Choosing a Puppy Food

We are not exactly sure what made Bella sick last week, but one of our theories is her food.

Before Bella came into our lives, I spent hours doing research online and reading magazine articles by world-renowned vets and experts on the big question today when it comes to dogs…

What do you feed your best friend?

BARF? (Biologically Appropriate Raw Food or Bones And Raw Food)

Homemade?

Wet Food?

Dry Food?

Vegetarian?

And then if you choose wet food or dry food…

What Brand?

Do you supplement with other food?

If you choose to supplement then…

Do you use vegetables?

Or just meat?

There is no clear answer. Even the experts and vets are split on their answers. This means you have to consider the pros and cons of each choice and weigh them with what you can afford to do and how much time you can spend.

The BARF diet: I really do not believe in the Raw food diet claims. I understand the pros but I feel it could be a “special occasion” diet. Plus I was more concern about the risk to Dave and I with the possibility of contamination to our food. We have a small kitchen and fridge and it worried me too much.

I looked into the Homemade diet a lot. I read books and I do think it would be the best choice but for one big problem. The vitamin and mineral loss potential. Vitamins and minerals need to be balanced in homemade diet. And this can be hard to do. I just didn’t think I could afford (time and money) to make several different types of meals. (One of the main points to the homemade diet is variety in the meals) Plus test them to measure the levels of vitamin and minerals and compare them to the levels needed for the age of your dog. And the age of the dog matters, and with one senior and one puppy it could mean making different meals for each of them daily.

Wet dog was an easy decision. No, because it can be bad for their teeth and they have to eat almost twice as much, since it is mostly water.

Vegetarian was also a no. Every dog I have ever had comes into the kitchen every time I make bacon and never when I am making green beans. So really they made that choice for me.

I am left with dry food. And I chose to supplement it with meat. Alternating between hard-boiled eggs, canned salmon and anchovies. But the question now is, what dry food? If you have been to a pet store lately and ventured into the dry food section you would see hundreds of choices.  Which one do I get?

And now we are down to my real problem. There are too many choices and not enough choices. You have to follow the first three ingredient rule, no corn, whole grains, protein percentage, fat percentage, type of protein, omega 3 and 6, and then the filler ingredients (i.e. tomato pomace or beet pulp). Plus I really would like to get a grain free food.

So when looking for Bella’s food, I had a hard time finding the one that I thought would be the best fit. In fact it took me almost a month after we brought her home. (We were feeding her Draco’s food, which is a totally different story). I decided on Fromm Gold Series Large Breed Puppy Food. And for the first bag, everything was peaches, she liked it, no gas, small stools (which is important) and small bites (kibble size).  And then when we got the second bag she started the “Poop Chronicles”. We thought it was the food. We returned it to Weber’s Pet Superstore and I was again presented with what should I do for Bella’s food.

Based on the friendly clerk’s suggestion, we got Regal Turkey and Rice Large Breed Puppy Food. It is not my first choice. I am in contact with a nice lady who works at Fromm who tested a sample of the lot number which our “tainted” bag was from, it was clear.

This is still a developing story and I will update you when we have made a decision.

I now know more about dog food, than I would like. So if anyone out there has a question, let me know.