Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Sorry for all these questions, but I'm new to this!

We are currently feeding our ten week old puppy Iams Large Breed puppy as that is what the breeder said to feed. The vet suggested Science Diet (which I later learned vets tend to recommend as they get a kick-back apparently). They gave us a sample of the Science Diet but my picky eater would not touch it, I mixed it with the Iams and she picked the Iams bits out but left the Science Diet!

I've been doing some research on the net and lots of people apparently say Iams is bad and suggest other brands, most of which are really expensive. I want to do the best for my dog, but I cannot afford these super expensive brands of food. Iams is about as pricey as we can go. My question is, what in your opinion, is a good food for them that is not too expensive. Is Iams really that horrible? She is very very very picky so I hate to keep changing the food constantly, just want her eating something that is good for her and won't bankrupt us!

Thanks!

Beth

Beth... The general rule of thumb is to have a new pup on puppy for his first year. Puppy food contains ingredients essenstial for good growth and diet. Having a larger breed like a GSD you wouldn't want to feed adult foos and have the bone structure to develop ahead of the puppie's growth progress or there will be problems in the future.

As for the food... do not skimp on the food. Buy the absolute best that you can afford. Try to stay away from the really cheap supermarket brands... they are mostly by-products, fillers and grains. A couple of them if it's a necessity aren't to bad like Purina One or ProPlan. If you have a pet store near you, compare the foods there for prices. While some can be costly there are some that are reasonable. Bottomline is feed the best quality that you can... your dog will love you for it.
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If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.

Thanks! Do you know anything about the Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul food, or Nutro Max? I've read good things about them for the most part, except that some dogs apparently have gas and runny poos from it. Just wondering if this might be a good option to switch her to, the ingredients look good and they both have large breed puppy formulas.

Thanks again!

Beth

Hi Beth, I do believe both those brands are a good food and if they have the puppy formula that is even better. One thing you really need to do is to find one food and stick with that food. Your pup will eat when he's hungry but if you keep switching foods it could upset his digestive system.
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If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.

>>Sorry for all these questions, but I'm new to this!
>>
>>We are currently feeding our ten week old puppy Iams Large Breed puppy as that is what the breeder said to feed. The vet suggested Science Diet (which I later learned vets tend to recommend as they get a kick-back apparently). They gave us a sample of the Science Diet but my picky eater would not touch it, I mixed it with the Iams and she picked the Iams bits out but left the Science Diet!
>>
>>I've been doing some research on the net and lots of people apparently say Iams is bad and suggest other brands, most of which are really expensive. I want to do the best for my dog, but I cannot afford these super expensive brands of food. Iams is about as pricey as we can go. My question is, what in your opinion, is a good food for them that is not too expensive. Is Iams really that horrible? She is very very very picky so I hate to keep changing the food constantly, just want her eating something that is good for her and won't bankrupt us!
>>
>>Thanks!
>>
>>Beth

In general, at training, we recommend foods with no corn, no sorghum, and no by-products. A couple economical foods would be the Nutro and the Chicken Soup that was mentioned in the other post, but I would also add Healthwise by the makers of Innova to that list.

If I had a puppy, I wouldn't keep them on puppy food past 4 months. My mixed breed was switched at six months, and when she was having hip surgery (at 14 months old, bad genes I guess), I told the surgeon when I switched, and he mentioned that that was too late, since they go through a big growth spurt at about 4 months.

You will hear a huge variety on when to switch to adult food and what foods are best to feed.