Most Highly Recommended Puppy Food(s)?

[Rachel_K]

What is the most highly recommended dry puppy food?

[angelaw]

That's like asking what's the best car out there, lol.

Seriously though, there are many recommended foods out there for dogs. You might want to go to the diet and nutrition forum, there are a bunch of sticky topics at the top of the forum that discusses other foods as well as if there is a brand you're interested in, you can see if anyone has asked about it before.

Good luck!

[Rachel_K]

Lol - okay, thanks for the advice.

[caligirl07]

I like Royal Canin.

[Kasey06]

<span style="color: #6600CC"> </span>
I have worked at a few small high end pet stores and everyone comes in asking which food is the best to feed. I am not an expert but I have spent a lot of time researching (I actually enjoy it!). Anyways. What I always tell people is:
1) Avoid Corn-cheap filler/involved in past recalls
2) Avoid Wheat-Common allergen
3) Avoid meat by products
4) At least the 1st ingredient should be meat based, higher end foods will have 3-5 of the first ingredients meat protein sources.
5) In terms of rice. Brown is the most nutricious, white rice is second and brewers rice is a byproduct of another market.
6) Dogs are not designed by nature to digest grains, grain free foods are one of the best choices for ADULT dogs.
7) Newer research has shown that having animal fat as one of the first 3 ingredients could and I say 'could' increase the chances of bloat. There are differing opinons on this but it is a possibility.
8) With all the recalls as of late it is even more important to pay attention to what you are feeding brand/ingredient wise. wheat/corn have been part of the culprits in recent recalls.
There are so many good choices out there and what works for one dog may not work for another. I personally fed my shepherd innova large breed puppy for the first 1 1/2 years. I liked the ingredients and the protein/fat/calcium%. One of the easiest ways to research is to go to a website like petfooddirect and just click on all the different brands and read through ingredients and prices and then go to dog food review sites and read what experts have said and read through forums like this one.

[tracyc]

A large-breed puppy like a GSD should not be feed any brand of regular "puppy" kibble--unless it's marked specifically for "large breed puppies."

Better still, choose a high-quality adult formula kibble and feed the pup that. Adult dog foods have all the nutrition a puppy needs.

The problem with most puppy kibbles is they are fortified with extra calcium and calories to make a puppy grow fast. Which is bad for a big-breed dog. It can cause bone and joint problems later in life.

[Kasey06]

And along those same lines, most adult foods do not list calcium%. But you can usually find it on the company websites or by emailing them and requesting. When getting my puppy, who was started raw, my contract required me to feed a high quality large breed puppy food. Innova Large Breed Puppy Food seemed to be the only large breed puppy food that had apporpriate %. This food actually has less fat/protein than a lot of adult foods, not by much though. And the calcium level was acceptable. On this same note: be a little cautious with the Orijen large breed puppy food. We sold it at the store I worked at recently and I didn't feel comfortable. It is a grain free food with VERY high fat/protein levels. It goes against every bit of research out there on % for a growing large breed puppy. It is labled as a large breed puppy food but I wouldn't feed it, at least not until there is legit research showing it is truly safe to feed to a large puppy.

[Lynnemd]

Great information - thanks so much!

[mikaK9]

This site also has a lot of good info and good reads about dog food:

http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index....grading_kibble

[BWMinis]

I am a new user of Nutro and am feeding the holistic puppy food. Anyone have any comments or personal stories on the food?