I don't think I have stressed about something so much since my daughter was born...

[Ruby Goldendoodle]

I have grown up with pets and owned cats forever. I have never given too much thought to food, other than listening to Vets and Petsmart employees. :) I have our first puppy and every time I settle on a food I then read something that changes my mind. I don't want to do grain free for the first year because I think that puppies benefit from some grains. I was set on Wellness, but then read that a big company bought them out and that you shouldn't trust what they say as to where they get products. DogFood Adviser has great info, but then I have read not to trust sites that use a star rating. My Vet says Science Diet, Eukanuba are the only ones with paid research going into the foods the rest are just trying to make money off of pet owners! So who to believe??? 

I wanted to do the Acana with Grain Puppy and Junior, but I can't find it anywhere? Can we not get that in the USA? HOw am I supposed to feel comfortable with any decision when there is so much contradicting info out there? 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

And I know it isn't true that the Acana formulas which contain grains are not sold in the U.S., because several Food group members have already tried Acana's new limited ingredient line, which contains oats.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Well, I did try to order the puppy junior formula at Hungry Hound and it stated it couldn't ship to my address. How peculiar.

[Kaytlin and Cooper]

Cooper ate raw til she was about 1 1/2 and my cats ate raw for the first 8 years of their lives. We only switched to high protein grain free kibble because we got it free from work!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Berwick Corporation owns Wellpet LLC, which owns Wellness. But this has been the case for almost 5 years, it's not a new change.

Dogs do not eat grass normally, nor do wolves or wild dogs or any of the canids. They cannot digest it. Some dogs may eat grass when they are nauseated.

Carbohydrates are more difficult for a dog to digest and utilize. All plant foods are carbohydrates. A dog's natural source of metabolic energy (calories) comes from protein and fat. There are only three sources of calories, the macronutrients: protein, carbohydrate, and fat. Even if a food contains 40% protein (which very few do), that still means that 60% of all the metabolic energy supplied by that food is coming from carbohydrtaes and fats. Since carbohydrates are not well-utilized by dogs, a lot of the grain content in a dog food basically acts as fillers, and goes right out in the poop. Many dogs have bulkier, more frequent stools on foods with low protein percentages and high carbs, becuase there's so much filler. Other dogs do very well with them..

It's absolutely incorrect that grain-free foods have too much protein for puppies, or that it can harm their kidneys. These ideas are related to human nutritional needs, not dogs. Protein promotes growth, and who needs that more than a puppy who is going to achieve all of his skeletal growth in the period of a few months?

You are not going to know if any food is the right choice until you try it. Just because a food is high quality and other people use it and recommend it, doesn't mean it is going to work for your dog. So no matter what brand you pick, whether it has grains or not, you may still end up with the wrong food for your particular puppy. Relax. Whatever decision you make isn't etched in stone. You can always switch to something else in a month or two if whatever you choose doesn't work out.

 

[F, Calla & Luca]

Good advice.

[Ruby Goldendoodle]

Thanks! I think I am just going to try the Orijen puppy. I talked to Champion and she said that I could not get the Puppy and Junior in the states. She said I could get the chicken and potato maybe russet? She said I could feed that to my puppy as long as I doubled it. 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Okay, I'm confused. I know you can buy the Acana grain-free formulas here in the states. Orijen is grain-free, and it contains higher protein than the Acana grain-free. Why not just go with the Acana grain-free formulas?

And I don't understand what is meant by chicken and potato. All of the Orijen formulas contain multiple protein sources, and they all contain russet potatoes. There is a poultry and fish based food, but there is no plain chicken and potato. Orijen does make a puppy food, which does contain chicken and potaotes, among many other ingredients, but why would you feed double the amount? Something doesn't make sense here.

All of the information about the Orijen and Acana formulas, including ingredients and feeding guidelines, are available on the Champion website. I would use that instead of having conversations with the company, because someone is not understanding someone.

[Ruby Goldendoodle]

In the Acana formulas with grain there is one that is Chicken and some type of potato. It only has 4 stars at dogfoodanylsis because it has less protein. It is not an All life stage food which is why I guess the customer service rep at Champion told me if I used that to feed double. 

The Orijen is easier to find in my area and I do like that they have a specific puppy food. The Acana grain free is All Life Stages. I don't know which of those two is better? 

THis is just all so confusing and there is so much info out there.

Thanks for all your help.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Forget about dogfoodanalysis, it used to be my "go to" site, but they have not been active for several years now, since 2009,  and their reviews are out of date. Many if not most of the formulas have changed since then. Also, their star system is biased towards food that are grain-free, so no food that contains grains would get more than a 4 star rating.

The food that the Champion service rep is talking about is a new limited ingredient formula that does contain oats and is available here in the US. It's called Chicken and Burbank potato. You would not feed twice as much, at 435 k/cal per cup, that would be way too much food and too many calories. The bag has feeding guidelines for puppies on it.