How to decide on what formula of TOTW to feed?

[Alli and Barkley]

Our local petstore carries TOTW and we are pretty sure, after reading reviews, this is the food we would like to have Barkley on once he gets adjusted to our home. 

 

How do we decide what formula to feed him?  He will be around 8 weeks old when we start to transition him.  

 

Thanks!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

It doesn't really make much difference, but you might start with whichever TOTW formula is closest to the one you're feeding now, in terms of animal protein sources. What is Barkley currently eating?

8 weeks sounds young to me...how old was he when he came home? I usually advise keeping them on whatever they were eating at the breeder's for two weeks before swicthing, not just because of stress and adjustment issues, but also because a lot of these puppies seem to come home with giardia and other parasitic infections, and if you switch foods right away and the dog gets diarrhea, you won't know if it's from the food change or from something else.

[Alli and Barkley]

Great advice!  Thank you Karen.  He will be 7 weeks when he comes home- so we will wait till 9 weeks then to start the transition.  He is currently on Diamond Puppy.

 

 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

It's disappointing that the breeder is feeding such a poor quality food. Here are the ingredients:

 

Protein: 31% Fat: 20%
Calories: 3,973 kcal/kg (438 kcal/cup) Calculated ME
Available in 8 lb, 20 lb and 40 lb bags.

Ingredients
Chicken by-product meal, whole grain ground corn, wheat flour, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), dried plain beet pulp, egg product, flaxseed, natural chicken flavor, fish meal, salmon oil (source of DHA), fish meal, potassium chloride, salt, choline chloride, vitamin E supplement, iron proteinate, zinc proteinate, copper proteinate, ferrous sulfate, zinc sulfate, copper sulfate, potassium iodide, thiamine mononitrate, manganese proteinate, manganous oxide, ascorbic acid, vitamin A supplement, biotin, niacin, calcium pantothenate, manganese sulfate, sodium selenite, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), vitamin B12 supplement, riboflavin, vitamin D supplement, folic acid.

Those first 5 ingredients, which are the most important as they constitute the bulk of the food, are just awful. Both corn and wheat as the 2nd and 3rd most abundant ingredients in the foods, when neither one should be in a dog's food in any amount. Then you have by-products as the first ingredient! Rounding out the first five, fat and beet pulp.

Looking at this I almost want to tell you to switch right away, but for the sake of this very young puppy's digestive system, waiting would be better.
You're going to want to start with a TOTW formula that is poultry based; once your pup is fully transitioned, down the road I would use a rotation diet ..but not for several months.

The good news is, this food has a high protein content and a decent calories per cup amount, so transitioning to grain-free should be fairly smooth, assuming his digestive system is healthy.

http://www.diamondpet.com/products/diamond/puppies/dry_food/puppy_f...

 

[Tina, Clover, Plus 5 More]

Karen, TOTW has 2 formulas with chicken meal (2nd & 3rd ingredient), but nothing with actual chicken.  The first ingredients are either bison or duck and the other 2 formulas offered by TOTW are salmon or lamb.  Are some meats easier to digest for a puppy than others?   

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Meal is what we want;less water, more protein. It's chicken (or fish, or whatever) with the water removed, basically.

I think I'd start with the one that has duck as the first ingredient.

I doubt that any particular animal protein is easier for a puppy to digest, it has more to do with the form of the protein than the actual animal.

Egg protein is the usually the easiest form of animal protein to digest, across the board, for dogs and for humans.

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

I agree that I would start with chicken first. 

When my dogs ate TOTW, they preferred salmon and duck.

[Alli and Barkley]

Thank you all so much!  The local independent pet shop owner, along with all of you, was wonderful in helping me decide- we are starting with the Wetlands formula (Duck)

 

http://www.tasteofthewildpetfood.com/products/dogs/dry_food/wetland...

[Leslie, Dexter & Kirby]

I have no advice but we chose the Lamb variety because we think Dex may have had an issue with chicken in the past.  Since we aren't sure we just decided to try lamb and the doodles love it.  If Kirby gets tired of it (he is a picky doodle), we may switch to another flavor.

Good luck :)

[Ann]

We kept our Dood on what the breeder was feeding, then slowly switched her over after a couple of months .We home cook, so she gets half home cooked and some dry kibble with her meals. No grains at all. She is 2 now and doing great, but I got a lot of great advice here in this group.

She is now on TOTW as her dry food and we switch it all around to the different flavours now, just to give her variety.

Her treats are dry liver treats , I was giving her milkbone, not thinking about the grains in them ( and poor quality) but soon stopped after I read the advice here.They were also making her itchy.