Dog food recommendations?

[marissa777]

I have 2 dogs a golden retriever (5.5 years old, 88 lbs) and a Potcake (4 years old, 65 lbs).

I’d fed them Blue Buffalo for years, but a trainer we recently worked with informed us that it was really low quality dog food and suggested we switch to a high quality brand. She recommended Open Farm, so we made the switch.

Dogs seem happy on Open Farm, but DAMN it is expensive ($126 per bag that lasts 16.5 days).

I’m looking to switch them again to a higher quality food that isn’t as expensive as Open Farm. I’m thinking I’d Purina Pro Plan, but I keep seeing mixed reviews.

Any suggestions on a good quality dog food? Neither dog has allergies or sensitivities.

UPDATE 2024-Feb-24: we switched the boys to Purina Pro Plan Chicken and Rice formula and have been very happy with the food, price and option to buy a 47 lb bag!

 

[joyathome]

@marissa777 What you can do is go to the world's small animal veterinary association website (WSAVA)

https://wsava.org/global-guidelines/global-nutrition-guidelines/

They have a list of standards, they don't publish "approved" companies themselves. That way they're not endorsing any specific brands-- it's more like a list of best practices according to the research that's available. What you will find is that many small brands that follow food trends do not meet the standards of this list even the ones that are marketed as the "healthiest" or "whole food nutrition"

 

[joyathome]

I forgot to mention that Purina also makes puppy treats that are formulated as an all-life stages food, I just found them recently and it's been helpful because I have taken in a small older dog who is reactive and needs training all throughout the day and they're a good option so that I don't have to worry so much about unbalancing her diet with too many treats (but you still want to be careful and try and calculate them as treats versus actual food)

 

[ncnctv]

@joyathome WSAVA isn’t great as shown by IAMS and Royal canin

 

[joyathome]

@ncnctv Possibly you have fallen for the trap. Those two companies have higher standards than most others for both quality control and nutrition.

What makes you say they are bad?

 

[alistair_wonderland]

@joyathome The thing I dislike about Purina Pro and Royal Canin are the nasty seed oils they use.

 

[joyathome]

@alistair_wonderland https://www.consumerreports.org/health/healthy-eating/do-seed-oils-make-you-sick-a1363483895/

The oils present in dog food are at appropriate levels when formulated by veterinary nutritionists and are safe when quality is tested-- this misconception is a problem when applying human nutrition to dog physiology and also think about what "bad food" trends were popular in your past and what knowledge you've gained since then that debunks it. For example cottage cheese has already been in out and in fashion again in my lifetime. If you take care to learn media literacy and vet sources and stay skeptical you'll see that these actually are the brands that take the most relevant research on dog nutrition into account when formulating their foods.

 

[ncnctv]

@joyathome I feed pro plan a lot with gr8 success tho

 

[ncnctv]

@joyathome I haven’t I don’t love the ingredients and Ik ppl who’s pets died from eating it and were previously thriving eating from a different brand

 

[rob01]

@joyathome Yeah, a government funded guideline. You really trust that bs? Lol. Funny how the only improved dog foods are owned by large corporations. Wake up you sheeple

 

[savedthroughgrace]

@marissa777 I feed all the dogs in my house Pro Plan (currently 8 dogs ranging from 4 weeks to 2 years). We feed the Sport Performance 30/20 salmon & Rice because it is all life stages. I've tried other foods, even those "boutique" expensive ones but Pro Plan is the one they seem to digest the best with solid stools.

 

[mufudzi]

@savedthroughgrace Not to mention the giant bags they have. Perfect for feeding multi dog household

 

[jerryperry]

@marissa777 My 83 pound Shepherd/Pyr mix is enjoying Purina Pro Plan Large Breed (Chicken and Rice). She's been doing great on that!

 

[elizabeda777]

@marissa777 Don’t take food advice from a trainer, that is SO FAR out of their purview. If they aren’t a vet specializing in nutrition they need to pipe down. I get really upset when trainers do this because they genuinely have ZERO training in this and literally anyone can claim to be a nutrition expert (unless they are a board certified vet, there is no requirement to claim expert status). Especially when they try to talk in terms of quality or ingredients.

1. Grain free has been linked to heart disease in dogs, so a lot of boutique brands are out. It’s the inclusion of certain proteins sources rather than lack of grains, research says: https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterina...rtain-diets-and-canine-dilated-cardiomyopathy
2. You want to make sure that whoever made the food did feeding trials. Blue Buffalo does that, most small brands can’t afford it. Feeding trials ensure that diet is safe for long term consumption.
3. Allergies are not as common in dogs as marketing would believe. Ignore big claims.
4. Ingredients are listed by weight. If meat is the first ingredient it is most likely “wet weight.” To give you an idea, kibble is a dry food, so all that water disappears… and renders the ingredient list kinda arbitrary. Don’t go off the ingredient list unless verifying it doesn’t contain pea or legume-based protein (see point 1).
5. By-products and meals aren’t bad.
6. Purina, Hill’s, and Royal Canin have the biggest budgets to conduct research for their own foods. They also own other brands like Eukanuba or Pedigree (a brand which people like your trainer call “low quality” but has the research of its parent company to back up its formulations). Not sure about Blue Buffalo but my dogs love their treats
7. Fresh food is nice but expensive AF. I used Just Food For Dogs since they don’t do that grain-free stuff and do feeding trials. Expensive though.

Anecdotally, our family lab ate Iams her entire life and lived to be 14 with zero health issues. My puppy-raised dog has had great luck with Royal Canin breed specific in his adult years—because he needs the highest fiber he can get, and that happens to be the kibble with the highest amount of fiber.

Ask your vet for recommendations. Do the 7-10 day transition. Skip boutique brands, grain free (with vet-specific exceptions), and big claims.

If you are social media inclined, @nutritionrvn on instagram is a vet nurse/tech specializing in nutrition (I believe they took some sort of board cert in nutrition recently) that busts myths and breaks down dog food for the average person.

About me: studied and worked in human nutrition for several years. “Nutritionist” is an unregulated term for humans, same for dogs. Anyone can claim to be a nutritionist (or a dog trainer, for that matter).

No reflection on you. I had to do my spiral of “wtf to feed” because I got caught in the marketing BS before I buckled down and put my lab cost on. I focused on public health translational science so I get easily fired up about food lol. If your trainer can’t do a breakdown like this or provide constructive direction they need to be quiet. Stuff like this has caused the proliferation of bad things like the current grain-free issue.

 

[marissa777]

@elizabeda777 Funny because the trainer also recommended we switch to grain-free despite neither of my dogs having issues with their current diet with grain!

I feel good about transitioning to Purina Pro Plan as they seem like a very established brand.

 

[elizabeda777]

@marissa777 Okay that is kinda funny so now I’m grumpy laughing lol

I trust Purina in as much anyone can trust a massive company lol. They also have great selections—I’m partial to size formulas (ex: large breed vs small breed) but they even have stuff like “shreds” which has been good for my picky dogs in the past. Hope your dogs feel good and like whatever formula you get.

 

[joyathome]

@marissa777 It's interesting because it looks like there are a bunch of "company shills" in this thread or at least I can imagine the Facebook dog food groups having a full-on conniption about this thread-- but it turns out that when you have a whole group of people together who all do their research (and source that fact finding mission from reputable places) the consensus is overwhelming.

I'm really proud of everyone's media literacy in here.

 

[lisa1971]

@marissa777 I’ve fed Blue Buffalo for 15 years and I’m really happy with it. Don’t feel like you need to switch away because of your trainer.

 

[saharali]

@marissa777 It's interesting that a trainer would recommend a grain free diet, which tends to be higher protein. To the best of my knowledge there is some evidence of diet and certain types of aggression being linked, and it says lower protein diets are linked to lowered aggression. The reasoning is that tryptophan loses out to other amino acids which get absorbed first. Tryptophan is linked to more calm behavior.

I am not a veterinarian nor a qualified nutritionist so my understanding may be out of date and is certainly not advice. Talk to your vet and/or a board certified veterinary nutritionist.

 

[ncnctv]

@elizabeda777 But some r allergic 2 grains tho