Choosing a puppy food is overwhelming! Please help!

Joeturbo26 · Apr 29, 2016

Ok, so please forgive if much of this post is redundant--I searched as much as I could on previous posts, but the information is just so overwhelming and hard to follow!

I spoke to the Rico's breeder today, as I was enquiring about his diet, so I can be as prepared for him as possible when he arrives... I was placing my monthly food order for my cat and thought I would pick up some food for him at the same time! Little did I know that I was soon to be in for a head spinning amount of choices!

The breeder starts all of her puppies on Diamond Naturals, and that is what Rico will be eating by the time he is ready to come home.

From what I gather, a lot of people here on the forum have experienced issues when feeding their puppies Diamond Naturals, and a lot of you have decided to switch the puppy to Fromm.

With that, I have noticed that there are several brands that often come up when discussing the "best puppy foods".

-Fromm
-Natural Balance
-Orijen
-Taste of the Wild
-Blue Wilderness
-Blue Buffalo

If I drill that list down even further, many of them have different puppy options under that same brand-- it is just SOOOOOO much information to digest, no pun intended!

Again, I apologize for any redundancy in this topic, but I look to you all as the Frenchie experts for help!

Any and all information about the brands listed above, would be more than helpful to me.... I've also added a poll to see which one you all vote as being your favorite food for a French Puppy.

Thank you again!

I will post some new photos of Rico on a reply to this thread so you can all see the little dumpling who is now three weeks old!

minnietodd · Apr 29, 2016

How adorable !!! Our first puppy was fed on diamond naturals from his breeder. We switched him over to blue buffalo and he's been eating that ever since. Chunks has some regurgitation issues but I don't tthink that has anything to do with the food. Our second , charlie, ks also eating blue buffalo now buffalo now and loves it and seems to be thriving well on it! I really haven't ventured too much out of blue buffalo. I know it's good to check the ingredients and make sure the first Ingredients are actually meats. I'm sure with your research you already know this. There are a lot of grain free puppy food out there now....I bet it is overwhelming !!

MaplesMommy · Apr 29, 2016

Have you considered a fresh (raw) diet?

I don't feed kibble, but if I had to Id feed Orijen. Its a high protein food, they use as little carbohydrates as possible. When you look at the ingredients you will see lots of meat and other 'real' food ingredients. Its all sourced in Canada/US. Definitely a high quality kibble. Acana is a little lower in protein, but Id rank it 2nd place.
Lots of people feed Fromm, I (personally) dont like the high carb content, but the rest of the ingredients is alright.

I would definitely advice against Blue Wilderness & Taste of the Wild as they have had recalls and law suits in the past and are also very high in carbohydrates.

Nu2frenchie · Apr 29, 2016

We started with TOTW grain free, which we had always fed our other dogs but then we later switched to Orijen puppy. Reese developed a urine smell to her coat that we have come to realize was yeast from the food. Since switching no further odor, bowels are more regulated and she is growing a lot better. My vote is definately Orijen.

Joeturbo26 · Apr 29, 2016

Thank you all so much for your feedback so far! Very helpful! I'd love to hear more!

mandoofrenchie · Apr 29, 2016

Mandoo has always been a somewhat picky eater. We went through a lot of different brands with her, including mixing in some canned Ziwi Peak with her kibble to get her to eat regularly. When we got Turbo, we tried a few different kibbles (Now, Ziwi Peak, Natural Balance, Go). He would occasionally get diarrhea on all of them. Most of the other brands on your list are not available in Korea. But we switched both dogs to Origen about 4 months ago, and neither have any more problems.