Food Advice Please...

EVO is out until Teddi is done growing.

Of your list, I can personally recommend both Blue and Innova.  Haven't tried the others.  Blue has a nice lamb and rice formula and my guys goes NUTS for the fish and sweet tater.

glenmar

EVO is out until Teddi is done growing.

Is that because of protein and such? I'm trying to become more educated in regards to nutrition that is why I'm asking. Both for my job so I can educate others and for my own dogs.

Possibly start with Innova and once Teddi is done growing go ahead and switch to EVO maybe. 

Honestly, I'm not sure, but I think it's the calcium/phosperous ratio.  My apologies.  I remember the important stuff...like don't feed to large breed pups, but tend to forget the specific reasons WHY.  Selective aging perhaps?

CRS - Can't Remember Stuff.  I refuse to believe it's age related since I've had it my whole life.

It's the absolute level of calcium in the food as fed.  EVO provides Ca at the very top of the recommended levels, which is fine for adults but not for pups that still absorb calcium at much greater rates than adults.

I fed it to Zhi as a pup, but she was a toy, near her adult size already, and I mixed in meaty raw bones - about fifty percent, which greatly reduced the level of Ca she was being exposed to daily.

Kind of a different food is Solid Gold Mmillenia, though I'm not as fond of it since they changed all the formulas.  Wolf King is pretty nice, too, if you have a larger pup (I'm sorry, I can't remember what breed your pup is, see above on CRS ).

Innova is fantastic and usually highly palatable.  They have some very nice puppy choices now.  The EVO canned makes a nice topper.  Cal Natural is a bit light on the protein for a puppy - it's really more for dogs who need limited ingredients.

I've just forgotten what the other brands you said you could get, were.  D'oh!  The only one I haven't used, I think, was Blue Buff and I've heard it's very nice.

jennyx0023

Is that because of protein and such?

It's actually because of calcium. Pups are supposed to have about 3 grams of calcium per 1000 calories consumed, which in most dry foods is around 1.25%. Evo has like 2.5%, I think.

brookcove

Innova is fantastic and usually highly palatable.  They have some very nice puppy choices now.  The EVO canned makes a nice topper.  Cal Natural is a bit light on the protein for a puppy - it's really more for dogs who need limited ingredients.

This made me think of one more question, does Teddi still necessarily need to be on puppy food? I'm looking for a food that they both can eat preferably...

jennyx0023

does Teddi still necessarily need to be on puppy food?

Nah. As long as the food is an "all life stages" food, it's fine for them both. Most of the higher quality foods are all life stages.

I don't think you can go wrong with any of those besides EVO right now. However, I wouldn't go with CN unless your dogs need the limited ingredients. Some of those formulas may be too rich for your dogs. You just have to try and see. For example, Neiko did fine on Innova while Dakota did bad on it. Dakota did good on Solid Gold but Neiko got the runs. I would like to feed all 3 of my dogs the same thing but I don't think that's ever going to happen, unfortunately. 

Thanks brookcove. I tend to remember the major stuff, like don't feed EVO to a large breed pup, and forget the details of WHY! Selective can't remember stuff??  As I recall, we use only 2 or 3% of our brains, and I do try to engage the rest of the darned thing, but, somedays it just insists that it's full and doesn't NEED to remember the whys of everything........

Honestly I waver on ALS vs specific formulas.  A pup and an active dog will need more protein to help with bone and muscle mass growth, or to maintain those things.  However a senior dog STILL needs a good amount of protein.  Maybe once upon a time, or maybe in the lower quality foods, a specific puppy food is needed, but I think (personal opinion only) that all the different varieties are simply to fill a perceived need by the consumer, which of course was created by the food manufacturers to begin with.

I raised all my younger gsds on Innova ALS.  Thor and Sheba went from Purina large breed pup to RC and then finally to Innova by the time they were a year or so old.  Honestly the ONLY dog I saw a difference in was Thor....he had growth spurts and probably grew faster than he should have, but he didn't have any problems because of it.  However, I liked the slow, steady growth the other boys had on Innova.  Tyler, who was fed Pedigree for 2 months in his "forever home" grew way too fast and came back to me very oversized.  He's still very leggy for a gsd, much more so than my others and I'm sure it's due to that sub quality food.

But, so long as you are feeding a high quality food, I don't think that the specific formulas are that important.  ALS should work nicely.  I now feed Blue Buff and I don't use the large breed formula....not very often anyway.  So many of the really good foods are chicken, and I like some variety.  I'm not likely to find lamb to toss in the homecooked so often they get lamb and brown rice, and while I DO use mackeral in home cooked, they really love the fish and sweet potato forumula too.

As far as feeding both dogs the same food, I don't see why that should be a problem.  They are going to get what they need proportionally, by the amount that they eat.

I love innova products, personally. Evo is my favorite dog food, but here it is 48.99 for the...umm i think it's 23 lb bag. Not good for someone who lives on pasta :)

So I think I'm going to rotate between Canidae and either Blue Buffalo or Innova or maybe even Eagle Pack.  They've been on Canidae for about 3-4 months now. I have read by doing a search on here about Innova and a good bit of dogs didn't do well on it. I suppose it wouldnt hurt to get a small bag of each just in case one food doesn't sit well with them? I'd hate to get a huge bag of something and them have loose stool or something and have to switch them.

I think that all of those brands are considered guaranteed foods here. So if you buy a big bag and it doesn't work out you can take it back with no problems. At least at our pet stores. You'd have to ask where you are. 

Sigh, my post didn't take.

You will need to feed LESS of either Blue or Innova.  Check out the kcals on each.  Canidae will be the lowest.  If you feed the SAME amount of the others, you are more likely to get sloppy stools because you're over feeding.

glenmar

You will need to feed LESS of either Blue or Innova.  Check out the kcals on each.  Canidae will be the lowest. 

I'm SUCH a nitpicker... by weight (i.e., how the food is sold), Blue has the fewest calories (Canidae and Innova are REALLY close). By volume (i.e. how the food is usually fed), it depends on the formula. Blue's chicken formula has fewer calories per cup than does Canidae ALS, for example.