Puppies and nutrition

[newchickgal]

FYI for pet owners, especially if you have or will have a puppy in your life. We had our vet do a blood panel work up on our new 2month old puppy just to make sure all was ok with her. Her hemoglobin is a bit low so he gave us a vitamin suppliment to give her. He told us that even though puppy food says it contains the needed nutrition most of the vitimans get lost during he process of manufacturing since it has to be cooked during the that process. So if you get a puppy, be sure to give it the needed vitamins, after checking with your vet of course. But be warned, even after one dosage our little girl now has so much more energy! I need to take vitamins now so I can keep up with her!!!

 

[sourland]

Glad she is doing well. Much depends upon the brand of puppy food that is utilized.

 

[newchickgal]

As soon as she was weaned she was eating Science Diet. Now she is eating Purina.

 

[sourland]

Pro plan puppy? It's a fairly good food - Purina puppy chow - not so good.

 

[dainerra]

purina and pro plan are both pretty crappy foods. Mostly corn and fillers. The only thing worse is Science Diet

Go to dogfoodanalysis.com and look up your food. If there is a tractor supply in your area, 4Health is a decent food and is inexpensive. Kirkland if there is a Costco in your area

 

[Drapery Mary]

I feed a brand called Hi-Standard to my dogs and puppies and it runs about $26 for 50 pounds for 26% protein. The first ingredient is meat which I think makes a big difference compared to what I looked at on other brands as the first ingredient. Some where wheat middlings or ground corn.

The Hi-Standard is hard to find but they do have a website that shows some of their distributors, but not all of them, as I get mine from a little store that is not even listed on it.

We have competition swim dogs and have always had good luck feeding the Hi-Standard. What made me start looking at other foods was that we moved 45 miles away from that little store that sells it, so I started looking to find a replacement. Bottom line is I still drive the distance to get the food, now I just get more of it at a time so I don't have to go once a week.

 

[newchickgal]

purina and pro plan are both pretty crappy foods. Mostly corn and fillers. The only thing worse is Science Diet

Go to dogfoodanalysis.com and look up your food. If there is a tractor supply in your area, 4Health is a decent food and is inexpensive. Kirkland if there is a Costco in your area

Why is Science Diet worse? I found several sites that listed it among the top brands. Guess I need to do more research.

 

[dainerra]

Read any of the dog food review sites. Science diet is always among the lowest scoring foods -mostly corn and fillers, the meat that is used is low quality scraps like chicken by-product

 

[dainerra]

Worst thing about science diet is that vets push it so people assume it's a good food. Actually, it is the same quality as Ol Roy, just a premium price.

 

[newchickgal]

I'm very seriosly thinking about making my own dog food. That way I know just what she is getting with out additives. My concern is that our dog of 10 years died on Feb. 14 of leukemia. It was very rapid and the vet said that causes for that are not known. Now that we have a new puppy I will do everything I can think of to make sure she's as healthy as possible.

Has anyone here prepared their own dog food?