[Katie G]

My little family is getting a sweet little Goldendoodle puppy in a couple weeks. He will be between 40-50 lbs full grown, not sure how big he is now at almost 6.5 weeks (still with breeder and mama). I have heard Doodle mixes have sensitive tummy’s? Anyway, I have been looking at grain free dry and wet dog foods, pouring over reviews on dogadviors.com and other websites. I think the breeder has the pups on Kirkland brand puppy food but I plan to switch our pup as soon as he comes home, just because I have heard doodles do better with grain free? There are great reviews for Nulo, Merrick, Canidae, Pawtree etc. But any recommendations for Goldendoodles specifically?

[David R]

We have had great results with Muenster’s Perfect Balance All Life Stages for kibble and Merrick’s 96% pork for canned food for our 7 month old Goldendoodle. Both can be mail ordered with free shippping.

[aquariangt]

There is nothing necessarily breed specific needed here. You do need to feed a large breed appropriate food, and in Canine Nutrition, there is a giant thread with tons of information about it. Read the links in the first 3-4 pages, skip to page 35/36 and get Hound Dog Mom’s most recent document on large breed accepted foods

[Pitlove]

All dogs no matter what breed in order to maintain proper weight and dietary needs as long as they are healthy with no known medical conditions usually do best on a food that is high in protein, moderate in fat, and low in carbs.

I’m sure if you gave us more info as to your situation (e.g income, how much access you have to pet stores, do they have a wide selection, do you prefer to order online) we could help you out a lot better.

Yes, typically canines do better with a grain free food, however, like most people on this site who are regulars will tell you, just because it’s grain free does not mean it’s species appropriate for a dog. A lot of companies that have gotten on the “grain free” bandwagon have replaced the corn, soy, wheat and rice in their foods, with high carbs like potatoes into order to bind the food together. So you need to pay close attention that the protein is not less than the carbs and the fat % is not too high either. Also, you need to pay attention to where the protein source is coming from. For example, a food that has 30% protein but you don’t see a whole meat or meat meal listed as the first second and third ingredients. That means they are using plant based proteins, which are not species appropriate protein sources as dogs are carnivores.

A few brands that meet these needs that are not avaliable at a commercial pet store like Petco would be Orijen, Acana, Wysong. Some brands that commercial stores do carry are Merrick, Nature’s Variety and Wellness CORE.

These are just ones I can think off the top of my head and that are apart of my dogs rotation. Most of us also use a canned wet food for the added moisture content and many people on here do raw homemade meals too. However if you think about going that route please do your research on how to create a balanced raw diet for a dog before just slapping together some chicken and veggies and calling that a meal.

edit: here’s the direct link to the google.doc aquariangt was talking about
https://docs.google.com/a/selu.edu/file/d/0BwApI_dhlbnFTXhUdi1KazFzSUk/edit
these are foods that have the proper calcium levels for large breed puppies

• This reply was modified 9 years, 6 months ago by Pitlove.
• This reply was modified 9 years, 6 months ago by Pitlove.

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