Question about food brands (labs, bulldog, allergy, boxer)

[Josci]

Does anyone have any opinions about Natures Recipe Puppy Lamb & Rice?

Or Authority Harvest Baked Chicken or Authority Puppy with Real Lamb?

I want to stick with a food I can get at Petsmart, but it also needs to be reasonable since we are on a budget. We cannot afford the most expensive brands.

The ones above seemed much better than puppy pedigree.

Any feedback would be great!

[MAK802]

The Nature's recipe is not *too* terrible. It does have meat as the first ingredient but does contain a lot of fillers.

The Authority is a lot worse and has even more fillers. Both of these foods require you to feed a lot per day in order for the dog to get the right amount of calories daily.

Look at it this way, a 40 lb. bag of the Nature's Variety you mentioned costs approximately $52.99. According to the company, a dog that's between 6-12 months and weighs 20-50 lbs should get 5 1/4 cups per day!! That is absurd!

Now let's look at Wellness puppy. 30 lbs cost aproximately $51.99. A puppy that weighs 20 lbs should get 2.5 cups a day, then when they turn 7 months, it goes down to 1 3/4 cups. Because there are no fillers, you feed a lot less and save money in the long run.

We feed our 5 month old Taste of the Wild Pacific Stream, which is a grainless food. He gets less than 3 cups a day of this food, while the food that was recommended to us (Royal Canin Bulldog formula) is full of fillers AND is more expensive, and they eat a lot more of it.

Good luck finding a food that works!

[Josci]

Originally Posted by MAK802

The Nature's recipe is not *too* terrible. It does have meat as the first ingredient but does contain a lot of fillers.

The Authority is a lot worse and has even more fillers. Both of these foods require you to feed a lot per day in order for the dog to get the right amount of calories daily.

Look at it this way, a 40 lb. bag of the Nature's Variety you mentioned costs approximately $52.99. According to the company, a dog that's between 6-12 months and weighs 20-50 lbs should get 5 1/4 cups per day!! That is absurd!

Now let's look at Wellness puppy. 30 lbs cost aproximately $51.99. A puppy that weighs 20 lbs should get 2.5 cups a day, then when they turn 7 months, it goes down to 1 3/4 cups. Because there are no fillers, you feed a lot less and save money in the long run.

We feed our 5 month old Taste of the Wild Pacific Stream, which is a grainless food. He gets less than 3 cups a day of this food, while the food that was recommended to us (Royal Canin Bulldog formula) is full of fillers AND is more expensive, and they eat a lot more of it.

Good luck finding a food that works!

I see your point. At Petsmart one of the higher brands is Nutro Natural Choice Ultra puppy food. 48.99 for 35 pounds

[MAK802]

Originally Posted by Josci

I see your point. At Petsmart one of the higher brands is Nutro Natural Choice Ultra puppy food. 48.99 for 35 pounds

Don't be so fooled by the word Natural on labels!! Check out www.dogfoodanalysis.com to see how a food rates. Here's the rating for Nutro:

Dog Food Reviews - Nutro Natural Choice Puppy Lamb Meal & Rice formula - Powered by ReviewPost

[Josci]

Ughhh this is so stressful!!!!!!!!!!!

[crash330]

We feed our dogs Blue brand dog food. Our boxer who weighs 70 lbs. eats about 3 1/4 cups a day while our dachshund/JRT mix eats 1 cup a day. They really seem to like it (before they ate Iams, which is not a good dog food but marketed that way). They were on Canidae before the Blue and it really messed with their tummies. Blue gives them no problems and they eat less of it than the cheaper dog foods. I want to say we pay $42.99 for a 30 lb. bag at Petsmart. It gets a 4 from dogfoodanalysis.com because it has a lot of grain, but our boxer had loose stools before and this food helps wit that! Sometimes, even the best rated foods work differently for each dog.

[Josci]

Originally Posted by crash330

We feed our dogs Blue brand dog food. Our boxer who weighs 70 lbs. eats about 3 1/4 cups a day while our dachshund/JRT mix eats 1 cup a day. They really seem to like it (before they ate Iams, which is not a good dog food but marketed that way). They were on Canidae before the Blue and it really messed with their tummies. Blue gives them no problems and they eat less of it than the cheaper dog foods. I want to say we pay $42.99 for a 30 lb. bag at Petsmart. It gets a 4 from dogfoodanalysis.com because it has a lot of grain, but our boxer had loose stools before and this food helps wit that! Sometimes, even the best rated foods work differently for each dog.

Great thanks!!!

[nascarnancy]

We feed our animals Science Diet. Our last 2 labs lived to be 12 and 15, cat is 14 and still going strong. Our current lab just turned 1 so just got his first bag of adult food. We have been happy with the product, my 2 cents.

[JetJockey]

Originally Posted by nascarnancy

We feed our animals Science Diet. Our last 2 labs lived to be 12 and 15, cat is 14 and still going strong. Our current lab just turned 1 so just got his first bag of adult food. We have been happy with the product, my 2 cents.

I used to work for Science Diet, and they're manufacturing process isn't all that great, and their ingredients aren't good either. Although, my old golden retriever lived to be 14 on pedigree his whole life so I guess some dogs are just odd I use Natural Balance fish and sweet potato because my dog has a grain allergy (we tried nearly every food from the generic costco food to the highly holistic organic stuff). It's a bit pricier, but she's only 38 lbs and gets around 1 cup a day or so during the winter, and we up it to 1-1/2 for the summer, since she's outside running around more. You may have to try a few foods out to see what your dog likes, though

[MAK802]

Science Diet receives the worst rating a food can possibly get. Just look at the ingredients. For that kind of money, you can be feeding a quality food. Just because they lived to old age doesn't mean they were healthy. I would never feed my dog SD.

Be careful with Natural Balance. It's made in the US using Chinese ingredients. Their headquarters is in China, where they import their meat products. When I contacted them regarding this, they said that the facility is regularly inspected and up to FDA standards. They said the same thing about all the other recalled products, so I would not trust a Chinese dog food.