I'm giving my puppies eukanuba large breed dry dog food, is there anything better then that.?

Question

im sorry its large breed puppy food.

Answer 1

Yes there is. Eukanuba isn't considered a high quality diet, I also don't feel puppies should eat puppy food. Puppies should eat a high quality all stages food. This helps prevent future bone and joint problems. Puppy foods tend to cause rapid growth which can lead to those future bone and joint problems, all stages food gives a more desired slow growth which helps prevent those problems.

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

Heres how to find a high quality food.

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, Innova Evo 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

Yes there are a lot of foods much better then Eukanuba. Eukanuba like other store brand foods...Pedigree, IAMS, Science Diet, Purina, etc...is full of cheap fillers and by products.

Some much better choices: Canidae, Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul, Wellness, Innova, Solid Gold, Timberwolf, Blue Buffalo, California Natural just to name a few.

Answer 3

Brands like Wellness and Innova are better. Generally commercial brands aren't all that great as they have by-products in them. Eukanuba is the best commercial brand. If your dog is exercised well, has a clean home and is taken to the vet regularly then it won't hurt to give it commercial food. If you can afford the expensive brands then I'd definately reccomend getting them as it can make the dogs live longer and be less likely to have problems when they are older.

Answer 4

Ingredients tells alot about a food, learning how to read an ingredients list and what terms means helps a lot

Eukanuba Large breed puppy main ingredients

Chicken, Corn Meal, Ground Whole Grain Sorghum, Chicken By-Product Meal (natural source of Chondroitin Sulfate and Glucosamine), Brewers Rice, Natural Chicken Flavor, Dried Beet Pulp (sugar removed), Fish meal, Dried Egg Product, Fish Oil

First ingredient(s) should be a specified meat which it is, but should be followed by the word "meal" which means water removed , chicken is 70% water whereas chicken meal has 10% water content so once the water is removed from process it only has enough chicken to become the third ingredient by weight not the first, so the real first ingredient is corn followed by sorghum. Which means it contains very little meat

Corn -- is an ingredient that does contain protein by not very digestible also many dogs are allergic to.

sorghum--, in a very cheap starchy grain
Chicken by-products meal--, this has excess moisture removed but is what is leftover from a chicken that is prepared for human food processing eg the feet, head, beak, guts and some feathers, it does not contain muscle meat,

brewers rice-- is broken crumbs of rice considered unsuitable for human packaging not as nutritious as whole rice

Fish meal or fish oil -- this also would be best as specified, is if carp, suckers, salmon. Ocean fish does not contain as much mercury, pollutants, pesticides as lake fish. In north america if you look at fish consumption guides most lake fish it is only safe to eat 2 meals a month, so as a pet owner whose pets eat the same food day after day I do not want lake fish in my dogs diet and even some ocean fish depending where harvested for example in gulf of mexico (water is shallow and a lot of industry there) so fish there willl have greater contamination

Now look at this ingredient list just the main ingredients

Chicken Meal, Turkey Meal, Brown Rice, White Rice, Lamb Meal, Chicken Fat (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols), Herring Meal, Flax Seed, Sun Cured Alfalfa Meal, Sunflower Oil, Chicken, Lecithin,

Wow!!! look at all the meat with the word meal behind it,
and no corn or cheap grainsused, the fish is herring which is a cold water fish that likes deep water.

The difference between this and eukanuba is like night and day

And better yet look at the quality of the ingredients they chose to use
http://www.canidae.com/ingredients/thefinest.html

you will not find a food in their price range that contains as much meat that is human grade,hormone and antibiotic free, or uses pesticide free produced grain unless you go into organic foods but because organic is so expensive to make they use lot lower amounts of meat

this is the actual formula I recommend http://www.canidae.com/dogs/all_life_stages/dry.html
Dogs of any age can eat it is also suitable for any breed, because it is more more nutrient dense you will be feeding less than you did on the eukanuba to feeding wise you may actually save money

Store locator is on the site to help people find where they can buy

For resources to learn more about dog food, terminlogy of ingredients, what ingredients to avoid these 2 sites will help

http://dogaware.com.hosting.domaindirect.com/dogfeeding.html
http://www.dogfoodproject.com

Answer 5

For all the quality of puppy's nutritional needs, you shpould be feeding a puppy food. It is good your pups are eating, but adult food doesn't contain the proper vitamins and protein needs that a growing puppy needs. This can hinder their growth. Also foods with immense amount of corn meal and corn fillers can cause a puppy's tummy to bloat. This is caused by them not getting their fill of proteins so they drink a lot of water to make them feel full. Using any brand of puppy food with a rice and meat base would be best. (not meat by-products) Royal Canin is a top of the line food for growing pups. They make specific foods for large and small breed dogs. You can find these at Petsmart and some local pet stores. Hope this helps, good luck.

Answer 6

There are lots of food rated higher than eukanuba in terms of protein content and also in terms of having better sources of carbohydrates than corn, which is a common allergent for dogs and is among the grains that are actually harder for dogs to digest.

Try this site www.dogfoodanalysis.com for information and ratings on a variety of brands.

But like another poster said, you should be feeding your puppies food that is specially formulated for puppies.

Answer 7

Eukanuba is a top quality dog food. Just stay with the right kind for the right age. They have different options available Eg. Large breed puppy; large breed adult, senior etc. You can't go wrong there.

Answer 8

Puppies should eat puppy food because it has more vitamins and minerals and things that they need to grow strong and healthy. Its also easier on their stomachs, adult dog food is to strong and dosnt disgest as easy in puppies. Also canned food isnt good for puppies either. Hard puppy food is best bc it helps clean the tartar off their teeth when they chew it, and canned food can make them have watery runny stools. Keep the dog food for the adult dogs and feed only puppy food to your puppies.. when they are 1 year old you can start them on dry adult food. they will be old enuff then.. Ive always used Purina Puppy Chow brand for my puppies.. they seemed to like the taste of that better

Answer 9

as long as the protein is at least 26% its good. make sure corn isnt the first ingredient on the label. I was actually told by a vet. "Science Diet is the best on the market." But i spoil my dog with scrapps too. lol

Answer 10

Well if you want your dog to gain some weight try Diamond Dog Food...