Hi there, I am very new to this, however i'll give it a go as I am keen for some experienced advice please. We are picking up an 8 week old choc lab in two weeks. Currently the breeder is feeding him Black Hawk Puppy all sizes all breeds dry food. I have purchased a 3kg bag of this to carry on for a week or so but also bought a 19.96kg Canidae All Life Stages multi protein formula dry food hoping we could stick with this as it reads as a good quaility food and seems reasonable value for money. Can anyone let me know their thoughts on this food brand? Also any recommended treats that are good for initial house training and general manners? Look forward to hearing some feed back. Thanks
Hi, first of all wish you all the best with your puppy. I am not familiar with those food brands but anyway first of all you need to make step by step transition to new food. On this forum you can find best way how to do it. Regarding treats, you can find lot`s of diy recipes for treats on youtube. I think this is the cheapest and what is more important healthier for your puppy. But, for the first few weeks I would use kibble as treats because you will be doing transition to new food and if dog will start to vomit or something it will be hard to know is it because of treats or new food. The best is if treat is soft and small so it can be easily swallowed because labradors don`t chew
I would buy another 3kg (or more) bag of what the breeder is using. Feed the puppy that food for at least a week (just that), and then start to mix with what you hope for your puppy to be on later. When you first take a puppy home, everything is new, and the least he needs, is also different food. Sometimes even water can upset his tummy. After a week he should be fine, and if that is the case, you can start mixing the food. First give him 80% old, 20% new, and then gradualy increase amount of the new food. If he does well on it, no soft stool, you can make the transition in a week or so. As for treats, use his kibble as much as possible, be does not need to be fed out of a bowl yet. But you can use some chicken, dried froot, or some meat treats.
I haven't used either, but from what I hear Black Hawk is a pretty good food and a few people I know feed it. I would probably try to transition slowly (as Mango suggested) to a large breed puppy food to ensure your pup grows steadily. Some good large breed puppy foods in Australia (I'm assuming you are another Aussie!) are Black Hawk, Ivory Coat (this is what I feed) and of course Royal Canin and Hills if you are okay with them being grain based. We pretty much used kibble as treats to begin with and then added in little pieces of dried liver and other single or limited ingredient treats.
Scout is over 10 months and eating like a Race horse. We feed him Science Diet (recommended by the breeder) What do yall use to feed your pets? Science diet is great but is a little on the more expensive side and harder to find as only a few places sale it here. We are looking to find something that is still good for him with out us having to take out loans for (sarcastically speaking) something Walmart may sale!
Why are you planning to switch the puppy over to a new food so soon? From a quick glance there's not much to choose between the two foods on quality of ingredients. They both use various meals to deliver the protein. That said my preference is to always feed a food designed for puppies to ensure that they receive the correct balance of nutrients at such an importent growing phase of life. If the puppy food is designed for "large breeds" , even better. The reasoning for the preference on a puppy food simply that the nutrient requirements of a young, growing puppy are not the same as say, a 10 year old dog with arthritis. For example the level of calcium required by a puppy is different to that of an adult dog so in an 'all life stages' either one is receiving too much, or one too little With treats it's perfectly ok to use a portion of the daily kibble as training treats - a young puppy really needs nothing else and reduces the risk of tummy upsets.
Hi- I sympathise with the difficulties of selecting the best food in a saturated market! As you did, I used the breeder's recommended food and have chosen the Eukanuba to stick with, although both free bags were good quality. I am reluctant to go to raw as some vets are experiencing a rise in dental decay and as we travel a lot, there is difficulty ensuring it is entirely safe too. Having had a lab with long-term intestinal problems, I cannot encourage careful diet selection more strongly and advise you to resist the raw rant! Kibbles are excellent products and the mid-range brands are still very well blended. Hope that's useful!
I do agree that it's best to continue feeding what the breeder is feeding for a good few weeks. There are so many changes when a puppy comes to their new home - the water is different, new place, new people, new smells, new environment - everything is new and one thing we can keep the same, is the food. The only exception to this is if the food is really poor. I had one pup come to us on Pedigree and another pup on Beta or Chudleys or something, and almost immediately took them off those... But if the breeder is feeding a pretty decent quality food, then I think it makes sense to stick with that for a few weeks. They should give you some of it to continue with for a while, but you might want to go through an additional bag before you switch.
