what is/is not a good dog food for a boxer puppy?

Answer 1

Find a high quality all stages food for your pup. Puppy foods contain way more protein than needed. This causes rapid growth, rapid growth leads to future bone and joint problems. An all stages food gives a more desired slow growth, and helps prevent future bone and joint problems.

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, 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

Is she currently on any flea medications? If you do use a flea shampoo on a dog that already has had a monthly flea treatment, it may be possible to overdose, and therefore have this reaction. I know that this poisoning is much more common in cats, and normally caused when people apply dog flea products to cats. If this is the case- you probably wouldn't have a leg to stand on in court. This poisoning can also be caused by other insecticides, such as surface sprays, flea bombs, insect sprays, etc. It would be unusual for a dog to overdose on just the flea shampoo without having been contaminated with another dose of the poison coming from somewhere else (eg. flea treatment, insect spray) You would have to discuss whether it was the shampoo and only the shampoo that caused the problem, and then go from there. Once you have consulted your vet, I would definately contact Hartz and complain to them about the problem- even if it did work out to be caused by an overdose of using too many pesticides- there should be warning labels on the bottles instructing that these products are not safe for cats, not safe when used in conjunction with other pesticides, etc)

Answer 3

Well for any dog, stay away from supermarket brand foods...they contain corn as the main ingredient which is horrible for dogs. It makes them shed a lot more, poop a lot, and you have to feed them a lot more. Those are mostly Pedigree, Kibbles & Bits, Purina, etc.

If you don't mind spending the money, Royal Canine actually did a lot of study on Boxers and made a dog food specific for the breed. It hits all common health problems they have and help to try to make it less likely.

Answer 4

Personally I like Eagle Pack Lamb, Rice & Oatmeal. It is formulated for all dogs. I feed it to my Cocker Spaniel puppy. It is easy on the stomach and helps keep her coat nice and shiny.

Answer 5

Blue Seal
Practical Pet 28
when he is an adult switch to Practical Pet 21

Answer 6

^ I honestly don't know what's wrong with Pedigree, I've been feeding it to my dogs for years.

This is a list of foods not suitable for all dogs

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=2&cat=1661&articleid=1030


Also there has been a recent pet food recall, because of certain brands causing kidney failure in pets. Pedigree, the brand my dogs eat, isn't one of them.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ny-bc-nj--petfoodrecall-qampa0319mar19,1,4829119.story?coll=chi-news-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true

Answer 7

i have been feeding my dogs Purina for 20 years and never had a problem.my 2 year old mastiff weighs 260lbs. so apparently he is getting everything he needs from it.

Answer 8

ANY decent brand of DRY ****ADULT*** feed is FINE!!

It's all ADVERTISING!!
Selling to YOU,NOT the dog!