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  1. #1
    Puppy Yogi's Avatar
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    Pro Plan Question for Friend's Golden

    Not a lab question, but a very good friend of mine got a golden retriever puppy at 9 weeks old. The "breeder" fed Purina Puppy Chow, and that's what he's been feeding since he brought her home. The dog is 5 months old now. He'd like to move to a better food. He reports "gooey poops," and I don't think he's overfeeding. This guy isn't a dog-food hobbyist, so he doesn't care about boutique brands. Nor is he a cheapie when it comes to anything. He earns good money and is fine spending whatever on a dog food. I'm not going to recommend raw-feeding to him.

    I think moving to Proplan is reasonable. My questions is, which formula exactly should he try? The geniuses in Purina's marketing dept. have devised a cryptic naming convention for their foods -- "Focus" and "Select" and "Savor," etc., which do nothing to describe what they are. I know the Savor line has soy, which most here frown upon. Any suggestions on which one is ideal? This is a regular family pet -- i.e., never likely to do any kind of rigorous exercise, farming, working, or anything. Also, the dog is 5 months old right now, so the puppy/adult-food distinction would also be helpful. I got Yogi at 7 months and never really fed puppy food.

  2. #2
    Senior Dog smartrock's Avatar
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    I think the ProPlan Sport 26/16 is often recommended. It's an all life stages food so it can be fed to puppies as well as adults. It comes in 26/16, 28/18, and 30/20 (protein/fat) but for a family pet that's not a working or performance dog, the 26/16 is probably fine. I think some of the breeders who feed ProPlan use this, others say they use the 30/20 formula and never use puppy food. Both lab breeders that I got my dogs from said it was OK to switch from puppy to adult food between 4-6 months. Some say once the baby teeth have fallen out and adult teeth come in can be a good time to switch.

    How are you and Yogi doing?

  3. #3
    Real Retriever KenZ71's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by smartrock View Post
    I think the ProPlan Sport 26/16 is often recommended. It's an all life stages food so it can be fed to puppies as well as adults. It comes in 26/16, 28/18, and 30/20 (protein/fat) but for a family pet that's not a working or performance dog, the 26/16 is probably fine. I think some of the breeders who feed ProPlan use this, others say they use the 30/20 formula and never use puppy food. Both lab breeders that I got my dogs from said it was OK to switch from puppy to adult food between 4-6 months. Some say once the baby teeth have fallen out and adult teeth come in can be a good time to switch.

    How are you and Yogi doing?
    Well said. I fed Pro Plan 20/30 for months. They looked great. Now that the dogs and I are not walking as much 26 / 16 works good too.
    -- Ken, owned by:

    Max - Black Lab mix gotcha 4/23/2012 Born 12/2011
    Scarlett - Yellow Lab gotcha 4/19/2013 Born 2008? 2007?
    Lizzy - Terrier mix gotcha 6/29/2014 Born 2006?
    Zeus - Papillon mix gotcha 1/30/2015 Born 3/26/2014

    Avatar: Ziggy, my kitty who crossed the bridge a few years ago.
    He slept in the sink for years, silly boy.
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  4. #4
    House Broken piccadilly's Avatar
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    Yep, I'd recommend the sport 26/16.

  5. #5
    Puppy Yogi's Avatar
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    Thanks, all. Very helpful and straightforward.

    Smartrock: Yogi is good! Thanks for asking. We've been loving agility. I also lost a great deal of weight recently and have taken up jogging again (for the first time in at least a decade), so Yogi is loving that too. Almost nothing feels better than off-leash jogging with no one around in an environment like this:


  6. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to Yogi For This Useful Post:

    Charlotte K. (08-29-2014), smartrock (08-25-2014)

  7. #6
    Chief Pooper Scooper JenC's Avatar
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    You could also recommend the Selects Turkey and Rice.

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    Yogi (08-31-2014)

  9. #7
    Senior Dog MightyThor's Avatar
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    We fed the Pro Plan Focus puppy until this last bag and transitioned him to the Sport 30/20 (at 7 months old) since we're a pretty active family and Thor is outside with us a lot running around. Both are a chicken and rice based formula and he transitioned with no distress (normal poops, coat, energy, etc). We spent about a week mixing in a higher percentage of the new food each day until it was 100% changed. He's always done really well on the Pro Plan and we haven't tried anything else.
    Mighty Thor, "So Much Dog", born 1/6/2014
    And baby Barley, born 3/9/2018

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  10. #8
    Real Retriever 3ChocMom's Avatar
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    My 4-month-old lab puppy eats Pro Plan Sport 30/20. At 5 months old, your friend's puppy is still growing rapidly, so I'd recommend that one over the 26/16, at least for a few more months.

  11. The Following User Says Thank You to 3ChocMom For This Useful Post:

    Yogi (08-31-2014)

  12. #9
    Puppy labby's Avatar
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    I switched my puppy from Focus chicken and rice to the Sensitive Skin and Stomach. Mostly because she didn't like the Sport 26/16.

 



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