I have steadfastly stood by my decision not to have a dog until I was retired, but situations have arisen.

My girlfriend has a 2 y.o. rescue that we think is mostly (if not all) Great Pyrenees. She was going to have her spayed on her second b-day (on the advice of her vet and people on a Great Pyrenees forum) but apparently Bear (who goes by "Honey") had other plans. A couple of months ago she got out and Saturday the results of that lark sprang forth. Honey has 7 puppies. No idea who the dad is, so not sure what to expect. Rumor has it that it might be a yellow Lab.

So, like an idiot, I volunteered to take one of the pups. LOL I've baby-sat puppies for a month or two, but this'll be permanent.

Proud mom



Little Sophie



Anyway....I'm prepping the battlefield, so to speak. Gonna start getting stuff ready for the new arrival in a couple of months. Anyone care to recommend a good puppy dog food for large breeds?

This brand seems to be very good. Tractor Supply house brand.
https://www.tractorsupply.com/...a-dog-food-35-lb-bag

Dont have a food thought. I have a what beautiful puppies thought though. Pickle Rick.

I’ll likely be the only one to recommend feeding a raw diet, but it’s the best possible nutrition that you can provide for your pup. It’s an all-life stages food (most high quality foods, raw or kibble are considered all-life stages) meaning you can feed it from as soon as they are weaned for the rest of their lives. “Puppy foods” are a myth and nothing more than a marketing ploy in most cases anyway.

If you don’t want to jump into feeding raw meat right away look at freeze dried raw diets. Just how it sounds, it comes in freeze dried patties that you rehydrate. For a very young pup (up to around 16 weeks or so) it’s a good idea to do this anyway...less bacteria you have to worry about while they are still developing their immune system (likely wouldn’t be a problem anyway....we’ve started a couple of our dogs on full blown raw as early as 10 weeks in the past).

My favorite brands to look into are Primal, Stella and Chewy, and Vital Essentials. All of them offer both dehydrated raw and frozen raw diets (that you thaw yourself prior to feeding).

That's great, best of luck to the new pups and mom..

Not sure on puppy food, but we use the above 4Health for our Border.

My mother-in-law has Aussie Cattle Dogs & just bred her younger female (7 pups).
She uses the same 4Health for her dogs.

We've been happy with Nutro and Hills Science Diet for our puppies.

quote:

Originally posted by Tejas421:
We've been happy with Nutro and Hills Science Diet for our puppies.

Yes, Hills Science Diet large breed puppy was the go to food for our Kangal when she was a pup - I'm not sure about your large breed, but as they generally grow more slowly, the really potent puppy foods gave her bad growing pains. Our Vet recommended the Hills and its been good.

I’ve been using Vctor brand Hi-Pro. Both my German Shorthair and Yorkie do great on it. I can only find it a Rural King stores though so I’m not sure about your neck of the woods.

Good looking pups and mom. This is why the waiting until the second birthday to spay is poor advice. Hopefully they will all find good homes.

I have old fed super high end food to my three pups until I found American Journey from Chewy.com. It is a high quality food for a decent price and make feeding three of them more manageable.

Highly recommend American Journey, I use the Protein First with Brown Rice formulas.

Wasn’t there some problem with China and dog food?

There are foods made for human consumption at Sam’s Club that are made in China.

Are there any particular brands of dog food that are made in China?

I use Solid Gold, it’s a great feed. They have it for puppy’s to all phases of life, and different protein levels. All of mine like it.

quote:

Originally posted by birddog1:
I’ve been using Vctor brand Hi-Pro. Both my German Shorthair and Yorkie do great on it. I can only find it a Rural King stores though so I’m not sure about your neck of the woods.

Victor Hi-Pro Plus. We were feeding our retriever/shepard mix Victor Professional which is almost the same thing, but her coat is looks more glossy with the Hi-Pro Plus. I think it's the menhaden fish meal.

We use Hill's Science Diet Puppy Large Breed and Iams Puppy Large Breed.

We started with the Hill's but when the 'Rona hit, we stocked up on some of the Iam's and now mix it 50/50 for our 145#, 11 month old Great Dane "Puppy".

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:

quote:

Originally posted by birddog1:
I’ve been using Vctor brand Hi-Pro. Both my German Shorthair and Yorkie do great on it. I can only find it a Rural King stores though so I’m not sure about your neck of the woods.

Victor Hi-Pro Plus. We were feeding our retriever/shepard mix Victor Professional which is almost the same thing, but her coat is looks more glossy with the Hi-Pro Plus. I think it's the menhaden fish meal.

Yes sir, great stuff. My GSP has had issues with certain food, soft stools, skin issues. I had her on Pro Plan Salmon to battle that but this works even better and at a better price.

ROYAL CANEN is what we feed our Rottie. They have different products for stages of life. Our vet recommended it and sell it but it's more expensive. We get it from Chewy.com instead.

There are some common ingredients in lesser quality dog food that are not good for dogs. Grain fillers, gluten, wheat, meat byproducts, etc.

Annabel gets Blue Buffalo large breed. Made in the USA. All 145 pounds of her loves it.

We feed our Golden Retriever Purina Pro Plan which was recommended by the breeder. I would not be surprised to find out that the breeder gets free dog food from Purina for recommending it.

Our Golden Retriever also likes baby carrots (raw), cooked peas and cooked green beans. So I feel she gets a balanced diet.

She also likes sugar cookies that my daughter started baking during the COVID-19 lockdown. I try to limit those.

The issue I have with the dog food advisor is that they rate foods based on ingredients, but dont have the nutritional education as to what nutrition dogs need.
They is a strong link to some of the newer boutique type foods, especially grain free, and heart issues with dogs.
Purina, Royal Canin, and Science Diet are 3 dog food companies that actually have nutritionists on staff help develop the dog foods. They also all do long term feeding trials.