[puppydogs]

Howdy. Hoping to get survey of which brand of dog food you used ie, Fromm, Wellness, etc and how old your dog is/was?

I also found a good article here about feeding goldens. If anyone knows who the author is, I'd love to know to see if she is legit

How to feed a Golden Retriever

 

[bowdense]

We are picking up our 8 week old pup on Saturday. I just bought a big bag of Blue Buffalo Large Breed Puppy food, as recommended by the breeder. My other pup (4 years old) is on Canidae ALS. Both great foods.

 

[tippykayak]

Howdy. Hoping to get survey of which brand of dog food you used ie, Fromm, Wellness, etc and how old your dog is/was?

I also found a good article here about feeding goldens. If anyone knows who the author is, I'd love to know to see if she is legit

How to feed a Golden Retriever

I don't really buy into this kind of pseudo-science. Dogs are not wolves, so anybody who places the fundamental piece of an argument on that assumption has sort of lost me. Wolves also tend only to live a few years in the wild, so the implication that wolves are much healthier and never get cancer is based on naivete, not actual knowledge of wild animals.

Certainly, it's good for a dog to get a large part of his protein from good meat sources, and a dog doesn't need as much vegetable matter as a human does, but you have to remember that dogs have evolved for 20,000 years to eat human garbage, so their needs are not identical to wolves.

For example, consider what she says about DNA (it appears to be an unsourced quote): "Mitochondrial DNA studies of 7 breeds of domestic dogs vs 23 wolf populations showed a difference of only .2% (that's 2/10 of 1%)." First of all, mitochondrial DNA is not the same thing as nuclear DNA, so she's sort of fudging over a really important nuance of the science of evolution. Secondly, .2%, depending on which .2% it is, could be a HUGE difference.

So no, I don't think she's legit, though she does mention on a number of occasions that her conclusions aren't scientific and that she's not a vet or nutritionist, so at least she's honest.

 

[tippykayak]

PS - I'm not a vet or nutritionist either.

 

[LifeOfRiley]

I
For example, consider what she says about DNA (it appears to be an unsourced quote): "Mitochondrial DNA studies of 7 breeds of domestic dogs vs 23 wolf populations showed a difference of only .2% (that's 2/10 of 1%)." First of all, mitochondrial DNA is not the same thing as nuclear DNA, so she's sort of fudging over a really important nuance of the science of evolution. Secondly, .2%, depending on which .2% it is, could be a HUGE difference.

Yeah, it's not really as simple as she's trying to make it. My argument is always: We share something like 98% of our DNA with chimpanzees too, and look at the huge difference that 2% makes.

She pretty much lost me when she said that 'many of our Goldens' chronic health problems have their roots in commercial diets.' Maybe she's right, maybe she's wrong (I'm not a vet or a nutritionist, either.) But in my opinion, I think that's really oversimplifying the issue.

That having been said, I do like that she advises people to educate themselves, read everything you can and get varying opinions. That's always a good idea.
And I don't think you could do any harm by following her "kibble guidelines." As long as the food you choose works for your dog.

 

[crazy daisy]

My breeder used Wellness Puppy... so I continued it until 6 months.

Then switched to Flint River Ranch, their Original kibble, then their Trout & Sweet Potato, and now Lamb, Millet & Rice

 

[MyBentley]

The author seems to be a nature and wildlife painter from what I can find on the internet. I imagine she is a passionate dog owner and lover who has spent much time informally researching nutrition and and has arrived at her own personal belief system.

I didn't read every word of her article, but quite a bit. I believe as tippykayak said in his post, the link between the wolf ancestry of dogs determining exactly how they should be fed today is not as simple as she states.

I do think a strong point she makes is the combining of commercial and fresh foods. I can't imagine a dog that wouldn't be healthier in the long term if its processed kibble weren't supplemented with fresh food. This is something that any dog owner can easily do and doesn't involve the time and research of home-cooking or raw feeding.

 

[connordob]

I'm a huge fan of feeding my dogs raw food instead of kibble. I've found that they are much more alert and their coats are very healthy. I use Love Your Pet Bakery (www.loveyourpetbakery.com) because their stuff comes frozen so I can buy in bulk and then save it for a while. I also really like the ease of having pre-packaged and delivered so I don't have to run to the store every week to buy the butcher's leftovers.