Dog food

[PP Angler]

Going to be picking up my pup in a few weeks and was just curious as to what dog food everyone prefers to use?

Any info would be great!

THX

[PikeBayCommanche]

I use Nutro Natrual Choice for my pup and have had the best results yet. It is about 30 for a 60 lb. bag. Plus after 10 u get one free.

If that is to pricey Labs4Me and alot of others have had good luck with the Diamond Brand Proffesional Line.

Good Luck with your Pup!

[Gissert]

I have had great results with Iams lamb and rice.

[Curly]

I've been feeding NutriSource for 2 years with good results, also feeding it to my new lab pup and she is doing good with it. It's also made in Minnesota.

[gundoglily]

If we had only 1 dog, we woud be using Purina Pro Plan.

When you have 8 dogs, that brand gets prety spendy.

We've always had good luck with it, good nutrition, good hair coat, and not such big stools.

Right now we are using "Country Vet" and our dogs are doing well on that too.

Make sure your pup visits Connie the Vet in Parkers. She knows her stuff!

My 2 cents.

[caseymcq]

I have two labs and they get Science Diet now. I noticed that when we switched them to food that was a little more expensive that they seemed to [PoorWordUsage] less. We fed them Iams before and that seemed to be decent food too.

[island guy]

One of my labs had a ton of allergy problems. Main syptoms were skin and hair issues.

After switching to Nutro Natural Choice Lamb Meal and Rice formula, no more problems. Less volume of [PoorWordUsage] also. About $18 for 20lb bag at Fleet Farm.

[gonefishin11]

I have a 4 month old lab that I have been feeding the Nutro Large Breed Puppy Lamb and Rice and havn't had any problems. I get compliments all the time about how good her coat looks.

[S.D. Ice Angular]

Exactly what caseymcg said…

The cheaper the food the more the dumps!!!!!!!!!!

I have two labs also, I use Science Diet also they eat at 6 AM and with in 15 minutes they are outside pushing out the yesterdays leftovers so to speak. Then they are done for another 24 hours Yep!! Once, a day just like clockwork, that is it.

I think there are many good quality brands out there and I would spend the money to buy the good stuff. I think a 40-Pound bag lasts me about 2 months (considering 1 bag per dog.) One gets the Light / Diet version the other gets the “Standard Adult” version. There coats are so nice and soft and less oily also. Unfortunately they still shed like a hair factory though. The extra money is well worth the benefits.

My 2 pennies worth,

[Redlantern]

Currently I'm feeding Diamond Performance. It's not a bad food but if I could find National Comp Xtra or Redpaw easily, I'd feed that. I used to feed about fifty/fifty meat and kibble. The meat was from a local mink rancher and I feel the dogs went into fall training a lot easier than when just fed dry. Of course finding and storing frozen meat can be a pain. The upside, besides the health of the dogs, was that the meat was about a third of the cost of dry food.

[Ufatz]

I believe the Diamond Brand dog food you mention has been recalled across the nation! Please check on this-I know there has been a warning about some of their products. Do a Google quickly. Several of that companies products have had serious problems.

[LABS4ME]

The Diamond recall thread has been stickyed here on FM for months... Here are some facts...

-The recall does not effect the food distributed from the plant in Missouri which is where Minnesota's food comes from.

- It was not a National recall but one mainly on the Eastern seaboard.

- It was easy to assess if you had any affected food by the lot # on your bag.

- It has long since passed and unless you are feeding 6 month old food this should no longer effect you.

Do a google and you can find out some more info or read the thread at the top of the FM Hunting Dog page. Even if you didn't solely believe that the recall affected the food distributed from the East Coast plant, it would have been easy to avoid the tainted food by staying away from the products that contained corn. Their rice/lamb is a great food for maitenence (I like more protein and fat for hard training/hunting) and their Senior diet is chicken and oatmeal.

Diamond is a high quality food, been using it for years. My dogs and litters of pups have excelled on it. Fed it right through the recall, including my last litter of pups on Diamond puppy. Are there other great brands of food? No doubt! I agree with RedLantern, National was an excellent food, but very hard to get... after using it for a year I quit. The "name brand" foods are all good... but you do pay a premium for marketing. I fed Iams and Eukanuba for 5 years in the late eighties until it skyrocketed in price. But in the end your dog will determine the best food for him by his health and performance and his desire to eat it.

Good Luck!

Ken

[rundrave]

I am using Diamond Puppy for my GSP who is now 6months old. Great coat, great build, no complaints here.

[marine_man]

I've been on Nutrisource now for at least a year and have had some great results with it... as others have said.. the less [PoorWordUsage] has been nice...

marine_man

[Cinder18]

Another question about dog food.....

Does your dog stink?

I use Eukanuba and my dog does not get that wet dog smell but I also give her a wash once a month. A friend of mine uses Science Diet and his dog stinks wet or dry but I am not sure his bath schedule.

Anyone have any knowledge about dog stink versus dog food?

[Redlantern]

I think there is something to the smell being related to what they eat. I got a dog from a musher that fed nothing but mink caracasses to her dogs. She was the stinkiest mutt I've ever had. After two weeks of being off the mink, she smelled a lot better.

[FrontenacPike]

I have a 9 month springer ever since day one she has eaten Pedigree. The breeders that I bought her from started her on Pedigree "science puppy". Once I brought her home, from the first day I've been feeding her that. About 1 month ago I switched from "puppy" to "Adult complete nutrition diet".

After seeing the results of that food I am a complete believer. Deja-Voo is a black and white springer, when she is out side her coat just shines. I've gotten so many complements on how good looking of a dog she is, not only from hunters but people that know thier dogs. All ask me how she is so shinny, and all I can come up with is the food. When it comes to muscle growth, Pedigree takes the cake. Deja is ripped, and chiseled, which is shocking because we just got out of the dead of winter and her outside time was limited. The best part about Pedigree is that they are competively priced. I think I pay just under $10 dollars for a 20lb bag.

Ok to every positive there has got to be a negative. Once your puppy out grow her "puppy diet" you will defenitly know it. My Deja had the worst gas ever, until I switched her to the Adult diet. Once I switched her the gas was gone. I'm thinking the food was a little to rich for her digestive system.

Anyhow I am a huge supporter of Pedigree and will suggest it to anyone who has a dog.

[Ufatz]

Sorry you guys,I simply spaced out the Diamon brand sticky at the top of the page. For what its worth, I've been feeding Labs Purina puppy and adult foods for fifty years. I've never had an unhealthy dog and their coats have always drawn comments. I have occasionaly tried the expensive stuff the vets like to push, but not for long! In my opinion there is still a lot of grossly overpriced dog foods out there.

[Cootz]

Labs, I've got an eight year old and a one year old. I finally found National when Mav was two and stayed with it until I moved to Cokato Four years ago and then switched to Iams. It's ok but I thought that the National brand was far better. Less scooping and I believed a healthier coat and stuff. Which Diamond products do you feed your young dogs and which to your older dogs? Do you go by their "guidelines"? Do you switch to the higher fat/protein during hunting season?

[LABS4ME]

I have generally used their green bag for my maintenance for the off season and their Black bag during the hunting season. As my 2 dogs have gotten older, I still feed the black bag hunting season through February and switched to the lamb and rice this spring. I just tried a bag of senior diet this last time and completed the mixing of lamb/rice and senior this week. I'll see how they do on that. The lamb/rice gave them nice firm stools and they seemed to hold their weight etc. It was hard to judge coat as they have been blowing their winter coats for the last 4-6 weeks. The two dogs I've been feeding this are now 9 and 12. The 12 year old has never been on anything but Diamond... looks great and still to this day can hunt all 3 days of a SoDak pheasant trip.

Chug at almost 7, you can see his shiny coat and good muscle mass

Breeze at 9, this photo is when she was pregnant and 3 days from delivering. SHe had been on Diamond Green bag through her pregnancy and switched to Diamond Puppy the last week and a half and all the way through feeding her pups. She lost very little hair in any of her breedings.

I also have a 5 1/2 month old pup on Diamond puppy... she is doing great. Her coat is nice and shiny and she is growing like a weed (except she is in her ganggly leg stage ). I will move her to the green bag at 9 months and the black bag probably in November with the 2 older dogs.

All you can do is try it and see how your dog performs on it. I've been using it since '94. I've had great luck with it along with many of my friends and a good portion of those who've bought puppies from me... others said they didn't do so well on it. Try it and give it a couple months and evaluate how your dog is doing on it.

Good Luck!

Ken