Hello
Can someone give me advice please on the best puppy food to get for my 8 month old Cockapoo.
I do not want to give her raw food - I did that for about 4/5 months of having her and for reasons I won’t go into I just want to give her the normal conventional food.
I am feeding her on IAM’s puppy food. I find that she does tend to poo a lot - about 3 times a day which is when I walk her and sometimes I find she has gone through the night. Her stools are generally hard but sometimes the ‘last bit’ is abit soft.
Can anyone recommend a good puppy food that is likely to produce less wastage please?
Thanks very much
Sharon
Hello and welcome to the forum,
It is very hard to recommend any food in particular because what suits one dog may not suit another. 3 poos a day doesn’t seem to be too excessive. How many times a day does she eat? Do you monitor her weight as she may been having a bit too much. You will probably find she will go to the toilet more often on dry food than when you tried raw.
You can use the dog food directory search tool to find foods which are rated higher due to ingredients. You can also use the filter to add any other requirements eg grain free. Lots of foods can be fed at any age. I should think at 8 months you won’t necessarily have to look for puppy food. It will be very much trial and error and just seeing what suits.
Hello and welcome to the forum. First of all, the difference between puppy and adult food is the protein content - it is higher in the puppy version. There are quite a lot of products that already have a high protein content so are for all life stages, meaning that there will be no need to change food as the dog gets older. It would be easier if you chose one of these. Next, decide whether you want to feed dry or wet food. As has been said, the Dog Food Directory of this website is the place to source a good quality product. Have you looked at this and familiarized yourself with this and with the filters on the left hand side? If not, please let us know and we can assist you with this.
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Thanks to both of your replies.
I’m definitely sticking to dry food. I’m a little confused and sorry to sound stupid but is it best then to get a high protein diet? I was thinking of getting Hills Science Plan because she also tends to scratch so I thought something like that would be better for her coat aswell.
Thanks
Sharon
The ratings on the dog foods listed in the directory are based on quality of ingredients and the Hills science plan does not score highly. I personally wouldn’t recommend it. I would be looking at foods which score 4 and over.
There are lots of arguments for and against a higher protein diet so you would need to read some of them to help you decide. As Dottie says though, puppies do need more protein.
see this page for lots of good feeding advice dog feeding guide
If the itching is food related, you may find it harder to find a suitable food and will have to try excluding ingredients and adding them back to see if there is a reaction. It is very possible that the itching is environmental, especially at this time of year and of course, it is sensible to rule out fleas before looking at diet.
At this age you don’t need a puppy food, especially if you choose a quality product. Dogs need good quality protein so don’t worry too much about it at this point. Concentrate on finding a suitable food for your dog.
You need to use the filters on the Dog Food Directory to source a suitable food. Here are the filters that I would recommend:
Type of Dog - pet
Type of food - dry
Food properties - natural, clearly labelled.
Rating - move slider to 4.0 - 5.0.
Avoid ingredients - all red.
Click ‘go’.
This returned five pages of suitable products. You would then need to scroll down and look at the ones that suit your budget and that you like the look of. All are dry products but there are a few that are slightly different to the usual kibble - these are labelled ‘cold pressed’. If you are interested in these, look for the thread about them on the forum - there is lots of information on it.
Please post back and let us know how you get on and if you need further help.