Dog Food Help Please

There's so much info out there. My pups eat FreshPet but it's been hard to find so I'm slowly switching them over to Jinx. They seem to like it. My pups did NOT like Farmer's Dog. I tried several times but they didn't like it and when they did eat it, they got sick.

I've used Fromm's Gold Small Breed for my last two dogs and they both have liked it and eaten it.

Fromms or Oreijen (spelling) are both quality brands with quality ingredients. Neither are cheap, but they are the only brands I will feed my dogs.

I would guess the issue is the corn before the chicken.

Our lab has been fed Blue Buffalo all her life. There are several different lines of it, but we use one with grain in it. She hasn’t had any issues.

Know that if you feed raw, it can be an issue with the elderly and those with weakened immune systems if they are around the dog.

I have a friend who is a vet and she swears by the Kirkland brand from Costco.

Our 16 month old German Shepherd/Bernese Mountain Dog mix eats Fromm. Unlike the other poster, I do sometimes change flavours to give him some variety. Fromm food is made so you can switch around the flavours without any gastrointestinal issues. He does seem to prefer the fish flavours.

Curious about why you are hesitant about Dog Food Advisor recommending grain free foods. Dogs don't need grains or carbohydrates of any kind.

Grain free foods have only been shown to be an issue in a few specific breeds of dogs when dog food manufacturers replace grain with large quantities of cheap legumes and/or pea protein instead of quality protein sources. It does seem that the pea/legume proteins are the issue, rather than just being free of grains. Vets have a vested interest in recommending low national quality brands (Purina, Hills, Science Diet, etc.) that sponsor veterinary education, but rarely are vets well educated in nutrition. 

Dog Food Advisor and Whole Dog Journal are my go-to sources for finding high quality dog foods. The Forever Dog book is a great resource too.

Chicken allergies/intolerances in dogs have exploded in the last few years. Our vet has said it is becoming so much more common and wonders if it is something to do with how chickens are raised for animal feed. We have a two year old yellow lab who has a severe intolerance to chicken...took us more than six months to get it figured out and to get her digestive system stabilized after we eliminated chicken from her diet. There are so many young dogs in our training classes that can not consume anything with chicken in it that our trainer no longer uses anything with chicken in it.

That being said, it is also possible that your pup is intolerant of corn. I would suggest you find a high quality, limited ingredient food. Our pup eats Stella and Chewy freeze dried and/or frozen raw food in mostly beef and salmon. All grain free and she has never been more fit and healthy. Feed your dog the best food that you can afford on your budget. Orijen, Acana, Fromms, Merrick, and Honest Kitchen are all very high quality, widely available brands.

We use Whole Hearted from Petco and the dog loves it. We rotate through the flavors from chicken, beef, lamb, and salmon. They do have some grains in them. The vet highly recommended that his dog food have some grains as grain free has a known association with heart disease. And is a title less expensive but maintains good health with good ingredients.

What does your vet recommend now?

lol, so George is a giant breed, Great Pyr. He's supposed to get 4 cups of food per day. What he really gets is 2 cups in the morning which he ignores until about mid day. at 7 not 7:01, not 6:59 7:00 he will come stand by his bowl and do the I'm starving poor pitiful me look until we grab his bowl, put the farmers on the bottom then put a cup of dry on top. He will then commence eating the entire bowl of food. If we do not jump up at 7 and do his bidding he will continue pestering one of us until his farmers is produced.

Farmers can be served on its own, we just mix it with his dry to make it last longer. When he had surgery in 22 and we had to keep him tranquilized I got him wet food to bury the meds in. Some of it he'd hoover right up but others he'd look at you and go seriously? He seems to like the farmers however.

Vets will recommend food they sell in all likelihood. Probably Science Diet. Vets are fantastic resources for a lot of things, but what food to feed is probably not one of them .

I used to live next to a couple of vet and they gave pro plan sport to their two dogs , on their recommendation I switched mine two to the same food and they are both doing great on it .

I second Freshpet didn't realize it was hard to find some parts of the country