[Shasta220]

I’m getting a chocolate lab pup tomorrow to take care of for 2 weeks. Initially, I was severely dreading it because I saw a bag of Beneful in the house. Luckily that is /not/ what they feed her. She’s on Purina Pro Plan……still a very severely overpriced food for it’s 2.5 star quality, but I think I can survive for 2 weeks of it lol!

I know all of Purina is garbage…..but at least it’s not Beneful or Dog Chow *sighs*

[Naturella]

… or Kibbles ‘N’ Bits… yuck!

The hubs and I had left our Bruno with the people who gave him to us for a day once, with some of his food (4-4.5-star at the time, I think it was Nutro Natural Choice Small Breed Puppy), and when we went to collect him, we got a puppy, who had feasted on whatever they feed their dogs, Purina One I think, and that is what he used to eat while with them. I doubt they even opened the sandwich bag of Nutro we sent with him. Which would’ve been fine if they had fed a better food than we did, lol! And nothing happened to Bruno, I mean, he had been eating that for a month or so of his life anyway, it was just so funny because he had GORGED on it – he looked and felt noticeably “fat” – his belly was so full, lol!

But yeah, I don’t know if you should mess with what they are feeding their pup… EVEN if it were Beneful or some other crap (it would make me shiver every time I give the poor baby a serving though)… I guess, if you want to suggest a better food for them, you can maybe tell them this: “Your pup got in my other dogs’ food a few times, he seemed to like it a lot, and I have done a lot of research on dog food and it seems that it would be more nutritionally-appropriate for the puppy than Purina Pro Plan because a, b, c. …” This way, you COULD get away with feeding it a little better food if that is what you want… And if she will take it.

[Shasta220]

I probably won’t give the pup more than maybe a few Kibbles of my food as training rewards (even though they buy a different flavor of PPP and are giving me several bags for treats), as I’ve heard some horrid stories of dogs who went from a 2 star food to a 4-5 star and got terribly sick. I may drop a bug of this site in their ears though…

Too funny about Bru Bru! I wonder if dogs sometimes like the cheaper stuff the way people often like hot dogs and McDonalds… Like my cat even! She’s a picky lil thing, and I’ve barely been able to get her consistently eating Felidae, CS, and NB canned. I had a can of dirt-cheap food (it was in the pantry from several years ago. Before I knew anything about animal nutrition, mom used it to put our 17yr old cat’s meds in) out for something (NOT for the cat!). I turned around, and Maddy was pigging out on it….did I forget to mention her bowl was freshly filled with Felidae? *face palm*

[Naturella]

Carlyn, I see. Yeah, I have given my roommate’s dog a few kibbles of Bruno’s food here and there as a training treat and it took her a minute to eat them, which is so odd, cause it is a much better food (I use Victor GF mixed kibbles and Nature’s Variety Instinct Rabbit – all from samples – as training treats for Bruno, as well as his actual kibble, which right now is Earthborn Holistic Coastal Catch with Victor Yukon Salmon and Vets Choice Holistic Health Extension Original). So eventually she ate it, but yeah, I try to not give too much because I am not sure how she would be. She has eaten SD her whole life, switching between the chicken and lamb as protein (at least there has been SOME rotation), and he gives her some chewy fish-based treats (yay fish!), so she has been exposed to that too, so I think she is ok with having a tiny kibble here and there as a treat, especially because her particular SD formula is 3.5 stars, so not terribly bad (Earthborn Holistic CC is 4.5, Holistic Health Extension Original is 4, and the Victor GFs and the Nature’s Variety Instinct are 5, but are all mixed, so it evens out to like 4.5-ish). And I think the lab pup should be ok with a kibble here and there too.

But, I do agree animals sometimes tend to go for the lower-quality food – it took the roommate’s dog forever to try a kibble of Bru’s better food, and I have caught him eating her SD Lamb&Rice a few times, that idiot… So yeah, it probably is like “yummy fast food” to them, idk… lol

[theBCnut]

Yes, they add things to poorer kibbles to make them more palatable, just one more reason to hate those companies.

[Shasta220]

Although my boy is way too smart. Before I could afford buying my own dog food, the dogs were on FMV and dog Chow…Shasta got used to chow, but that FMV? He’d go for 3 days without eating. I was so mad (not at him…I was glad he didn’t eat!). The other dogs gobbled it up like any other food.

I probably will go ahead and give a few of my kibbles to the pup. I remember my lab….I didn’t realize that slow transitions are so vital when I did switch her. She went from dog chow and SD to Dog lovers gold (4 star) in under a week. Luckily she had no health problems at all, only got better and better.

[Naturella]

theBCnut, I figured so, cause it took a while for the other dog to decide to try a healthy kibble, but Bruno would go and steal SD, or whatever, no problem… Grrr, bad companies…

Carlyn, you’re lucky Shasta was “food smart”, lol! 🙂 And I do hope the little lab’s parents check this website out and do switch her to something better than Purina Pro Plan. 🙂 Maybe she will develop a taste for better kibble thanks to you! 🙂

[Author]

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