what is the healthiest dog food for a 9 month old rottweiler?

Answer 1

The healthiest diet for any dog of any age is the Bones And Raw Foods diet. Any dog being fed a raw diet will be healthier than the same dog on ANY commercial dog food. As long as you prepare it correctly anyway...

As far as commercial dog foods go, some of the best are Nutro natural choice, Wellness, Solid Gold, Eukanuba (regular Iams is garbage IMO), and Blue Buffalo. In general, the higher cost does actually equate to better foods, but not always. Purina One is the only brand that is a decent dog food which is sold at grocery stores.

Spending more on dog food is a GOOD thing. Better food means first off that you actually feed less; so that a 20lb bag will last longer than a 20lb bag of generic food. But more importantly, feeding a quality food will decrease vet bills over the life of the dog. Better nutrition will also increase your dogs life span significantly. Read up on some sites about canine nutrition, don't ever buy a food when the first ingredient isn't meat. Ingrediants are listed in order based on thier % composition. A food listing corn meal first means a large portion of the food is corn, and your dog needs animal protein from meats. Things like corn meal are mostly fillers, and offer (almost) no nutritional value, they are just added to take up space and make the food weight more and look bigger.

If you are interested in absolute top canine nutrition research raw food diets like th BARF diet. When fed correctly (and you can get books/web pages with detailed instructions on daily and weekly feeding) your dog will be twice as healthy compared to a dog fed commercial foods. On top of that, a majority of canine cancers are either caused by or supported by commercial dog foods. The incidence of cancer in dogs fed a raw diet is more than five times less.

The additives in commercial foods are mostly poisons. A lot of the preservatives are unmodified insecticides that no one would willingly feed their dogs seperately. Ethoxyquin is the best, it is an extermely powerful insecticide and an extermely potent carcinogen, yet the Iams corp uses it liberally as a preservative in their foods. Most of the bad stuff never appears on lables, because FDA regulations only require directly processed ingredients to be listed on the lables. Anything used in preprocessing is left off the lables. Another fact about most commercial dog foods is that they use sub human grade ingredients. That is to say it would not be legal for those companies to sell those ingredients to a person, they would literally get huge fines and go to jail for it. Most of the meats in low cost dog food comes from Dead, Diseased, and Dying animals. You wouldn't eat it, and I wouldn't let my dogs eat it. Some foods (like wellness and solid gold) use only human grade ingredients and therefore are much healthier.

Answer 2

Scoring Your Dog Food
*Please note that the following is for entertainment purposes only and has not been researched by DAN and may not be a "true" grading of food. If you have any questions regarding the food you are feeding your dog consult your veternarian.
This is a very interesting way to check out the quality of the dog food that you are feeding. It's interesting, because sometimes paying more, does not get you more and vice versa.
The scores are rather interesting.
How to grade your dog's food: (Some brand reviews already calculated here)
Start with a grade of 100:
1.For every listing of "by-product", subtract 10 points
2.For every non-specific animal source ("meat" or "poultry", meat, meal
or fat) reference, subtract 10 points
3.If the food contains BHA, BHT, or ethoxyquin, subtract 10 points
4.For every grain "mill run" or non-specific grain source, subtract 5
points
5.If the same grain ingredient is used 2 or more times in the first five
ingredients (i.e. "ground brown rice", "brewer rice", "rice flour" are all
the same grain), subtract 5 points
6.If the protein sources are not meat meal and there are less than 2
meats in the top 3 ingredients, subtract 3 points
7.If it contains any artificial colorants, subtract 3 points
8.If it contains ground corn or whole grain corn, subtract 3 points
9.If corn is listed in the top 5 ingredients, subtract 2 more points
10.If the food contains any animal fat other than fish oil, subtract 2
points
11.If lamb is the only animal protein source (unless your dog is allergic
to other protein sources), subtract 2 points
12.If it contains soy or soybeans, subtract 2 points
13.If it contains wheat (unless you know that your dog isn't allergic to
wheat), subtract 2 points
14.If it contains beef (unless you know that your dog isn't allergic to
beef), subtract 1 point
15.If it contains salt, subtract 1 point
Extra Credit:
1.If any of the meat sources are organic, add 5 points
2.If the food is endorsed by any major breed group or
nutritionist, add 5 points
3.If the food is baked not extruded, add 5 points
4.If the food contains probiotics, add 3 points
5.If the food contains fruit, add 3 points
6.If the food contains vegetables (NOT corn or other grains), add 3
points
7.If the animal sources are hormone-free and antibiotic-free, add 2
points
8.If the food contains barley, add 2 points
9.If the food contains flax seed oil (not just the seeds), add 2 points
10.If the food contains oats or oatmeal, add 1 point
11.If the food contains sunflower oil, add 1 point
12.For every different specific animal protein source (other than
the first one; count "chicken" and "chicken meal" as only one protein
source, but "chicken" and "" as 2 different sources), add 1 point
13.If it contains glucosamine and chondroitin, add 1 point
14.If the vegetables have been tested for pesticides and are
pesticide-free, add 1 point
94-100+ = A 86-93 = B 78-85 = C 70-77 = D 69 = F
Here are some foods that have already been scored. If you don't see your dog's food here, ask and someone will score it for you.
Brand Dog Food scores:
•Authority Harvest Baked: 116 A+
•Bil-Jac Select: 68 F
•Canidae: 112 A+
•Chicken Soup Senior: 115 A+
•Diamond Maintenance: 64 F
•Diamond Lamb Meal & Rice: 92 B
•Diamond Large Breed 60+ Formula: 99 A
•Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance Ultra Premium: 122 A+
•Dick Van Patten's Duck and Potato: 106 A+
•Foundations: 106 A+
•Hund-n-Flocken Adult Dog (lamb) by Solid Gold: 93 D
•Iams Lamb Meal & Rice Formula Premium: 73 D
•Innova Dog: 114 A+
•Innova Evo: 114 A+
•Kirkland Signature Chicken, Rice, and Vegetables: 110 A+
•Nutrisource Lamb and Rice: 87 B
•Nutro Natural Choice Large Breed Puppy: 87 B
•Pet Gold Adult with Lamb & Rice: 23 F
•ProPlan Natural Turkey & Barley: 103 A+
•Purina Beneful: 17 F
•Purina Dog: 62 F
•Purina Come-n-Get It: 16 F
•Royal Canin Bulldog: 100 A+
•Royal Canin Natural Blend Adult: 106 A+
•Sensible Choice Chicken and Rice: 97 A
•Science Diet Advanced Protein Senior 7+: 63 F
•Science Diet for Large Breed Puppies: 69 F
•Wellness Super5 Mix Chicken: 110 A+
•Wolfking Adult Dog (bison) by Solid Gold: 97 A

Answer 3

Science Diet, Pedigree, Iams etc are decent, but NOT the best. They have artificial fat preservatives that can turn rancid if the food sits on the shelf to long. This is why a lot of dogs stop eating a particular brand halfway through the bag. What you need is something with natural preservatives, and something that has meat as the main ingredient, NOT meat by product, there's a big difference. Try something like Innova, California Natural, anything by Merrick, or Canidae. You'll spend more money per bag but since it's a better quality food, you'll be feeding less so in turn not buying food as often. You can find some of these food at some boarding kennels and other stores, but if you can't find it there try contacting the company's directly through their websites. I'm sure they would be willing to send you some free samples. I put my great dane and my lab on Innova and they are in so much better shape.

Answer 4

I've had terrific results feeding Purina ProPlan for sensitive skin and stomachs. I would not give a large-breed puppy puppy food after 6 months; we took our younger chow girl off puppy food and started her on adult food at three months, and she is thriving.

I would avoid Innova Evo. We had gas problems from out 10-year-old girl (we're talking gas warfare here!), loose stools with our boy, and thin coat with the younger girl. ISTR Rotties being prone to bloat, so gas is something you want to avoid, and no one likes cleaning up loose poop! The gas and loose stools were history with a few days. The coat is gradually improving.

READ THE LABELS! Wheat and corn are just not good for dogs. Preservatives should be avoided where possible.

Answer 5

Nutro! This stuff is great. Not only is it full of nutrients, but it keeps their coat so shiny and their skin so healthy. It's what I use for my 11 month old Pit Mix. Go to the link below and read for yourself. You can always try it, and if you don't like it, you can change. What do you have to lose. They have different types so that you can choose what you feel is best for your breed. It's all natural, too.

Answer 6

Foods that have no byproducts , and corn. Foods that have the first 3 ingredients listed as protiens are pretty decent . Such as turkey , chicken, lamb .You want to go with the more premium foods. They have less fillers and your dog will absorb more nutrients and use them in his body.Premium foods you wont find in a grocery store. You have to find in your area a pet store that deals in premium foods.Some premium foods are Canidae , Wellness, Natural Balance (Petco and Pet Smart sell it) , Nutro Natural and the Ultra , Eagle pack. These are some.

There are some people who feed the barf diet. I could never bring myself to feed it.It's gross to me.

Answer 7

Feed a raw diet, like a BARF diet. You'll be amazed at the difference. THe coat will get extremely shiney, the muscles will develop nicely, they lose the gas, and they poop less.

I have 8 rotties. They love the raw diet, it's better for them and they look amazing.

Answer 8

i feed mine nutro max...any premium dog food will be a good choice....you may want to ask the vet if the "large breed " formula would be best. it has a little extra something in it for dogs that are of a large breed( due to them growing so quickly in the first year)

Answer 9

Nutro Max brand food is very good. It is packed full of nutrients plus it is all natural. This is what I feed my 10month old Pit Bull and he LOVES it. Also they do not do testing on animals, unlike all other major animal food brands.

Answer 10

Any premium puppy food (not bought in the grocery store) is good until he's at least a year old. I give mine NutroMax puppy. But all brands are good in the pet store.