Need Dog Food 101

I really need help choosing a well-balanced food for my 7-month old Great Pyrenees (about 50 lbs). She is adopted, and had to survive on her own for the first part of her life, so she is still under weight. She's not a good eater - a bit of a picky eater - so I want to feed her something she will want to eat, BUT not have the additives and junk that she doesn't need. I've had a Pyrenees before that would just pick at his food and still maintained his weight, so I don't expect my new little girl to be a chowhound.

But I have no idea where to start...Dry food? Canned? Raw?

Thanks in advance!

I'll name off the top recommended brands here, but you can also do a quick search through the food forum and see what others have to say.

Innova/EVO
Canidae
Nature's Variety
Timberwolf Organics
Solid Gold
Orijen

You can always start with dry food so she's eating something balanced while you read up on how to properly feed RAW. I hear Dr. Picairn's book is a very good to learn from! I'd probably steer away from canned, except maybe a little spoonfull here and there as a treat or if she really hasn't eaten well in a few days. Just don't let her get used to expecting additions in her food, that will make her even pickier!

my cavy used to be really picky about his dry food, would only eat if i added rice or some cooked chicken. the brands that he really liked to eat were natural balance (which he was on previously) and canidae (which we are on now) those are 2 brands i would recommend for picky eaters!

For a large breed you want to stay away from the high protein formulas such as Innova EVO and Orijen.

http://www.canidae.com

http://www.naturapet.com

http://www.naturesvariety.com

http://www.eaglepack.com

Each of these websites has product information and store locator tools to help you find the food.

Also, http://www.dogfoodproject.com has a wealth of information.

If you are up for making your own, try these recipies:
http://www.holisticdog.org/Nutrition...atinballs.html
http://www.holisticdog.org/Nutrition...tinballs2.html
http://theherbs.info/Pets/satinball.html

Satin Balls aren't really good for the slow, steady weight gain that this puppy needs. They would be really helpful to add calories to an underweight adult, but I think feeding extra nutritious calories (more dog food, more raw, etc.) would be a better option.

Well, I ended up getting a very small bag of Wellness Just For Puppy. I will slowly introduce it to her as she is on another brand of food (which, if I'm not mistaken, one of the "bad" foods). It is pretty pricey, so I hope it is a wholesome food for her.

Wellness used to be a good food, then they did some playing around with the formula and most people have since switched away from it.

Also, seeing as how you have a giant breed who I'm assuming is over 2 months old, I wouldn't feed her puppy food. It will cause her to grow too quickly and potentially result in joint issues later on. Find a good All-Life Stage food, such as Canidae or Innova Dog, and go with that. After she turns 2, you can look into foods like EVO.

Price doesn't necessarily reflect quality, otherwise Science Diet wouldn't be able to charge what they do for the quality you get. However, most of the good foods are going to be above and beyond the grocery/pet store stuff, however, since they are actual high quality, you will feed less and therefore the price actually comes out in your favor. For example, I pay $45 for a 33lb bag of Innova Dog that I feed my 50lb highly active Aussie on. It lasts me two whole months.

I'm not a huge fan of Wellness- Banzai came to us on wellness and we immediately switched to Innova- what a difference! I also felt that wellness was hugely overpriced for it's lack of quality. But I do hope it works for you. The rescue we got Banzai from uses it for most of their dogs.

I suggest going to www.dogfoodproject.com- great info there!


ETA: Good call on the puppy food thing, Zoomers.

Thanks for the info. At least I only bought a 6lbs bag. Darcy is 7 months old. But I was told to keep her on a puppy food until she is at least 10 months. The pet store manager and a vet both told me this. Gosh, I don't know what to believe.

I didn't like the (high) price of Wellness, but I DO want quality, and I'm willing to pay for it. The pet food 'specialist' today told me Wellness is better absorbed, and because the dog uses more of it, there is less byproduct...hence less poop. Sounded good to me...I'm used paying more in order to get higher quality horse feed, but I'm an amateur when it comes to dog food. I suppose dog food is very different. Please excuse my ignorance, I'm learning.

Thanks again.

A great dog food that's cheap is Canidae. I plan to feed my dogs this in the future unless I can afford grain free.

For a giant breed you don't want a puppy food or a food like EVO. Just read what Zoom posted.

For a growing puppy who is also underweight I would suggest Innova Puppy. My own pup was on Innova Puppy and raw until she was about 6 months, then I switched her to raw and Innova Evo. Any of the fosters I've had who needed to gain weight steadily and safely I have fed Innova Puppy (yes, the puppies and the adults alike). I think that Satin Balls is a good idea for a supplement for a while to get her weight up, but definitely don't feed them exclusively.

You're very right that you should expect to pay a premium for high quality dog food. However, there are some companies that tout themselves as being "high quality" or "premium" just to make extra profit. Prime examples of those are Hill's Science Diet (the stuff your vet recommended) and Wellness (although Wellness is far better than Science Diet).

If you compare the ingredients (I posted them in your other thread), Wellness is a little bit lower quality than the actual super premium foods. They use their high mark-up to create a feeling of "buying the best". Unfortunately, most veterinarians have never studied animal nutrition and people that work in feed stores only parrot back the information they are given by company representatives.

For example, "deboned chicken" is the first ingredient in Wellness. That includes the meat with all of the moisture (which is later removed by baking). On the other hand, Canidae uses "chicken meal", which already has the water removed. Pound for pound, chicken meal has far more nutritional value than "deboned chicken", which is mostly water. (Remember, chicken meal is far different than chicken by-product meal, which is an ingredient in lower quality foods) Wellness uses "deboned chicken" to create the image of using high amounts of animal protein but it is a trick that saves them a lot of money (and makes them more profit). http://www.canidae.com/ingredients/meatvmeal.html

Don't worry, Wellness isn't a bad place to start. Before we knew anything about pet nutrition that is the food we fed Herschel. It is too rich for a lot of dogs, and the protein/fat content is too high for a large breed puppy like yours. If you decide to finish this 6lb bag (you can give it back for free if more than half is remaining), I strongly recommend you switch to a better food. Please don't limit yourself to the selection of your feed store, Petsmart, or Petco. Specialty feed stores and high end pet supply stores often carry all of the premium brands that we recommend.