Dog food?????

Question

What to look for in dry dog food that'll be best for your puppy? and he's a great pyrenees 3-month old.

What are the highest quality brands to get?

Answer 1

corn-free, preferably grain-free.

Canidae, Blue Buffalo, California Naturals, Natural instinct Raw, Wysong, Solid Gold, Innova Evo are some examples of good brands.

http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com

Answer 2

I used to work for Nutro when I was like 15 years old, and in my opinion they are the one of the best. Anyway, working for a high quality dog food company taught me alot. Here is what you Don't want (which is 99& of the foods out there):

1.) Avoid ALL food that has corn meal or wheat. Look at the ingredients, it is usually at the top. Corn meal has no benefit whatsoever to your dog. Basically, its a filler. You know how you go to the buffet and you always say "gosh, I sure feel full already?" Well its because they use alot of starch in the food to make you full quicker and eat less. Same concept for the corn and wheat fillers in dog food. If you find a quality dog food with real meat and no corn fillers, your dog will have atleast 30% less waste (which mean less poo clean up for you, yay! LOL) and they will be soooo much happier and healthier with a shiny coat.

2.) Make sure the meat ingredients are REAL meat and not byproducts. Byproducts is what is mostly used, and that is basically the neck, bones, and garbage parts of the animal that are thrown away after packaging meat for humans to eat. Yeah, gross stuff. No good.

There are a few top of the line dog foods out there. But mostly NOT. Even science diet and those brands are high priced but use byproducts and corn fillers. Just remember those two points are your basic measure for a great food.

HAVE FUN WITH YOUR PUPPY ;)

Answer 3

Wellness ,Core
Innova, Evo
Eagle pack holistic select
Merrick
Canidae

All these foods are made with human grade ingredients. None contain Wheat, By-products or corn.

How to grade your dog's food:

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’s 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 is not allergic to wheat), subtract 2 points
14) If it contains beef (unless you know that your dog is not 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 <70 = F

Dog Food scores:

Alpo Prime Cuts / Score 81 C
Artemis Large/Medium Breed Puppy / Score 114 A+
Authority Harvest Baked / Score 116 A+
Authority Harvest Baked Less Active / Score 93 B
Beowulf Back to Basics / Score 101 A+
Bil-Jac Select / Score 68 F
Blackwood 3000 Lamb and Rice / Score 83 C
Blue Buffalo Chicken and Rice / Score 106 A+
Burns Chicken and Brown Rice / Score 107 A+
Canidae / Score 112 A+
Chicken Soup Senior / Score 115 A+
Diamond Maintenance / Score 64 F
Diamond Lamb Meal & Rice / Score 92 B
Diamond Large Breed 60+ Formula / Score 99 A
Diamond Performance / Score 85 C
Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance Ultra Premium / Score 122 A+
Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance Venison and Brown Rice / Score 106 A+
Dick Van Patten's Duck and Potato / Score 106 A+
EaglePack Holistic / Score 102 A+
Eukanuba Adult / Score 81 C
Eukanuba Puppy / Score 79 C
Flint River Senior / Score 101 A+
Foundations / Score 106 A+
Hund-n-Flocken Adult Dog (lamb) by Solid Gold / Score 93 B
Iams Lamb Meal & Rice Formula Premium / Score 73 D
Innova Dog / Score 114 A+
Innova Evo / Score 114 A+
Innova Large Breed Puppy / Score 122 A+
Kirkland Signature Chicken, Rice, and Vegetables / Score 110 A+
Member's Mark Chicken and Rice / Score 84 C
Merrick Wilderness Blend / Score 127 A+
Nature's Recipe / Score 100 A
Nature's Recipe Healthy Skin Venison and Rice / Score 116 A+
Nature's Variety Raw Instinct / Score 122 A+



Nutra Nuggets Super Premium Lamb Meal and Rice / Score 81 C
Nutrience Junior Medium Breed Puppy / Score 101 A+
Nutrisource Lamb and Rice / Score 87 B
Nutro Max Adult / Score 93 B
Nutro Natural Choice Lamb and Rice / Score 98 A
Nutro Natural Choice Large Breed Puppy / Score 87 B
Nutro Natural Choice Puppy Wheat Free / Score 86 B
Nutro Natural Choice Senior / Score 95 A
Nutro Ultra Adult / Score 104 A+
Pet Gold Adult with Lamb & Rice / Score 23 F
Premium Edge Chicken, Rice and Vegetables Adult Dry / Score 109 A+
Pro Nature Puppy / Score 80 C
Pro Plan Sensitive Stomach / Score 94 A
Purina Beneful / Score 17 F
Purina Dog / Score 62 F
Purina Come-n-Get It / Score 16 F
Purina One Large Breed Puppy / Score 62 F
Royal Canin Boxer / Score 103 A+
Royal Canin Bulldog / Score 100 A+
Royal Canin Natural Blend Adult / Score 106 A+
Science Diet Advanced Protein Senior 7+ / Score 63 F
Science Diet for Large Breed Puppies / Score 69 F
Sensible Choice Chicken and Rice / Score 97 A
Solid Gold / Score 99 A
Summit / Score 99 A
Timberwolf Organics Wild & Natural Dry / Score 120 A+
Wellness Super5 Mix Chicken / Score 110 A+
Wolfking Adult Dog (bison) by Solid Gold / Score 97 A

Answer 4

Get something that is all natural. Nothing from Petsmart or Petco, they claim to be natural and good for you, but they are all made by the same crapy companies. Go to a specialty dog store. Merrick dog food is good, and California Natural. It depends on what area of the US you live in. We live in the DC area and it is filled with fru fru pet shops that have high quality food.

Answer 5

Congrats on your puppy! I too have a Pyr, they are just the greatest!
Innova or Innova Evo and California Natural are my favorites.
As mentioned, anything all natural- nothing with 'by product' or corn or wheat. By product is not actual meat and corn & wheat are fillers. You may see beet juice listed an ingredient and that is bad too.

Answer 6

Canidae All Life Stages -www.canidae.com/

Purina One and Science Diet are NOT good foods..
Purina One is a grocery store food.. Science Diet is just as crappy. Pedigree is a garbage food.. Stick with the good ones.. Forget the Kibbles N Bits.. Beneful, Ol Roy and so on.. All Purina products are crap, and Iams/Eukanuba are right up there in the garbage pile as well.

Answer 7

Innova Evo is the best quality and then Canidae. You want as few fillers as possible. Fillers are things such as cornmeal, rice, wheat, or other grains. Innova Evo doesn't contain any by-products or fillers and Canidae only contains Brown rice.

Answer 8

What you want to look for is that you have three sources of protein in the first five ingredients listed on your food. Like chicken, lamb, turkey, beef, fish. Any food that starts with a veggie isn't as good.

Answer 9

I breed Airedale terriers which are too a large breed dog and I like Perigree brand for large breeds. Their shoo-shoo seems to be firmer with this brand than any other I've tried in the past.

Answer 10

All the dog food that buterfly_2_lovely said are good for any dog. And please don't feed him any puppy food. It has way to much protien(sp?) in it that can accually hurt his joints and create problems later in life.

Also all food that Kimbee J said aren't as good as you think!