but if I needed to power an adult dog for serious work again I would give this food a try http://www.eaglepack.com/product-ori...8#.W9yVLydRei4 Originally this food was chicken by product meal and corn based and outperformed PPP in my dogs, and they now advertise their food as being free of those ingredients (bought into the marketing hype) so it might me more similar to PPP these days.

I agree that the latest natural health care direction has caused many to apply that directly to their pets food. What most fail to realize is that the evolutionary history of the human digestive tract, diet and metabolism varies greatly from that of the canine. Humans have been much more omnivorous for eons that their carnivorous pets.

To simply apply what may work for humans directly to a carnivore can be a bit presumptuous.

My recommendation would be do your research, talk to a vet, preferably one with experience specific to your breed if possible, and make your decision with input from a number of sources.

My vet, for example, has a lot of reservations of a raw fed diet. Her concerns arise from people who feed raw, but only things like chicken breast and red muscle meat. Doing that will cause your dog to be deficient in certain minerals and vitamins. It's similar to a vegetarian who swears off meat but doesn't do the research to ensure they replace what they are no longer getting.

At least she's open minded enough to judge the results ( animal's health) rather than just preach one solution. Whole prey is key for most diets.

[FCLightning]

Originally Posted by YYC338

Whole prey is key for most diets.

I am open minded - send me a link to the research studies.

[arrow dog]

Feeding our new Chesapeake pup Nutra Source Large Breed Puppy. Used to feed our dogs Orijen but got suspicious of the different textures and smells of different bags of food.

[YYC338]

Originally Posted by FCLightning

I am open minded - send me a link to the research studies.

You misunderstood what I was saying. The basis of raw feeding has to be whole prey. The benefits of whole prey are obvious.

I won't do your research for you but this link contains references to 13 studies and articles on the topic.

http://www.rawessentials.co.nz/the-s...d-raw-feeding/

Point being I've provided back up information for what I've said, yourself?

There are a lot of nay sayers of a raw fed whole prey diet but just remember the processed pet food industry is big business (28.6 billion in the US) with a lot at stake for corporations. Raw fed food makes up a very small portion of that value.

[Jager]

We are feeding our Royal Canin Lab Puppy mix, this was recommended from the breeder as that was what she was on when she came home, and it seems to agree with her.

Our old guy (Black Lab) was super gassy, until we changed his food, this new one toots a handful of times a week and she doesn't really smell. Other than the food is high in fish.......she smells a bit fishy.

[YYC338]

Originally Posted by FCLightning

Certainly Champion Pet Foods doesn't run a research facility, but Purina and Iams do...

After you've read through the attached link regarding Acana's (Champion) research facility we can talk about other aspects you've shot from the hip on without exhibiting any knowledge or proof of.

https://acana.com/about-acana/never-...od-innovation/