# Choosing a puppy food



## rt625 (Nov 7, 2013)

We just picked up our new puppy Yogi and the breeder had him on a brand that I did not wish to continue him on. Any suggestions on which puppy food is good.


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## Thebean28 (Jan 4, 2013)

Hi - that is really such a personal choice. Do you want grains or no grains, raw?organic?, etc. Many people reference this site that has reviews of the different foods. It should be a good start: http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/

I personally feed Taste of the Wild to my puppies. The breeder started them on the puppy version and they have done great on it. I just recently switched them to the adult version and they seem to really enjoy all the flavors.

Best of luck in whatever food you choose


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## kicker0927 (Oct 15, 2013)

I have heard nothing but good things about Acana. Acana's puppy food is made under the name Orijen in the states. So you would feed Orijen while puppy, then switch to Acana for adult food. The Acana rep told me that the reason for this is due to the supply/demand of local ingredients required to make the foods....

http://www.chewy.com/dog/orijen-puppy-grain-free-dry-dog-food/dp/29733

http://www.chewy.com/dog/acana-grasslands-regional-formula/dp/28677


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## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

kicker0927 said:


> I have heard nothing but good things about Acana. Acana's puppy food is made under the name Orijen in the states. So you would feed Orijen while puppy, then switch to Acana for adult food. The Acana rep told me that the reason for this is due to the supply/demand of local ingredients required to make the foods....
> 
> http://www.chewy.com/dog/orijen-puppy-grain-free-dry-dog-food/dp/29733
> 
> http://www.chewy.com/dog/acana-grasslands-regional-formula/dp/28677


Acana and Orijen are two completely different lines, both made by Champion Petfoods in Canada


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## lfung5 (Jun 30, 2007)

Yes. Acana and Orijens are different but made by the same company. Both are supposed to be good for dry food.


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## rt625 (Nov 7, 2013)

Does anyone know anything about Fromm puppy food or Merrick?


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## lfung5 (Jun 30, 2007)

Fromm is great….Merrick not so good. They have had a ton of recalls. I don';t trust their stuff anymore. Only thing I use is there knee caps but I should stop. My guys just enjoy them so much…!


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## Colbie (Feb 9, 2013)

Fromm is one of the better dry foods. All there food is sourced and made in the USA.


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## Lalla (Jul 30, 2013)

As I understand it the whole 'puppy' food thing is spurious - puppies don't need a different food from adults, it's just a marketing ploy....I think it's from this forum that I learned that piece of wisdom, and others may disagree, but I've since done a bit of sleuthing around and it appears to be true; there is no difference in a puppy's protein requirements or any other special nutritional need - quantities are obviously different, and numbers of meals a day, but not actual nutritional content as far as I can discover.


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## Suzi (Oct 27, 2010)

My Zoey didn't do well on Acanna but does really good on Forumms. No but baths. I have heard that puppy's do need more its some vitamins added and more of something else. I feed blue buffalo puppy because I liked that the added vitamins were freeze dried and so the nutritional stuff wasn't cooked out.One time my bag had too many of the added vitamins and they totally refunded me a large bag and communicated with me. I really liked that about them. Its not rated the best but they are a nice company.


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## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

Lalla said:


> As I understand it the whole 'puppy' food thing is spurious - puppies don't need a different food from adults, it's just a marketing ploy....I think it's from this forum that I learned that piece of wisdom, and others may disagree, but I've since done a bit of sleuthing around and it appears to be true; there is no difference in a puppy's protein requirements or any other special nutritional need - quantities are obviously different, and numbers of meals a day, but not actual nutritional content as far as I can discover.


yep again. .... heres' what Sabine says on her site ..."Dogs need a food product appropriate for their life stage

This is what pet food manufacturers want you to believe, but it is just a way to secure their customer base early on and increase sales. The more items in a particular line of food, the higher the visibility of their product on a store shelf - an of course the more likely people are to buy and stick with the brand through the whole life of the animal. Fact is that a food declared as suitable "for all lifestages" will feed a growing puppy just as well as a lactating bitch, an adult or a senior dog - just the amounts you have to feed will change. Puppy and senior food is often more expensive than the regular type of food of the same brand, yet does not differ much in nutritional value. Compare the guaranteed analysis and ingredient list.

Further, puppy food can cause large and giant breed puppies to grow at maximum rate, which is not healthy for them. A slower, more even growth results in far less risk of orthopedic problems and a healthier adult dog


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## lfung5 (Jun 30, 2007)

I never fed my guys PUPPY food….my breeders told me not to.


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## Erini (Feb 10, 2014)

Hello All,
Our breeder was feeding our puppy Royal Canine for small sized puppies food. 
Our friends have some of the Royal Canine for golden retriever puppies food leftover and they suggested giving it to our Hav puppy. Would you agree to that to not?


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## MarinaGirl (Mar 25, 2012)

Royal Canin does not get very many stars (only 2.5 out of 5) on this site:

http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/

I wouldn't feed this brand to my Havanese because there are better brands to choose from. I switched from kibble (Acana) to commercial raw (ZiwiPeak) when Emmie was 4-5 months old.

-Jeanne-


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## Lalla (Jul 30, 2013)

MarinaGirl said:


> Royal Canin does not get very many stars (only 2.5 out of 5) on this site:
> 
> http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/
> 
> ...


Agree with Jeanne; I'd get off kibble if I were you; have a look at the Karen Becker movies that have been posted on several threads now, search on this forum or go to YouTube and search for Dr Karen Becker; if they don't put you off kibble for life I'll be very surprised&#8230;.


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## Carli (Nov 5, 2013)

So milo is on Purina Pro Plan Puppy kibble, but ive had to give him one to many but baths recently! I guess from reading this thread that is the kibbles doing? What should i change to? Wet food? 
He is 4 months old.


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## lfung5 (Jun 30, 2007)

You have to decide what is best for you. Pro plan is not good food at all. When switching you need to do it slowly or they can get the runs. Kibble isn't a problem. Some just don't agree with certain dogs. I feed raw because my guy has allergies. My Bella won't eat raw so I give her a high quality grain free kibble, Fromm. I add some Ziwipeak. Ziwipeak is air dried raw. Feeding this diet can be very expensive so it';s not for everyone.


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## Colbie (Feb 9, 2013)

lfung5 said:


> You have to decide what is best for you. Pro plan is not good food at all. When switching you need to do it slowly or they can get the runs. Kibble isn't a problem. Some just don't agree with certain dogs. I feed raw because my guy has allergies. My Bella won't eat raw so I give her a high quality grain free kibble, Fromm. I add some Ziwipeak. Ziwipeak is air dried raw. Feeding this diet can be very expensive so it';s not for everyone.


Some very good points. Raw is not for everyone and you shouldn't be made to feel like you are poisoning your dog for feeding kibble.

For those of us who saw the movie, did their research and still chose to feed kibble please know there is a big difference in the ingredients of different brands. Fromm, Orijen and Earthborn Holistic are a few of the brands that use high quality ingredients. If it is within your finances seek companies that source their ingredients from the US or Canada and avoid animal by-products and ingredients sourced in China.


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## Lalla (Jul 30, 2013)

Good advice re air dried raw - it seems expensive but the quantities you feed are tiny, so it lasts a long time; again, I'd watch Karen Becker so you get a better idea of what is good and what is bad.


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## rt625 (Nov 7, 2013)

When I picked up my puppy the breeder was also giving him Purina Pro Plan and after reading reviews discovered that it was not good. Thanks to this forum I decided to switch to Orijens kibble and mix with Core Wellness canned. My puppy is doing great on this food. It really depends on what you feel comfortable feeding your puppy and how he does on the food that you choose. As many others have stated it depends on what best suits your wallet. If you go on dogfoodadvisor.com you will see how each food is rated. Good Luck!!!


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## Carli (Nov 5, 2013)

Thanks for the great advice! Ill def be changing the food. Its not so much a wallet problem but more of getting my hands on some good stuff, you guys in the states have an abundance of choice but unfortunatley here in holland the choices are so limited in human food also, if you can immagine, we have one main chain supermarket here and they are all so small, with minimum options to select from for everything!! Anyway, I will try to order online.


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## Dalston (Jan 22, 2014)

So much information out there and a really personal choice.

Dalston gets fresh raw organic meat (lamb or chicken as mince)
with a bit of Ziwi peak and a little other fresh food which varies (a spoon of natural yoghurt, carrot, apple, pumpkin, alfalfa sprouts, sometimes an egg...)

As treats we use dried chicken fillets, dried liver treats and ziwi peak.
When we are on the road or someone looks after him for a day, we skip the fresh meat and he gets Ziwipeak or black hawk puppy kibble.
He eats anything and is not picky and does well on the fresh food and doesn't mind mixing it up either.

xo


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## Lalla (Jul 30, 2013)

I made myself a really nice ham and cheese sort of a sandwich yesterday (I can't eat gluten so it was on rather dreary rice cakes, but hey), the phone rang, I turned my back for five seconds having left my supper on the table (I know, it's a pretty miserable supper, but my husband was out and I couldn't bring myself to boil an egg) to answer the phone and Cuba made a grab for my sandwich and ate most of it in a flash. This morning I came down to diarrhoea all over her ex-pen and a major clear up job. Gosh life can be so fun! Anyway, food is important!!!


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Carli said:


> Thanks for the great advice! Ill def be changing the food. Its not so much a wallet problem but more of getting my hands on some good stuff, you guys in the states have an abundance of choice but unfortunatley here in holland the choices are so limited in human food also, if you can immagine, we have one main chain supermarket here and they are all so small, with minimum options to select from for everything!! Anyway, I will try to order online.


I buy all my cat and dog food online. Don't know what you age available (for a reasonable price!) on line in Holland, but for me, it is much cheaper than using the local boutique pet store, and there is nothing in the grocery store pet food aisle that I would feed.


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## Carli (Nov 5, 2013)

So to my surprise, i found a pet store that sells Orijon and Ziwipeak :-D

I would like to try mixing a small ammount of the Ziwipeak with his normal Nutro kibble, as i hear that just the Ziwi alone can be too ritch!? Is that true and does that make sense?

Sent from Petguide.com Free App


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## Lalla (Jul 30, 2013)

Carli said:


> So to my surprise, i found a pet store that sells Orijon and Ziwipeak :-D
> 
> I would like to try mixing a small ammount of the Ziwipeak with his normal Nutro kibble, as i hear that just the Ziwi alone can be too ritch!? Is that true and does that make sense?
> Sent from Petguide.com Free App


Ziwipeak isn't too rich, it really isn't; it's got a higher percentage of protein, so you should probably mix it with the kibble until he is used to it - take it slowly over a few days, upping the proportion of Ziwipeak day by day, but personally I would get him off any kibble altogether once you have gone through this transition period. You will find that the amount of Ziwipeak that you should feed is very small compared with kibble - this is because it has no bulky fillers of simple carbohydrate that the dog doesn't need - it is protein and vegetable (complex carbohydrate) and so you need far less of it to provide your dog with everything he needs. I think if an upset stomach is reported it is not the richness of Ziwipeak, but too swift a transition from old to new food.


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## Dalston (Jan 22, 2014)

Yes I agree, Ziwi Peak is rich so you won't feed large quantities, but dalston loves it and does reallly well on it, I don't think it's too rich, he is a great shape and very happy with it. I use it as treats for training too, as he loves it so much. ( we have the lamb, which was recommend to us for puppies)


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## Lalla (Jul 30, 2013)

Dalston said:


> Yes I agree, Ziwi Peak is rich so you won't feed large quantities, but dalston loves it and does reallly well on it, I don't think it's too rich, he is a great shape and very happy with it. I use it as treats for training too, as he loves it so much. ( we have the lamb, which was recommend to us for puppies)


'Rich' is one of those more or less meaningless words these days, that doesn't actually tell you what might be in a food that might, by implication in the use of the word, upset their stomachs. High carbohydrate levels upset the stomach more than high fat levels. In the wild, animals eat the fat (usually in the form of the marrow within bones) first - it's the bit they really need for optimum health. They eat flesh and bone after that. They eat stomach contents usually last - that is the only place from which they get simple carbohydrate. Dogs are described as 'omnivores' because they can get away with eating a wide range of foods, but that doesn't mean that they thrive on most of the rubbish that keeps them going. It keeps them alive but it does not keep them healthy. From an evolutionary point of view that's a good strategy - in times of dearth there is food that they can survive on, and from the point of view of their genes, they can live long enough to pass them on to the next generation.

Ziwipeak, and other air-dried raw, and all prepared raw dog food, is high in protein and low in carbohydrate compared with kibble, which is the opposite. A change from high carbohydrate to high protein might temporarily upset a dog's stomach just because it needs to readjust to a better species-specific diet. But Ziwipeak is not 'rich' in the sense that protein and fat are only 'rich' in our human terms, and that's an inaccurate description if we are looking it from a physiological point of view rather than an 'idea' of what might or might not upset a stomach. Fat in the diet a) does not make us, or our dogs, fat (this is the major misconception that it has let to the obesity epidemic that is sweeping the western world), and b) it is the ingredient that governs satiety - the sense of feeling full. Simple carbohydrates make us, and our dogs and other pets, fat. 'Rich' is just a human interpretation of what looks as if it must be so. Fat added to a meal will help you reach satiety levels far more quickly, therefore you, and your dog, will eat far less on a diet that includes fat. It's impossible to eat too much fat if you don't eat it with simple carbohydrate (on bread, or potatoes), you can't just eat the butter alone or you'd vomit fairly soon, which is what makes us use a word like 'rich' to describe it, but that's not what is going on in a high protein diet like Ziwipeak, or bacon and eggs, or steak without the chips!


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## Cuddles (Jan 22, 2014)

rt625 said:


> We just picked up our new puppy Yogi and the breeder had him on a brand that I did not wish to continue him on. Any suggestions on which puppy food is good.


I wish I could figure out how to navigate this page, I should probably ask my 4 year old grandson &#128563;
I asked the same question ,and had some great ideas. Also I realized I was feeding my Cuddles too mu h food, and not often enough. Good luck with your new puppy. cuddles needs a boyfriend


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