# What is the best dog food brand for Golden Retrievers? For puppy stages and soo on?



## Iampuresol

I don't trust Purina or any of those usual ones. I worked at a pestore and heard too many bad things from the customers about those.


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## Lucky's mom

Ah, well you'll only hear good stuff from me regarding the commercial brands. 

I don't think there is a "best". Its what ever works best for your dog. I think a food should have a good track record....I have trouble trusting anything new. The only experience I have with Holistic is Innova and Lucky just absolutely loved it.


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## sammydog

I feed Innova and all my dogs love it and have done well on it.

But like was said above you need to find the right food for the dog. The Whole Dog Journal publishes a list of "approved" dog food each year, as well as a guide for selecting the right food. I think the new one comes out in February... But you can buy the 2008 issue still...


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## Swampcollie

Iampuresol said:


> I don't trust Purina or any of those usual ones. I worked at a pestore and heard too many bad things from the customers about those.


There is no one best food for all Golden Retrievers. Dogs are all individuals and need to be treated as such. Consideration must also be given to the demands of each individuals age and lifestyle.

Take what you hear at the petstore with a grain of salt. Most pet owners are swayed by the latest fad diet or recent magazine article and are not very experienced when it comes to making long term decisions about canine nutrition. 

Nestle Purina makes 100's of pet food formulas. Some are not the best, others are simply outstanding products. To simply dismiss every product Purina makes is very short sighted.

When you begin searching for a Golden, ask the Breeder what they're feeding the litter and what they're feeding their adult dogs. They will be a much better information source than the petstore.


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## Florabora22

My dog loved Solid Gold Hundenflocken. I think it really kept her coat shiny.


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## Kirby'sMom

I have Kirby on Canidae All Life Stages and he's doing great. He came to me from the breeder on Eukenuba Large Breed puppy food - I switched him to Iams LB puppy food and he ate that until a year old. I decided to go with a better food at that time after learning so much about foods here and on another forum.


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## jwemt81

Dogs are definitely individuals. We use Purina ProPlan for our Golden puppy and he has done amazing on it. On the other hand, our 9-year-old German Shepherd would not eat any of the more expensive "premium foods." We even decided to try Candidae this past summer and she got sick with vomiting and diarrhea and completely stopped eating it. As soon as we put her back on strictly Pedigree, she was back to her old self 100%. She has eaten Pedigree since she was under a year old and has done so incredibly well on it. She will be 10 in May and she is now on the Pedigree senior dry food and it has even helped her arthritis so much. Basically, each dog is different. Some will do great on one food while other dogs do horribly on that same food. Goldens are no exception to that. Once you find a food that you like and your dog does well on, just stick with it. Don't even worry about the brand if the food is working for your dog.


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## Maggies mom

Mine as puppies to adults ate, Innova Canidae and now there on grain free Fromm and love it.


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## TonyRay

we switch from Canidae Platinum to Taste of the Wild
thruout the year..
Our girls never have any Canidae Problems as they would eat drywall if we let them..


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## Penny & Maggie's Mom

There are tons of good food out there...... it's more as to what your dog does best on. We use the Eagle Pack Holistic line and the Fromm 4 star. I top with either canned tripe (Trippets) or The Honest Kitchen dehydrated raw. Innova, Natures Variety (my mind is going blank) are just a couple of other good food.


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## Joanne & Asia

We fed Nutro large breed puppy and she did well. She is now on Acana light and she loves it and is still doing well.


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## bailsmom

we use purina proplan large breed and our pup loves it! she even loves it when we use it for training treats, she can't seem to get enough, our breeder had the puppies on it and the mom and dad were on the adult version, so i highly recommend, but like everyone else said, you have to see what your pup does well on


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## Ljilly28

Our dogs used to eat Canidae ALS, but now eat Innova. I think some of The Eagle Pack Hollistic foods are great too


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## skeller

After trying many foods without great results, Benny is finally doing well on Eagle Pack Holistic Anchovy, Sardines, and Salmon.


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## sifuyono

i gave my bruno acana large breed puppy,.....


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## Rhapsody in Gold

We feed our two Golden Retrievers Blue Wilderness. Their coats are beautiful and they love it. Here is the website:

http://www.bluebuff.com/products/dogs/wilderness.shtml

We originally started with Innova and they became ill. I wasn't sure if it was because of the Innova or something else. I ended up trying Blue Wilderness to see if something was wrong with our supply of Innova. As it turned out, they recovered in a few days and we just stayed with Blue Wilderness. The Innova could have been fine and I would use it again but we haven't switched back since everything is going so well with Blue Wilderness.


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## Jackson'sMom

Tia is on Taste of the Wild roasted fowl flavor, a grain-free food due to her chronic ear infections. Mila (not a golden) eats Chicken Soup for the Dog Lovers Soul adult lite formula.


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## Taz Monkey

All three of mine (a golden, a lab mix, and a beagle mix) are all on Taste of the Wild right now, but have eaten Innova, California Natural, Wellness, Canidae, and others. I am please with the TOTW. It's a grain free and very reasonably priced also.
I stay away from the foods you can find at most pet stores and Walmart. The way I see it, if Purina has been around so long and is such a pro at pet food, you'd think they could create a food without corn and by products. JMO. I would bbe oeverrun with ear infections and hot spots with 2 of my dogs if I fed junk food.


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## Iampuresol

how much food do you buy per month? how much do you spend per month? how much do you spend per year on just one dog?


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## Hunter13

I'm stuck on the same issues , my boy Hunter has been having issues on certain foods. I am looking into Blue Buffalo Large Breed. I am not sure if it would be worth the money tho. He is turning 4 months old in 9 days. I feed him Actrium Holistic from walmart, but i heard those brands are all pumped with Sal/Sugar which isn't good for them. I'm not sure what i will do. I just want to feed him healthy stuff, i do not like eating junk so i will not force my puppy to eat junk either.


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## tahill

I had trouble with my Chloe at first. She is on FROMM duck and sweet potato. It is an all stages dog food. She was on Fromm puppy and my vet switched her around 4 months old to the all stages b/c he didn't want her to grow too fast. Sometimes he said puppy food maked bigger dogs grow too fast and it can hurt their joints in the long run. Hope this helps.


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## Gwen

In all honesty, I would take any advice from a pet food store with a grain of salt. They promote whatever food they can get the most return on. Do you think they'd recommend a food that is lower priced & a lower profit margin -NO.

I feed my 3 1/2 year old golden boy, Purina pro plan & he does GREAT! He enjoys excellent health and his coat is absolutely AMAZING - his coat shines like a special grooming product has been used and it shines like that all the time.

My 3 year old & 1 year old are both on Taste of the Wild Salmon & it works but I do find that their coats are a bit dry. I would feed them the Purina but it doesn't agree with either of them. 

As far as cost - the TOTW costs double what my Purina does. 

I am purchasing (2) bags of TOTW monthly for Thai & Razz @ $68/bag plus 13% tax whereas I buy (1) lg bag of Purina @ $63 plus 13% tax & it will last 2 mos. Yes, the Purina bags are much larger!

I do supplement all my guys with wild, canned salmon along with coconut oil and I have observed an improvement in the TOTW coats.

Basically, feed your dog what works because you'll find that everyone has an opinion on their food being the best.

I most recently went into the pet food store & the guy says to me "You have a pile of dogs & just wanted to let you know that we have a new, cheap food that you might be interested in." I asked him about it and all he could say about the quality is "My dogs like it so it must be good". 

Well, sorry dogs will eat roadkill and that doesn't mean that it's good for them! That's sometimes the quality of people working in pet retail stores - my opinion only!

I have also fed Wellness products but out of a mini protest on the ever increasing cost of the products, quit purchasing. My dogs did ok on it but every time I went to purchase the food, it had gone up in price with the excuse that the ingredients had gone up in price. Ironically some of the ingredients that had gone up in price, weren't even ingredients in the food. 

I will note that I live in Ontario, Canada & our pet food prices are significantly higher than those in the USA. I DO stock up when I travel across the border.


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## MikaTallulah

I always feed my Golden pro plan. He did greet on it. His coat was always glossy and dark red. Even as he approached 13 he did not have any gray or white on his face. But every dog is different.


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## desi.n.nutro

I switched from another premium food to NUTRO when a friend recommended I do so because my dog had huge coat issues, ear infection issues, and a tumor in his stomach. After he died I got a new puppy and went back to the other premium food bc a Vet was recommending it. After some coat issues came up with him, my friend bawled me out and helped me pick out Natural Choice for Large Breeds. Now for 11 years and 5 dogs I have fed NUTRO. You may have noticed by my "name" that I love the food so much I went to work at the company about 7 years ago. The best thing I can say about NUTRO is everything they promised it would do for my dogs, it DID! That goes for my cats too. My favorite characteristics; less shedding and less backyard clean-up and less litter box odor.


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## jluke

I switched from Purina Pro Plan to Orijen Large Breed Puppy on the advice of the vet and several trainers I trust. Higher protein.


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## Jige

I feed my dogs http://www.nativedogfood.com/. It is a great food. All of my dogs are look good and dont poop alot plus the three forumals they have all have the same ingridents just different protein levels. So as I work Jige he has the active level and when we hits down times I can give him less protein but I have not changed anything else.


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## dexter0125

I decided to use ProPlan Sensitive Skin and Stomach after a lot of trouble with other foods..my boy is doing great.

Just because a food is considered "high quality," doesn't mean it is going to work for your dog. Find what works for your dog and stick to it. It doesn't matter what brand it is..


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## Zazoo

In Canada, I use Grain Free Performatrin Ultra.. Salmon, Turkey and Duck..
They devour it!!!...


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## kcapone

*Fromm 4 star*

I finally settled on Fromm 4 star, they have interchangeable lines, and mine likes the duck/ sweet potato and pork/applesauce the best. the others are great also.
I did much research from store brand to the high high end and found Fromm is the best quality, good meat, and not loaded with carbs.
I always hated when the responses were '"whatever works best for your dog". LOL I tried Blue Buffalo, candidae, purina pro plan and wellness. Fromm is what we are sticking with. AWESOME and good luck to you


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## Ninde'Gold

Tucker was on Canidae for awhile but for whatever reason it started giving him ear infections and the itchies!

He's now doing well on Horizon Complete.

Reece eats Purina. She doesn't do well on premium foods for some reason.


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## Gags

*What puppy food*

Does anyone use royal canin golden retriever puppy food. My pup is currently 14 weeks old and I give royal canin. He is about 23lbs and doing great. I fed my previous golden adult royal canin and it helped with his urinary problems. I feed him a good cup twice a day. 
If i can figure out how will post his pic. They keep coming out sideways when I do it.


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## Lambeau0609

I use Royal Canin puppy for GR and my 8month old is doing great on it. I tried other better foods and ending up having great results with this one.


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## Panama Rob

KC ate Taste of the Wild....that is what I plan on using with my next pup. He made it 14 1/2 years and never had anything I would consider a food related health issue with it.


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## rahuls

We used Wellness Grain free puppy formula for a month and now changed to Wellness Grain Free for Large breed. Our puppy is 14 weeks old and he loves his food.


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## SunnynSey

Each dog is going to be different, there isn't really one size that fits all when it comes to pet food. Having said that Royal Canin Maxi Puppy worked really well for my gang, but oddly enough the adult version didn't work too well as they became really itchy. I switched them to Acana as adults and they are doing great.


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