Puppy food recommendations wanted please

[Rothievale]

Arden Grange! Also add tripe mince, beef mince and sardines sometimes. I think it helps make them more tolerant of different proteins

[mustogirl]

I wouldnt feed Eukanuba adult, but when our dogs were puppies, all have done really well on Eukanuba puppy & its something we'll stick with.

i find that theres a heck of a lot of influence if you breed puppies, and then give the new owners the food that the pups have been weaned on. I think dog food companies have cottoned onto this and have started breeder clubs where the breeder gets discounted puppy food and then gets sent smaller bags to give to new owners.
Thats how we started with Eukanuba.
But at the same time, they new owners have to be aware that if they decide not to feed the food that the pup has been weaned on, to gradually move the pup over, other wise the pups delicate stomach goes haywire!

[spanman]

My pup was fed skinners puppy kibble with the odd day of Chicken.....She has turned out in super condition...

[Rocken]

Thanks for all the replies, my broadband has been playing up all weekend so have not been able to read them until now! Would love to completely raw feed, especially as my friend has his own butchers, but have no freezer at all at the moment though I do supplement Bracken's diet with bones, raw meat and pilchards.I am definately looking to make the change in the near future but in the meantime will have to make do. Started them off with weetabix and warm goat's milk / water which went down well and have gradually moved on to soaked kibble. Currently using CJS CP27 puppy to which I add warm water, Bracken loves it very wet and I mix in a spoonful of pilchards or whatever else I have. However, even with the warm water it does not soak it up so the pups have not been very enthusiastic eating it (even with the fish) - they seem to have a bit of a nibble and that's that . They seem happy and active and don't cry but just don't seem to be eating enough or maybe I'm just overly concerned! They are nearly 6 weeks old and are now off mum during the day and she just goes back in with them in the evening.

[terrier]

I wouldnt feed Eukanuba adult, but when our dogs were puppies, all have done really well on Eukanuba puppy & its something we'll stick with.

Just out of interest,why wouldn`t you feed Eukanuba adult?

[SpanielOwner]

My pup loved the Hill's Science plan puppy.... i fed him the dry kibble but he adored the wet stuff more which is like a pate! Yum!

[arwesa]

I fear this will go on forever and the poor OP will get every puppy food recommended in the end....

so....as feeding is something I have in the past been overly curious in researching, in summary Id like to suggest some simple 'rules of thumb' which might help...

for a pup...
balanced consistent diet is good, random/unbalanced is bad (either feed a balanced complete or make your own, unbalancing with 'added extras' isnt best)
highly digestible ingredients is great, high quality feed is good - generally a cheap feed is poor
wet is good, dry not so
grain free is great, rice is good, other grains not so
meat protiens are good, non meat derived protiens and 'meat meal' not so
high fat = high energy / less fat = lower energy - use this if you are thinking about lamb vs chicken vs fish based feeds (often oil/fat contents vary)

The puppy stage is the most critical on every level and skeletal and mental development are directly affected by diet. Investing in the pups future by feeding it the best you can is an investment for the rest of its life. once its fully grown then feed something that will maintain adequately, but as a pup give it the best you can. that definitely means balanced though...if you just feed a pup fillet steak it will not thrive and would be better on cheap as chips value kibble, however the best for the pup rests in choosing the 'best' feed that you can afford when considering the points above.

whilst above are lots of suggestions and they will continue, for what its worth I will throw up the brands that imho have the edge over the many others out there:

natural instinct, naturediet (lots of usefull info on feeding on their site), barking heads, orijen, arden grange

I have only fed mine on the first two (as I dont personally believe in dry processed feeds as it damages the protiens), but the latter are what I would see as being better than average with orijen being the best of the dry kibble feeds.

hopr that helps clear some of the mist.

[Rich0684]

I have spent hours reading up on this topic because Thea is not particularly food orientated and we are still working out what suits her best. When we got her at 8 weeks she had been weaned onto Collards but we wanted to feed her Orijen. We started to gradually change the food but it became obvious that Orijen wasn't as popular as we thought it would be. We contacted a couple of breeders/trainers and was told by one that Eukanuba puppy is the best thing out there and by another that Royal Canin puppy is the best! I had read good and bad things about both of these.

I then came across the raw food diet and we tried her with this, she absolutely loves it. Our only concern was balancing it so she gets the vitamins/minerals that she requires. We tried to supplement with Natures Diet etc. but she wasn't interested!

We got some sample packs of Eukanuba puppy, Collards chicken/rice, salmon/potato, put a small pile of each down to see which she went for. She carefully ate a small amount of each one and then went back and finished each one in turn!!!

Since she only eats 2 meals per day and we know that kibble digests at a different rate to raw meat we have settled on Eukanuba Puppy for breakfast and raw meat (chicken wings, thighs, pig heart, oily fish etc.) at dinner time. Then throughout the day we use the remainder of her kibble for training. I have come to the conclusion that, providing the ingredients are good, the best food is whichever your dog enjoys without adverse effects.

[Rothievale]

Arden Grange weaning puppy then Arden Grange puppy/junior for me. Although it's quite rich food so if you overfeed it and don't feed little and often then you'll find they get the shits!

[Hanrebor]

Royal Canin for us !! I think to be honest ... if you get good results on a product then you tend to 'stick to what you know' !! ... we do anyway !! Good luck with your babies !!