# Royal Canin Golden Retriever Puppy Food..is it truly a good quality food?



## rileyrose (Dec 4, 2020)

Hello!

I'm new to this forum and have a 4.5 month old Golden. She's wonderful but has been having difficulty with loose stools. We have been feeding her Fromm Gold Large Breed Puppy since we brought her home at 8 weeks. She's has intermittent bouts of loose stool (approx 3 times over 2.5 months) but lately it had become quite bad (4 days of it) so our vet prescribed panacur, flagyl, and sulcrate, along with giving us some royal canin gastro wet food to feed her for a week or so. With these interventions her stools have firmed up really well and she's back to her normal self. 

Our vet has recommended that we now switch her to Royal Canin Golden Retriever Puppy food, however upon reading the ingredients list it seems to have some not so great contents (ie. the first ingredient is Chicken by-product meal, along with quite a few "fillers") 

While I know that this is a brand that many vet offices sell, I am wondering if it truly is the best for our pups or if there is another brand that I should be turning to instead? 

Any help is greatly appreciated! Thank you!


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## Dalia D. (Apr 11, 2020)

rileyrose said:


> Hello!
> 
> I'm new to this forum and have a 4.5 month old Golden. She's wonderful but has been having difficulty with loose stools. We have been feeding her Fromm Gold Large Breed Puppy since we brought her home at 8 weeks. She's has intermittent bouts of loose stool (approx 3 times over 2.5 months) but lately it had become quite bad (4 days of it) so our vet prescribed panacur, flagyl, and sulcrate, along with giving us some royal canin gastro wet food to feed her for a week or so. With these interventions her stools have firmed up really well and she's back to her normal self.
> 
> ...


Our breeder has her dogs on this and has all her puppy people go home with Royal canine golden puppy food. Our 6 month old has been doing well on it and has only had diarrhea from a hotdog, which was our fault! He’s gaining nicely, looks good, and has normal poops.


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## klar (Nov 1, 2020)

I know a lot of people feed this food so please don't come for me. I would not recommend this food at all. You can get better foods for the same or better price. 

I would like to preface my reasoning by saying that the ingredient list is not the only factor you need to consider, but it is an important one. For this food in particular, the first few ingredients are Chicken By-Product Meal, Corn, Wheat Gluten, Chicken Fat, Wheat... I would like to point out that while chicken by-product meal is meat (and you always want meat to be the first ingredient) it is not the highest quality of meat. I would rather see chicken or chicken meal as the first ingredient (look up the differences in the three if you don't know them). Going down the list, corn is the second ingredient and it is mostly a filler. 

Take this ingredient list for example: Deboned Chicken, Chicken Meal, Brown Rice, Barley, Turkey Meal... I would feed this food to my dog any day before choosing royal canine. I am not going to say exactly which food it is because I think you should do your own research and not just take my word for it. 

TL;DR
I don't recommend royal canine because the quality for price is not worth it. Do some research on bad (ex fillers) and good ingredients (ex real meat) to look out for in dog food. Lastly, like I said before, ingredients are not everything (its just the easiest to go through). Ratio of protein, fats, and other necessary nutrients are also important to consider.


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## Ripley16 (Jan 26, 2012)

My boy is currently on RC Golden Retriever Puppy, as it was the food he was on with the breeders. Our breeders are not affiliated with RC at all, and told me that they use it for their pups as the nutritional content was designed specifically for Golden Retriever puppies. The ratio of protein, fats, carbohydrates and other nutrients are formulated to ensure the puppies have everything they need to develop properly. I trust my breeders recommendation. They have been breeding Golden's for 40 years, are dedicated to their work, and have far more experience than I do in this matter. I used to work in the pet food industry, and have a golden that is allergic to corn, so having that in there is a concern. However, my little guy has not had any issues with his food so far, and I will keep him on it for the time being. I have considered switching him to other brands, but am holding off right now. The cost of the food is high considering the fillers in the ingredients, but as they are developing, having the piece of mind that the food he is on meets his nutritional needs for his breed is reassuring. I have considered all foods from Raw to Orijin Large Breed Puppy to Kirkland Large Breed Puppy and still have not made up my mind on what to switch to, as I feel confident that his nutritional needs are being met on RC Golden Retriever puppy. I think I will keep him on RC GR puppy until he is 15 months old, then switch to a different brand of adult food. As long as you have your puppy on a food that you are confident in, they like, and provides them with proper nutrition, that should be all that matters.


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## pawsnpaca (Nov 11, 2014)

Also not a fan of the quality of the ingredients in Royal Canin. I like Fromm so I'd be tempted to give it one more go once she's well-recovered from her digestive upset. If the diarrhea comes back, then I'd switch to another food with a different protein and/or grain (maybe still Fromm though, or another food with higher quality ingredients than Royal Canin).

The website Dog Food Analysis - Reviews of kibble is a good place to easily compare the ingredients of most of the foods on the market (saves you from looking up each food at a separate website or reading ingredients off bags in the grocery store). They do also rank their foods by quality, BUT there's some debate on the expertise of whomever is making those judgements, so take it with a grain of salt. 

A lot of people here swear by Pro Plan, especially the "sensitive skin and stomach" version (they DO make a puppy version). That might be an option to try, and "mainstream" enough to keep your vet happy.

FWIW one of my dogs has diarrhea pretty frequently, and has since puppyhood. I think training treats and the various "debris" she tended to eat in the yard would set her off for a round or two, and then she'd go right back to normal again. It's possible that your puppy has a similarly sensitive digestive system (especially if she tends to eat things she shouldn't in the yard, or if you are giving her a lot of training treats), and it's also possible that she picked up a parasite (or ate something she shouldn't) that set of the longer bout of diarrhea. I think if it were me I'd try her back on the Fromm once she recovers, and if the diarrhea comes back, maybe start switching her slowly onto something else.


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