Best Commercial Dog food for Large Breed Puppies??

[TwingleMum]

Santa is bringing a new member to our family ~ a I am researching the best commercial dog foods for large breeds. I have used Eukenuba in the past but I'm looking for people's real life experiences as I have not had a dog in 7 years. Breeder feeds Purinia. Puppy will be 10 weeks old at Christmas. Thanks.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Aww, come on... you're not going to tell us what kind of puppy you're getting?

 

[pumba]

our vet said that Purina One lamb and rice for puppies and doggies was very good...
We have had this for both of our dalmatians......and they have done well...

But you will find others want a different type...ask your new vet what he or she suggests.....and then google it and find out what the first ingredient is and what are the additives....

 

[Val]

Puppy food and large breed dogs is a bit of a controversy. I have a golden, and work with a Australian Shepherd rescue group. My personal vet, and our rescue vet both suggest NOT feeding a large breed puppy puppy food as it can cause the pup to "grow too fast", resulting in poor bone formation.

I personally feed our pups (and adult dogs, too) either Blue Mountain or Taste of the Wild (ours really like the buffalo mix). These brands are expensive (I pay about $42/30 lb bag), but my 4 dogs eat LESS of it (about 2-3 cups a day each). I go through a bag about every 10 days. My dogs are not slim, but not fat either (okay, maybe the golden is, but he is extra good at begging for treats!).

Ask around, do some comparison shopping, talk with your vet, and then see what your pup will eat. Two of my dogs (our golden and our 7 mos old Aussie) will eat ANYTHING. Our older Aussie mix (she is 13) is starting to be more picky, and our 2 year old Aussie is a pain in the you-know-what. She is the only dog I have ever had that won't EAT! She would rather play ball or Frisbee, so getting her to finish a meal is like pulling teeth. She will only eat the 2 brands above, and yes, I have let her go hungry many, many times. She is just NOT food motivated and hasn't been since I rescued her at 6 weeks.

Remember that your pup will need a safe place to be put that is away from the hub-bub of holiday activities. A crate placed in a separate room works well- gives him/her a safe quiet place. Puppies sleep a lot (storing up energy so they can chew and run again!). They also need direct supervision, especially important during the holiday season. Crate the pup when you can't directly supervise him/her. Cheaper than a trip to Doggie ER!

Also, be sure and start training right away. A family dog doesn't need to be obedience ring ready, but the commands sit, down, stay, come, leave it are all important for YOUR sanity. A great book to start with for training is "Don't Shoot the Dog" by Karen Pryor (or any related book that comes up on Amazon).

Have fun with the new member of your family. We on the DIS will want pictures, of course!!!!!

 

[worm761]

We have a bull mastiff/ rot mix so not a small dog at all. Our vet told us to buy Beneful for him if we were going to buy grocery store food.

 

[TwingleMum]

Aww, come on... you're not going to tell us what kind of puppy you're getting?

Sorry~ Bernese Mountain Dog!! I am soooo excited.

 

[clh2]

My recommendation would be to go to a "real" pet food store. NOT one of the national chains.

Talk to them about their recommendations. They are VERY knowledgable on pet foods.

I currently am fortunate enough that a coworker and her husband own such a store - so they very graciously stock the specific brand/type that we feed our dog. Even if someone else buys my kind of food - they will always make sure there is some for me. (We adopted our current dog last year, and she needs to be on a reduced calorie food.) Better yet - my coworker will "deliver" my stuff to work!!!

There are a million types of food - and some great websites around. Sorry - I can't recall what the good ones are. We feed "Natural Balance - Reduced Calorie" food.

Just remember - "garbage in - more poo out".

And - don't forget the DISrules on new furry family members: PICs must be posted. And - if you are surprising your kiddos with this new family member...we'll want the "story" on how it unfolds too!

Just saw the breed - the Bermese Mountain dogs are beautiful!!!

 

[TwingleMum]

Although I haven't had a dog in 7 yrs (I had babies LOL!!) I grew up with German Shepards and had a 110 lb Alaskan Malamute as a young adult that I raised from 4 lbs. My last dog was a German Shepard. I'm aware of the special concerns with too quick a growth with large breeds. We always crated our dogs. In fact that was their safe haven, No one was allowed to bother the dog in their crate. (with 7 siblings I think that was a good rule. The dog would go in the crate and lie down if things were too crazy for him.) I just have to buy a new one I gave mine to one of my nieces or nephews.

 

[TwingleMum]

I know Christmas is not the ideal time to bring a puppy home but I have had dogs all my life and I have two weeks off at Christmas and my DH is a SAHD. So pup will not be home alone. It also just worked out that a litter was born in mid Oct on my twin son's birthday no less ~ kismet. Also true confessions time I always wanted a puppy from Santa. So I'm living through the kids a bit here.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Sorry~ Bernese Mountain Dog!! I am soooo excited.

Oh, Wow! So beautiful!

 

[Jennasis]

I just had to research large breed dog food for my fatty-boom-balatty lab cross and blue tick. The lab had to go on better quality food because of a potential heart condition and because he is FAT. Went to Petsmart and nearly cried after an hour in those aisles upon aisles of food with no help from a worthless staff.

Did my own research at home, and asked around on the DIS, and found www.dogfoodadvisor.com which lissts just about every brand imaginable on a 0-5 star scale.

We eventually went with 4Health. Pricier than supermarket brands but not as pricey as the holistic-crunchy-granola-tree-hugging food (which we would've bought had it not been so dang expensive). The brand we would do if money were not so tight would be Taste Of the Wild or Blue Buffalo.

 

[ColoradoDisneyFreaks]

We've got a 14 year old lab who does great on Purina One, he's eaten Purina since we got him at 10 weeks too. Enjoy the puppy, mountain dogs are so cute!!!!!

 

[Rupert B Puppenstein]

Congratulations on your new puppy!! I love Bernese Mountain Dogs and Saint Bernards!! For large breed puppies, you should get an all stages food - and not a puppy food. Just like others have said, puppy food tends to allow for growth too fast and you don't want that (even the large breed puppy is not sufficient for anything over German Shepherd size. PETCO and Petsmart are starting to carry a lot of the better foods, or I would suggest going to a local Feed Supply (yes, the place you would go to get Chicken Feed or Horse Feed) as most do sell great foods.

For options at your chain pet stores, I would go with Nature's Variety, Wellness, or Solid Gold (in that order). If you do decide to go with grain-free, you will probably have better success in doing a cold turkey transition. Your puppy doesn't eat for 24 hours and you feed the new food. Going from Purina to that and transitioning slowly will usually take so much longer and the results will not be encouraging.

The good thing about most grain-free foods is that you will have the least amount of waste...and if you are open to it, I would highly recommend BMD's being on the Nature's Variety raw diet. You will get less poop that way because they better absorb the nutrients so the only thing that pretty much gets pooped out is Bone Meal. TMI I know, but I have neighbors that have to put in waste containment systems because their St. Bernards poop so much and our trash collection will not accept the quantity.

Good Luck!

 

[hereyago]

Sorry~ Bernese Mountain Dog!! I am soooo excited.

Awww, post pics when Santa brings it!

 

[JaneBanks]

Our pups eat Natural Balance

 

[hereyago]

We have a bull mastiff/ rot mix so not a small dog at all. Our vet told us to buy Beneful for him if we were going to buy grocery store food.

I bet he is a handsome dog. We had a rot/husky mix up until a few years ago, handsome dog, kind of goofy, but handsome.

 

[CajunDixie]

We have a bull mastiff/ rot mix so not a small dog at all. Our vet told us to buy Beneful for him if we were going to buy grocery store food.

We have boxers and feed them Beneful puppy for nearly a year then we slowly mix in adult varities of Beneful.

 

[Mickey'sMainMami]

I feed my Doberman Purina One Large Breed dog food. I used to feed him an expensive all natural, holistic food, but since my husband insists on spoiling him with a bite or two of everything he eats, I switched. No need to spend an extra $15.00 if you are gonna feed him junk. I think he does fine on it and he's almost three, huge and doing great! Good luck!!

 

[TwingleMum]

Thanks everyone you have all given me a great advice. Its much appreciated. I will post photos of his homecoming

 

[Sarah_Rose]

To everyone feeding grain-free (particularly Taste of the Wild), if you have a Costco in your area, Costco recently introduced a grain-free dog food. It's made by Diamond pet foods (the same people who make Taste of the Wild) and the food is VERY similar to TotW in ingredients and analysis. The food is called Nature's Domain and it's $34 for 35 lbs.

We were paying $72 for 30 lbs of Orijen up until recently, so it feels like we're getting a steal. Paid for our Costco membership in less than a month (feeding two 90 lb German Shepherds).