Purnia dog food and Labs?

Just something funny I've noticed on A LOT of my Lab forums, it seems the food of choice for a lot of Lab owner and breeders is Purnia Pro Plan or Purnia One?

I found it interesting that most of the member's dogs didn't do well on other brands but when placed back on a Purnia food their dog's issues disappeared. Seems funny to me and most of these dogs aren't even related.

Me personally I feed Diamond Naturals Large Breed Puppy Lamb and Rice, but he came to me eating Purnia Puppy Chow and he did well on it, but I swapped him because well I wanted a better food. But I'm wondering if it would be worth experimenting with Purnia One and Pro Plan to see if I see any differences.

I've also noticed a lot of gun dog owners feed Pro Plan as well.

Does anyone else find this as fascinating as I do?

Most dogs would do fine on Purina. It's like eating McDonald's every day. As long as you eat no more than your caloric needs per day, you'll be more or less okay. Could it be better? Sure. It could be a heck of a lot worse too.

There's always going to be people who claim doom and gloom on stuff like Purina. Meh.

If your dog is doing well on the current food, there is no reason to change whatsoever.

People in general feed Purina because they are a big company with the best marketing. It has nothing to do with it's quality, it's just the most common brand.

Honestly, I know of a LOT of people that feed and recommend Proplan. And their dogs do very well on it. I'm less impressed with Purina's other diets, but also think there is a lot worse out there.

Cynder is currently eating a grain free Proplan canned food and is doing very well on it. It's one of the few foods I tried that doesn't make her nauseous and she's able to keep down.

I'm going to be switching Abrams from Diamond Naturals Large Breed puppy to Proplan Sensitive Stomach now that the only place I can buy food is Petsmart. (Also, I'm hoping it will help with his ridiculous gas.)

I have noticed that a lot of Lab people seem to feed Pro Plan. And they do seem to do quite well on it... obviously not all of them, but in general most of them.

Personally I don't feed it. Harleigh was on it when I first got her, but didn't do too well. She's on Back to Basics now and does really good, so not planning on changing anytime soon.

My dogs (and my cats) are eating ProPlan. They do really well on it. The veterinary nutritionists at my job recommend Purina diets over just about all other - not because of the branding and marketing, but because of the science and research that goes into the food. :dunno:

Over the years, I have fed my dogs anywhere from Gravy Train to EVO and just about everything in between. Multiple dogs over multiple years all tended to to better on middle of the road food than the super premium stuff.

Plus, for me, it's more economical to purchase ProPlan right now. If I wasn't feeding that, I'd feed Diamond Naturals; they ate that for quite some time and did really well on it as well.

ProPlan is what I was feeding my girl when I was forced to learn about allergies. Now I stick to grain free.

Breeders use what works (and what is financially feasible) and honestly I've heard of dogs doing really well on Proplan Sensitive skin & stomach.
My old GSD didn't take well to the best kibbles or raw as well as she did to that brand so... we fed it.

I dunno what they are doing but Proplan seems to work really well for some dogs, especially retrievers.

It makes you wonder! I know a certain breeder on one of my Lab forums has fed it for YEARS and that's the only food her dogs tolerate and even puppies can't handle other foods besides Pro Plan, so it makes me wonder if it genetic too for some odd reason.

I am actually switching back to ProPlan Sport pretty soon for Bubbles and Pen. I've tried most everything, but when Pen came to me on ProPlan it was the best I think he ever looked/best his stool was. And Bubbles had been on it all of her life until she got to me as well, so I think she would probably also do fine on it.

Kimma and Jari OTOH, are doing really well on Nature's Variety Venison Raw Boost so I'm not going to mess with that!

Juno's breeder fed some sort of Purina diet, I can't remember which. We talked about food quite a bit, and her reasoning for feeding it was that, as a breeder, it was the most economical food that all her dogs did well on. She'd try other foods and there'd always be some dog that had some sort of issue with it.

And she wasn't clueless about nutrition, we talked about raw diets and she introduced me to the dog food analysis website. I got the impression from her that feeding Purina wasn't ideal to her, but if that's what her dogs did well on then it makes sense. But I couldn't tell you WHY they all did well on it.

Honestly I think the only Purina diet I could ever even consider feeding is Pro Plan Sensitive Skin. I'd probably consider it more if it were cheaper, but even the price doesn't really look that reasonable to me.

Growing up all of our dogs were fed Pro Plan Lamb and Rice.
Up until a couple years ago that stayed true until we switched to the Sensitive Stomach and Skin formula as I liked the look of the ingredients more.

For the longest time, it was the only thing Cobain could digest properly without getting sick. It always struck me as odd how well they all did on it considering the ingredients involved.

We've now got a supplier for Taste of the Wild for wholesale pricing, which works out to be about the same as Pro Plan. The pacific stream seems to be working well for him.

There's no reason to think that while breeders are selecting for traits we can see, they're also unknowingly selecting for traits we can't see - physiology, digestion, predispositions to certain diseases. It's not out of the realm of possibility that certain breeds as a group do better or worse on certain types of diets. Individuals have different physiologic responses to all sorts of things.

It's also not out of the realm of possibility that there's nothing "wrong" with Purina Pro Plan or its ingredients and a lot of breeders realize that.

That's one of the reason's I'm switching to it. Out of other brands in a similar price range that I have available to me, I'll pick the one with the science and research behind it, please and thank you.

That, and I haven't had a negative experience with it yet. All of the rescue kitties at my old clinic were fed Pro Plan as their main diet and it did wonders for their coat health and general appearance.

I've done a 360 since I first joined dog forums in 2008. I no longer think Purina is the devil, LOL. In fact, I trust it more than most of these newer holistic companies with no testing, feeding trials, quality control, etc. I do like with the bigger companies, you're going to hear about a recall faster. And even though it may seem like there is a lot of bad reviews out there on the internet, etc, you've got to remember these bigger brands (Purina, Euk, RC, etc) are fed to probably 85% of the US dog population so of course you're going to see more 'problems' than the small percentage of folks feeding the Orijen's and EVO's.

Now, Purina does produce some pretty nasty foods. I won't touch Beneful for example. But ProPlan and Purina One (specifically Beyond) are actually.. pretty decent foods. I've been feeding Beyond for the past month and am very pleased with it. I am waiting on Farmina GF to be available and wanted something inexpensive in the mean time and it's worked well.

I was very dissatisfied with a lot of answers I received from a lot of these newer holistic companies. Skirting around questions, or not fully answering the question, no feeding trials, etc. It really opened my eyes to how ignorant I was and blatantly following these internet forums ideas of dog food, which is so much complicated than just buying recipes online and marketing them to their human owners.

I've noticed the ProPlan lab thing too. Jack is on TOTW and it works week for him, but if the situation demanded it, I would switch.

Agree with the first sentence. The McDonalds comparison seems pretty silly though. I doubt if dogs develop problems like high cholesterol from Purina.

It may not be the absolute best but it obviously works for a lot of dogs - I say go with whatever works.

If a dog, and especially a puppy, has only ever been fed one food and is suddenly switched to something else, you bet there will be GI upset. Add a big difference in protein or fat percentages and the GI upset is more significant and unpleasant. I have seen some Retriever folks say that will not breed dogs that require very controlled diets. When you have the genetic diversity of the retriever breeds, breeding for easy feeding/maintenance is a neat consideration.

RTF has a food sponsor, so that colors some of the food posts. The biggest advantage I've seen discussed has been the research and accountability. Some of these folks have a kennel full of dogs so affordability and convenience are also a factor.

Bentley and Mia eat Purina pro plan as they do very well on it and tank eats earthborne. I tried him on pro plan but he did better on earthborne. Since Bentley and Mia did fabulous on PPP they just stayed with that. Plus certain weeks its easier on The wallet as since my moms dog eats PPP she picks up a bag for my 2.