[Rick W]

Thanks Susan. Interesting recommendation about the level of kcal and a sensitive stomach. Our 7 month old Goldendoodle has bouts of bad stool but then comes around with pumpkin added. We finally landed on NutriSource grain free large breed puppy but the whole kcal question got me wondering.

Any chance there is a list out there that sorts by large breed puppy and kcal per cup??

Thanks again

Rick

[Rick W]

I stumbled across what some might consider a “hole in the wall” pet shop but inside that shop was a couple whose passion are your pets and solving riddles like what we were dealing with. When I described everything to her, she put our dog on a different food with different supplements. By the way, I forgot to mention above that he was dealing with bad eye drainage too which I didn’t know was relevant until she asked. Bottom line?? We think he is allergic to chicken and everything we were feeding him had chicken in it. We are now on a the large breed puppy food from NutriSource whose main proteins are turkey and whitefish. It’s grain-free as well. She also changed his probiotic from ProPlan version to a brand called Herbsmith. The specific probiotic is Microflora Plus. Last, we were giving him canned pumpkin and she suggested a more concentrated version (dehydrated) that we sprinkle on his food. The brand is Super Snouts and the product is called Pumpkin Latte. It’s a mixture of pumpkin and whole goat’s milk.

Soon after switching over, he was much better and he no longer has all that drainage in his eyes. Glad we found her!

All that said…we just had another bout of diarrhea over the past few days, but we also had a training session which required lots of treats so we need to evaluate what was in those treats because nothing else has changed. It’s always something…

[Rick W]

I forgot I didn’t provide this group an update. I wanted to let everyone know that we solved the riddle in case others are needing the same help. I stumbled across what some might consider a “hole in the wall” pet shop but inside that shop was a couple whose passion are your pets and solving riddles like what we were dealing with. When I described everything to her, she put our dog on a different food with different supplements. By the way, I forgot to mention above that he was dealing with bad eye drainage too which I didn’t know was relevant until she asked. Bottom line?? He is allergic to chicken and everything we were feeding him had chicken in it. We are now on a the large breed puppy food from NutriSource whose main proteins are turkey and whitefish. It’s grain-free as well. She also changed his probiotic from ProPlan version to a brand called Herbsmith. The specific probiotic is Microflora Plus. Last, we were giving him canned pumpkin and she suggested a more concentrated version (dehydrated) that we sprinkle on his food. The brand is Super Snouts and the product is called Pumpkin Latte. It’s a mixture of pumpkin and whole goat’s milk.

Soon after switching over, he was much better and he no longer has all that drainage in his eyes. Glad we found her!

[Rick W]

We are going to call on Monday and get her to see him. Better safe than sorry!

[Rick W]

I agree. I don’t think surgery was the cause…just happened at the same time. Strange part was when we reintroduced it last night, the diarrhea came back. Vet said to feed very bland until there are 2-3 days straight of normal stools and then slowly reintroduce food.

Thanks for all the assistance!

[Rick W]

Hi Pitlove,

Zero pain meds. He never even messed with the point of surgery. No cone or anything.

[Rick W]

Thanks. We were going to go ahead and reach out today. It’s just so strange that the upset stomach symptoms happen immediately after eating the kibble but not anything else. Thanks for the suggestion! If we figure something out, I’ll keep this thread posted.

[Rick W]

Well, in full disclosure, I should have said we WILL be using Fromm’s Gold line which is not grain-free. We are finishing up a bag of Fromm’s Heartland Large Breed Puppy which IS grain-free. We will see if he responses differently to that but that’s the direction we will try to go. Sorry for the slightly inaccurate info. In my head we had already switched. 😂

[Rick W]

Here is where I landed but still tweaking the details. For kibble, we are going to feed Fromm’s Gold Large Breed Puppy until he he gets old enough for the next thing but I’ll probably stay in the Fromm’s line. This is not grain-free. Lots of debate about that issue. I finally was told that you really only need to worry about grain-free if you are seeing your puppy react adversely to grains. So, not worrying about that is certainly beneficial to the wallet. I’m using that savings to put a few Northwest Naturals freeze dried nuggets in his bowl each meal for variety and additional protein since Fromm’s is a little light on protein. I bought a couple cans of the Fromm’s wet food that was large breed appropriate, but his stomach did like even a little bit of it mixed in the kibble. Might try it again, but not worth upsetting his stomach.

That’s it for now. This is a great forum and I have learned a ton…especially the issue with calcium in large breed puppies. Thanks!

[Rick W]

Thanks Tyla. What do you use for a topper?

[Rick W]

Well, I’m up to page 3 of page 48…

I have a 4 month old Goldendoodle (F1B if that matters). He seems to be doing just fine on Fromm’s Heartland Large Breed Puppy formula but I haven’t calculated calcium levels yet. Now that it’s almost 5 years later from some of the very informative posts, what’s the most recent thinking/recommendations for kibble? I agree that Fromm’s is pricey so I’m all for cost effectiveness.

Thanks! Enjoying reading the dialogue.

Rick

[Rick W]

Thanks for the suggestion on grain-free. Our previous goldendoodle needed grain free so I just assumed it was best to start that way. Certainly would be more cost effective if we didn’t do grain free.

Actually, Fromm also has a regular (not grain free) large breed puppy food that is also 3.5% Max fiber. I’ll take a look at Precise as well. Farmina caught my eye but it’s pretty expensive.

By the way, the breeder didn’t have food in the contract. I double checked after you mentioned it. Have a great day and thanks for the conversation.

[Rick W]

Thanks! The breeder uses Life Abundance. It’s a direct marketing company. I just assumed that there was better options out there. I’ll look at other brands and check fiber content unless you have some suggestions regarding food with less fiber.

Thanks!

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