# What are you feeding your GR puppy?



## Rainheart (Nov 28, 2010)

I personally like Proplan. I'll be feeding this to my new pup sometime this spring.


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## sunflowerkd (Oct 26, 2010)

I have a senstive belly puppy... I tried Now ! and then TOWL ... both did not agree with him. I just contacted honest kitchen (recommended from this forum) they are sending me a sample.


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## trainurdogs (May 20, 2010)

I fed Parker Wellness Puppy. Its a five star and uses high quality all natural ingredients. I personally don't like ProPlan or any product made by Purina. They all rate a 1 star no matter what "quality" you buy be it regular Puppy Chow or the Selects. Purina uses by-products, animal digest, and a synthetic vitamin K that is known to be carcinogenic. You can get detailed reviews of foods by independent raters at these two sites. 
http://dogfoodanalysis.com
http://dogfoodadvisor.com

In the end though it's a personal choice.

**Edit** Dogfoodadvisor.com gives Purina Pro Plan a 2 star but still does not recommend the product.**


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## OurShen (Aug 30, 2008)

*Puppy Food Choice*

Shen is 2.5 years old and has been very successful on Innova. He's been on it since he was a pup. Each puppy is different, of course


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## TorenApart (Nov 1, 2010)

tobysmommy said:


> ... I'm considering switching him to Orijen Puppy Large Breed, which is 100% grain-free. It does, however, have a much higher protein content, and I'm concerned that he may not be able to handle that (although he is _very_ active).
> 
> I'm wondering what some of you are feeding your little ones, and would welcome any thoughts or advice you might have on my smelly conundrum.


I feed Grady Orijen Large Breed Puppy. He loves it. I will caution you that it took in a while to adjust to the high protein. His stool was not solid 100% of the time for quite a while. He is a pretty active pup as well.

Also, this food is known for causing some awful, and I mean AWFUL, room clearing, eye burning gas. 

I would recommend the food, even though it is expensive and causes terrible gas.


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## CarolinaCasey (Jun 1, 2007)

We feed Taste of the Wild Lamb and/or Salmon formulas. It works for us! We might change eventually to Acana Prarie (also grain free). I'm not in a real hurry though!


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## County JR (Sep 26, 2010)

I feed my puppy a raw mix of different meats, eggs and vitamins. It's basically just proteins and fat, no carbs or any unnecessary ingredients.


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## tobysmommy (Jan 9, 2011)

Thanks for all your replies! Hmmm...*TorenApart*, you give me pause for thought. Could it be the protein that's giving Toby the gas, and not the grains? In which case it would get worse if I switch him to a grain-free formula. And your description is spot-on now: room-clearing and eye-burning indeed! I shudder to think that it _could_ get worse! I'm just thinking it might be a gluten problem, because it was always worse if, on top of his food, he had any kind of cookie or grain-containing treats. It just seemed to aggravate the gas. I no longer give him any such treats (he gets carrot chunks for training), but the gas problem still shows up intermittently ... like today. *_GASP_*


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## trainurdogs (May 20, 2010)

Parker had that terrible make you gag gas and we switched him to TOTW's Sierra Mountain Formula which has no chicken in it and his cleared up in two weeks. It eased in about three days so we are convinced it was an intolerance to chicken that caused his. We are careful not to buy him any chicken treats either. So many dogs have intolerance's to so many different ingredients. Sometimes its hard to determine exactly what it is. We had fed Blue Buffalo, Chicken Soup, and Wellness to him and the main ingredient they all had in common was the chicken. None of my other dogs have ever had this problem.


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## Maxs Mom (Mar 22, 2008)

I am switching Gabby from Chicken Soup for the Puppy Lover's Soul, to Blue Buffalo chicken and Rice. We were having bouts of diarrhea and after the second time (we were starting the switch) the breeder tells me her dogs too are not doing well on the Chicken Soup. So hopefully once the switch is complete....

I fed my adult dogs TOTW, it was too much for them, they got serious runs. It took a bit, like more than a bag to have it start. TOTW is a great food, but some dogs do not do well on grain free. Food for thought. 

A piece of advice I heard once is "feed the best food you can afford". Really there is no right or wrong answer IF your dog is doing fine. My sister fed Pedigree her dog lived to be over 15 years old. No not a good food, a LOT of filler, but Molly did fine. The choices are endless.


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## Delboy (Nov 8, 2010)

*Natural*

At 7 months I switched Molly on to a natural diet, raw minced tripe, minced beef, chicken carcases, turkey neck and lamb ribs, nice firm poo and no smell since and she eats her dinner like she is enjoying it. Delboy


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## ladydi174 (Dec 31, 2010)

Check out dogfoodadvisor.com. It is a great site. It breaks down all the dog food brands into 1 star to 5 stars. Very informative.


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## ghuss37 (Nov 27, 2010)

I have been feeding Kobe Nutro Natural Choice Large Puppy Breed. I thought this stuff was supposed to be a high quality dog food but it only has 2 stars on that site.

On a side note, Kobe's gas is terrible.


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## A+J (Jan 13, 2011)

We are feeding Arthur Acana Puppy & Junior. The gas is bad so we wonder if we switched him too soon. We began incorporating his new food with the breeders food (Royal Canin) immediately so he may have been gassy before. Not sure. 

Checked the website provided by Ladydi174 and it's got 5 Stars. Sweet.


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## lovemydoggiesx2 (Sep 5, 2010)

My puppies are 6 months and I feed them a Natural Raw Food diet and vitimins. They eat lots of fruit and veggies, eggs, bones, whole fish, chicken, beef, pork, organs...with yogurt on top, sometimes I mix in a bit of potato, brown rice or oatmeal! =)

I love knowing exactly what my puppies are eating, and I think they eat better than I do.


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

trainurdogs said:


> I fed Parker Wellness Puppy. Its a five star and uses high quality all natural ingredients. I personally don't like ProPlan or any product made by Purina. They all rate a 1 star no matter what "quality" you buy be it regular Puppy Chow or the Selects. Purina uses by-products, animal digest, and a synthetic vitamin K that is known to be carcinogenic. You can get detailed reviews of foods by independent raters at these two sites.
> http://dogfoodanalysis.com
> http://dogfoodadvisor.com
> 
> ...


These sites have a bias about certain ingredients, and they rate the foods accordingly. If you make your food without byproducts and grains, you get all the stars. There's no look whatsoever on how dogs actually do on the foods. Just unproven theories about dog evolution and digestion.

For example:

By-products are subject to the same quality control as meat products in pet food. The only difference is that by-product can contain ground bone, organ meat, and skin in addition to muscle meat. By-product meal can be a superior ingredient in some ways because it has a more varied profile of vitamins, proteins, and fats. There's nothing wrong with "chicken" on a dog food bag, but there's also nothing wrong with "chicken by-product."

Animal digest is a controversial ingredient, but it's really just a spray-on flavoring, and there's nothing dangerous about it (though it's a little gross).

Menadione is a synthetic vitamin-K precursor that's been extensively studied, and there's absolutely no research that suggests it's carcinogenic. It is poisonous in large quantities, as many vitamins are. It is not legal as a human vitamin supplement because it can be overdosed on, but the trace amounts added to animal feed are widely recognized as perfectly safe.

So I really would not counsel folks to use either of those sites to make decisions about dog food. They're not soundly based in nutritional science. ProPlan (though I don't feed it) is widely recognized as an excellent food and fed by many (perhaps even the plurality) of people who compete in show and sport. More power to those that choose something else, but I don't see any good reason to steer people away from ProPlan or similar foods.


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

My dogs get Eukanuba Large Breed Puppy when they're little, and then we transition slowly to Eukanuba Premium Performance. People level many of the same charges at Euk as they do at Purina, though the Eukanuba doesn't have menadione (at least not the blends we feed).

My dogs have always had great coats, great general health, great teeth, and great muscle tone. The PP might be a little high calorie if your dog isn't super active, but it's perfect for us.


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## Jax's Mom (Oct 16, 2009)

Personally speaking, when I switched my jax to Orijen (when he was a puppy), it gave him awful runs and gas. We went to Maerrick, and he did better with the lower protein, but still loose stool. We finally went to Kirkland brand signature lamb and rice. Its lower in protein, which was helpful, since he was diagnosed with panosteitis and the vet recommmended a lower proein diet. I dont believe high protein is always the way to go....IMHO


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## dunevlinj (Feb 2, 2009)

My dog ( and my cats!) eat Life's Abundance. He started on Canidae but developed diarrhea when they changed the formula a couple of years back. After that, it was a lot of trial and error until we could find one that worked for him. We had good results with TOTW and Orijen, but Buddy seemed to lose interest after a few weeks. Plus, my husband kept giving him occasional table scraps, so I had to ask, Why am I spending extra for a grain-free food if he's still eating carbs? lol
I tried Life's Abundance and we've had good luck with it. Buddy is healthy, and has a beautiful coat. It gets delivered to our door every 6 weeks. That's one less thing to shop for!


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## batugz (Nov 5, 2010)

My puppy is 5 months old and I feed him Wellness Puppy for large breed. He was on puppy chow when I picked him up, but transition him to the Wellness food. He has no problems with it. He has gas at night when he sleeps but thats about it.


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## RaeRae1706 (Nov 4, 2010)

County JR said:


> I feed my puppy a raw mix of different meats, eggs and vitamins. It's basically just proteins and fat, no carbs or any unnecessary ingredients.


Me too! And they both do so well on it. Luna has had problems with most kibbles I have tried, from Orijen to TOWL to Nutro and Purina. Sunny has a stomach of steel but does extremely well on the raw. And a bonus is that the vets say they have never seen cleaner teeth :--big_grin:


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## tobysmommy (Jan 9, 2011)

Thanks for all your recommendations, everyone! I'm transitioning Toby to Orijen right now and he seems to like it. We'll see what happens, but I'm _extremely _curious about feeding raw. It's something I've always wanted to do, but my vet is totally against it. I'm thinking I might ignore her and give it a try. She's disgusted with me anyway because I canceled Toby's castration appointment next Friday...


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## Mighty Casey and Samson's Mom (Jul 16, 2008)

I have used (and liked) Origen. When I got my new puppy he was on Fromm and I kept him on it. I ended up transitioning both of them to the Fromm Large breed gold and they are doing very well...my older guy actually lost a bit of weight and has lots of energy. I think that both are good foods.


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## RaeRae1706 (Nov 4, 2010)

I think Orijen and Fromm are awesome, just not for us. I am no expert on feeding raw, but if you decide to make the leap I may be able to answer some questions. And if it matters, I think you should try


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## County JR (Sep 26, 2010)

tobysmommy said:


> Thanks for all your recommendations, everyone! I'm transitioning Toby to Orijen right now and he seems to like it. We'll see what happens, but I'm _extremely _curious about feeding raw. It's something I've always wanted to do, but my vet is totally against it. I'm thinking I might ignore her and give it a try. She's disgusted with me anyway because I canceled Toby's castration appointment next Friday...


Did your vet mention why she's against it?

Either way you should try it. No one, not us nor the vet, can tell you if it's good or bad for your dog. It's probably way better than kibble, but it might not be. Just try and see for yourself


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## tobysmommy (Jan 9, 2011)

She said that "unless you know what you're doing" the pup probably wouldn't get the right balance of protein/carbs/fats and vitamins/minerals (I'm a D.Hom. and C.N.P.), and that there is a significant danger of infection from contaminated foods (yah, and I'm sure I'll leave the meat to rot on the counter for 2 weeks before feeding). Call me a cynic, but I suspect that in reality, she wanted me to buy the extremely expensive food she is selling, rather than do my own thing.

I think I'll try Toby on raw. Heck, my diet is 90% raw (as well as vegan) and I feel better than ever before.


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## ghuss37 (Nov 27, 2010)

Kobe has the worst gas/smelling poo in the world. Should I change his food? He is on Nutro Natural Choice Large Puppy Breed. He seems to enjoy eating it.


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## Penny & Maggie's Mom (Oct 4, 2007)

tobysmommy said:


> She said that "unless you know what you're doing" the pup probably wouldn't get the right balance of protein/carbs/fats and vitamins/minerals (I'm a D.Hom. and C.N.P.), and that there is a significant danger of infection from contaminated foods (yah, and I'm sure I'll leave the meat to rot on the counter for 2 weeks before feeding). Call me a cynic, but I suspect that in reality, she wanted me to buy the extremely expensive food she is selling, rather than do my own thing.
> 
> I think I'll try Toby on raw. Heck, my diet is 90% raw (as well as vegan) and I feel better than ever before.


It is very important that if you are going to feed raw that you keep the cahos in proper balance to prevent growth problems such as pano or future joint issues. They need either a proper balance of bone or supplemental calcium. There are many resources available to ensure a balanced healthy raw diet.


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## tobysmommy (Jan 9, 2011)

Yes, that would be paramount. I'm thinking a ratio of 1.5% calcium to 1% phosphate would make sense at this stage, and a combination of calcium bisglycinate, proteinate and glucanate rather than just carbonate. Does that make sense? I'll go digginh in the nutrition section for some recommendations. Thank you, Betty.


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## County JR (Sep 26, 2010)

My pup gets 2000+ kcal a day. 14% protein, 16% fat, 1% calcium and 0.5% phosphate.


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

tobysmommy said:


> She said that "unless you know what you're doing" the pup probably wouldn't get the right balance of protein/carbs/fats and vitamins/minerals (I'm a D.Hom. and C.N.P.), and that there is a significant danger of infection from contaminated foods (yah, and I'm sure I'll leave the meat to rot on the counter for 2 weeks before feeding). Call me a cynic, but I suspect that in reality, she wanted me to buy the extremely expensive food she is selling, rather than do my own thing.
> 
> I think I'll try Toby on raw. Heck, my diet is 90% raw (as well as vegan) and I feel better than ever before.


I can't speak for your vet, but mine also counsels against raw based on her experience as the ER surgeon at the regional hospital. Raw is relatively popular here in CT, and she said she's seen a number of cases of salmonella in raw-fed dogs, and she's operated several times on raw-fed dogs who swallowed bone fragments that caused obstructions and perforations.

She's never once tried to sell me any food that they sell. I think she legitimately feels, in her experience, that it carries significant risks.


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## tobysmommy (Jan 9, 2011)

I can understand your vet's reservations based on her experiences, but I think it's important to remember that for every raw fed dog who ends up with nutritional deficiencies or in the OR with an obstruction, there are probably hundreds who are the very epitome of canine good health. And I'm not talking about feeding Toby the way a farm dog may have been fed 100 years ago - with scraps and carcasses from the slaughter yard - but with a raw diet of the highest quality prepared with care and attention, mindful of potential hazards.



tippykayak said:


> She's never once tried to sell me any food that they sell.


That's good to hear, and I wish that had been my experience. The very first time I took Toby to his vet, a technician came into the room before I even met the doctor. She presented me with a bulging folder full of flyers and ads, and pitched both pet insurance and a particular food they sell there. It left a funny taste in my mouth... :no:


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

tobysmommy said:


> I can understand your vet's reservations based on her experiences, but I think it's important to remember that for every raw fed dog who ends up with nutritional deficiencies or in the OR with an obstruction, there are probably hundreds who are the very epitome of canine good health. And I'm not talking about feeding Toby the way a farm dog may have been fed 100 years ago - with scraps and carcasses from the slaughter yard - but with a raw diet of the highest quality prepared with care and attention, mindful of potential hazards.


Absolutely. The question is whether the benefits outweigh the risks. She feels very strongly, based on her experience, that they don't. However, that's anecdotal. There's not a lot of hard evidence either way about the rates of food-borne illness and obstruction in raw fed dogs or about the nutritional superiority or inferiority of raw food. I don't know of any large-scale study of raw vs. kibble that would help illuminate the debate.

So I don't think anybody's clearly "right" to feed it or to avoid it. It becomes an issue of what you have faith in. Do you have faith in the theories about raw and in the positive results obtained by people you know or know of? Or do you have faith in the safety practices of the large companies, the feeding studies they've done, and the results obtained by the people you respect who feed it or a similar food?



tobysmommy said:


> That's good to hear, and I wish that had been my experience. The very first time I took Toby to his vet, a technician came into the room before I even met the doctor. She presented me with a bulging folder full of flyers and ads, and pitched both pet insurance and a particular food they sell there. It left a funny taste in my mouth... :no:


I would definitely go for a new vet if that happened to me. It's a loud communication that every medical and nutritional recommendation will be strongly influenced by the companies that sponsor them in some way. The two vets I've used over a long period of time have never acted like that at all.


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## lightwave (Mar 7, 2014)

ghuss37 said:


> Kobe has the worst gas/smelling poo in the world. Should I change his food? He is on Nutro Natural Choice Large Puppy Breed. He seems to enjoy eating it.


I put my puppy on Nutro Natural Choice Lamb & Brown Rice because she couldn't tolerate Acana Pacifica. However, Nutro gave her runny stool and diarrhea. A little bit of research shed some light on me that brown rice is mostly insoluble fiber (white rice is mostly soluble). Insoluble fiber helps with constipation. Soluble fiber helps bind the stuff in stool together and absorb the water. So, now, I'm avoiding brown rice (and insoluble fiber) like a plague if it's an main ingredient.


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## brendadavis44 (May 6, 2014)

We use Taste of the wild grain free puppy / Kiner has done GREAT on it!


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## cris (Jan 24, 2014)

lightwave said:


> I put my puppy on Nutro Natural Choice Lamb & Brown Rice because she couldn't tolerate Acana Pacifica. However, Nutro gave her runny stool and diarrhea. A little bit of research shed some light on me that brown rice is mostly insoluble fiber (white rice is mostly soluble). Insoluble fiber helps with constipation. Soluble fiber helps bind the stuff in stool together and absorb the water. So, now, I'm avoiding brown rice (and insoluble fiber) like a plague if it's an main ingredient.


Interesting. I started Max on the same Nutro, he never had diarrhea but he always had soft stools and had a couple of ear infections. While they may not have been food-related I was still unhappy with his stool consistency. I did some research (never stumbled upon the brown rice vs. white rice dilemma) and I ended up trying out Fromm LB Puppy Gold. No soft stool issues ever since... and Puppy Gold has brown rice as well.


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## Rikki (Apr 7, 2014)

I am feeding my new puppy Nutro Large breed puppy food. After a couple of weeks her stools are finally starting to become more solid but she still gets loose ones sometimes. I see that this can happen with high protein foods.


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## sniz (Mar 23, 2014)

We have been feeding Walt Bil-Jac grain free puppy, he loves it, much preferred it to the food our breeder was feeding. Stools have been good as well.

Not sure if we will leave him on that or go elsewhere, for now everyone is happy and he looks great


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## Susan: w/ Summit we climb (Jun 12, 2014)

We feed Orijen. It doesn't cause Summit to have gas at all. We transitioned him over 3 weeks or so from ProPlan to Orijen Large Breed Puppy, and he's doing great. We do add a bit of extra fiber from 2-3 tsp canned pumpkin or beans.


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## lightwave (Mar 7, 2014)

Rikki said:


> I am feeding my new puppy Nutro Large breed puppy food. After a couple of weeks her stools are finally starting to become more solid but she still gets loose ones sometimes. I see that this can happen with high protein foods.


Yup, my vet told me that she has a lot of puppies returned to her with upset stomach and most of them are resolved with lower protein food.

Nutro Large Breed Puppy Lamb and Brown rice isn't high protein though. So, I had ruled out high protein as a cause and err on the side of food sensitivity or high insoluble fiber.


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## lightwave (Mar 7, 2014)

cris said:


> ... and Puppy Gold has brown rice as well.


I'm starting to transition Summer to Fromm Large Breed Puppy Gold tomorrow. I'll go really slow this time, stretching it to at least 10 days.

Although Fromm Large Breed Puppy Gold has brown rice, it's not the main ingredient. It has rich soluble fiber from oatmeal and pearl barley (not ground barley) higher on the list of ingredients. It's much better than using brown rice as the main starch because the husk/bran of brown rice is insoluble. I like the variety of ingredients in Fromm. Hopefully, Summer can transition successfully and tolerate this new food to settle down.

A lot of researches have shown that the bran/husk of grain and legumes contain large amount of phytate which prevent absorption of essential vitamins and minerals and can cause "leaky gut". This applies to human. I'd imagine that it applies to dog too since the chemical reaction is really that same. :no: At some times, I'd like to transition Summer off grain if she likes Fromm.


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## Goldendancer (Oct 22, 2008)

Grains and carbs cause gas, can cause diarrhea, and very smelly and lots of poop. 

Most dogs can better digest a high protein, veggie diet, and get rid of most all grains if possible. 

When our Golden was a pup, she had the worst gas from every dog food, and constant diarrhea, and was fat and over weight eating Iams, etc, till we ended up dog walking late one night waiting for the last poop so we could put our puppy to bed, and a show trainer walking many dogs late at night also, told us get her off the carbs, and the gas, diarrhea and smelly poop will be over. We started the change to protein meat and veggies the next day and within days the gas was totally over, no more diarrhea, and the poop did not smell so horrible, and less poop. This was such a life saver, as the vet didn't even know what was wrong, as vets know nothing about pet nutrition. The vet was clueless and not one bit of help. The vet never even told us stop feeding big commercial pet food as it is horrible for pets and can cause these bad health problems.

We have learned to go mostly protein, any meat, raw, cooked or canned with no salt and veggies like frozen green beans with no salt, and she can handle cooked cooled sweet potato slices, banana slices, and apple slices without any gas.

Now being older, we are adding broccoli and cauliflower as those veggies have 
anti-cancer properties and they don't cause any gas either.

A great supplement is NuPro and NuPro Silver with joint support for USBones.com that has holistic and natural pet food and dog chews made in the USA with USA ingredients. NuPro has crushed flaxseed which helps prevents allergies and promote health, Kelp for iodine support for the entire body, probiotics, vitamin C, glucosamine for joints, etc. Mix the powder with water in their food and they love it. It smells great.

I also add Alaskan Naturals salmon oil in a squirt bottle from USBones.com with a squirt in the food daily, dogs love it. 

When she was younger, our Dog Agility Trainer, was winning many dog agility contests with her goldens, and she only fed a raw meat, pastured chicken raw eggs and veggies diet. Her Goldens were strong, streamlined and fast and in the best shape. Now her Goldens were a thinner build more like Border Collies, as my Golden gal has the big boned wide body, and a super thick plush show coat. A high protein diet with veggies and NuPro has done wonders for her, but she was never as fast as those agility goldens. 

The high protein, veggie diet will keep your Golden from being overweight. Which is very important. With this diet, she still gets plenty of healthy treats thru out the day but doesn't get fat from them. The same as humans. Humans that eat high carb diets are fat, and humans that eat a high protein, veggie diet are not fat. 

Especially the GMO wheat, corn and soy in most all dog foods, are very low quality grains that cannot be sold for human consumption, so it is given to Big Pet Food Corporations, that is why big commercial pet food is so profitable, as they use all the free unwanted grains from all the cereal factories, and expired processed foods, all ground up and made into big commercial dog food for well known brands like nestle purina, iams, science diet, eucanuba, grocery store brands, walmart brands, kirkland brands, etc. Brands to avoid for the health of your dog. 

The low quality carbs, not to mention the horrific meat that they may use for the protein. Learn more reading "Pet Food, Pets Die For," to know what really is used in big commercial well known brands advertised on TV etc.

Hope this helps. I wish someone had helped us sooner, as that gas was so bad. Now she never has gas, even as old Gold, no gas on a healthy diet.


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## lightwave (Mar 7, 2014)

I would agree with the raw diet theory as I'm on a no grain good carb diet myself. However, despite how much I wanted to put my puppy on a high protein diet (Acana Pacifica), she couldn't tolerate it. Constant gas and diarrhea isn't fun.

I need help from a vet nutritionist to come up with an appropriate plan for raw food diet for my puppy as I don't want to risk not giving her a balanced diet. For now, the best food for her is nutritional food she can tolerate. I think once she settles down her stomach, we can start experimenting different kind of diet.

Do you have any recommendation of vet. nutritionist you can share with us?

Chris



Goldendancer said:


> Grains and carbs cause gas, can cause diarrhea, and very smelly and lots of poop.
> 
> Most dogs can better digest a high protein, veggie diet, and get rid of most all grains if possible.
> 
> ...


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## Goldendancer (Oct 22, 2008)

DogsNaturally has a newsletter they sent out today with a first free video on how to start feeding raw and wean your dog off of the over processed big commercial kibble video series.

Sign up for their newsletter and if you don't get it, it may be on their website.

That might be helpful. Just have to figure out what your dog can eat.

Many have had great success with sweet potato based dog foods with fish, both dry and canned. USBones has California Natural sweet potato and herring fish in dry and canned, and there may be some other small brands that carry similar ingredients. Try a small bag and a few cans and see if there is any improvement.


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## Swampcollie (Sep 6, 2007)

If you're feeding a Golden Retriever puppy I would advise against attempting to feed a home made or raw diet. Puppies at this stage in life are growing rapidly and need a consistent balanced diet to obtain optimum results. 
The vast majority of "do it yourselfers" mean well when attempting a raw diet, but over time they don't follow the diet plans closely enough to do well by their puppies. Veterinarians see a lot of dogs with problems related to dietary deficiences. If it's a rapidly growing puppy, the damage may be permanent and result in a life long problem. 

If you have a normal healthy puppy there is no need to feed supplements or additives to its diet. They will derive all the nutrients they need from their daily diet.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

> If you have a normal healthy puppy there is no need to feed supplements or additives to its diet. They will derive all the nutrients they need from their daily diet.


 Exactly.

I feed my guys Nutrisource and Pro Plan Performance. Knock on wood, the youngest has never had any diarrhea or other stomach related illness. I say knock on wood, because both he and my other boy go to class and dog shows and basically are exposed to germs/parasites shed by the other dogs. I probably jinxed myself saying that.  

Our collie is a smidge different. I feed him about 1/2 cup of Nutrisource with the prescription food he must eat. I honestly think he could handle being weaned completely on Nutrisource, but because his stomach issues (collie gut) are directly related to emotions/stress and he will have bad days where his intestines go haywire, it's better to keep him primarily on a blander food so he recovers faster.


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## lightwave (Mar 7, 2014)

You brought up a good point. Emotion ups and downs could be a factor in my puppy's stomach sensitivity. Sometimes, when I get really busy and needs to get work done, i couldn't give her as much attention as in the weekend. I wonder if she's upset or feeling bored during those down time. That said, I still give her twice a day run in the field and play with her after potty break every 2 hours when I'm busy.



Megora said:


> Exactly.
> 
> I feed my guys Nutrisource and Pro Plan Performance. Knock on wood, the youngest has never had any diarrhea or other stomach related illness. I say knock on wood, because both he and my other boy go to class and dog shows and basically are exposed to germs/parasites shed by the other dogs. I probably jinxed myself saying that.
> 
> Our collie is a smidge different. I feed him about 1/2 cup of Nutrisource with the prescription food he must eat. I honestly think he could handle being weaned completely on Nutrisource, but because his stomach issues (collie gut) are directly related to emotions/stress and he will have bad days where his intestines go haywire, it's better to keep him primarily on a blander food so he recovers faster.


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## Susan: w/ Summit we climb (Jun 12, 2014)

I know I've said this before, but I wouldn't jump to blame high protein for causing puppy stomach problems. Summit's food is very high in protein and he is not having any stomach or digestive issue. 

However, a little more soluble fiber (from cooked pumpkin or beans; people use Metamucil, or a grain like oats) does produce more stool volume that's also more solid, so the puppy might be more comfortable as well. I think that's the real solution, not reducing the protein.


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## yellowrose3502 (Jun 15, 2009)

*Feed LARGE breed puppy food till 24 months old*

We did well on Natures Variety Large Breed Puppy. She was on it till 24 months old. Then transitioned to NV Instinct raw in morning and kibble at dinner. She's 4 now and thriving.


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## Wilbur'sDad (Feb 19, 2014)

Our new boy, now 12 weeks old, is on Blue Buffalo Puppy chicken and brown rice and seems to be doing very well on it. We'll have to eventually transition him to adult. Our senior gal is on Wellness Core low fat and loves it - although I don't think the pup will be needing low fat ;-) Have to decide if we want to continue with an adult Blue Buffalo or try Wellness Core.


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## lightwave (Mar 7, 2014)

When my Summer was on rice and hamburger to calm her stomach down, I reintroduced Acana Pacifica slowly again. White rice is pretty good source of soluble fiber. However, she still couldn't tolerate much of the Acana Pacifica kibble. If it was just soft or slightly runny stool, I would have agreed 100% with the pumpkin recipe. But Summer strained and had frequent diarrhea at night with blood and mucous. She was clear of parasites after fecal test.

If it wasn't the high protein, it would have to be some other things in the Acana Pacifica and Nutro Natural Choice Lamb & Brown Rice. That said, she's doing fine with 75% i/d and 25% Froom Large Breed Puppy now. Crossing my fingers hoping she'd be transitioned successfully. :crossfing

When she's fully grown in a year, I'd like to try raw feeding after her immune system has time to develop through her puppyhood. When she starts on raw, I think I'd find out if she can tolerate high protein raw food but not high protein processed food.



Susan: w/ Summit we climb said:


> I know I've said this before, but I wouldn't jump to blame high protein for causing puppy stomach problems. Summit's food is very high in protein and he is not having any stomach or digestive issue.
> 
> However, a little more soluble fiber (from cooked pumpkin or beans; people use Metamucil, or a grain like oats) does produce more stool volume that's also more solid, so the puppy might be more comfortable as well. I think that's the real solution, not reducing the protein.


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## jais81 (Sep 8, 2013)

I've been through the ringer with foods (Orijen, Wellness, BB Wilderness, frozen raw ...) and have settled on FROMM Gold Large Breed Puppy. The calcium and phosphorus levels are nice and low -- and FROMM makes excellent quality food. I top that off with 1/2 a can of the FROMM Four-star wet food. He's thrived on this stuff, his poop is minimum (very little -- like how it was when he was on frozen raw) and he never has loose stools. Finding something to agree with his stomach was a challenge. 

He does not do well on grain-free at all, so I use the versions of FROMM with some grain in them.

Sarge will be a year old on 8/10 -- I am trying to figure out when to switch him over to adult food. He is getting a little bigger (fat-wise), so I may make the transition soon (will consult vet). I already have a couple formulas of FROMM good picked out to change him over to. It will be the Gold Large Breed Adult and 4-star Duck and Sweet potato (I'll continue to top it with the canned food).

What works for my pup may not work for yours, but above is what I went through.


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## goldlover68 (Jun 17, 2013)

Purina Proplan large breed puppy chow


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## ShellyChip (Jul 15, 2014)

Since I have an older dog that must eat grain free, I have my puppy on grain free foods as well because my older dog inevitably sneaks some of the puppy food. I am feeding NOW Now Fresh Grain-Free Puppy Recipe Dry Dog Food and Nulo Nulo Lifestyles Growth with Salmon & Turkey Puppy Dry Dog Food. My puppy is crazy picky though. I used to feed him Taste of the Wild Bison and Venison, but now he won't eat it.


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