What food is your large dog eating?

[AnnieW625]

We have a 10 yr. old black lab who is at her healthy weight of 75-80lbs. . She walks 2-3 miles per day. She gets about 4 cups of food per day as rec. by her vet.

Well of course as soon as we switch foods to Innova Senior food there is a voluntary Innova recall from the manufacturer, and the local shops don't have it back in yet. We had switched from Natural Balanced Weight Control to Innova because the Natural Balance started wreaking havoc with her poop (it was really runny). So yesterday after debating about which food to feed her I got a small bag of the Eukanuba Lab formula to try. I know it isn't a 5 star food per the dog food advisor site, but every brand seems to have some sort of recall or if it doesn't it is super expensive. I am really confused about what to feed her, but thought of starting with the breed specific formula (and we had used Eukanuba Weight Control until the big dog food recall in 2008 or 2009 when we switched to the Natural Balance, which didn't cause her any issues until recently) but I also looked at Nutro Natural, and Blue Buffalo Senior.

[maestramommy]

Iams Large Breed kibble. I believe they have senior dog formula also.

[Tondi G]

I would try Blue Buffalo. We were feeding our cats Innova and switched to Blue Buffalo because it is slightly cheaper but still has a good ingredient list.

[twowhat?]

Ours aren't quite as big as yours (60 lb). We have fed Canidae (in particular the lamb and rice formula), California Natural (again, the lamb and rice formula), and the Costco food (lamb and rice).

California Natural seemed to be the best (and most expensive) of the 3, but our dogs absorbed more of it (poops were smaller) and so we fed less. They did well on Canidae (which is what we are currently using) and they did OK on the Costco food (looser stools).

You can get California Natural and Canidae on wag.com for very fair prices.

We also "supplement" with raw meat (I cook whole chickens for us and cut up the backbone for the dogs) and veggies (our dogs just love veggies...carrots, brussels sprout stems, kale stems, lettuce or spinach leaves that don't look nice enough to go in a salad, etc...so whatever I discard when trimming veggies usually goes to the dogs!)

We don't feed grain-free...one of our dogs has slightly elevated kidney numbers so we're trying to be careful about protein.

[KLD313]

I feed Earthborn Holistic and get it from Amazon. It's reasonably priced IMO. Blue Buffalo is a good choice but it does give some dogs tummy troubles. My Akita used to throw up whenever she ate it, I think it's the life source bits. I've always heard it's not necessary to feed large dog formulas or breed specific amd that it's a marketing ploy. Also, look into Nature's Variety, I feed that to my Bulldog because he needs grains. I get that from Amazon too and it's a good price.

[sunshine873]

Iams Large Breed kibble. I believe they have senior dog formula also.

:yeahthat: We switched to the large breed senior dog formula about a month ago. I just walked past the Blue at Petsmart the other day...but we are a one income family and I just can't see spending that much on our dog food. Sorry. Plus, we've been using Iams for 18 years and have always had healthy dogs with beautiful, shiny fur (I get asked what I feed them all the time.) So, it works for us.

[drako]

Our 13 year old boxer is eating Fromm Reduced Activity Senior Gold.

http://frommfamily.com/products/gold/dog/dry/reduced-activity-senior-gold

Our dogs haven't had GI issues with this food. I like that fact that the ingredients for the reduced activity/senior don't get replaced with fillers. The first three ingredients are meat.

[trcy]

I have always fed Purina One. Probably not the 'best' but I have dealt with tummy troubles with the better foods and it fits our budget. Our dog is more mid sized.

[jenmcadams]

We do Eukanuba Large Breed Senior

[willow33]

Blue buffalo large breed adult - chicken & rice formula

[AnnieW625]

Thanks all!

Sydney ate Iams for large breed dogs when we first got her along with about half a can of wet food a day (usually Iams as well) and then the first big 2007 or 2008 dog food recall came around so we stopped the wet food (this was the one where Nutro, and some Iams brands were involved), and continued the Iams for a month or so. She didn't lose any weight so then we switched her to the Eukanuba Weight Control and she did well okay that, but then there was another dog food recall in 2009 or 2010 and I felt guilty so we switched to the Natural Balance Ultra Low Calorie food and she finally made her vet approved weight, but in the last six months or so it has been wreaking havoc with her poop and she has thrown up a bit as well.

My dog does not act like a senior dog at all especially in the PM when it is time for a walk. Many people have stopped us to ask us how old she is and are shocked that she is 10, she still acts like a 3 yr. old. She has no problems with a 3 mile daily walk so I am not sure if senior food is 100% necessary, but I am afraid if we put her back on regular kibble she might gain the weight back. So I think I will try this Eukanuba lab formula and if it works try it or try the Eukanuba senior large breed food and see how she does.

I don't like paying more than $45 for a 25 bag or $50 for a 30lb. bag of food. We go through about one bag of food every 4-6 weeks.

[maestramommy]

I would give the Iams another try. I mean, there hasn't been another recall right? I get you on not wanting to spend too much on dog food. I get the 50lb bag from Costco. Costs 38.99 most of the time, but I just bought an extra bag with a big coupon.

Shep weighs under 75 lbs.

[Clarity]

The thing with IAMS is that the dog food has more fillers than the higher quality brands like Innova. That meant that my dogs were having twice as many bowel movements per day. That was a lot of yard pickup. My vet does not like Blue Buffalo - something about early quality issues but I'm not sure of the specifics. I did feed our oldest that for awhile but switched back to Innova. We've had to now switch to Wellness since the recalls. The dogs like it. We had early tummy troubles because we didn't switch gradually, we had run completely out and Innova was off the shelf but my 65lb'er is doing well on it now.

[AngB]

The thing with IAMS is that the dog food has more fillers than the higher quality brands like Innova.

The Costco brand (Kirkland's Best) is actually a decent food and has a better ingredient list than Iams/Eukanuba. (Iams and Eukanuba are pretty much the same thing). The Costco brand is manufactured by Diamond who also make a few other brands of dog food including decent brands like Canidae (although they have had some recall problems.)

We feed California Natural Herring and sweet potato or something like that (food allergies), to our german shepherd and husky. I order it through petflow.com and it's just under $50 a bag for a 30 lb bag, even better is that they deliver it straight to my door, free shipping, no sales tax. I HATE messing with buying dog food from the store after this.

[arivecchi]

We've tried a few foods due to my great dane's allergies and have been really pleased with Fromm duck and sweet potato. It's pricey, but my thinking is that it is less expensive in the long run to feed quality food than food with questionable nutritional value. A healthy dog means less vet visits. From what I have read in the great dane website, supermarket foods are mostly filler as mentioned by PP and no one there recommends them. I would follow dogfoodadvisor and feed a food with a rating of 4 stars or higher. Have you tried the Costco Kirkland foods? Those get 4 stars.