# From Puppy to Dog food?



## Konotashi (Jan 11, 2010)

At what age should you stop feeding puppy food and start feeding regular dog food?


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## doggiedad (Dec 2, 2007)

i've never fed puppy food to my dogs.



> Originally Posted By: KonotashiAt what age should you stop feeding puppy food and start feeding regular dog food?


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## Konotashi (Jan 11, 2010)

From everything I've been researching, the food is the hardest. There are so many choices! 

I want to feed Blue Wilderness, since it's a high quality food and it's not ridiculously priced - but they don't have a puppy food brand. I was wondering what I could feed until then. Orijen was suggested in another thread I made. I just want to know how long to feed the Orijen before switching to Blue Wilderness.


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## roxy84 (Jun 23, 2007)

> Originally Posted By: KonotashiFrom everything I've been researching, the food is the hardest. There are so many choices!
> 
> I want to feed Blue Wilderness, since it's a high quality food and it's not ridiculously priced - but they don't have a puppy food brand. I was wondering what I could feed until then. Orijen was suggested in another thread I made. I just want to know how long to feed the Orijen before switching to Blue Wilderness.


i think the Blue Widerness has about 2% Ca as fed. if that is right i wouldnt feed it til at least 1-1 1/2 years. Orijen Puppy Large is a great choice and one of the only grainless foods suitable for a puppy. 

where i live, the Blue Wilderness is just as expensive as the orijen (excluding orijen fish), and between the two i would always lean toward orijen.


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## ch3ckpo1nt (Nov 30, 2009)

i always said to myself, "People are crazy for feeding there dogs such expensive food."

Here I am with my first GSD.

Orijen LB puppy- $69.99 for a large bag.
NV RAW- About $280 a month.

My food costs per month- ~$200


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## Konotashi (Jan 11, 2010)

Alright. So feed Orijen until at he's at least a year old? I found a pet store around here that carries Orijen - I'll call them and ask if they carry the large breed puppy formula and ask how much it costs. Hopefully it'll last a little while.







A 30 lb. bag on the internet is about $60 - is that about normal?


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## ch3ckpo1nt (Nov 30, 2009)

$60 sounds about right, I paid $70 walking into a store. I personally would feed the LB puppy formula until about a year old. After that, you can even switch to a different adult food if you do not want to continue with Orijen. My pup loved TOTW, but many people on here will tell you their experiences with it, apparently it wasn't good. Luckily, no one in my area has had an issue with it and people seem to love it.


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## Konotashi (Jan 11, 2010)

It's amazing how many high quality pet supply stores are around when you look for them.









That'll be my plan then. Feed the Orijen puppy for a year, then switch to Blue Buffalo, and switch if needed.







 There's a store around here that sells the 26 lb. bag for less than $35! From what I'm finding online, that's a pretty good deal! And they have free home delivery! How much better can you get than that?


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## Konotashi (Jan 11, 2010)

At the store I found that sells the Blue Wilderness, they sell what's called Merrick Puppy Plate - I've never heard of it, but it's a 5 star dog food on DogFoodAnalysis. It's $10 cheaper than the Orijen for the same sized bag, so I think I'll go with that.


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## roxy84 (Jun 23, 2007)

> Originally Posted By: KonotashiAt the store I found that sells the Blue Wilderness, they sell what's called Merrick Puppy Plate - I've never heard of it, but it's a 5 star dog food on DogFoodAnalysis. It's $10 cheaper than the Orijen for the same sized bag, so I think I'll go with that.


just because it is $10 cheaper does not mean it will be cheaper to feed. orijen is a pretty calorie dense food and many of us feed less of it than we might have to feed of another food. of course, it depends on how an individual dog digests and utilizes a given food, but my experience has been that the foods with high meat content (which also tend to be 450-550 cals/cup) will require less feeding.

for example, the Merrick Puppy Plate has 363 cals/cup. the orijen puppy large has 450 cals/cup. it would not be surprising if you will have to feed more of the Merrick than you would the orijen.

the merrick liiks like a fine food. im just throwing that out there for you.


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## Konotashi (Jan 11, 2010)

I didn't even think to look at calorie content. So the more calories there are the less you feed? Sounds reasonable.









Geez! I've never spent so much time researching food before.


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

A lot of people don't think about it Konotashi! We see threads all the time asking how many cups of food to give a puppy/dog per day without even mentioning what kind of food they're asking about. They obviously have no idea that the number of calories can vary so much between foods, from as little as 300 kcals per cup to 600 - that's a big difference that can greatly affect your feeding costs, so just looking at bag prices for comparison or even doing the math to calculate price per pound when looking at different bag sizes between brands isn't that valuable. A food that's twice as expensive but has twice as many calories per cup costs exactly the same as the food that's half as expensive with half as many calories, but you're typically getting much better nutrition with the higher quality, more expensive food. 

You don't even have a puppy yet, and you're already ahead of the game by asking all these questions now!


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## Konotashi (Jan 11, 2010)

I found calorie counts and found that for puppy food, Orijen has more than a large majority of other puppy foods, and Blue Wilderness has even more than EVO! Definitely going to be feeding Orijen and Blue Wilderness.









I like to learn as much as I can as early as I can.







I researched sugar gliders for about 6 months before I got them, and here I am, over 2 years later, still learning new things about them all the time! You can never know too much.


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## roxy84 (Jun 23, 2007)

> Originally Posted By: KonotashiI found calorie counts and found that for puppy food, Orijen has more than a large majority of other puppy foods, and Blue Wilderness has even more than EVO! Definitely going to be feeding Orijen and Blue Wilderness.


just remember to always keep an eye on nutrient profiles when feeding your piuppy. im a broken record on this, but the Ca content is critical for our pups and iIMO should be around 1.5% or lower (as fed). most all of the grainless foods (TOTW, Core, EVO, Instict, and others) are well over this. Orijen is one of the few that not only controls the Ca levels but also lists the minimum and maximum levels. Blue Wilderness only lists the minimum content on their site/bags (as many manufacturers do), so i always called manufacturers to get the maximum levels before feeding anything to my pup.


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## Konotashi (Jan 11, 2010)

Oh yay, more to keep me on the topic of food.









So Orijen is a good puppy food, as far as quality, calcium, and calories go? 

Where can I find the calcium levels of Blue Buffalo, and how much calcium is recommended for adults?


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## roxy84 (Jun 23, 2007)

> Originally Posted By: KonotashiOh yay, more to keep me on the topic of food.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


orijen puppy large seems to have everything in line with what a large breed puppy needs. of course, as we all unfortunately know, that doesnt mean it will work for every dog.

Ca levels for BB are listed on their website, usually below the list of ingredients. they are listed as minimum amounts. my only recollection of the maximum Ca levels are from e-mailing them. my recollection was that it was around 2%, but i could be mistaken or it could be lower now. (to add to the fun, the ratio of Ca to P should be in the area of 1.2 to 1, but most foods ive seen seem to be close to this)

adult dogs can handle higher levels of Ca, so i wouldnt be too concerned about that since they are done growing. Some kibbles like EVO have levels as high as 2.5%, but there is no indication levels that high are any problem for an adult dog.


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## Samba (Apr 23, 2001)

I feed large breed puppy food for a year.

http://sonic.net/~cdlcruz/GPCC/library/Optimal%20feeding%20of%20large%20breed%20puppies.pdf

I grow pups slowly as is recommended. This slow growth does not keep the dog from reaching mature size... it is still attained by adulthood. The orthopedic advantages of slow growth are pretty well researched now.


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## Samba (Apr 23, 2001)

I don't feed adult food to puppies for obvious reasons. I also do not feed a puppy food designed for the growth of a much smaller kind of dog as that will be too loaded also.

Orijen LB Puppy seems to working well so far.


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## Inziladun (Jan 14, 2010)

This may seem like a silly question, but how many calories a day does a growing pup need exactly?


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## ch3ckpo1nt (Nov 30, 2009)

It varies by weight and age of the pup. Right now my pup is about 50 LBS. According to Nature's Variety, he needs about 1874 calories daily, I forgot the exact, its 187~. 

I feed 24 oz of NV RAW a day since he eats three times a day, and each patty is 8oz. Its just easier for me that way. Than, the difference in calories gets fed with Orijen LB puppy.


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