[Haley F]

Hello! I am getting my first corgi puppy in August and after quite a bit of research I have narrowed down my list of potential food to three different brands. If anyone has used one of these specific formula’s I’d love to hear your opinion and how your dog did on the food.

Fromm
-Gold: Large Breed Puppy
-4 Star Nutritionals: Chicken A La Veg
-4 Star Nutritionals: Duck & Sweet Potato

Wellness
-Complete: Large Breed Puppy

Horizon
-Complete: Large Breed Puppy
-Complete: All Life Stages
-Pulsar: Chicken

[aquariangt]

Haley-glad you popped over to the forum side, I remember your post from reviews-its sometimes a bit easier to get comparisons like this over here.

As far as my opinion goes: I love Fromm, Dani eats the 4 star grain free in rotation, and Liesl eats Gold and a few of the grain inclusives do to some food intolerances. Fantastic company. With their grain inclusives especially (and to an extent the gf) the protein levels can be a bit low so I supplement with toppers

Wellness is a good brand with a lot of variety in it. I use the CORE on occasion. I’ve never used Horizon. Rotation is best though, so I would say-go with all three!

[jakes mom]

why large breed food? what am I missing here, I don’t consider a corgi a large dog. Good brands, tho.

[Anonymous]

“Dwarfism is defined as underdevelopment of the body, or the state of being short in stature. Most dwarf dogs have a condition called “osteochondrodysplasia,” which refers to an abnormality in the growth and development of bone, cartilage, or both. Dwarfism almost always affects the long bones of all four of a dog’s legs. Some breeds, like Dachshunds and Corgis, have been selectively bred to be genetic dwarfs; they have skeletal defects in their legs, and sometimes in their skulls and spines, but these abnormal conformational traits are considered desirable” excerpt from:
http://www.petwave.com/Dogs/Health/Dwarfism.aspx

Corgi’s tend to put weight on easily, they need a decent amount of daily exercise, they are really more like big dogs with short legs.
People tend to think of them as small/medium dogs. I didn’t find this to be the case, the one I had, had a German Shepherd personality.
She was a beautiful dog, but the most challenging to train, and she did not like other dogs.

[Pitlove]

Hi Haley-

I have fed Fromm and I like Wellness. I too prefer their CORE line. Only problem with Wellness is their recent addition of Green Tea Extract which has been known to cause liver toxicity in dogs.

I do a rotational diet as well along with canned foods. It allows me to feed a variety of foods and its helped my dog become interested in food again. I would feed all three if I were you. Get medium size bags and then switch with the next bag or use a variety of proteins within one line. Fromm has a variety of lines to choose from as well.

Feeding a rotational diet aids in maintaining a healthy stomach, avoiding allergies to one specific protein or carb source, gives your dog variety, helps keep him interested in food and prevents the adverse effects of feeding one food for too many years. Its also really fun to pick out what food your dog is going to eat next!

I used to get very hung up on having to feed only grain free, but now since he doesnt eat grain inclusive foods for long enough for them to have any bad reactions (grains can be inflammatory for some dogs) I can feed a wider variety of foods.

• This reply was modified 10 years, 5 months ago by Pitlove.

[DogFoodie]

I’ve used Horizon (Legacy, Pulsar and Amicus) and love their products.

I agree with Aquariangt, is definitely use all these brands in rotation!

Congrats on the puppy!! Corgis are so darn cute, especially the babies. 🙂

[Haley F]

Ive been thinking about rotating foods, but i’m worried it will upset her stomach. When rotating, do you transition into each food a little at a time or do you just switch to a new food right away?

[aquariangt]

Depends on the dog. The first couple times transitioning you can start blending a little at a time in. After 1-2 transitions you can probably just go cold turkey. The only time I mix is if I don’t have enough kibble for a full meal and I mix a bit of the next bag. Otherwise I open up, and use the new bag.

[jakes mom]

I don’t have any trouble with my dog, either. Finish one bag and start the next. If your pup has a sensitive tummy, tho, you can add some probiotics or digestive supplements to help with any GI trouble short term. There’s a whole forum on supplements here.

[Pitlove]

I think starting out by blending the foods is a good idea. His/Her stomach will let you know how well he/she is tolerating the way you are blending and how much time you are giving the transition. Some dogs need 7 days, some need more, some like Aquariangt mentioned can go to the next food cold turkey. Thats how my dog is, but he wasnt always like that. Took a little time to fix his stomach from feeding him Blue Buffalo for a few months.

[Anonymous]

Hmmm…. if your dog becomes sick, GI upset, salmonella, diarrhea, how will you know which food caused it? If it was a bad batch of dog food?
It can often take up to 3 days or so for a dog to react to bad food.

I prefer to stick with one food that agrees with them and add different sources of protein to liven it up.

[aquariangt]

If I finished an entire bag of food, switched, and then had upset, I’m going to pretty safely assume it was the new food. I buy a 4-6 lb (depending on brand) bag of food for each of them, they don’t eat the same food) and it takes a few weeks to go through it

[Pitlove]

So if I as a human get GI upset or food poisoning does that mean I stop eating different foods and eat nothing but chicken and rice for the rest of my life? No. I dont know about everyone else, but I buy medium size bags that last a couple months and switch when I’m done with that bag. I don’t feed different dry foods every meal, so I would be able to tell if my dog was getting an upset stomach from the food I was feeding.

[Author]

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