i dont think they sell retail. its through them direct to order it. their prices have ship included so what you see is price to the door via ups. they have a 5 pound test bag and i dont recall being charged for that one to ship either. i shipped in one for my aunt’s little poodle (amazing how far 5 pounds can go for a small dog)
April, Redmoom is not available in my area, unfortunately . I know I can order it online, but I want to get a small bag to start with, to see how she does. I think I’m going to go with a grain inclusive kibble, only because the protein content tends to be lower, in general. I just hate the thought of feeding rice due to the aresenic found in it, brown and white alike, so I’m hoping to find a kibble with another grain, such as quinoa or barley. Is Hound Dog Mom still here?
Hi All,
My finance moved in with me earlier this year and brought her two 5 year old shih-tzu’s. I’ve never had small dogs before, but they are really great. A bit like stuffed animals really.
She asked me to go pick up some dog food, and I was surprised to find that the Wellness Small Breed 12lb bag was $35; about a month’s supply.. I’m not opposed to paying for quality, but wonder if there are any cost effective alternatives? I noticed the standard Wellness Core food was $50 for a much larger bag. Do small dogs really need ‘small breed’ formula or is the standard variety ok?
Thanks!
Mike
koa’s mom,
i had that turmoil when i first got my doberman pup in march and was advised to go low protein low calcium for the first few months of her life. dfa reviews do tend to favor high protein foods and i dont recall a grain free 5 star kibble that is sub 30 percent. there are real good 3 and 4 star foods. they just dont have the protein content to make it a higher star but they have outstanding real ingredients just like the higher star foods.
i used redmoon chicken and potato (23% protein, 1% calcium, 4.5% ash, 0.9% phosphorous). its 3.5 stars. their lamb and potato is 4.5 stars and their chicken and yellow pea is 5 stars. i seriously dont think they put junk in their lower star rated food to earn that star rating.
have you looked at drtims kinesis als? its 26 percent protein. or did i miss something about mandatory grain free?
edit. when she hit 7 months i started transitioning in earthborn meadowfeast, drtims pursuit and drtims kinesis als. in her 9th month i do a rotation of meadowfeast and kinesis als but still use a redmoon chicken and potato base cuz i like it and they do good on it (the boxer adult is on the redmoon as well)
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This reply was modified 12 years, 7 months ago by
apriliamille.
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This reply was modified 12 years, 7 months ago by apriliamille.
I know, it is very difficult. I have been going back and forth for weeks trying to decide what to ween a litter of puppies on and decided to go with Wellness Core( which I’m hoping is the right decision based on your experience). I would find a food that is close percentage wise and then call or email the company for the actual average protein content. They all have that information.
Sippmanir, Thank you for the link, but I already have seen it and that is what prompted me to switch to Wellness Core Puppy, but now I’m faced with an issue that, according to the vet, is requiring me to feed a low calcium AND low protein food. I’m just not sure what to feed because most foods have protein content of 30% or more, even the all life stages food. Earthborn Meadow Feast states no less than 26% protein , but what does that really mean? To me it means that it it is likely higher than 26%.
Another thing I find confusing is the protein content in the raw foods. For example, under the food analyisis of Primal Raw frozen, it gives a dried protein content of 47% and a protein content of 15%. What do I go by? I don’t know how to interpret that.
Sorry for all the questions, but I just want to get my dog kn the best food possible ASAP.
KarinK: look at the post above yours, that link is for the foods for large breed puppies. You will have to look through the list and see what is available on amazon and locally. Any reason you can’t order from one of the great online sites?
On your list provided of dog food, (unsure if it applies to Large Breed Puppies), I found
Blackwood, Grain Free Salmon (Puppy to Adult Formula) as well as Annamaet Salcha. Are either of these good for large breed puppies? Also, don’t see the calcium/phosphorus/protein listed on the Blackwood food. If they work, would prefer the Blackwood because of the lower protein level 28%. Please help!!!
To my previous post…I meant to say “VERY high in PROTEIN 38%, NOT calcium”…sorry.
Hello everyone, and Hound Dog Mom in particular (I’ve heard you seem to be the expert):
I was just given the link to this forum and I am thrilled to have found it. November 2nd I will be bringing home a purebreed English Labrador Retriever (8 weeks old). In the past, I have been very concious about what food I give to my dogs and have stayed away from any products having anything to do with Diamond, or any that have been recalled for one thing or another. Little by little I came across companies like Orijen, Acana and Nature Variety Limitied Ingredient (for my older dogs). I thought I’d have no problem with my new little guy with any of these foods, until I started reading more about the long term effects of calcium/phosphorus to large breed puppies. The more I read, the more confused I got. Also, I find that the really good quality foods are VERY high in calcium 38%+. At this point I am at a loss as to what to buy. I want a a natural, holistic food, grain-free that kibble that I can feed my little guy without worrying of any long-term negative effects on his health/bones…or kidneys (due to high protein).
Can someone please give me a list of 3-4 different ones (I’ve been reading that a rotating diet is best) that would be available in the Miami area or at least through Amazon.
Thanks in advance for your help!!
Koa, that is hound dog moms spread sheet on what is safe for large breed puppies. It was very helpful to me!
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwApI_dhlbnFTXhUdi1KazFzSUk/edit
GSDGuy: you can get almost any dog food you can think of delivered to your doorstep from either Chewy.com or PetFlow.com. Free shippiing at $49, I think. Chewy tends to have the better prices, PetFlow seems to have more specials.
Jumping back to my post, Koa was on Taste of the Wild puppy kibble prior to switching to Wellness Core Puppy.
Canidae large breed puppy food all life stages is there anything else like that with the title (large breed puppy food all life stages) but that I can get at petco or petsmart we don’t have almost no local pet stores here
Hey Koa,
We should probably wait for Hound Dog Mom or someone else with more knowledge on the subject. There are a lot of people on this forum who seem to know nutrition more than Vets. I could be wrong but to me it seems like a month would be a little soon for the Wellness to be the cause. What was she weened on from the breeder?
Hi all,
Need some help with picking a puppy food brand… my 5-month old boxer has trouble digesting (loose stool+occasional diarrhea). At 6 weeks of age I put him on Fromm Large Breed Puppy. After a month, decided to switch to Orijen brand, no change. I tried mixing in pumpkin, and recently did white rice diet for a few days, now re-introducing kibble. He is otherwise great, healthy weight of 40lbs at 5 months of age, full of energy, dewormed regularly. I am considering trying Wellness brand next, and Now Fresh. Also thought of doing a limited ingredient feed. It is hard to try different feeds, takes a while to introduce it, then to see if it works, then switch again… what a pain.
I feed him abt 3.5 cups of dry food daily (feeding 3x), which feels right and agrees with the feeding guidelines.
I previously had my dogs on Trader Joe’s feed, Iams etc. and they did great – lived very long and healthy lives. With this puppy I am trying to stick with the best quality, grain-free food everyone is talking about, and doesn’t seem to be working for me!
Any words of wisdom, anyone?
Thank you!!!
She has been on Wellness Core Puppy for over a month. She also gets some tripe.
Would canidae large breed/all life stages puppy food be a wise choice to buy I see its a 3 star rated food
KOA,
How long was she on Wellness? What was she eating before? If you look back in this thread Wellness should be a fine food for her and should not be the culprit. After reading this and many other studies I decided to wean my 11 newborn puppies onto Wellness CORE puppy.
Hound Dog mom, I just had xrays done on my 5 month old German Shepherd puppy beccause she was favoring her left hind leg on occasion. She has panosteitis. I have been feeding Wellness Core Puppy. The vet said I need to feed her a lower protein food, something 25% or less. What do you suggest for possible options. I prefer grain free and raw is ok too.
Hi Hound Dog Mom ( or other who know what to do )
I have decided to wean the wean the litter onto wellness core puppy. It was one of your 5 recommendations and they have been great to send puppy packs with samples for everyone. I will be rotating my dog with the NV instinct as well as Earthborn. My question is… How do I safely add sardines and eggs into their diet and my girls diet without changing the amount of calcium they will be getting. I have looked at nutritionals on sardines and it seems they do have a solid amount of calcium. Also what other raw natural foods do you think I should be adding into her diet and how do I go out about that. Obviously the base of the diet will consist of dry but I definitely want to add natural raw in as well as often as I can and as early as I can. I want to be able to have recommendations for all the new owner so they can continue these puppies on a healthy lifestyle. Thank you all for the info. This has been a great forum!
I don’t mean to derail this thread so I started another topic in the dog treats section. Can some of you who are more knowledgable than me in canine nutrition comment. Here is the thread.
/forums/topic/biostareq-k9-dog-star-fish-treats/
I have emailed the company and their formulator was very friendly and responded very quickly. He said that the ratio of phos to calcium was one to one and also the fish meal they use is free of any mercury. Any thoughts? They also has a liver meal treat.
I know my vet gave me some samples of the nutri source large feed chicken and fce to help firm my puppies stools and his stools were very good after I started mixing in the nutri source with the nv rabbit. Nutri source is definitely on my list to try again as it is very reasonably priced.
Regarding Nutrisource Large Breed Puppy, the trainer I work with told me that it was now corn free. The packaging still lists corn gluten so I called the company and they said that they HAVE REMOVED the corn/corn gluten, they just legally have 6 months for the packaging to be updated to reflect the change.
So, according to them, any package of Nutrisource Large Breed Puppy with and expiration date labeled November 2014 or later does not have the corn gluten. It is not a grain-free food as it does contain rice, but this is the next food I am planning on giving my English Setter, Annie. It is on HoundDogMom’s approved large breed puppy food list.
PS to Weber hunde: another thing I usually do for general itchiness (not necessarily rashes) I add Salmon Oil to his dinner every night. I haven’t done it in about a month or maybe longer as I was out of it and it is expensive, but I just got a LARGE bottle from Amazon (Iceland Pure), so will be starting back up tonight –
2 Questions to anyone:
1.) opinions on the Pure Vita line by Nutri Source? Was just looking at the Duck & Oatmeal, thinking it may help my itchy guy….
2.) anyone know what page of this forum I can find HDM’s list on? I’ve lost track!
Thanks all
Nutrisource is a good food and reasonably priced. It is a family owned company similar to Fromm with no recalls and I believe they’ve been in business for 50+ years. I was going to fees my dogs the nutrisource seafood select, I belive that’s the name, however my large breed dog is only 9 weeks and the calcium content was 1.9 which was way to high for her. I definitely wouldn’t rule that food out for the future though.
Weber hunde: I’m really not familiar with either of those. Months ago, with much help from this forum (!), I finally made a list of what I wanted to rotate among. Those included: Fromm (he was fed Fromm for the bulk of his 1st year, but it is too cost prohibitive for us to continue), Merrick (mixed review so far, but probably an allergy – not a knock against the food), Earthborn and Dr Tim’s. And in the back of my mind: Zignature.
Most of the choices had to do with DFA reviews, sourcing/producing in the US, ownership of company (for example Diamond brands have lots of recalls), and price point.
Long and short of it is, I really don’t know why I never included the two you ask about – I would just check on the ownership and manufacturing plants and read the reviews!
Sullys mom:
Thanks for the info. Newest development, he has broken out in a rash allover his undersides. I haven’t seen you mention Nutrisource or Wellness core. Any thoughts?
Thank you gsdmommy89 ~ I appreciate that you took the time to share your experience. Obviously, NV is a highly regarded company and they probably are taking the necessary steps, however I could just never in good conscience knowingly feed my dog a food from China. Certainly not when there are so many other choices. There have just been too many “incidents”. I’m not saying I wouldn’t feed NV, just not the rabbit.
mfulton7
i used pure canned pumpkin with my transitions. i believe pumpkin is considered prebiotic. maybe look at a prebiotic or use canned pumpkin (not the pumpkin pie cans). the transitions i have done are slowwwwww. a couple pieces for a day or two. then 25 percent of one of their meals for a day or so then 50 percent of their meal for a day or so.. and on and on. also i use a tablespoon or two of pumpkin with their meals. and their bed time crate kong treat is a frozen layer of pumpkin and peanut butter (if i use too much new food and nightly walk looks a little off)
im in the middle of doing a drtim kinesis and am up to half of her breakfast meal. her poop is kickable if that makes sense.
edit. oh yeah i forgot about our sundays which might play a factor in how our dogs are doing (we do a variant of the 5/1/1 meal plan). our dogs get a raw breakfast of venison, elk (compliments of a game locker here in our region) a baked sweet potato, cooked green beans, herring in plain water, and either a cored apple, cored pear or bannana depending on what we have that morning along with plain greek yogurt. dinner is a raw marrow bone
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This reply was modified 12 years, 7 months ago by apriliamille.
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This reply was modified 12 years, 7 months ago by apriliamille.
OT but I need some advice. I switched the dogs to Earthborn Holistic Coastal Catch from Zignature Trout & Salmon on Sunday. I’ve been use 3/4 cup of zignature to 1/4 cup of the earthborn plus I’ve been adding a probiotic to it and 2 of them are having runny stools still. Is there anything else I should or could be doing for them to make the transition easier?
To Sully and Duke:
I used to work at a pet supply store that only carries super premium and premium brand foods (i.e: Fromm, Orijen, Merrick, Nature’s Variety, ZiwiPeak, etc). I did alot of research on every brand we carried because customers have a lot of questions about food, especially people that are switching from grocery brands like Pedigree and Purina since they want to know exactly why they should spend that extra money. I use Nature’s Variety, and I too am very wary of where things come from. As for their rabbit formula, I have used it and I love it. I know it’s sourced from China, but feel confident in it because of the testing they’ve done and also because for a while they did not carry the rabbit formula in the cans or raw. I called, emailed, asked many different representatives in many different ways, and researched as to why this was. I was satisfied to know that they didn’t want to source their rabbit from just anywhere. They’d rather not have any rabbit than to have questionable suppliers. Yes, there are U.S rabbits, but if what they use now is already pricey, could you imagine the price of it if it was U.S supplied? OUCH!! This is my opinion on NV Rabbit ( I’ve used all three varieties: kibble, raw, cans) and I am a huge fan of them. Of course everyone has their own reservations, I just thought it’d be nice to share my experience.
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This reply was modified 12 years, 7 months ago by
gsdmommy89.
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This reply was modified 12 years, 7 months ago by gsdmommy89.
So, Pattyvaughn, a followup question:
If I switch to Earthborn Great Plains in an effort to figure out allergies, how do I handle treats, bones, chews, etc? We usually give quite a variety of treats when we’re training, sort of like a trail mix variety so he never knows what he’s getting. I only give top shelf, high quality, made in US treats, but still….there’s quite a mix!
Duke the Boxer: this is what they’ve told me so far:
“The rabbit protein we use in our canned and raw diets is from China. We employ a U.S. educated food scientist in China to oversee our rabbit sourcing. All rabbit protein is tested before shipment from China and again after it arrives in the U.S. for processing into our diets. We are very confident in how we handle our sourcing from China. We source most of our ingredients from the U.S. and turn to other locations only as needed. We are very stringent on our sourcing and have good relationships built with our vendors for quality ingredients.”
I replied that I was asking about the kibble and have not heard back. Personally, if the canned and raw diet rabbits are from China, I personally would likely not order the rabbit kibble….(aren’t there US rabbits??)
Hey DFA community i wanted to see what you guys thought about this treat i found.
http://biostareq.com/formulas/canine/dog-star-fish-raw-food-treats
It says its made from Menhaden fish meal which ive read that supposedly arent exposed to high levels of mercury because of their depth that they live at. Only thing i saw is that it has 9.29% ash.
Serving: Per Treat
Crude Protein (min) 33.00%
Crude Fat (min) 16.7%
Crude Fiber (max) 5.85%
Moisture (max) 10.15%
Ash (max) 9.29%
They also have a liver meal dog treat for the same price with less ash. Also i might add that my dog is a puppy american bulldog boxer mix so hes gonna be a large breed and i am worried about high ash levels.
Please let me know you results sully I didn’t even think of where they sourced it from.
To Weber Hunde: Hello, I wish I could be more helpful but we’re struggling now to find a solution! I will tell you that I once rotated to BB Freedom and in the short time Sully was on it, his stools were better than they had been, but he broke out in a terrible rash. It certainly could have been coincidence with the timing of the new food, but we got off it immediately…didn’t even finish the bag.
Now he’s eating Merrick Grain Free Beef and again, stools are the best they’ve ever been and he’s itching worse than ever. Although he’s been itching since the day we got him, he seemed the best on Fromm (both Large Breed Gold puppy and Grain Free Surf and Turf), but we’ve tried to get off of Fromm as it is really too expensive.
Earthborn Holistic Great Plains is next on our list. I’ll let you know!
Thanks, Duke. I’ve just emailed NV as I’d heard their rabbit is sourced from China. Awaiting that reply!
Dr Tim’s is on my To Try list also 🙂
Sully is your dog has no problem with foods with high protein I would really recommend the rabbit if you can catch it on sale. I’ve never seen my dookie’s coat so amazing. He also loves the taste of te nv. I think it’s cuz they have a raw freeze dried putter layer so dogs go crazy over. It was a little weird when I first gt the bag cuz the food was so black but it is how it’s suppose to be. Let me know if you have an questions about nv. I just order dr Tim’s kinesis Grain inclusive so I will be reviewing that in a couple weeks.
Good morning, all! I am new to this site, but have already found it so helpful. My request is to Sully’s mom: I too am experiencing excessive itching and biting of my two lab puppies. I have them on Blue Buffalo Wilderness Large Breed Chicken recipe. I have since changed the 3 month old’s food to BB Life Puppy with Lamb and Rice, with some success. He is still itchy, though. What food have you found has helped with this?
as an aside, he was on ivermectin for mites, which have since cleared up. Also, no people foods of any kind for either pup!
Thanks for any feedback!
GSD Guy, read this thread, somewhere here is a list of foods appropriate for large breed puppies.
Thank you Pattyvaughn! Makes a lot of sense. I’ve been looking at Earthborn and was thinking the Great Plains would be a good one to start with also. And what would you think about the Nature’s Variety lines? I had never really considered them but in this thread there are often recommendations for the Rabbit…?
I need help on adog food that helps slow growth rate ,my dogs growth problems bother him a lot and I want to know some foods that’ll help him rest easier at night :/
I must have been replying to someone whose dog sounded like it had an intolerance issue and mentioned that the dog was on Purina at some point, but I wasn’t sure if it still was. Almost all Purina foods are chicken and grain, so that would be the most likely things for the dog to develop an intolerance to. Earthborn Holistic Great Plains Feast would be a good one for you to try. Beef is a common allergy too, BTW. Look for something that has different protein and starch from what he was itching on. When you find a food that works for him, give him some time to get over ALL symptoms, then start adding single ingredients to his food to see if he starts reacting to them.
Pattyvaughn, a few pages back you made a comment about ‘dogs who were on Purina avoid chicken and all grains like the plague’ May I ask you to elaborate? My lab is now 15 mos old. When we got him at 7 weeks, the breeder was feeding him Purina Puppy Chow (!). We kept him on if for only a couple of weeks more, than transitioned to Fromm Large Breed Gold Puppy. Now we’re on a rotation: we went from the Fromm LB Gold Puppy, to Fromm GF Surf and Turf and now we’re on a bag of Merrick GF Beef. I believe he has allergies. He is itchy all the time, and biting and chewing himself. Trying to decide what to rotate to next. Earthborn? Nature’s Variety Rabbit (could only get it when on sale)?
Curious why you mentioned about Purina and chicken and grains….
Thank you!
Duncan, if it works, sign up for emails at wag.com, Petflow.com and chewy.com. I find the last two to usually be cheaper than PFD.
Thanks, Pattyvaughn! I just looked at InkedMarie’s list and printed out. I found Nature’s Variety Instinct grain-free chicken on sale at petfooddirect.com for $50.99 (free shipping with code), so I just bought a bag to give it a try. I think I’ll try Earthborn’s Meadowfeast next. Thank you for all the suggestions!
4 months ago
