Recommended food for puppy at a decent price:)

[Michelle Motorola]

Hello all, i am just waiting for my big bag of Royal Canine to finish (i know its not the best for my pup) but it was what the breeder was feeding her and i didnt want to switch it right off the bat, i am looking for a quality brand in a good price range. around 50-60 dollars canadian for a big bag

If anyone can recommend anything id appreciate it a bunch:) thanks

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Hi Michelle,

Here is our Recommended Brands list.

I am not sure what size bag you would consider "big", but it's important to know that you cannot compare food by price alone, because they all have different calorie counts and so the feeding gyidelines are different from one to another. You might have to feed twice as much of a cheaper food than you would a more expensive food, in which case the cheaper food ends up being more expensive. So you can't really tell how good the price of any food is by the price on the bag alone.

I would recommend that you consider Acana for your puppy.  And please look at the feeding guidelines in addition to the price.

[Michelle Motorola]

Thank you:) ive looked at that and im thinking maybe taste of the wild, and im kind of going buy how much i spend now which is about 65 for Royal Canine that isnt even very good for her, at 2 and a bit cups a day. I will also look into Acana and see if i have access to it in Canada.

sorry for confusing you lol i mean the 30 pound bag.

This might be a stupid question but do dogs eat a larger amount of food if it were grain free or would that be the opposite.

I just want the best for my furbaby but at 80-90 dollars a 30 pound bag i wouldnt be able to eat myself haha

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

You should definitely have access to Acana because it's made in Canada, lol.

TOTW is on our recommended list.

Most grain-free foods are more calorie dense, so dogs usually eat less of them than the foods that do contain grains. But not all grain-free foods are the same. Some are heavy on potatoes. To give you an idea, my 85 lb dog used to eat Orijen and only needed 2.5 to 3 cups per day. Due to a chronic gastrointestinal disease, he must now be on a limited ingredients diet. He is eating Natural Balance LID now, and needs 4.5-5 cups per day. Even though the Orijen is more expensive per bag, the Natural Balance is costing me more because he goes through it so much faster.

If your puppy went through two $60 bags of food in the same amount of time that she would go through an $80 bag of food, you'd be spending $120 instead of $80. That's why you can't judge by price alone.

Also, you should really not buy more food than your pup can eat in a month, unless you can freeze it.

 

[F, Calla & Luca]

I don't think that's necessarily true, Karen. I buy several months at a time regularly. The Acana bags are truly vacuum sealed and I doubt any storage mites or other critters could survive. I use them well before the expiration dates. I find it convenient to have a back up supply since there are sometimes production delays and also I can take advantage of sales.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

It's just what I was advised by Jack's dermatologist, and it's in all the allergy literature, so that's the guideline I follow. I think it applies to opened food.

I do notice (and have heard from others) that their dogs do seem more interested in their food when it's a freshly opened bag. 30 lbs for a puppy seems like it would go stale before she got halfway through it. 30 lbs of Orijen would have lasted JD 6 weeks, and that's at 85 lbs, so for a puppy....I don't think it would be a good idea to have an opened bag of food for months.

[F, Calla & Luca]

I agree about being open very long. With two adult dogs the big bags only last a month or a little less. I only open one bag at at time. Both dogs eat what's served, Calla with relish and Luca in his own time : ) While Michelle's dog is a pup she might want to get smaller bags.

[F, Calla & Luca]

I was trying to answer when I needed a reboot and I see Karen already answered. I just bought two 29.7 pound bags of Wild Prairie thanks to you. I had placed an order earlier today but I didn't realize there was a special on that variety, which is usually the least expensive. I change varieties from month to month. When I went to check the price for this discussion I saw a discount on Wild Prairie.So with $10 off a bag and another 10% discount code, Sunny10, I saved about $32. Not shabby. One way to save on food is to look for and use special offers for the food you buy.

[Michelle Motorola]

great advice thank you both! i will head over to the pet store and look at pricing and also the amount she is to eat a day, never really thought of that.

Although i did see something online about how some companys lie, Royal Canine says she should have 2 cups a day but she is satisfied with 3, it said they sometimes mislead so people think that its a quality brand seeing as they would be eating less as you've said they do with quality brand.. those scamers i tell ya!

I will also especially start out with the small bags thats a great idea Karen, but do you think its fine if say i do Acana one month and then TOTW the next or should i stick with one for a while until she gets used to it.

I am sorry to hear about your pup having chronic  gastrointestinal disease, i hope it is treatable and not to painful for the big guy and by big i mean 85lbs!!! wowzers!! hes a champ!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

It's a good idea to start with a small bag of whichever food you choose until you see if she likes it and does well with it.

Rotating foods from one month to the next is a great idea,but I would stick with one brand. Both TOTW and Acana (and most of the other premium food companies) make different formulas which are designed to be rotated. That way you keep the same basic nutrient profile (protein, fat & carb percenatges).

[Michelle Motorola]

sounds good! After a wicked amount of googling and googling i came to the theory that she should be on large breed puppy but the TOTW is just puppy, has anyones pup thrived on this puppy formula?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Unless you expect her to be bigger than my Jack at maturity, she doesn't need a large-breed formula. Those are something of a marketing gimmick, and really only necessary for the giant breeds. Lots of FG puppies have done very well on TOTW, and that's even when there was no puppy formula, only ALS (all-life stages) formulas.

There is very little difference nutritionally between puppy, adult, large-breed, small-breed, etc. formulas. 

[Michelle Motorola]

Thats what i like to hear, i hate these gimmicks companys put into our heads, it really is the worst if your very gullable (me) hahaha thank you so much for your help Karen:)