We met our puppy today (but I totally forgot to get pictures ), a sweet little blond (light yellow) boy who just snuggled up in my arms, I think he was trying to climb into my purse. But, alas he's only 3 weeks old so he has to wait a bit longer. He was so pretty and quiet and calm, his black brother was cute too but he was chatty and wiggly. Anyhow, one of the questions we asked the breeder was what food he feeds them. He said he feeds them Purina Pro Plan Sport and feeds it to all his dogs, from puppies on through adulthood. Now his dogs are more sport/hunting dogs and that's technically what he breeds for, ours will just be a family pet. Anywho, back to my point.....he said don't feed the puppy puppy food, they have too much calcium. So, I think we'll eventually make the switch off of Purina because it doesn't seem (from what I've read) to be a great food. Not sure yet what we'll switch too (open to suggestions), but should we avoid all puppy foods or are those specifically for large breed puppies ok since they have less calcium?
The balance of calcium to phosphorus is very important for puppies, especially for large breed dogs and is precisely why you should feed an age-appropriate food. I would agree that Purina isn't the best of foods, so I would be looking to move away from that once the pup has settled in and on to a specific food for large-breed puppies. Many breeders have been doing what they do for a long time so hold long-standing ideas about what's right, without updating their learning. I'd just nod my head politely and then do what was right for my pup once I had him out the door
I think pups need the extra vitamins and minerals contained in puppy food , and calcium is very important for bones and teeth . I fed my late Lab boy on Skinners puppy food , and then when he was about ( I think !) ten months or so old, he went onto Skinners Field and Trial Duck and Rice food . I think you do right to slowly switch him over to a puppy food when you get him home, he needs it x
We chatted to our vet at our first puppy appointment a week or so after we brought her home for some advice on switching foods and he gave us some guidelines to do our own research into ingredients to look for/stay away from. There is a lot to read/research on foods so it's a bit of a mine field, but there are a variety of good large breed puppy foods available. We decided on Fromm Large Breed puppy (our vet believes puppies should have grains in diet, so we stuck with that when deciding).
so, because I'm a geek I made a spreadsheet of all the large breed puppy foods, how many stars (on dogfoodadvisor) they got, the serving size (based on a 20lb/ 4month old) and determined the price per pound and per day.....told ya I was a geek Anyhow, so I've got it narrowed down to 2 to try first.....Wellness or Blue Buffalo. The main difference being the amount to feed. Wellness' recommended feeding amount is more than twice as much as Blue Buffalo, which leads me to my question.....is it better to feed more or less? Common sense says less input would lead to less output, my official pooper scooper son would appreciate that. But would the pup prefer to eat more? I'm thinking 1.5 cups split between 4 meals and training would be pretty small portion sizes.
As a very rough rule of thumb the greater the quantity to be fed, the poorer the quality of food but without looking at the ingredients, percentages etc for both foods I wouldn't like to say for certain. On a personal basis I would probably go for the higher rated with lower amount for feeding. Quantity in really does affect quantity out
I would avoid Blue Buffalo simply because they have been caught out lying about their ingredients in the past. OK, some might argue that would make them extra cautious now, but I'm afraid it doesn't sit well with me so the red flag remains.
I would counter that by saying I've not looked at the nutritional labels of either of the foods you mention, so have no idea if Wellness is the superior food, just that I'd avoid BB
