What dog food do you use?

[whitey]

Diamond brand is awesome. I run my dogs on this for the last 20 years and have always had great luck with it. I use High Energy during hunting season and maintains during the off season. Lower protein but same components plus omega 3 fatty acids for the skin and coat.

[Michelle_Nelson]

I wish I could find a dry food my Hound could eat.  Everything I've given him so far causes ear infections.  Even the hypoallergenic types.  So I've been having to make his food.  He eats better than me and my hubby, lol.

[AWS]

I use Purina 1 because I can get it anywhere.  My dog and I are on the road for 6 months hunting and it is in convenient to pack more than 20#s of dog food.  I can usually find what I need in the nearest grocery store or Wahlmart.  All our dogs do well on it.  When we are hunting hard he gets a can of Purina dog food along with it.

My hunting partner uses some designer dog food and on some of the trips we go on his dog food out weighs his personel gear(he runs two dogs).

[Happy Gilmore]

Designer foods are great for dogs with issues. All the rest of them will do fine on a quality name brand food. People think higher the protein the better the food. Can be quite the opposite effect. Dogs need a balance to maintain weight and muscle.

I don't think foods with grains are bad. More FC's have been made on dogs who eat foods with grain than the opposite. Grain free food is a pretty new thing in the big picture and history of trialing dogs. Obviously, field trial dogs are the highest level performers who have their activity highly monitored all day long. I know there are some good hunters who can go out and work their butts off but, they are not given the specific attention and daily observation as a professionally trained dog worth a few hundred thousand dollars so, I don't find many stories all that relative. Especially, when the handlers are experts at with dogs and have 30+ years experience and hundreds if not, thousands of dogs under their belts.

[AspenBud]

Designer foods are great for dogs with issues. All the rest of them will do fine on a quality name brand food. People think higher the protein the better the food. Can be quite the opposite effect. Dogs need a balance to maintain weight and muscle.

 

I'll simply add this. Dogs are not cats, as in they are not pure carnivores like cats. They may not be wild, but like their wild counterparts they eat more than just pure protein. That's not to say it's not important, it's just that their diet is more complex than just meat.

[WAcoyotehunter]

I like Loyall brand- i get mine at Big R and feed my hounds 2-3 cups per day.  They work HARD and keep some weight on.  If they start to lose I'll add some corn oil or bacon grease to their food. 

[WRL]

I wish I could find a dry food my Hound could eat.  Everything I've given him so far causes ear infections.  Even the hypoallergenic types.  So I've been having to make his food.  He eats better than me and my hubby, lol.

"Some" dogfoods that don't have corn or wheat in them still have "gluten" (from either corn or wheat). Look for a grain free food.


Taste of the Wild and Nature's Domain have both worked with dogs I have had that had allergies.

WRL

[Forks]

str8uppointers which Black Gold are you feeding?

[ribka]

I wish I could find a dry food my Hound could eat.  Everything I've given him so far causes ear infections.  Even the hypoallergenic types.  So I've been having to make his food.  He eats better than me and my hubby, lol.

I switched to Taste of the Wild. No grains additives. Not cheap though

Cut down dramatically on my dog's ear issues and scratching

 I rub inside of ears with tea tree oil too.

[Huntbear]

Diamond Brand - lamb & rice..

only thing that will not give my GWP the squirts or bad gas.

[MadMooner]

The Costco big blue bag of salmon and sumptin'? My dogs do great on it and its priced well.

Second choice is Purina Pro Plan.

Purina does a lot to support hunting dogs so they get my business when I can.

[Worldhunter]

The red bag Costco brand

[fethrduster]

I've been using Pro Plan Sport, made for athletic dogs, and my setter seems to do well with it so far.  I think I will write down the ingredients though and compare with the Costco brand after reading these posts.  If the ingredients are basically the same but I can get more for less, then that's a no brainer.