Home Forums Birds & Dogs Hunting Dogs Puppy Food - Too Many Choices

Recommend a dry food for my 18 week old Basset-Lab mix. He weighs 27 lbs. now.
So much conflicting info on the 'net:
Some say all meat, no grain.
Others (including vets) say grain is needed for heart health.

The rescue group we adopted him from use 4Health, from Tractor Supply (probably for the lower price), and he likes it, but I want to upgrade.
My last dog, a Lab, thrived for 13 years on ProPlan, until cancer laid him low.
What works for you?

Ya know what, feed him what you can afford to feed him, won't kill him and probably won't even make it sick. Really get's old hearing about all these super foods that are gonna make the doge live three more days! When I've had pup's here I always started them out on purina puppy chow. Before long mom was eating the puppy chow and they were eating her food! Go figure. Had only one food I tried over the years that just didn't work. Saw the dogs lose stamina but other than that they managed to survive on it. Best food I ever fed was Biscuit but not around any more. It was baked food and every dog I fed it to, when turning them over to it, would pick it out of the bowl and leave the old food. One thing I believe is absolutely true. Food that is not good for dogs they simply won't eat!

Makes sense.
Thanks for the reply.

Whatever my wife gets from the Tractor Supply and basically 1/2 what's on my plate is what our dogs get...

Ditto but the dog's half is more than half, four of hem!

Hills Science is great puppy food, all my dogs get Turkey low sodium hot dogs supplemented with Hills Science dog food. No dog food will have as much protein as meat.

I tried the 4Health when it first came out, switching from Purina One. Had to feed more of the 4Health to maintain the same weight, so went back to Purina One.

I’ve had all our pups and adult dogs on the Kirkland dog foods. My daughter formulates pet foods for a living, and tells me it’s about as good as it gets in a dry kibble.

https://www.inukshukpro.com/inukshuk-3025

A buddy and I split a pallet of this about twice a year. We sell what we don’t use. It’s been great food for my Drahts. My male who is around 70 lbs I feed about 2 1/4 cups per day. During hunting season it increases slightly to around 2 3/4 to 3 cups. My female gets a little less as she’s around 55-60 lbs and again, increased during hunting season. Neither of them have ever been skinny and I’ve been amazed at their recovery time after some brutal days afield from August through March. I used to feed Pro Plan but that got too expensive. Splitting a pallet it costs right around $45.00 per 34 lb bag.

Just switched from Taste of the Wild smoked salmon puppy formula to Diamond Large Breed Puppy formula with lamb,rice, and guaranteed probiotics 80 million CFU/lb. Holy crap my 4 month Lab went from being itchy with a dry looking coat to scratch free and oiled up coat in 2 days. Never seen anything like it! Alot of breeders around these parts are using Diamond (NOT BLUE Diamond) and Victor puppy feed. Believe I'm paying about $50 out the door 40lb bag. Saving about $12 and getting 12 more pounds of food! Couldn't be happier at this point.

Mine barely tolerated Taste of the Wild. No issues, they just more or less only sampled it. And without much enthusiasm. Went back to ProPlan.

Costco Kirkland is Diamond.

For whatever reason, the wife's Dobie thrives on Kirkland chicken and rice, and doesn't tolerate the Diamond version, so there are some differences. My dogs eat a lot of their diet on the farm scavenging stuff I mostly don't want to know about..... lol. They do fine on either version.

Well all be damned. Good to know I have heard from others Kirkland is good to go.

Those are two fine looking dogs!

Costco Kirkland is made by Diamond. That's not saying they are the same, only that they are made in the same plant.

Disagree on it doesn't matter. Try feeding Olde Roy from Walmart. They'll eat 2x as much, crap 4x, and probably succumb to pancreatis in short order. Vet told me its nothing but meal soaked with chicken fat so they'll eat it. I suspect a lot of others not much better

I picked up my lab pup a month a go. The breeder had the bitch and litter on Diamond puppy chow. Getting ready to bring.her home I bought the wrong food got Bue Diamond puppy. Spendy stuff 40 bucks for 15.lbs. so I bought the Diamond to correct that. Got her home and fed the Diamond at the recommended level and amount. Stools seemed plenty loose. After a week of the same I started mixing the 2 kinds 50/50. Pup started making authentic looking turd piles. 7lbs to 20 in a month growing like a weed.

Are you guys referring to Blue Buffalo as Blue Diamond? Or is there actually a Blue Diamond brand?

Yeah whitetail, blue buffalo Co. Puppy formula chicken and brown rice recipe.mb