Brand of Puppy Food?

Question

I was told by the breeder we will be getting our puppy from is to get a puppy food that has a meat as the first ingredient and not corn. I looked over the foods at some stores and was surprised to see that Pedigree and IAMS and some other foods first ingredient was corn which is more of a filler than any nutrients for good growth, etc.

What brand do you use and why? What is the first ingredient?

Answer 1

nutromax is a great dog food with no animal by-produts and the first ingredients are meat. I used to work at a specialty pet store and the local police would by this type of food for their dogs.

ingredients:

Chicken Meal, Corn Gluten Meal, Wheat Flour, Rice Bran, Ground Rice, Poultry Fat (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), Dried Plain Beet Pulp, Ground Whole Wheat, Chicken, Natural Flavors, Fish Oil (source of DHA, preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), Salt, Sodium Bicarbonate, Potassium Carbonate, Potassium Chloride, Yeast Culture, Lecithin, Choline Chloride, Vitamin E Supplement, Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Dried Kelp, Iron Oxide, Garlic Flavor, Ascorbic Acid (source of Vitamin C), Biotin, Copper Sulfate, Niacin, Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin (source of Vitamin B2), Vitamin A Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (source of Vitamin B6), Vitamin D3 Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate (source of Vitamin B1), Manganous Oxide, Calcium Iodate, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (source of Vitamin K activity), Folic Acid.



Nutro supports the safe, ethical and humane treatment of all animals

Answer 2

~ Nothing from the grocery store is going to be worth feeding.  It is all junk food.

Quality foods are: Orijen, Innova, EVO, Canidae, Wellness, Solid Gold, Natures Variety, Eagle Pack Holistic, Merricks, Taste of the Wild, Pinnacle, Go! and Fromm.  I wouldn't feed anything less than those.

Answer 3

I use purina one(puppy)...the 1st ingredient is Lamb. I could not believe when I read up on it when I got my puppy 6 months ago and was trying to find the best diet plan for her and a lot of the more expnse well known dog foods have a lot of fillers as you said for startedrs! Good Luck I hope you find something that works for your pet. Take Care

Answer 4

i use purina one. my pets love it. meat is the first ingredient, corn isn't even listed in the first 3 ingredients. i definitely recommend it.  

Answer 5

Canidae is excellent, but they have no special puppy series.

Answer 6

I feed my dog and puppy Eukanuba and the first ingredient for the puppy food is chicken. The first ingredient for the food for my bigger dog is Corn Meal, but the second is Chicken.

I feed my cats Iams. The first ingredient is chicken. Even though it's cat food, Iams dog food might have chicken as the first ingredient too.

I would feed your puppy the same food that the breeder fed it, though. It's not good to change their diet because it can mess with their digestive system.

Good luck and I hope I helped! :)

Answer 7

Wellness is a good quality brand & is now available @ Petco.  They have a puppy formula & many others.  Since we switched from Royal Canin our 6 mos old mini schnauzer's coat is shiny & soft, her eyes are bright & alert, her stool is neither too hard or too runny & 2 days after being spayed she was pretty much back to her old self!  

My vote goes to "Wellness"

Answer 8

My dog is fed Innova EVO. It's a grain-less food, which is great for dogs, since dogs are made to eat meat, not grains.

Since switching to this food, she doesn't smell at all, her poops are small, and her coat is softer than a baby's bum :)

I don't feed anything that contains grains or animal by-products.

Innova Evo Red Meat - Ingredients:

Beef, Lamb Meal (concentrated lamb, basically), potatoes, eggs, sunflower oil, buffalo, lamb, venison, beef cartilage, herring oil.... etc.

Answer 9

When my dog was a puppy, I used Merrick Puppy Plate.

Here's the first 5 ingredients:

Organic Chicken, Turkey Meal, Oatmeal, Duck, Chicken Meal

=== === ===

There is no food that is the *best*, different individual dog may thrive on different foods. What is best for one may not be the best for the next. And just because a food is good quality, it doesn't mean it will jive the best for your dog.

What you want to find is the HIGH-QUALITY food that *your dog* does best on.

Here are some good foods appropriate for a puppy:

* Canidae All-life-stages

* Merrick Puppy Plate

* Artemis Fresh Mix puppy

* Innova puppy

* Chicken Soup for the Puppy Lover's Soul

* Wellness Just for Puppy

(More brands further down in my answer)

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Read the ingredients before you buy.

Here is my "short list" of rules when I am looking at dog food ingredients:

1) When I chose a dog food, I chose one high meat content. I want to see preferably at least 2-3 out of the top 5 ingredients be meat or meat meal (first ingredient must be!). Meal is simply the meat with the moisture removed.

2) I want to see higher quality grains, such as barley, brown rice, and oatmeal, instead of seeing wheat and corn. Or an alternative starch/carbohydrate such as potatoes or sweet potatoes.

3) I don't want to see any byproducts.

4) I don't want to see a lot of fillers.

5) I don't want to see preservatives that are believed to be carcinogens (BHA, BHT, ethoxyquin).

6) I don't want to see artificial colorings such as the Red, Blue, and Yellow dyes.

7) I don't want to see added sugars (sugar, corn syrup).

8) I don't want to see mystery meats (meats identified only as "meat" or "poultry".)

Here is an article about byproducts:

http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?...

And an article on what ingredients to avoid:

http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?...

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Here are some examples of GOOD dog foods:

* Artemis Fresh Mix

* Blue Buffalo

* California Natural

* Canidae

* Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul

* Eagle Pack Holistic Selects

* EVO

* Fromm Four Star

* Innova

* Merrick

* Nature's Variety

* Orijen

* Solid Gold

* Taste of the Wild

* Wellness

* ZiwiPeak

Or check this website; the 4, 5, or 6 star rated foods are all good foods. http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_...

(For a puppy, go with a 4 or 5 star food, the 6 star foods are high-protein, which I feel is better suited for adult dogs.)

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Higher quality food may seem more expensive at first, but it evens out. The higher quality the food, the less fillers eaten (and therefore the less p**p comes out the other end). Your dog eats more of a low-quality food to try to get the nutrition it needs, and most of the food just passes right on through. Also, higher-quality food will make your animals healthier, so you save money on vet bills in the long run.

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What *NOT* to buy:

Stay away from grocery stores brands. They are low-quality foods chalk full of fillers, preservatives, dyes, etc.. (Grocery store foods are those like Beneful, Old Roy, Alpo, Pedigree, Purina, etc.)

Beware "premium" foods. "Premium" does not always mean good. Most of these foods have the same types of ingredients as grocery store foods, just a bit better quality of those not-so-good ingredients. (Premium foods are those like Iams, Eukanuba, Science Diet, Bil-Jac, Royal Canin, etc..)

Another thing to be wary of: A lot of vets will recommend what they sell in their office. They get profit from the brands they keep on their shelves, that's why they push it. Truth is, vet schools don't focus a lot on nutrition. It's not saying that a vet is a bad vet because he recommends those foods, a lot of vets just are told "this is good food", so they pass the message along without proper nutrition knowledge. Also, some dog food brands (like Hills) support vet schools, so vets have heard of it from the time they start college, which makes them think it's good as well.

Hills company, the makers of Science Diet, are heavily involved in vet schools. "Hill's scientists author more than 50 research papers and textbook chapters each year and teach at leading schools of veterinary medicine" (Source of quoted section: http://www.hillsvet.com/zSkin_2/company_... )

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"Big box" petstores like Petco and Petsmart rarely have quality foods. (There are some higher quality foods at those locations, but most of the foods aren't.)

* Blue Buffalo

* Castor & Pollux

* Eagle Pack Holistic Selects

* Natural Balance

* Solid Gold

* Wellness

Also, grocery stores and Walmart aren't good places to buy food either.

Shop at smaller petstores, feed stores, or dog boutiques.

.

Answer 10

i use Purina pro plan or eukanuba  the first ingredient is chicken and i use it because it is high in DHA which is great for a puppies joints.

Answer 11

I use Canidae All stages for my 3 dogs they love it and look great.

Answer 12

when my dog was a puppy we fed him Royal Canin Puppy formula for large breed dogs 2-15months.

The first few ingredients are: chicken meal, brown rice, brewers rice...

This website will give you the full ingredients- http://www.royalcanin.ca/products/hn/max...

Answer 13

Canidae All Life Stages. It has NO fillers, NO artificial preservatives and NO by-products. And it can be fed to dogs from puppy to senior by just varying the amount fed. 5 out of 6 stars on dogfoodanalysis.com.

Answer 14

I would use Wellness or Innova and nothing from the grocery store.  Also if your going to go grain free like EVO or Core, it's best to wait until your pup is at least a year old, especially if it's a large breed.

Answer 15

I use Canidae right now but due to the formula change he'll be eating Merrick. It has no animal byproducts, no corn, and no fillers.

You might want to check out this site if you need help finding a brand.

http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com

Answer 16

Yep, make sure it is meat.. and not a meat meal/by product.

I feed go natural and it's chicken.

Answer 17

Pedigree is an extremely poor quality food.  Iams is a little better, but not much.  I use Nutrience and the first ingredient is chicken.  Wellness is a good brand.  Do not buy food from a supermarket.  Go to a pet store and find some brands and check out the ingredients.  It must say premium on the bag.  It will be more expensive, but your dog will eat for less of it because he will be getting more nutrition from it, so don't be scared about the price.  My dog eats 33 pounds at about $50 a bag each month.  Which isn't very much considering he's 80 pounds.  I live in a small town in the middle of nowhere, and hour and a half away from anywhere else, and this is the best food I can get.  If I lived in a bigger city I would probably feed in Canidae or Wellness.

Answer 18

my favorite dog food (for my dog of course) is solid gold, it is all natural made in the USA, was not on the recall list, it has no fillers, no corn, no by-products, no salt, no sugar, no added animal fat only has the natural fat, no wheat, no soy, this is an all around healthy holistic dog food that leaves your pets coat shiney and heatlhy as well as maintaining the dogs health, Solid Gold is great for pets with allergies, and has all the nutrients that a dog needs, i know the food is some what expensive, but it is deff. worth it, Solid Gold is more expensive because it is healthy, and they use only the best ingredients, the reason why lets say pedigree is cheaper is because they use fillers, like corn which has no nutrutional value to your dog what so ever, so cheaper ingredients = lower nutrional value.

and because solid gold has all the nutrients your pet needs, your dog will actually eat less because he gets fuller faster.

I swear by this dog food, and I know many people who do also, you should really consider trying it, you will not be disappointed, but just make sure when you switch your dog to any different brand that you gradually add in the new food to the old food, by giving them a new food straight could cause severe medical problems. I feed my husky solid gold, once he was off of iams i noticed a lot of differences, he stopped pooping in the house, and didn't have to go as much, his coat got shinnier, and stopped itching, etc

for your puppy I would recommed the puppy hundenflocken.

the first ingredient is lamb.

http://www.solidgoldhealth.com/

Answer 19

I use a mix of Canidae All Life Stages, Wellness Just for Puppy (going to adult in another month) and Nutro Ultra Holistic.  You are a very very smart cookie to figure this all out.  Corn, wheat, gleuten, soy and by products of any kind are a HUGE NO-NO!  Science Diet, Iams, Eukanuba and all the other expensive dog foods like that have some of the public fooled.  Just keep reading those labels.  And the formula change at Canidae is not the reason I mix.  I just like to give him variety and not put all my eggs in one basket cause since all the dog food recalls, you never know.  Canidae is still my number one choice.  They didn't add any corn or gleutens or anything else that is bad but some dogs have an allergy to the barley or the peas.  No biggie for us. Congrats and your dog is getting a good parent.