# School me on Dry Dog food.



## Jacq (Mar 17, 2010)

Currently feeding Beneful because the dog eats a cup and a half in like two minutes, but after reading on here a bit i am thinking about switching. The local petsmart had a guy in the store pushing blue buffalo pretty hard and i almost bought it, but when i started to ask about feed containing grains the guy turned into a total **** and refused to talk about it so i didnt buy it, but i did a bit of research and it seems to be pretty good stuff....

i have been to the commonly posted websites given in other threads in this forum but the dog food search one just has to many brands of dog food for me to think about making an informed decision off of.

thanks in advance


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## jakeandrenee (Apr 30, 2010)

just put Jake on BB adult fish/ sweet potato....he's 3.5 months....we switched from RC baby max....
BB makes a grainfree the wilderness line....but not good for pups the cal/phos level too high...


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## sagelfn (Aug 13, 2009)

Blue buffalo is a good food. 

have you looked at dogfoodanalysis.com ? they rate foods from 1-6 stars, really anything 3 stars and up is a good food. There is also the dogfoodproject.com site that is helpful in learning about the foods.

How old is your dog?


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## Jacq (Mar 17, 2010)

sagelfn said:


> Blue buffalo is a good food.
> 
> have you looked at dogfoodanalysis.com ? they rate foods from 1-6 stars, really anything 3 stars and up is a good food. There is also the dogfoodproject.com site that is helpful in learning about the foods.
> 
> How old is your dog?


 
6 months female 40 pounds.

i have been to that site but if i click on 5 stars i get 6 pages of dog food, and there is no way i can compare all of that to each other let alone to the other star ratings...
looking for cost effective but quality. not sure if blue buffalo is the right choice for that category or not. 

that website seems like a good idea but there is SO MUCH information, i take in absolutly none of it.


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## jakeandrenee (Apr 30, 2010)

bb has good food but not grainfree except the Wilderness line....look at what's available where you live against the list...


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## Jacq (Mar 17, 2010)

Couldnt find anything blue buffalo on that site, let alone the large breed puppy stuff


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## Jacq (Mar 17, 2010)

jakeandrenee said:


> bb has good food but not grainfree except the Wilderness line....look at what's available where you live against the list...


 
what list... 6 star 5 star 4 star? stars mean nothing to me as to whats really good quality food for a decent price for my dog. the reason i say grain free is because that seems to be looked down apon on this site... are grains NOT a bad thing?


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## sagelfn (Aug 13, 2009)

I don't know of any grainfree kibble safe for a puppy other than Orijen Large breed puppy.

If you don't want to feed that then I guess it depends on how much you want to spend. Blue Buffalo would be a cheaper option or a more expensive option would be wellness supermix

Also, what do your local stores carry? Do you only have petsmarts and petcos? do you have specialty shops? do You have a costco? their kirkland food is pretty popular


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## jakeandrenee (Apr 30, 2010)

I am learning myself...alot of GSDs have allergies to it...I am trying to figure out if mine is allergic to chicken or grain....I say get the best you can afford and see how they do and look (coat, energy levels)...the food thing is maddening if you let it....I have spent countless hours instead of sleeping researching and STILL am unsure...try not to make yourself nuts over it...THE BIGGEST THING I LEARNED IS WHEN MAKING A SWITCH GO REALLY SLOW...THEIR SYSTEMS ARE SO TOUCHY..


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## sagelfn (Aug 13, 2009)

Jacq said:


> what list... 6 star 5 star 4 star? stars mean nothing to me as to whats really good quality food for a decent price for my dog. the reason i say grain free is because that seems to be looked down apon on this site... are grains NOT a bad thing?


I think all of the 6 star foods are grainfree, but like I said above, only Orijen has a grainfree food safe for puppies.

This is the index list of all the reviews for that site Dry dog food alphabetical index - kibble starting by A

this is BB chicken and brown rice for LBP Dog Food Reviews - Blue Buffalo Chicken & Brown Rice for Large Breed Puppies - Powered by ReviewPost you will see right below the ad a rating of 4 stars, if you click on that it will take you to other 4 star foods


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## klgraf (May 2, 2010)

*Grainfree OK for what age GSD?*



sagelfn said:


> I don't know of any grainfree kibble safe for a puppy other than Orijen Large breed puppy.


I switched our 7 mo old female GSD to grain free Natual Balance Sweet Potato and Venison about 1 month ago. We've had her since she was 5 mos old (shelter dog), and turns out she had Giardia (probably since we got her) plus I do see different poops and tummy rashes when we give her foods w/ grains. She is finally getting somewhat normal poops after almost 3 weeks of treatments w/ Panacur, Flagyl, then Panacur again plus lots of supplements (VitaFlex MSM, Fortiflora, Bac Pak Plus, and N'Zymes antioxidants).

She's 68 lbs...just wondering how long she's considered "puppy".


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## shilorio (Mar 21, 2010)

i like california natural and taste of the wild  evo, etc not pet store brands usualy..


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## JKlatsky (Apr 21, 2007)

It is fine to feed foods with grains in them, but you want high quality grains (No corn) and named meat sources (meals are better) in the front of the ingredient list. 

PetsMart really doesn't carry too many higher end foods. Blue Buffalo is one of their better choices. If you have a PetCo or a Pet Supermarket they seem to have more high end choices like Natural Balance, Wellness, Solid Gold, Avoderm, Merrick, etc.

Feed Stores are another good place to shop for foods. My local feed store stocks Taste of the Wild, Evo, Candidae and Chicken Soup.


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