About Dog food and what Presley gets fed!

[Presley]

When I first got Presley we put her on IAMS.. I live in a Very small town and we have no pet stores here. Our closest pet store is a hour away, A friend who owns a pet store in the next town gave me a bag of Nutrience Junior to try her on as i wanted her on a dog food with the least amount of fillers as possible. We have just started the switch over, IAMS was the best i could get here in town. She also gets many treats such as... cookies many homemade and different brands and flavors... apples,oanges,bananas,carrots,turnips,grapes,peanu t butter all stuffed in her monster of a kong!! Those are just some of her favorates... She only eats around 3 cups of dry dog food a day always have let her free feed. I think she will no her limits better if the bowl isn't empty at times. I am also wondering about something.. Should a lab who mom weighed around 70 pounds and her dad was a big boy weighing in at 95.. Should she maybe be on a large breed formula? Any ideas on a great dog food???

Well, for starters you could try Petsmart.com or other pet sites and see about ordering food. You can buy almost anything online now days. I hope it isn't too much. Maybe the cost to ship will equal the cost of driving an hour away? Who knows... but it's something to check into.

Secondly, I had my dogs on Iams and I immediately took them off of it because of some disturbing news I heard about them testing on animals.....meaning they would purposely give dogs kidney problems or other ailments to see if the food helped them. I have no idea whether it really happened or not but I took them off of it anyway. It's a shame because I thought it was good food. There are plenty of good brands out there. If I were you I would search the net and look thru the ingrediants of each and listen to what the folks here recommend. That will help you narrow it down and I'm sure you will pick what's best for Presley. As for feeding her a large breed formula, I would wait until she is older for that. I'm no expert but she is still a puppy, albeit a big one! I would ask your vet what he/she recommends. I'm sure at some point, switching to large breed formula might be fine. But you should wait to see just how big she gets first.

The advice you get here is great, lets see what the other "experts" have to say. And it's always good to listen to your vet, if you trust them, as well. From there you should be able to formulate what is best for Presley

Good luck

[tatsxxx11]

Hi Presley! This is one of our most favorite and "well worn" topics on Pet Talk!! I'm going to search for a few past threads where we discussed this; so much to learn, and so many choices!!. Doggiemom is right. There are so many good foods available for purchase on line. And most of the larger retailers' websites have great forums going on that discuss topics such as this as well. I am a Lab Mom too! Her name is Star, and she is a 3 yr.old blond! I also have a Husky/Shep named Cody. Both dogs are considered large breeds. Star started out on "large breed" formula. Now, most of the premium brands have "large breed" kibble for puppies. Besides the obivious nutritional needs of larger breeds that may differ from the smaller guys, the large breeds are much more prone to joint problems later in life. These foods are formulated to help maintain optimum bone and joint formation and function, starting in puppyhood. I currently am feeding my girls "Gold Star," and excellent premium brand which you can buy on line. They carry many holistic formulas. Other excellent foods that I know of include Innova, Wellness, BilJac, Flint River Ranch, Soujourner Farms, California Natural, the list is growing ever day, and each sounds better than the last! I add fresh veggies and fruit, (they love them all) garlic powder and a little plain, lo fat yogurt to their meals. Their coats are gorgeous! Star is on the smaller side for a Lab. The standard for females is 55-70 lbs. for a female. Star is 56-57lbs. She eats 1 cp. 2x daily. Their snacks are very similar to yours! Good choices! Of course, being a Lab, Star would eat anything! I'll try and find those links, as well as some to retailers that will deliver your food. Presley is beautiful! And welcome to Pet Talk!! Hope some others jump in here; lots of very knowledge and good advice out there!

[color=deep pink]Here's the link to a HUGE discussion on this topic as posted in "Breeds!" Pull up a chair!
http://petoftheday.com/talk/showthre...hlight=feeding

And here's a link that compares the ingredients in many top brands, and allows you to compare them, side by side!

www.naturapet.com/display.asp?sc=7-1&hsc= [/color]

[Cincy'sMom]

We also started our girls on Iams. We had Sadie on the large breed until we got Cincy and because it made her stools soft. Then we switched to Iams lamb and rice. We noticed this gave them awful smelling gas and stools. We switched them Sensible Choice, made by Royal Canin about 3 months ago and that has worked out really well...the stink is gone and the girls love the food!
I would take others' suggestions and check into something on line. If the shipping is too expensive maybe you could by large quantities to limit the trips needed to the pet store. I feed my 2 lab mixes each 3 cups a day and a 20 lb bag lasts about 10 days. If you could get a 40 lb bag, with one dog it should last about a month...Good Luck!!!

[Roofus]

My lab Rufus eats Solid Gold and loves it. I checked it out and it seem like a good food. This is the site address: http://www.solidgoldhealth.com/
There is a store locater button on the main page to help you find a store near you.

[tatsxxx11]

Ok, senior moment here....???????? I said I feed my girls, Cody and Star "Gold Star".... Check that; I meant SOLID GOLD!!!!!! Yikes! Not that my Star doesn't think she's worthy of having a food named after her!!

[Logan]

Sandra!! LOL!!!!