For those of you who want to know about pet food

[liv2ski]

labradoodle

Why not ask the breeder what they use and recommend for their dogs? I feed my guys a quality Limited Ingredient Lamb kibble dry in the morning and mixed with lamb meat at night. Works great for them and when Gunther's tummy gets goofy I mix in Purina FortiFlora probiotic for a few days to get him straight with solid poos again. Maya could eat anything and be fine.

[Danno]

Why not ask the breeder what they use and recommend for their dogs? I feed my guys a quality Limited Ingredient Lamb kibble dry in the morning and mixed with lamb meat at night. Works great for them and when Gunther's tummy gets goofy I mix in Purina FortiFlora probiotic for a few days to get him straight with solid poos again. Maya could eat anything and be fine.

I did. But I don't trust some random breeder as much as I trust people who have gone to school for many years to study what's best for Fido.

[billyk]

Danno,
What kind of dog are you getting? We are looking at a new Elkhound in January. Got two separate breeders with litters born end of October.
Not sure about weird restrictions from one of them. She drafted a contract that states if she gives us a "show" quality dog, we have to show it. (which i could give a shit about) She maintains all breeding rights. And we have to feed it a diet with no wheat or corn and other details. She recommends Fromm's.

Just get a pet quality dog if you don’t want to show. Should be cheaper, too. Breeders don’t want to give their best stock to people who don’t want to show. Can you blame them?

[XXX-er]

its been a while since i owned a dog but I just used a quality food with a medium high protein component and i stuck with the same brand always cuz whenever I tried switching to a cheaper/another brand it went ok for one bag and then halfway thru the second bag the dog would start puking so I had to go back to the original brand

The turds should be nice and firm

[2bjenny]

Just get a pet quality dog if you don’t want to show. Should be cheaper, too. Breeders don’t want to give their best stock to people who don’t want to show. Can you blame them?

This - if they're registered, the "show" dog will mean you get an unlimited registration. With "pet," if you care if it's registered, it is limited which just means any litters from that dog cannot be registered.

I feed Victor dog food and have been happy with it, order from Chewy. I've not used their puppy food though. I used Purina Pro Plan Puppy, which is what both of the breeders fed that I got my two goofy labs from, and they did fine. I've also fed Nutro Ultra dry puppy food.

[hutash]

Yeah. I am still a Science Diet fanboi. Quality ingredients and above average quality control, without all the marketing hype.

Unfortunately it is nearly impossible to tell the quality of the diet by reading the ingredients. Analysis is just maximums and minimums, and even the ingredients lists dont mean much. You also have to figure in water content, so % mean little as printed.

I have been in the SD factory and research facility, and well has have g class mates who work(ed) there. The company is just exceptional. Other then the major companies, most dont make their own food, and have it made by another facility to their specs. That doesnt mean it's bad, but it doesnt have the QC the majors can have. Ever notice how the pet food recalls are usually on small brands? It's likely that it's the same factory that makes a huge amount of the fancy, uber marketed foods as well.