I saw in Lab Magazine that there was dog food just for Labs only. Have you guys tried it out for your labs? I am still feeding Brina the puppy chow.

I feed him 4 cups (two in morning and 2 at night) Am I doing it right? Never had a large dog....I know they eat a lot, don't they? Advices?

Frodo is still on puppy food, but it's made by Royal Canin which is the same company that makes the dog food esp. for labs. I'm not sure if I will feed it to him or not. The Royal Canin puppy food is 80 bucks for 40 pounds, which he is doing super on and the Lab food is about the same for a 40 pound bag. I know there are great foods out there that are less expensive. I don't mind spending the money, but I don't want to throw it away either if I can get something just as good for 30 or 40 percent less.

OMG!!!! You seriously spend 80 bucks on a bag of dog food???? I love my dogs more than anything, but holy cow I could never afford that. I had a lab/retriever mix that lived to be 16 years old and I fed her anything I could afford at the moment. I mean I seriously switched around according to my budget at the time. I feed my puppies now Purina Pro Plan large breed puppy food, and that is expensive for me. I am not trying to be rude here, I am just shocked!!! I plan on sticking with the one type this time around, they are so pretty and growing well and sooooo shiny.

We feed Cheyenne Pedigree dog food, and at kmart we can get a 44 lb bag for around $20 and that lasts us little over a month. Everyone has their own ways of feeding their dogs, but we limit the amount of table food (which we eat) that Cheyenne gets. Yeah she sneaks the food off our 4 year olds plate but she is told no on that. We have feed Pedigree to Cheyenne ever since we got her at 2 months old, and she is doing great on it, her health is 100% she has energy (also we give her vitiamans), and her coat is shinny.

Mattmans g/f

I feed my puppy purnia puppy chow... i wouldn't spend so much money on dog food. 80 bucks is pretty a lot unless you are flithy rich? :D

Since, I'm spending a lot of money on formulas for my baby boy. U mentioned vitamins... do you get them at petsmart or ? what are the best vitmains. I would like my lab to keep her coat shiny and smooth. Thanks.

If you have a Costco near you their Kirkland Lamb and Rice comes in 40 pound bags for about $18. It is made by Diamond which makes very good food. I supplement this with a can of sardines about once every 1-2 weeks and 1/2 can string beans every night.

We just went to Kmart and got Hartz Health measures Everyday Chewable Vitamins for dogs and puppies. it has 100 tablets in it, and read the side to for how to give them this one that I told you that we got is puppies and dogs under 10 lbs is 1/2 tablet and puppies or dogs over 10 lbs 1 tablet a daily.

Mattmans g/f

Sandie, what is the Royal Canin cost in USD? I really hope that the 80 is in Candian Dollars. Here in IL, I paid about US$38 for a 40lb bag. I wish now I would have bought a smaller bag as I don't think that Bromley is overly enthused about it. I've love to try some of the Flint River to see if he would like it but have about 35 lbs of RC to go through first. At this rate, it will be something like 2025 before I'm finished with this bag :(

My two, since puppies, have been on Iams - puppy and then
they progressed to and still on Iams Large Breed!
They get fed once a day - at night!

SMITTY
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i wouldn't spend so much money on dog food. 80 bucks is pretty a lot unless you are flithy rich?

lol, filthy rich indeed...we are working stiff's just like everyone else. The problem is that where I live, there isn't a big selection on large breed puppy food, I tried Nutro, Frodo was really squishy with it, so switched to Royal Canin which he seems to be better on. I never had children, so I do admit to splurging on pets.

Sandie, what is the Royal Canin cost in USD?

80 Canadian dollars is roughly 60 US Dollars, so you are getting a deal on your food by my standards.

I am of the opinion that if you are feeding a premium dog food you do NOT need to supplement. In fact, doing so could throw off the balance of the food and actually harm the dog.

Unless your dog has special needs as defined by your vet, you do not need to supplement its food. MHO, of course.

I agree Labby, my vet said the same thing, if you are buying high quality food, supplementing can do more harm than good.

Earnest is eating Diamond high performance, which at my local horse feed store costs $22 for 40lbs. Once in a while he gets about 2 tablespoons of Olive Oil in his food, sometimes he gets a little yogurt (he likes to just slurp it off a spoon). No people food.
He looks great, feels great. In the winter I'll switch to Diamond Maintenence or L&R, when he's not as active.

Does anyone know if the kirkland brand at costco had a puppy one? I have not checked it out but it sounds like that is a good quality food at a good price. Right know my pup is on puppy chow, but would like to get her on the kirkland of ot is a better brand. But she is only 13 weeks and the vet wants her on puppy food. Thanks

Kelly

No, Kirkland does not make a puppy food. You might try seeing if you can find Diamond LB puppy (or called Lamb & Rice puppy in some places)

http://www.diamondpetfood.com/locatedealer.html

What's so bad about science diet? We're feeding Jessie the large breed puppy type (she is doing so much better "bathroom wise" than when she was on Purina puppy chow). So I've been reading some not-so-great things about S.D. Does anyone feed it to their labs? If we switch, we want to wait till Jessie can switch to adult food. Any suggestions? Thanks!

We are very lucky- our dogs all do well on Nutro, senior for the 2 boys & large breed adult now for Grace (she is 1 year now). Vet says they are all healthy & good eweights. Her lab coat is so shiny & they look good, hubby says poops are firm & easy to clean up (sorry so graphic). We will stay with it, about
$25 for 40 lbs.

Hi Sandie, We live near where you live and buy Ella's food (Kirkland's Lamb and RIce) at the Costco in Kitchener. Costs CD$23 for a 40 lb bag. We chose it because it is wheat free and she is doing well. PetValue has their brand food which is supposed to be good, and we had heard good things about Go Natural (Canadian company) and tried it out- but switched to Kirkland because of the price. However when I tried to get the Go Natural website for you, I was shocked to see a food warning there so be cautious with that. This food was recommended by our trainers (Wag 'n Train) and all their dogs are on this food. It is supposed to have very good ingredients.

With Kirkland Ella's schedule has become very good- she poops only twice a day after each meal- compared to the many times she did with Nutro (but that has wheat and that might have caused it). :2cents:

Thanks Ella, and Howdy neighbour!

I do have a membership to Costco and as soon as I can get Frodo on Adult Food, I am certainly interested in seeing how he does with Kirkland. They don't make a puppy food I understand :mad:

On another topic, how do you like your trainers?

I am of the opinion that if you are feeding a premium dog food you do NOT need to supplement. In fact, doing so could throw off the balance of the food and actually harm the dog.

I my two girls Sophie and Zoe 1.5 cups of Flint River Ranch Lamb & Rice and they are doing great on it. I also give them a teaspoon of Omega 3 Fish oil from SeaPet.com since they do a lot of swimming in our chlorinated swimming pool. Flint of course is a "super-premium food" ($52.00 for 40lbs) and certainly doesn't need supplementing per se. But after reading different posts about coat/skin condition I decided to try it out.

Zoe unfortunately has a heart mumur condition and I have another bottle on the way but this has "Natural Vitamin E" and I've read that can help dogs with health issues.

Reading this thread now has me wondering. Any advice?

Thanks.

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On another topic, how do you like your trainers? [/B][/QUOTE]

We were very impressed by them. Having said that they are the only ones we went to:) Ella came to us from the humane society (you might have read of the 58 labs donated to the KWHS). Wag'n train gives free kinder puppy classes to all the HS dogs and pups so we naturally went there, but were impressed enough to go for intermiediate and advanced obedience there. They use the clicker method for training in kinder puppy and we found it to be very effective and we liked their policy of training by positive reinforcement. Allison our trainer was very helpful and encouraged email queries and even took time to answer our question about nutrition etc. They have a web site- do check them out as they have some supplies that we found are more reasonable than in pet shops. Also they have a terrific day care (web cam and all) and we have left Ella for 2 nights boarding. She loves to go there.