Dog food for Lab

[labmomma]

My rescue lab, Sam, will turn 1 in March and I need to consider switching him for large breed puppy food to an adult dog food. I plan on switching up to a high quality dog food free off additives, preservatives, etc. Is a Lab, he's at 85 pounds right now, considered a large breed dog? Secondly, from you Lab owners/lovers out there, what dog food(s) would you recommend. I'm willing to drive 40 to a pet store to stock up if need be. My other rescue, Hokie, will be two in March also so I'll be switching them both over at the same time.
Thanx in advance for any input that can be supplied.

[JenBKR]

Hi and welcome to Pet Talk! What kind of food does Sam eat now? Is he picky? My 93 lb. german shepherd mix, Roscoe, eats Nutro Natural Choice Chicken, Rice, & Oatmeal and does very well on it. He's a pretty picky boy. You could feed Sam a large breed, but you don't have to, adult formula should be fine

[.sarah]

My personal favorite is Innova EVO, but it can be hard to find. Other good brands are Solid Gold, Natural Balance, Nutro, Canidae, and Eagle Pack. There are many more, but these are the brands that are the easiest to find. My dogs are on Innova EVO, Solid Gold (when Innova is not available -- we have to buy it out of town), and Natural Balance though they aren't on kibble much anymore as I have switched them to a primarily home-cooked diet (and boy do they love it!!)

The "do not buy" list is as follows (again, there are more brands but these are some of the more common ones): Purina Beneful, Purina Dog Chow, Purina Pro Plan, anything Purina, Science Diet, Royal Canin, Eukanuba, IAMS, Ol' Roy, Alpo, and Pedigree.

The best thing you can feed your dogs is raw food. It can be very inconvenient though and that is the reason my dogs are not on it. As soon as I can switch them to it I will, but they do get occasional raw food. If you're interested I can point you to some websites with awesome info on it.

The sure-fire way to tell if a food is good or bad is not by the brand, but by the ingredient label. You do not want a food with by-products, corn, soy, or wheat. You also do not want food that lists the meat as "poultry" instead of saying "chicken" or "turkey", because just saying poultry doesn't tell you what the source actually is. Another thing you want to look for is the meat without the word "meal" attatched to it. You want meat to be the first ingredient on the label, although if Chicken is the first ingredient on the label you need to move it back a few because it is primarily water if "meal" is not on the end of it.

Do not be fooled by what your vet tells you is a good food. I work for a vet and I can tell you first hand that we sell Science Diet and occasionally prescribe it but my bosses will be the first to tell you that it is a horrible food. But, they still love Purina. Nutrition is not discussed much in vet school, so veterinarians don't know too much about it (though you would think you could trust them with this kind of stuff, huh?). If you just keep researching on the internet you will find lots of websites with facts and tidbits about dog food.

To answer your question, yes, an 85 lb dog is a "large dog" but don't buy into the "large breed" dog foods. The only time when a large breed should be fed differently is in his growing stages (up until around 6-8 months for a Lab) and all they need is less protein (about 22-23%) so that their bones don't grow too fast.

I hope I helped (and made sense ). I'm sure others will be able to mention a few things that I've missed.

Oh, and welcome to Pet Talk! I have two Labs myself, Nova and Luka. I also have a German Shepherd/Pit Bull mix named Mandy. You can see them all in my signature.

[labmomma]

I found your info exactly what I was looking for and have been searching the internet to find quality dog food. Unfortunately, where I live, on the undesirable brands you mentioned are available. I can drive 50 miles for the Innova brand, which was the one to which my research indicated would be the best.
My research over the past days indicated that Innova/EVO would be the best choice of commercial foods. I am a retired teacher and have time to prepare batches of homemade dog food. I just need to have some recipes that will assure that both of my Labs get the right nutrients also. Could you supply me with the websites you mentioned in your reply?
Thanks again for your kind support.

[.sarah]

Sure

For raw food:
RawFed.com (the myths section is my favorite)
RawLearning.com
There are several people on this site who feed their dogs raw food, and I'm sure one of them will find this thread eventually

For home-cooking: (better than kibble in my opinion, but still not as good as raw)
This book is awesome!
I have this book as well but honestly haven't cracked it open

[JenBKR]

Raw is certainly an excellent choice. If you do wish to feed kibble at all and don't want to make the drive, you can always order from here:

http://www.petfooddirect.com/store/

[labmomma]

I've read everyone's comments and pursued my questions further and have decided to develop my own dog's food. I found an awesome website that offered all of the documented advice I'll need to come up with a healthy food for my Labs. Thanks to all of you for your input and I'll get back later and let you know how things have done. I'm anxious to get all of this going and see how things go.

[bckrazy]

I also feed Innova Evo, and it's awesome! In every way!

If you're interested in raw without as much hassle and complication, there are lots of complete pre-made raw diets that you can order or buy at most feed stores, they aren't too cheap though (average is about $5 per pound, but you feed a lot less than on kibble). There is also Honest Kitchen, who my friend feeds her working Lab and has awesome results... it's basically home-cooked meals, simplified, because it's dehydrated and all you add is warm water and optional supplements (which can include raw meaty bones, meat, veggies, etc)... http://www.thehonestkitchen.com/verve.htm