What dog food?

[jl1966]

I recently was fortunate enough to have a golden retriever come into my life, she is 4 years old and her name is Betty. I got her from a guy who kept her in a kennel constantly. He got her for his little girl, and once the girl lost interest the dog stayed in the kennel. Anyway, she now has a 3 acre fenced yard to run, roll, and do all the stuff dogs do. When we first got her the wife was not sure about her, and I was afraid either the dog, me, or my wife was gonna have to go. we have all that ironed out now and I am still married, and the pooch is part of the family now. The question is what is a good all around food for her. We started out with a big bag of Wal-Mart Ol Roy food. The vet said that was maybe not the best stuff, not nutritionally dense enough. She suggested something by Purina, like ONE, or pro plan, or something by Iams. She is not really going to be a hunting dog, just a pet, intruder alerter dog. This is the first dog I have had in awhile, we moved to a bigger place about a year ago, and I have been looking for the right dog for awhile. When I was a kid we fed all the dogs Purina dog chow, coon dogs, rabbit dogs, bird dogs, and pets, all got the dog chow. Of course we also used to carry whichever dog was in service that day in the trunk of the car, dad didn't have a truck, and did not believe in coddling a dog. Anyway what do you all feed your dogs. The requirement is that it has to be easily available and not outrageously expensive, no vet only food, or doggy gourmet stuff please.
Thanks.

[Doc E]

It kind of depends on how hard the dog is going to work and if they are a house dog or an outdoor dog (espicially in the winter).

Hard working dogs need at least 30% Protein and 20% Fat in their food. "House dogs" can get by with 24% P and 14% F (give or take a couple %). If a dog is kenneled outdoors in the winter, a higher Fat level is needed.

I feed my dog Eagle Pack Power Formula.

If you want to do some "research", go to www.doberdogs.com and look through the "dog food comparison charts".

BTW, the Ol' Roy bag probably has better nutrition than the contents. ;)

As far as "Expense"..........It's NOT the price of the bag that counts, it's the cost per day. If you feed a junk product that's $0.50 per pound, and you feed 2 pounds a day --------- or you feed a premium food that's $1.00 per pound and you feed a pound a day, the expense is the same. With a premium food, not only is your dog getting optimal nutrition, but you only have 1/3 as much poop to clean up.

[icequeen]

Both of my dogs are on Iams food. It's not much more expensive than Purina and it's a better quality food far as I'm concerned. Whatever food you decide to use make sure you get Large Breed. Goldens are considered a large breed and they get just the right stuff they need from the proper food for large breed dogs.

Good thing Iams has a good variety of stuff for different groups of dogs. Got a Giant Breed pup and a Large Breed senior citizen. :D

[gspsonny03]

So far you've had sound advice. Eagle Brand is one of the best if not the best dog food on the market. I wish we had a distributor here in Gillette. I also agree with his comment on Ol' Roy, bad stuff. I feed Canidae, a very good food. Iams, Eukanuba and Purina are also very good, but as Doc said pick one with the protein and fat content for what your dog will be doing, and good luck with your choice.

[Nulle]

National and Diamond are good foods also.

[fabsroman]

The advice that you have received so far is pretty sounds. I tried to find National and Diamond foods in my neck of the woods, but they weren't too readily available. So, I continued feeding my lab Iams Large Breed.

Now, my girlfriend works at Target and with her employee discount I get a 40 lb. bag of Iams for somewhere just over $20. If I ever get my townhouse finished and start hunting hard over the winter, I will probably switch to Eukanuba High Performance or it might be called Pro Performance. That food has a little more protein and fat in it for when the dogs are working hard. Based upon what you have written, it doesn't look like you will need this $35+ a bag dog food.

[jl1966]

$35 a bag! No, I think not. I think I will stick with a Purina product,they have been feeding various critters for a long time. This is my pooch, her name is Betty. She looks evil here, but it is just a bad picture.

[Lilred]

I was in Wal Mart 3 weeks ago, and I was lookin at their prices on the dog food..noticed I could git Pedigree fer 14$ a 44 lb bag.
So I been feedin my dogs that fer the past 3 weeks now, and I caint complain none. They look real good, and on average, they are poopin twice a day.
I think i'm stickin to it :D

[DogYeller]

I put Gus on Diamond (15$ a bag) the day I brought him home, at 7 weeks. He's almost 2 years now and weighed 85 lbs about a month ago.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/Lazysob/Gus002.jpg

[Doc E]

Originally posted by Doc E

As far as "Expense"..........It's NOT the price of the bag that counts, it's the cost per day. If you feed a junk product that's $0.50 per pound, and you feed 2 pounds a day --------- or you feed a premium food that's $1.00 per pound and you feed a pound a day, the expense is the same. With a premium food, not only is your dog getting optimal nutrition, but you only have 1/3 as much poop to clean up.

[Lilred]

I see yer point Doc, but wether yer food is good ner bad, I couldnt see givin any dog the "all-you-can-eat buffet".
A dog's ration should be set as such first, and then you can see the diff. in dog foods.
Fer instance, if my dog does better with brand x on 1 scoop a day vs. brand y on 1 scoop per day, then I would certainly go with brand x. Then yer price per bag comes into play.

If you dont have a set ration per day, I can see where someone would feed him/her more thinkin that it would help..but that would be cause they aint done much homework. I think most folks in general do know better than that.

[Jabba]

I fed Ol'Roy for years. Everyone seemed to do OK.

The new dog I have on Diamond and he does real well on that too.

I need a new pic to post. All mine are over a year old.

Jabba

[Nulle]

I fed Ol'Roy for quite some time and with running the animal Shelter I came across a heck of a deal on 1,000 pounds of National and Diamond feed and tried that on the dogs we get in.
The amount of "discharge" from these dogs was fantastic as the waste was cut in half and the portions we needed to feed was less.

[Bullseye]

Doc makes some good points. I think it does make a difference if you have a working dog or just a pet. If you have spent a fair amount of money on the dog and time or money on training, the price of the dog food really isn't the issue. I have had my springer on Biljac since she was almost a year old. I did some research and decided on Biljac. It is not cheap, but in the end I feel you get what you pay for. We will hunt upland game birds sometimes 8-9 hours in a day covering as many as 15 miles (what I walk, not what the dog does) and feel I want her to be in the best shape possible. Part of this performance is the food, the rest is insuring that the dog is in prime condition for hunting, not 20# overweight.

[GSP x2]

I agree with Doc. I have a kennel of GSP's. I think that is true it depends on what you are doing with your dogs. Pets can live and do well on a lower quality food like Ol Roy. I tried feeding it just to see if I could tell a difference. My dogs coats went flat. No extra oil no shine and lost a lot of color. Some people would say that's ok. I also show my dogs and they would never win a show if fed ol roy. I also like to support companies like Purina that support hunting test and dog shows. One last thing is I always look at the first ingredient if its meat that is better then corn.

[Hi Ball]

Lots of opinions on what you ought to feed your dog!

Well, I raised Labs 30 years ago and they did great as hunting dogs on the lower dollar dog foods. Although I also supplemented their diets with meat scraps & fat from big game animals and fish as well.

Now I have GSP's and they don't get fed just one type of dog food, no sir. I don't rely upon the dog food makers to have their product be perfect every time I go to buy it at the feed store. Instead I feed 4 different brands of dog food to my dogs. They are as follows:

Purina Pro Plan, Iams, Diamond Puppy, Diamond "sporting dog" each dog ration is made up from 25% of each of the above feeds.

I have our pups on a ration of 33% of the above and leave out the Diamond "sporting dog" food.

A friend of mine who became a Vet years ago, told me that I only had to really concern myself with the amount of protein and fat in the dog food. In the winter I like my running dogs to get plenty of fat to ward off the effects of those cold days. I also supplement that food with 10% pure animal fat. We also worm our dogs every 4 and 6 weeks to rid them of the parasites.

[rugerss]

You might want to check out Flint River (http://www.flintriver.com/), I know my dogs love it and it's delivered right to your door!