Bailey is currently eating Nutro Natural Choice Large breed puppy (its prodominantly chicken based, but with lamb meal way at the bottom of the ingredients), but should be changing over to adult food within the next month. Which Nutro do you feed your young labs? He has a fairly sensitive stomach (quite a long bout of doggy diarrhea about a month ago, but has been doing REALLY well since switching to the nutro). I am debating between the Chicken and Rice formula and the Lamb and Rice formula.

Let me know what you feed or think... here are the ingredients for both...

Chicken and Rice
Chicken meal, ground rice, rice bran, rice flour, oatmeal, sunflower oil (preserved with mixed tocopherols, a source of natural vitamin E), dried egg product, natural flavors, calcium carbonate, dried kelp (source of iodine), choline chloride, vitamin E supplement, zinc sulfate, ascorbic acid (source of vitamin C), niacin, ferrous sulfate, calcium pantothenate, vitamin A supplement, manganous oxide, thiamine mononitrate (source of vitamin B1), vitamin D3 supplement, riboflavin supplement (source of vitamin B2), vitamin B12 supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride (source of vitamin B6), inositol, folic acid, cobalt carbonate, biotin.

Lamb and Rice
Lamb meal, ground rice, rice bran, rice flour, sunflower oil (preserved with mixed tocopherols, a source of natural vitamin E), rice gluten, dried egg product, natural flavors, monosodium phosphate, dried kelp (source of iodine), choline chloride, vitamin E supplement, zinc sulfate, ascorbic acid (source of vitamin C), niacin, ferrous sulfate, calcium pantothenate, vitamin A supplement, manganous oxide, thiamine mononitrate (source of vitamin B1) vitamin D3 supplement, riboflavin supplement (source of vitamin B2), vitamin B12 supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride (source of vitamin B6), inositol, folic acid, cobalt carbonate, biotin.

My fear is that chanigng him over to a lamb-focused diet will cause problems again with his belly... But my fear with the chicken formula is the oatmeal - will that make him loose? That is his tendency anyway...

Thanks in advance for your help!

I am maybe not the best one to answer this, but will take a stab since nobody else has responded to you.

I did feed Cooper the LB Pup, and when it was time for adult, switched him to the Chicken. My vet preferred that over the lamb, for the digestibility reasons. Unfortunately for allergy avoidance purposes, once they have lamb, even a small amount, its no longer a viable option to use in the event of allergy problems.

Cooper loved the Nutro, however, we had problems with the line in general. I think it was the omega 6/omega 3 imbalance (they don't have omega 3's) and he was terribly flakey on it. We switched him to Diamond Lamb and Rice (yeah, I know, lamb again, but I preferred those ingredients to the Diamond Chicken and Rice) and he stopped flaking and he pooped half the amount. But this was just him, I am not suggesting that Nutro is not a good food.

Suzie

What works for one dog will not necessarily work for another ... we use the Nutro Lamb & Rice because there's no corn or yeast products -- two things our GSD is horribly allergic to. Start out with the Chicken, perhaps and see how your dog does. We have absolutely no problems with flaky skin or loose stools. Good luck and let us know how it goes! :)

how old is baily- jack is eating the large breed nutro puppy food as well and we dont know when to switch him-

There ya go, Barb! Nutro is a great dog food, and works well for many....it was all my last dog would eat! Perhaps I should have tried the Nutro Lamb and Rice, and I still might!

Re timing of the change. From what I have read online, and according to my vet, generally speaking 6-7 months or when their bigboy teeffers are all in. You can always ask your vet, but my vet wanted to slow things down.....and the pup food, even the LB variety, is going to cause them to grow faster.

Suzie