Acana for $80 a bag is just to much for me. No matter what food he is on, he still has his problems. I think I need to stop worrying about food labels and accept that my dog may do best on a lower "quality" kibble. I have spoken to waschampionfan and am awaiting a reply to a PM but thought I would also post here for your advice. Here is what I narrowed it down to.
Keeping in mind, he is a hard dog to keep weight on. Hes 59lbs currently and I want to see him hit 65lbs. He will eat anything....hes not a picky eater. What formula would you pick for him and why? I can get all the above formulas at my local petsmart as I checked.
Another company I was looking into was Blue Buffalo. The rep at petsmart today for Blue Buffalor said I had one fine specimen with me (I had Lincoln with me). Not sure if she was just trying to push the food or...he really is a fine specimen
I would go with the Eukanuba Lamb and Rice to begin with. It is the least expensive. I would probably stay away from a chicken based food if he has skin issues.
Max ate Eukanuba Large Breed Puppy until he was about 16 months old, and did very well on it. He eats Acana Wild Prairie now.
Good Luck. I hope Lincoln does well on whichever food you decide to feed.
I looked at both formulas to compare. Im kind of concerned about the calories per cup and the protein/fat content of both formulas.
The SS and GSD formula have the same 23% protein and 13% fat content but the
SS formula is only 298 calories a cup and he would need 3-3.5 cups a day.
The GSD formula is 313 calories per cup and he would need 3-31/4 cups a day.
Anywhere im reading a dog his size needs 1200 calories a day.
Could you please explain it to me so I understand so I can stop fretting about it. Also, why your preference over the SS vs the GSD formula. I will be grabbing a bag friday
He's had skin issues, right? I've known a couple of dogs with skin issues who did really well on the Euk SS. I'd probably try that first and see how he does after a few weeks. We feed the 30/20, but the dogs are very active. I like it, but it's not for skin issues, so I'd probably pick the SS to start and switch to the 30/20 if you have trouble keeping weight on him.
Okay so the lower kcals per cup is not going to hurt him? I dont want to end up feeding 5 cups of food. I know this may not be a good idea but what about mixing the SS with the Performance formula?
When I switched my 2 back to Nutro Ultra from Acana, I had to start feeding my younger one 3x a day to give her the same amount of calories. I am not hearing any objections from her.
My old girl was on Nutro Ultra for most of her almost 17 years on earth. My other 2 were on it since puppyhood and did well. In the spring I decided they needed a better quality food and switched to Acana. It did not work for them, and the easiest solution was to go back to what had worked before. The diarrhea stopped, the one dog's anal glands improved and their coats look much better, in less than 2 months.
I have fed my goldens Canidae All Life Stages since they were puppies and they have done well on it from puppies to adults. I switched my late golden Fletcher to grain-free formula after his cancer diagnosis and I tried two fish based kibbles. (one is now discontinued by Merrick) The last one he was on is called Coastal Catch by Earthborn Holisitic. He did really well on it.Coastal Catch : Earthborn Holistic Pet Food
He also suffered from allergies(environmental, not food) and itchy skin and I know that fish is soothing to the skin so that was another reason I chose fish.
I feel your pain. I have spent countless hours researching dog food and what is the best for my dog. Best of luck to you!
The food decisions are exhausting. We feed BB Wilderness Salmon. I tried several high quality foods before settling on BB as it was the first that Samantha's digestive system could handle. Both her and Mulligan love it and we haven't had any issues. Before we fed the Salmon Wilderness we fed a different BB Salmon blend and Large Breed Chicken and Rice (I think) before that.
I would agree that the BB reps are obnoxious. One hassled me the other day even though I had a bag of their food in my arms. I was looking at organic something or other dog treats (that weren't BB... gasp!).
Good luck and I hope you find something that will work for your dogs!
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