Recommedned Puppy Food for a Lab

[brake man]

Our BLM puppy, Cooper, is four months old and growing like a weed. He is 35 pounds and will probably end up around 60 pounds (about the same size as his parents). We have been feeding him Purina Pro Plan Puppy, Chicken and Rice. However, I notice his stools have gotten bigger as he has grown. Corn meal is the second ingredient (behind chicken), and I am thinking about switching to a different puppy food. Can anyone give me a recommendation on a good, high protein puppy food that has less filler? I have seen the ads for the Blue dog food but don't know anything about it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[quackheadbp]

Eukanuba is a good one and Id move up above puppy food if hes that big. I had my vet tell me once that science diet was very hard on the dogs colon due to making the stools very hard. Im not expert but I would wait and let some of the " gurus" like doc and nash and gulfcoast to chime in on there opinions, but there again its all in what you wanna spend and what you do with your dog. My 6 year old lab is very active so I feed lots of protein.

[Drakeshead]

Eukanuba Large Breed puppy for first year then go to Eukanuba 30/20.

[Henna Sag]

I have switched all my dogs when they reached 4 to 6ontha of age to adult food I am feeding enhance performance athlete. I like better than any food I have ever feed I don't know where you leave so I don't now where you leave but my second favorite is euk.

[Drakeshead]

Over on another forum, SRS, we had a section called "Ask the Pro's". The site would open up a thread and then have their "pro" come online on a certain day/time and answer the questions. On one occasion the site had an Eukanuba veterinarian and dietician who recommended keeping dogs on puppy food for their first year. In the past I had kept some of my dogs on puppy for a year and others I moved off around six months. After that thread, I now keep pups on puppy for a year. I tried to find the thread on the SRS site, but they have moved a lot of stuff around and all of the "Ask the pro" threads are now gone.

I have nothing against Enhanced, it just did not do well for my dogs back when I tried it three or four years ago. I would probably go with it as my third choice with Purina Pro Plan being my second choice.

[flyntwt]

Eukanuba is a good one and Id move up above puppy food if hes that big. I had my vet tell me once that science diet was very hard on the dogs colon due to making the stools very hard. Im not expert but I would wait and let some of the " gurus" like doc and nash and gulfcoast to chime in on there opinions, but there again its all in what you wanna spend and what you do with your dog. My 6 year old lab is very active so I feed lots of protein.

I wouldn't deprive him of the things he needs at a young age, and would definitely keep feeding puppy food. Let his dna determine his size, and let the puppy food do what its supposed to do. If he's overweight, then cut back and/or consult your vet. Puppy food has an important composition scientifically tailored for a dogs' needs during the puppy stages.

I agree with quackheadbp; Euk is the best thing going right now- unless you can find Orijen, which can be difficult and pricey (pricier than Euk )

Good luck with the pup!

Warren

[rboudet]

Myself and others I know including a very successfull Trainer, and a well known Vet/Field Trialer feed EUKANUBA Premium Performance or Pro Plan All Life Stages from 7wks on. How much are you feeding him? Large stools are likely from over feeding.

[js]

I feed my two wiemers blue ive tried iams and niether of them will hardly eat it if you are looking to get away from fillers I would def. consider blue and they have alot of different varietys to choose from i use the longevity formula.

[jebster]

I use Bil Jac Select, Large Breed for my older dog. It has great palatibility and is made from fresh, human grade chicken. The stools are always right. My dogs won't eat anything else now. I am a long time Eukanuba user and was satisfied, but this product is better. Bil Jac does not use an extrusion process, but an older, easier on the ingredients, batch process. For puppies, they have a Large Breed Puppy product which I used on my young dog and got great results. You can find it at Petsmart, etc. About the same price as Euk.

[brake man]

Thanks for all the recommendations. We scaled back his food a bit and that seems to be keeping the stools smaller and of proper consistency. We will probably stay with Pro Plan for now but may switch as things progress. Here are a few pics from last weekend I posted on a different post. He is staying lean but not so much you can see his ribs.

4 months old at home


Ready to go


Definitely a water dog


Out for a morning swim

[laidback]

I have been feeding Taste Of The Wild for over a year now and my dogs look great. My female had skin issues and all those went away when I switched over from Pro Plan.It's a bit pricy but well worth it to me.

[Doc & Nash]

Alot of us from North Miss feed the VF brand. It doesnt have any corn in it and it also has all the glucosemine and conjointin. SP look it up and find a dealer near your.

[Cat Squirrel]

I feed Eukanuba Puppy until 6 months old then switch to Euk Performance for the rest of a dog's life.

I will go back to Puppy food if I see evidence of pano, but have only done that once, for a brief time.

[Mark Evans]

Trey,

Scuse my ignorance, but what does VF stand for? Never heard of it by just those two letters.

Mark

[BucksandDucks]

Trey,

Scuse my ignorance, but what does VF stand for? Never heard of it by just those two letters.

Mark

Veterinary formula.