What is the best dog food I can feed all my dogs? (Including a new English Mastiff Puppy!!)?
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We also have a german Shepherd/lab mix who is a year and a half and a Pomeranian who is 6. Is there anything I can feed them all at this stage, or should I get something different for each one. I heard puppy chow is bad for a mastiff puppy. I’m confused, but yet at the same time we have done alot of research.
Do NOT feed Purina, Iams, Science Diet, Pedigree or any other grocery-store brand.
You need to find a brand with meat as a first ingredient, with no corn, wheat or soy. How much you differentiate the food for each dog is up to you, but I’d recommend an adult large-breed formula for the lab mix, an adult small-breed formula for the Pom and a large-breed puppy formula for the mastiff.
Good foods:
Taste of the Wild (adults only)
Acana
Wellness
Orijen
Innova/Evo
Blue Buffalo
Solid Gold
AvoDerm
Filed under: Mastiff Dogs
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Do NOT feed Purina, Iams, Science Diet, Pedigree or any other grocery-store brand.
You need to find a brand with meat as a first ingredient, with no corn, wheat or soy. How much you differentiate the food for each dog is up to you, but I’d recommend an adult large-breed formula for the lab mix, an adult small-breed formula for the Pom and a large-breed puppy formula for the mastiff.
Good foods:
Taste of the Wild (adults only)
Acana
Wellness
Orijen
Innova/Evo
Blue Buffalo
Solid Gold
AvoDerm
References :
I’ve heard Puppy Chow is bad for Mastiffs too but I haven’t had one myself so I’m not sure. I do however have a German shepherd mix that’s been THRIVING on high energy dog blends with lots of protein. If your Shepherd mix is as active as mine is probably a good idea to put him/her on a high protein diet as it helped mine with diarrhea. I had a Pom when I was a kid that we literally kept on whatever dog food was cheapest and the spunky little guy lived to be 17 so really I dont think they need a special diet unless he’s having health issues. I bet he’d thrive on a high protein diet also though.
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high protein foods are a poor choice for large dogs like a mastiff so rule out many of the grain free diets like Taste of the wild, EVO and others.
Eagle Pack Holistic Select lg/giant breed, Innova lg/giant breed, Precise are good choices for the big boy. he can eat regular adult after 6months or so of age. then they can all eat the same brand.
http://www.eaglepack.com
http://www.naturapet.com
http://www.precisepet.com
these 3 companies own their own plant, and manufacture their own foods of quality ingredients. they are in the USA and source USA ingredients whenever possible.
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Science diet is the best its veterinarian recommended but they only have it at pet stores like petco and petsmart its really good trust me also it is not a grocery brand i have checked
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my veterinarian
I disagree Kelsey. Corn, wheat and soy are good for dogs and science diet and Eukanuba are the best kinds you can get because many dog foods say protein and they actually put in hair but since that is not digetsable then really it isn’t any nutrition. Those are the brands I strongly recomend and they each come in puppy food as well. Iams is also good!
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Kelsey is correct…do not feed them the stuff you can buy in the grocery store,walmart,kmart..ect.. it’s all going to be crap and is not the best for them. I use Blue Buffalo for my new dog. I went into petsmart shoppping for all I’d need for him and knowing i wanted him on the best thing i could buy i asked an employee there and she taught me A LOT. Look at the ingredients…you want a food thats high in protein and low in grains or no grain at all. We see all these dog foods that are chicken flavored..blah,blah…if you look at the ingredients its chicken by product..which means it contains no meat at all, instead its the kidneys,and ground up bones..everything thats left after they take off the meat and sell it to us. If we dont eat it then its not good for us….so why give it to your dog? Also with the ingredient list on dog food..everything after the first 5 ingredients is just sprayed on the food, it is not actually in the food. You may need to give the younger ones different food than the older ones for now but I would really suggest you go into petsmart or some place like that…they were so, so helpful. The better foods are more expensive than your purina or pedigree but it’s the best thing for your dogs..and because the better foods like blue contain more proteins it will fill them up faster and they wont need to eat as much. a 24 lb bag lasts my 65 lb lab about 3 1/2 wks. Remember to mix some old dog food with the new for about a week to let there digestive systems get used to it. Petsmart also will let you return an opened bag of dog food if for some reason they don’t like it. Good luck with your pups! I ‘ve always wanted a mastiff they are very good family dogs!
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eventually you will be able to have the mastiff and the shepherd on the same dog food…..but not with the pom
at the moment, the puppy should be on wellness for large breed puppys
the shepherd on wellness large breed adult
and the pom on wellness small breed adult
wellness dog food carries all those types
its a natural brand with no corn, by product or fillers
5 star rated brand
once the mastiff is a yr old, switch him to wellness large breed adult along with the shephard
stay away from any brand that contains corn by product and fillers
-i use wellness on my dogs n they never looked better
wellnesspetfood.com use site for more info and store locater
good luck!
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Do NOT feed puppy food of any kind to your Mastiff puppy. He is a giant breed and the calcium is way too high in puppy foods for a giant breed.
You can feed all of your dogs including the Pom a good quality adult food such as Canidae ALS, Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover’s Soul, Wellness Super5 Mix Chicken, Merrick, Fromm,California Natural, Innova just to name a few.
Stay far away from foods that contain corn, wheat, soy, by products, animal fat or animal digest such as Purina, IAMS/Eukanuba, Science Diet, Alpo, Beneful, Pedigree and the like.
References :
vet tech for 37 years
Purina Puppy Chow is a poor choice for any dog, not just a mastiff. Here’s a factual, unbiased review of Puppy Chow:
http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/showproduct.php?product=1840&cat=all
And a review of Puppy Chow for large breeds:
http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/showproduct.php?product=1841&cat=all
You can also grade it yourself:
http://www.mastiffonlinecommunity.net/viewtopic.php?t=190
Brands like Purina, Pedigree, Iams, Eukanuba, Ol Roy and Science Diet are made with low quality ingredients (like corn, which is very difficult for dogs to digest, for example) and do not offer adequate nutrition. They’re the dog food equivalent of McDonald’s.
Growing giant breed dogs require a careful balance of nutrients. Most important is the calcium/phosphorus ratio, which directly impacts joint development. Until your puppy’s growth plates close between eighteen months and two years of age, you can’t feed a grain-free food (like, say, EVO or Orijen) because their calcium and phosphorus content is much too high for safe bone development. (If it weren’t for your Mastiff’s young age, as well as that of your mix — since s/he has another six months to go before I’d recommend feeding a high calcium/phosphorus formula — I’d probably recommend giving foods like Orijen or Innova EVO a go. They’re high quality, although some mastiffs don’t fare well on them because they tend to have sensitive stomachs.)
Here’s a great list of healthy, mastiff-friendly kibbles:
http://www.mastiffonlinecommunity.net/viewtopic.php?t=15522
The very vast majority of those foods are also appropriate for your mix and Pomeranian, so you can feed all of them the same food. Canidae All Life Stages, Fromm, Wellness, Blue Buffalo.. These are all fine choices. You can choose pretty much any formula as long as it isn’t grain-free (with the exception of Fromm Four-Star’s Surf N Turf formula), and as long as it doesn’t specify that it’s for giant breed puppies (like Eagle Pack Holistic Select for Large & Giant Breed Puppies).
By the way, if you don’t know where to buy some of these foods, just Google the brand and you should be able to find a store locator tool on their website. Some of them, like Blue Buffalo, are available in commercial pet stores like PetSmart. Some, like Fromm Four-Star, are often offered by pet boutiques and "mom and pop" type stores. Others, like Canidae and Wellness, can usually be found in local barn/farm/feed stores. (Well, that’s based on personal experience, anyway. I buy my Mastiffs’ Canidae All Life Stages at the local barn shop, and I used to get their Fromm Four-Star at either a quaint pet boutique in the next town or at a small family shop in another town.)
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A well balanced diet is the best for all dog breeds.
As more people understand the importance of nutrition to their own health, they’re starting to consider what’s in their dog’s food bowl as well. Food manufacturers are only too happy to oblige, and the latest products are likely to be labeled natural or organic, and include ingredients said to promote health, such as blueberries and salmon oil. That said, it can still be a challenge to sort out high-quality chow from the canine equivalent of junk food.
Feeding tips, http://pho.se/bzj
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