what to feed a puppy?

Answer 1

A high quality food.

Below you will find criteria for choosing a high quality food for your dog. You may notice that some of the high quality foods do not have puppy formulas. This is because they are formulated for all life stages, they can be fed from puppyhood through the senior years. Puppy foods have way more protein than needed and cause rapid growth, rapid growth leads to joint and bone problems later in life. A food formulated for all life stages will promote a more desired slow growth, and help prevent joint and bone problems later in life.

Pups should grow up slow, not spring up like weeds.

Nothing you find at a grocery store is going to be a good food. High quality foods can be found at large pet store chains, or online. A couple of foods I like are Nutro Natural, Innova, and Cannidae.

There are other high quality dog foods. Here's how to spot them:

A high quality food will have little or no fillers such as corn, wheat or soy. These aren't very digestable for dogs, and are common food related allergens. Since you were seeing corn meal in the first few ingredients, those are not high quality foods. Foods list ingredients by content, with the ingredient it contains most of at the top.

A high quality food will not contain BHT, BHA or Ethoxyquin, these are all chemical preservatives that have been linked to cancer.

A high quality food will not contain by-products of any kind. Meat meals are ok as long as the source of the meat is listed, such as Chicken Meal.

A high quality diet should have meat as at least the first ingredient., and be made from human grade ingredients. Foods that don't use human grade ingredients often get their ingredients from less than desirable sources, such as meat from animals that were diseased, or euthanized.

There is another diet option other than dog food. Some people choose to feed a raw diet. This involves feeding the dog raw meaty bones and organ meat. However it is not as simple as throwing a couple chicken bones in a bowl everyday. If you wish to feed this type of diet, do lots and lots of research first. Switching to this diet without knowing what your doing can lead to nutritional problems for your dog. I'll give you some links as a starting point in research if you are interested in this type of diet.

http://www.willowglen.com/barf.htm.........

http://www.bestfrisbeedogs.com/diets.htm...

http://www.rawlearning.com/rawfaq.html.....

http://www.rawfed.com/myths/index.html.....

http://www.rawdogranch.com

What's Really In Pet Food
http://www.api4animals.org/facts?p=359&m...

Answer 2

It also depends on what TYPE of dog you have. If the breed is predisposed to certain bone ailments such as hip or elbow displasia -- puppy food is NO GOOD! Puppy food is designed to make the dog grow faster than necessary and doesn't allow their bones the time to acclimate to the weight being put on the body. This would not be good for the large breed dogs, German Shepherds etc. A good adult dog food such as Nature's Variety or Royal Canin will be just fine. A raw diet would be even better!

Answer 3

I agree definitely stay away from Pedigree.
Puppies can have lots of different things it depends on what you want to be feeding and what size this puppy will grow to. I am not going to tell you that kibble is the best food for your dog, it is however something that I do use although not the only thing. When choosing kibbles what you want to avoid is BHT BHA and Ethoxyquin. These are the three most commonly used preservatives in kibbles

Ethoxyquin
Promoted kidney carcinogenesis.
Significantly increased incidence of stomach tumors.
Enhanced bladder carcinogenesis.

BHA
Enhanced stomach and urinary bladder carcinogenesis.
Causes squamous-cell carcinomas in stomachs.
(Cancers of this type are among the most lethal and fastest acting, the swiftest effects being seen among animals with light colored fur.)

BHT
Promoted urinary bladder carcinogenesis.
Could be a promoter of thyroid carcinogenesis.
Studies have noted that BHA and other antioxidants, particularly Propyl Gallate and ethoxyquin, showed additional effects in inducing stomach hyperplasia and cytotoxicity.

According to Dr. Wendell Belfield, DVM, practicing veterinarian for some 26 years, both BHA and BHT are known to cause liver and kidney dysfunction and are banned in some European countries. He adds that ethoxyquin is suspected of causing cancer and that propylene glycol (a pet food ingredient closely related to anti-freeze) causes destruction of red blood cells.




Ethoxyquin is listed and identified as a hazardous chemical by OSHA. It has a rating of 3 on a scale of 1 to 6, with 6 being super toxic requiring less than 7 drops to cause death. When manufactured by Monsanto, the containers are marked with the word POISON. Monsanto makes no representations and will not be responsible for damages of any nature whatsoever. The Department of Agriculture lists and controls Ethoxyquin as a pesticide.

Answer 4

Iams, Eukanuba, Science Diet, Pedigree and so on are crap! Please don't feed them to your puppy! If you can't afford a higher quality food then you might as well feed them store brand, it contains the same ingredients.

Some good high-quality foods are Innova EVO or Orijen. They have no grains and the meat content is 70%

Though if your looking for something cheaper but of the same quality, you could try Welness or Canidae. They contain grains but not much.

Hope this helps!

Answer 5

If he/she is old enough, feed your pup some high quality, high protein puppy food. Try to stay away from Pedigree, certain Purina types, and ones based mainly on corn or grain instead of meat.

Here's an awesome site that tells you what to be wary of and such: www.dogfoodproject.com

And note: You should keep your pup on puppy food until he/she is atleast a year old.

Answer 6

Science Diet is crap! It will KILL your dog! Do research, people! Purina's no better. It's "junk food", like taking your kids out to eat at fast food places all the time. Buy Canidae (can-ah-day), it's one of the healthiest kinds there is. Plus it's so packed w/real meats and good nutrients that you feed them almost 1/2 the amt of the other kinds. (DUDE! Dogs are NOT vegetarians and grain eaters! why buy foods that have nothing in thembut byproducts and cornmeal, wheat, etc...? All they are are cheap fillers and your dogs suffer b/c of it!),
Plus they have a frequent buyer program, if you buy 12 bags/cans you get the 13th FREE!

Answer 7

Depends upon the age. Till their 6 weeks, puppy milk. Then wean them onto a high quality puppy food & water. You can give a hard chewable treat every once in a while. They also like baby carrots.

Answer 8

A good quality puppy food..one with no corn, wheat, soy or beet pulp.

Stay away from Science Diet, Pedigree, Purina, IAMS/Eukanuba and other supermarket brands..they are loaded with cheap fillers & by products.

Answer 9

I need a little bit more information than just "a puppy" to answer that question. But Eukanuba Puppy food is great, if your puppy engulfs/inhales it though, just add some warm water to the food when you put it in the bowl. Ask this question again with more details.

Answer 10

How old is this puppy? A critical detail left out. If it is weaned already, get a real good quality puppy food (eukanuba, science diet, etc) from a place like petsmart or your vet. Stay with dry food, it promotes healthy teeth and gums, and stick with your vets recommended amounts.