# Puppy Food Advice



## Faithb (Aug 18, 2020)

I am so confused about which food to buy for my new puppy. The breeder is currently feeding Life’s Abundance. My girlfriend works for a Vet and she suggested Purina Pro plan, someone else suggested Orijen. What do you all feed? Thanks!


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## Molly120213 (Jan 22, 2014)

Start out feeding what the breeder is using. In the meantime you can research other foods. If you decide to switch you can then do it gradually so you don’t cause any digestive issues. Let your new puppy settle in to your home first.


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## EvaE1izabeth (Nov 14, 2017)

There are tons of choices, it’s like a rabbit hole  Definitely agree to stick with the breeder recommendation during the adjustment period and then transition very slowly to whatever you decide to feed long term. 

Make your decision based on your own budget, priorities, and values as far as nutrition, and look for high quality, but don’t let your decision be driven by guilt (there’s always going to be something better) or let your puppy decide for you. Personally I am very skeptical of vet recommendations. Deliveries are great, but I found I wanted something available locally in a pinch, so if that’s important to you, you could see what’s available at one of the smaller pet food stores near you (they are more likely to carry an “edited” range of different forms, such as kibble, frozen, and and freeze dried, and higher quality brands than any big box store) and then research those options.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

There are as many different food choices as there are people on this forum. Hearing from people here will NOT make you less confused! Read a lot, make a decision and STICK TO IT unless it makes your puppy sick. Do NOT let your puppy talk you into him being a "picky puppy" and switching all the time based on his "tastes".


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## Faithb (Aug 18, 2020)

Thanks for the advice. I am planning on purchasing a bag of his current dog food and if I decide to change would do it gradually. My last two dogs were larger breeds and thought maybe smaller breeds had different requirements.


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## rhonlap (Jul 17, 2020)

My vet recommended “any good quality puppy food” for at least a year. The food breeder was using is not available in my area. I have been transitioning to new food for 2wks, almost there. Vet also suggested a national brand as they are notified quickly if there is a recall. Lots of things to consider.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Faithb said:


> Thanks for the advice. I am planning on purchasing a bag of his current dog food and if I decide to change would do it gradually. My last two dogs were larger breeds and thought maybe smaller breeds had different requirements.


Nope. Dogs is dogs.  The only real difference is that you DO want the kibble to be smaller size, so choose one of the "small breed" ones if you are feeding kibble.

Another mistake you don't want to make if moving from large breeds is don't buy too-large bags. It can go rancid before you get to the end of the bag, and THAT can make the dog not want to eat it. (can't blame them on that!!!) They just don't eat that much per day because they are little! I buy the smallest bags, even if it is a bit more expensive that way. That way it stays freshly sealed until use. Even feeding 3 dogs (once a day... we feed canned at night) we don't go through a small bag in 10 day or so. With one dog, a large bag would last WAY too long!


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

rhonlap said:


> My vet recommended "any good quality puppy food" for at least a year. The food breeder was using is not available in my area. I have been transitioning to new food for 2wks, almost there. Vet also suggested a national brand as they are notified quickly if there is a recall. Lots of things to consider.


Most breeders will send you home with enough of the current food to transition if you can't get the same food at home.


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## Faithb (Aug 18, 2020)

*Thank you*

Thank you again for all the advice.


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## Vartina Ancrum (Oct 10, 2019)

A positive about small breed dogs is that a small bag goes a long way. They don't eat much. It is very affordable to feed a smaller dog high-quality food. Although, you save in the long term by feeding any size dog the best quality food that you can afford.


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## EvaE1izabeth (Nov 14, 2017)

krandall said:


> Nope. Dogs is dogs.  The only real difference is that you DO want the kibble to be smaller size, so choose one of the "small breed" ones if you are feeding kibble.
> 
> Another mistake you don't want to make if moving from large breeds is don't buy too-large bags. It can go rancid before you get to the end of the bag, and THAT can make the dog not want to eat it. (can't blame them on that!!!) They just don't eat that much per day because they are little! I buy the smallest bags, even if it is a bit more expensive that way. That way it stays freshly sealed until use. Even feeding 3 dogs (once a day... we feed canned at night) we don't go through a small bag in 10 day or so. With one dog, a large bag would last WAY too long!


I buy the small bags, too. That's why I decided to stick with something I can buy in my area, although I'm sure I could still order smaller bags through Amazon or another service.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

EvaE1izabeth said:


> I buy the small bags, too. That's why I decided to stick with something I can buy in my area, although I'm sure I could still order smaller bags through Amazon or another service.


Yes, I get my food on a subscription from Amazon. It gets delivered once a month. I don't even need to think about it. Which is nice because our limited ingredient food is NOT always in the shelf locally, and besides that, cans get heavy to shlep around!


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## ShamaMama (Jul 27, 2015)

krandall said:


> There are as many different food choices as there are people on this forum. Hearing from people here will NOT make you less confused! Read a lot, make a decision and STICK TO IT unless it makes your puppy sick. Do NOT let your puppy talk you into him being a "picky puppy" and switching all the time based on his "tastes".


Agree. Agree. Agree. Agree.

Our breeder insisted we feed the kibble she used unless we checked with her before switching food. We recently found out Shama has something wrong with her kidney(s) - I will be updating you all next week after we make our second trip to the U of MN Veterinary Medical Center - so now we're transitioning her to Hills Prescription k/d. I was disappointed to have to give away ALL my fun training treats, but oh well! I do plan to research other options like carrots and apples and blueberries, but she's basically eating only Hills Prescription k/d. (To my great surprise, she will still run agility and work on her tricks training even for that kidney diet food. I'm starting to think she might just enjoy being with me!)

Good luck with your food quest.


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## Faithb (Aug 18, 2020)

I am sorry to hear that Shaka was diagnosed with Kidney issues. Hoping that the right diet will help control the issue. I will definitely take you up on your offer to stop by if we are ever in your vicinity.


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## Faithb (Aug 18, 2020)

Are you able to mention brand names on this site and if so what brand do you feed your puppies? How do you feel about the FDA warning on grain free foods?


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Faithb said:


> Are you able to mention brand names on this site and if so what brand do you feed your puppies? How do you feel about the FDA warning on grain free foods?


There is no prohibition against mentioning brand names on the forum. Only that basically EVERYONE uses something different. And EVERYONE thinks theirs is best! LOL! I will tell you the brand I use. It is Nature's Variety, and it comes in frozen raw, freeze dried raw, canned and kibble. Most important for me is that they offer several limited ingredient diets that do not contain fish oil. This last sentence is something that you don't even have to THINK about. I just happen to have one dog with allergies, so it makes a BIG difference for us!

As far as "grain free", if you have a breed that is prone to dilating cardio myopathy, (Havanese are not) it might be something to get more excited about. But the fact is that the studies done have been very small, only in those breeds, and they have no idea WHY these diets might be causing a problem. It COULD be that they are "grain free", it COULD be the legumes they use to replace the grains, it SEEMS likely that it is a lack of a specific nutrient that is now being added to ALL these foods. We just don't know yet.

When the information first came out, I talked to my vet about it. I have an added complication in that one of mine has a lot of food allergies, and it took some work to find a food that doesn't cause him problems. The one we use happens to be grain-free, not because grain is a problem for him as far as we know, but it is a limited ingredient diet. Our vet told me that all my dogs are very healthy, and NONE have heart problems. Her advice was to keep them on their current diet until we know more or unless there was a problem. The little reseach that HAS been done has shown that these diet-related cardio myopathies often reverse if caught early and the dog is switched to a different food anyway.

I think, in an abundance of caution, if I were starting with a new puppy in a single dog home, I would look at high quality foods that DID contain some grain first. But the jury is reallly still out on this one. A very small study in a small group of dogs stirred up a hornet's nest of trouble. The big "cheap" brands loved it, because they could advertise that their cheap, largely corn based products were "safer" because they were not grain free. So they jumped on the band-wagon, really pushing this narrative. Make sure that, whatever you pick, grain is not one of the first few ingredients, and that legumes, (like peas) if included, are far down the list, and you should be fine.


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## EvaE1izabeth (Nov 14, 2017)

I would also ask your breeder about grain free. Part of the reason grain free became so popular is because some dogs do not tolerate grain well. The food with grain I tried gave my puppy diarrhea. It’s possible it was another ingredient, but when I realized it had grain I remembered that my breeder had recommended grain free. In some breeds and cases, it makes sense to use a food with grain because there are so many choices. But a lot of Havanese do have sensitive stomachs. In those cases, it really doesn’t make sense to avoid grain because the risks associated with poorly absorbed nutrition and a long term tendency toward diarrhea are definitely going to cause problems, and not only are the risks comparatively much lower in developing those heart problems, there isn’t any evidence about where those problems come from in relationship to grain free food.


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## Melissa Woods (Feb 21, 2019)

I would not start out grain free unless you have issues with grain inclusive foods. This is just my opinion. I get fresh food delivered with few ingredients, and I get grain inclusive. Which for this company is stuff like potato and rice, mixed with meat and veggies and whatever minerals and vitamins they add (plus, unfortunately for Karen, fish oil!) So if the concern is low quality fillers, choose any high quality food. And yes the issue may be that the carb in the food is often legumes. They just aren’t sure. I’m going with caution for now.


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## Molly120213 (Jan 22, 2014)

Molly eats food from Nature’s Variety (Instinct). At different times we have used their regular kibble (grain free) limited ingredient kibble (grain free) and their Be Natural kibble (has grain). We also use their freeze dried or frozen raw mixers as a topper. Molly loves it.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Melissa Woods said:


> I would not start out grain free unless you have issues with grain inclusive foods. This is just my opinion. I get fresh food delivered with few ingredients, and I get grain inclusive. Which for this company is stuff like potato and rice, mixed with meat and veggies and whatever minerals and vitamins they add (plus, unfortunately for Karen, fish oil!) So if the concern is low quality fillers, choose any high quality food. And yes the issue may be that the carb in the food is often legumes. They just aren't sure. I'm going with caution for now.


But remember, potato is not a "grain" either. A food with potato or sweet potato as the carbohydrates, is considered a "grain-free" food.


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## Melissa Woods (Feb 21, 2019)

krandall said:


> Melissa Woods said:
> 
> 
> > I would not start out grain free unless you have issues with grain inclusive foods. This is just my opinion. I get fresh food delivered with few ingredients, and I get grain inclusive. Which for this company is stuff like potato and rice, mixed with meat and veggies and whatever minerals and vitamins they add (plus, unfortunately for Karen, fish oil!) So if the concern is low quality fillers, choose any high quality food. And yes the issue may be that the carb in the food is often legumes. They just aren't sure. I'm going with caution for now.
> ...


Oh yeah, I didn't explain that right! I choose two varieties. One with potato (grain free) and one with rice (grain) so I'm getting at least some grain. I actually cannot get Oliver to eat ANY kibble except royal canin small breed puppy, I kid you not. So he's on a very small amount of Merrick (grain inclusive adult) mixed with this grain free fresh food. Honestly he'll easily go a couple of days without eating, he is that picky. I thought he'd be on puppy food for the rest of his life. I got him to eat the chicken and rice version of her food, so I'm adding him to that

Really, I know there are a million choices, and I think this is a situation where you've got to do what works for you and your dog. There are as many dog food opinions as there are human diet opinions, and I almost feel (as a person with a history of anorexia/ orthorexia so this could be me!) that human obsession with nutrition has seeped over to our dogs. Worse for us of course. But still so steeped in judgement.


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## Faithb (Aug 18, 2020)

Great advice! Thank you for the information. I ordered a small bag of the food that the breeder is using and will start out with this while I research other possibilities.


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## EvaE1izabeth (Nov 14, 2017)

Melissa Woods said:


> But still so steeped in judgement.


I could seriously go on a tirade about this. No need, though, because you are right on.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Melissa Woods said:


> Oh yeah, I didn't explain that right! I choose two varieties. One with potato (grain free) and one with rice (grain) so I'm getting at least some grain. I actually cannot get Oliver to eat ANY kibble except royal canin small breed puppy, I kid you not. So he's on a very small amount of Merrick (grain inclusive adult) mixed with this grain free fresh food. Honestly he'll easily go a couple of days without eating, he is that picky. I thought he'd be on puppy food for the rest of his life. I got him to eat the chicken and rice version of her food, so I'm adding him to that
> 
> Really, I know there are a million choices, and I think this is a situation where you've got to do what works for you and your dog. There are as many dog food opinions as there are human diet opinions, and I almost feel (as a person with a history of anorexia/ orthorexia so this could be me!) that human obsession with nutrition has seeped over to our dogs. Worse for us of course. But still so steeped in judgment.


Let's face it. I try to buy the best food I can for my dogs, but generations of dogs grew up and lived long, healthy lives on Kalkan and Alpo. Dogs are pretty forgiving in terms of diet. They are, at this point in evolution, scavengers of human waste, not little "wolves".


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

EvaE1izabeth said:


> I could seriously go on a tirade about this. No need, though, because you are right on.


Which is why I refuse to even answer in a brand-specific way to any "what should I feed" post.


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## Melissa Woods (Feb 21, 2019)

I have wanted to say that but I've been afraid to. I've had dogs that lived very long lives on Purina. I mean, yeah it's totally anecdotal, but that was before grain free or raw or fresh was really a thing for the average pet owner/


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