Hi Thomas K,
I also have a Lab, and I used to show in conformation and obedience. I simply love the breed.
I understand your frustration in trying to choose a food for your new little one based on reviews. The accolades or denigrations of any particular diet may or may not have anything to actually do with the food being fed.
I base my decision on the company information. Things that are important to me are: Does the company employ a veterinary nutritionist?, Who formulated the diet and what are their credentials?, What are the quality control measures the company uses? Who makes the diets? Does the company feed the diets they make to dogs and monitor their health? Does the company do AAFCO feeding trials? Were any recalls issued and were they properly executed. ( The fact that a company had a recall doesn’t concern me as much as what it was for and how it was handled.)
Ultimately the product I choose to feed is not high on the star rating and that OK as I don’t value the criteria used for ratings on this site as much as I do my my own criteria.
The company I choose told me all of the plant based ingredients are tested for nutrient content and contaminants prior to being accepted, the animal based ingredients are randomly tested making sure their supplier is conforming to their required standards, the foods are tested post production as well. The company fed the diet to Lab pups and monitored orthopedic development, body composition, hormonal status along with general blood chemistries, blood counts and urinalyses some for 6 months and others until 12 months. The company employs veterinary nutritionists along with PhD ‘s , general veterinarians and other specialists. The company was able to answer nutritional questions accurately and provide nutritional information I asked for. The food I choose has 2.5 stars.
Contrast this to another company ( 5 star diet). The person formulating the diets has a bachelors in marketing, there are no nutritionists veterinary or otherwise consulted in diet formulation. The company doesn’t do any testing of any type on ingredients prior to using them and was unsure what the co packer was doing post production in regards to testing the diets. The company did a feeding trial but doesn’t know the breed or weight of the dogs used in the trial and only did the minimum parameter required by AAFCO. The company was unable to answer basic nutritional questions correctly.
Decide what is important to you for a dog food and then interview the companies to see which one meets your criteria as a way to get started.
