Eukanuba Puppy- Large Breed? Iams- Smart Puppy? THoughts, good the bad the ugly?

If you want a "puppy" food, I would recommend (to name a few):

Innova Puppy (www.naturapet.com) **If you go to this website, it has a store locater on it that can help you find a store near you that carries it*
California Natural Puppy (www.naturapet.com) * ^
Canidae All Life Stages (www.canidae.com) * ^
Eagle Pack Holistic (www.eaglepack.com) **Note: I would only recommend the Holistic chicken & rice b/c it has enough protein for a puppy--or the Large Breed formula if you do have a large breed
Natural Balance ("original" formula) **Petco
Solid Gold Puppy (I believe you can get this at Petco)
Royal Canin Puppy (can be found at Petsmart and Petco)
Sensible Choice Puppy (Petco)
Castor & Pollux foods (Petco)

**To educate yourself on how to read and interpret dog food labels, please visit [linkhttp://www.dogfoodproject.com%C2%A0]www.dogfoodproject.com [/link]

**I also want to add that you don't really need a food that says "puppy."  Most high quality foods are suitable for all life stages.  This means it has enough protein, fat, vitamins and minerals to support a growing puppy, and it exceeds the recommendations for maintenence w/ adult dogs.

Hope this helps

ORIGINAL: butterfly7311

THX! Are these foods I can purchase at the local pet store/petsmart or petco? I dont want to have to mail order stuff you know? And it has to be puppy food as Bella is a puppy and so is Beau. I am so confused on what to give them.

No. But look through the yellow pages in your phone book. Look up dog groomers (a lot of groomers sell dog food) and/or pet food stores, call and see if they sell any of those foods.

The link [linkhttp://www.dogfoodproject.com]www.dogfoodproject.com[/link] isnt working.

Some feed stores also carry some of the food listed above.

ORIGINAL: butterfly7311
We went with these strictly because it is what they were eating when we got them, didnt want to switch it on them. Charlie and Bella have soft stool sometimes and other times is dry.... periodic softer stood though, is it possible that they are getting too much fiber from this? What is a good brand I can get at say Petsmart for them and how should I go about switching it?

 
     From my own experience, I've found Eukanuba's puppy foods to be the best. The softer stools followed by firm ones can be due to the fact that it is a very nutrient dense feed, regardless of what its reputation may be. What do the pups weigh & how many cups per day are they eating? My pups eating Euk eat quite a bit less than when on other premium diets. Currently, I have a litter of seven 5 week old Beagle pups on Eukanuba small breed puppy - the entire litter (not indivigual pups) are eating 3.5 -4 cups daily. If I increase the amonts before they're ready to take on more food, I do notice the softer stools followed by firmer ones. Their dam is maintaining a good weight on 2.5 cups. And my 7 month old Beagle puppy bitch is eating 1 cup daily.
     Funny story ... a few weeks ago, a "dog friend" who feeds and sells Flint River Ranch approached me about purchasing her food in bulk, since she knows I have several dogs. Her main selling point was that to offset the high cost of the food, I would in turn be feeding less than I was now on horrible "Pukanuba". I'm always open to new ventures, so I inquired for more information. The protein levels in their Adult & Pup food - quite frankly - sucked, and the feeding guidelines she gave me listed higher amounts of food than I was feeding now. Her shih tzus were consuming more than my 15" (25+lb.) Beagles!!!
     Anyway, if possible stick with the Large Breed puppy food. Its one of the best non gimmick Lg breed foods because the actual calciumhos ratio has been tweaked to promote even growth.
     Off my soap box now, lol [sm=soap%20box.gif]

Charlie and Bella are on Iams Smart Puppy Small Breed. They both weigh 14 lbs and I have to be honest I eyeball what I feed them as I know ho much they will eat. They dont eat until its all gone if given too much. 

Beau is on Eukanuba Large breed puppy formula. He has 1-2 cups with 1-2 tbsp of canned Euk. food and warm water (this is what they directed us to do when we got him. He doesnt always finish it. He has this twice a day with a inch of vitamin supplement paste.

I should also add that I dont/wont need to keep increasing Bella/Charlie;s portions as Charlie is 1 1/2 years and Bella is 10 months, both staying at their same weight of 14lbs.
 
Beau on the other hand will needless to say be increasing as he grows. He is 10 weeks, 1 day old now and bigger than the other two. He goes to the vet tomorrow for his first exam with us so we will see what his weight is.

ORIGINAL: Firestorm
Butterfly this will end up a heated topic.
I like Purina products...they have worked well with my dogs in comparison to "premium brands" but this is my experience.  I am sure many others will tell you how horrible Purina and the other non premium brands are.
Not easy having a dog with a sensitive stomach and who cannot process the premiums. 

As far is it becoming heated, it would help if you didn't instigate it. [:@]

As far as my opinion on Eukanuba, there are better foods out there you can try, especially if there are soft stools.  I really like Innova and Natural balance.  My dog gets soft stools easily and they are nice and firm on these two.  But you can't get those at Petsmart.  Maybe try Blue Buffalo - arguably the best food that Petsmart sells. 

They are very good foods which many dogs do very well on.

It sounds like you need a good all life stages formula. No need to mess with small/large breed or even puppy food at all.

Also, Papillons suggestions are excellent.

My sister fed Eukanuba Large Breed Puppy to both of her Danes and they did very, very well on it. The Euk and the Iams are made by the same company, but Iams isn't really as good. But if it's working for our little guys, I'd stick with it unless you find another food that appeals to you.

I totally relate with Urban Beagles story! Eukanuba gets compared to Science Diet, Iams or Purina but I've had much better results with Eukanuba than any of those other brands. My sister started feeding Eukanuba about 14 years ago when she became a vet tech. There wasn't nearly as many premium foods then as there are today (especially in our rural area) and after a lot of research she chose Eukanuba. Since then, she's tried several other premiums over the years and hasn't found any that do as well for the price and availability. There have been some that they did worse on. And some that they did slightly better on. But they were so expensive and hard to find locally that the results were not worth the extra cost in time and money. She even convinced my dad to feed Eukanuba after years of feeding whatever was on sale at the grocery store. Now, that's all he'll feed. He ran out and grabbed a bag of Science Diet because that was the best at the local store once and saw the difference in their energy and coats before that bag was finished.

ORIGINAL: butterfly7311

Charlie and Bella are on Iams Smart Puppy Small Breed. They both weigh 14 lbs and I have to be honest I eyeball what I feed them as I know ho much they will eat. They dont eat until its all gone if given too much. 

Beau is on Eukanuba Large breed puppy formula. He has 1-2 cups with 1-2 tbsp of canned Euk. food and warm water (this is what they directed us to do when we got him. He doesnt always finish it. He has this twice a day with a inch of vitamin supplement paste.

 
     It does sound as though they may be getting a bit too much of that particular food for their weight. Especially if they're older pups and most of their growing is complete. Try cutting back to 3/4 cup daily with a tablespoon of the canned and see if that doesn't firm up the stools. Just to compare, my 65lb Shepherd mix is eating 2 cups of Euk adult daily.  
    

This thread is extremely helpful. People talk about the foods they have fed and the foods they do feed. Also, their experiences on a TON of different dog foods. A very helpful sight! Please take a look....
 
[linkhttp://forum.dog.com/asp/tm.asp?m=151532]http://forum.dog.com/asp/tm.asp?m=151532[/link]

ORIGINAL: UrbanBeagles

ORIGINAL: butterfly7311

Charlie and Bella are on Iams Smart Puppy Small Breed. They both weigh 14 lbs and I have to be honest I eyeball what I feed them as I know ho much they will eat. They dont eat until its all gone if given too much. 

Beau is on Eukanuba Large breed puppy formula. He has 1-2 cups with 1-2 tbsp of canned Euk. food and warm water (this is what they directed us to do when we got him. He doesnt always finish it. He has this twice a day with a inch of vitamin supplement paste.

    It does sound as though they may be getting a bit too much of that particular food for their weight. Especially if they're older pups and most of their growing is complete. Try cutting back to 3/4 cup daily with a tablespoon of the canned and see if that doesn't firm up the stools. Just to compare, my 65lb Shepherd mix is eating 2 cups of Euk adult daily.  
   

 
I am not sure that you read my post right. BEAU is eating that much and that is what was suggested when we purchased him. He will grow to be 55-70 lbs, so to me this seems normal. Bella and Charlie have probably 3/4  a cup a day.

Oh! Butterfly, you're my fellow Orange County-an! You can find TONS of GREAT foods here. Especially down in the more southern parts, around you. Lots of little specialty stores. Check out the websites of the brands the others mentioned ([linkhttp://www.naturapet.com]www.naturapet.com[/link] is where I go looking for stores), and try their store locators. Off the top of my head, I know there's a store called Coast Pet Supply in Laguna Beach on PCH. They carry Natura's products (Innova, Healthwise, California Natural) at least. But there are MANY others around, so check them out!