Best adult food for my active gsp

[natel24]

I have an 11 month old male GSP that is my first personal hunting dog, although i grew up around yellow labs. I would like to switch my dog to adult food at 1year. He is very active and will continue to be once the weather warms up, i'm planning on training him a lot this spring for his JH test. He is about 45lbs now but had seemed to have lost some weight during the hunting season. He is currently eating iams smart puppy for large breeds. My brother has suggested that i use pro plan performance since thats what he uses with his labs. i was leaning more towards native brand level 3 or the new loyall professional brand food. i really want the best for him so i would appreciate any suggestions or ideas that anyone has.
thanks
natel24

[1vizsla]

We love the Native Level 3. You know this a loaded question, don't ya!

Carla

[Greg Jennings]

There is no one "best". What works for your dog, with fresh lots readily available at a price you can afford is best for you.

Example 1: I know a lot of people that do very well with Nutro, but my dogs have BM issues when on it.
Example 2: A lot of people do very well with Diamond, but I can't get fresh lots here.
Example 3: I had very good luck with Pro Plan until something changed at my supplier and got an old lot.
Example 4: There are a couple of brands that members here rave about that I'd like to try but there is no supplier within a reasonable distance.

The best compromise that I have right now is Exceed from Sam's. If anything changes, I'll leave it like I have other brands.

[gwgdog66]

The three you mentioned are good, as well as several other brands. Greg nailed it, there is no one best food. Check your local feed stores and see what they stock for a reasonable price, and go from there.

[mountaindogs]

it varies unfortunatly. I would reccomend native level 4, I have not had as much success with level 3 though they do fine at the same cost they do better on 4. I LOVE eukanuaba (I can't recall what it's exactly called but it's the highest energy one..) but cannot afford it. I had a hard to keep weight on male that I was showing AKC show judges like a little bit of weight on the dogs! I fed Eukanuba to him for a few months and he held and put on weight through all his training and did great on it. He looked stunning. If you can afford it I would surely reccomend it. You can get it cheapest at tractor supply I bet. I will get yelled at for this, but my dogs have also done very well on science diet hi energy. It is also sold at tractor supply.
I am able to get the science diet "kennel packs" now and they are the adavanced fitness formula. It is very low protien and fat compared to what I usually feed, but I get it as a "reward" for attending x number of meetings at work so it's sorta free ish. I only get 1 40 lb bag per month and that is not enough for even one dog, but I have switched one of my girls to it formoney saving and to just see how she does, and she is holding weight the same as being on Native level 3. I feed the exact same amount and I assure you it is much lower calorie, but maybe she digests it better. She is not a "hard keeper" but she is not easy to keep at "show weight either (which I consider a little fat but mostly okay ) This has really shocked me, as I never thought this food would hold any weight on my dogs. It's first ingredient is corn and it has lots of those things that folks want to call "bad" but hey! if I can get it mostly free for one dog, and it works for her, then I will go with that. My picky eater male loves it, but I am afraid to even try it with him due to his need for very very high energy foods. We shall see. At the moment I am feeding Native level 3 to the others, as we order by the pallet and have a few bags left but next time it'll be level 4. If they need lower calorie I'll mix the level 4 with a cheaper food like diamond, exeed or big red pro mix... haven't decided yet.

[Greg Jennings]

Wherever you get your food, I recommend sampling the age of the food. My Tractor Supply, for example, apparently doesn't sell food very quickly. I am not satisfied with the freshness of any brand they carry.

[ezzy333]

Greg,

I am curious as to how you know how old the feed is? Also there are shelf life tests done and with the better additives we have today there is no problem keeping feed for several months or longer if it is kept in a dry environment. Extremely high temps normally can reduce shelf life also. But if there is a problem with it getting old every company I know of wants it back and will replace it free of charge. I know we wanted all of our feed used within 3 months but it tested fine past a year under normal circumstances. Samples were always kept for a year and tested.

The only thing that I have seen a few times is a mite or bug problem in hot weather. And those are visible when you open a bag. So I agree, it is important to look in the summer for those but other than that there is no problem for months after manufacturing for dry kibble feeds.

Ezzy

[Greg Jennings]

Greg,
I am curious as to how you know how old the feed is?

Generally, there is a manufactured-on date somewhere on the bag. Some have "best if purchased by" dates on the bag. If so, I have always wanted to see it less than 30 days old. When I have one dog at home a bag lasts up to two months. I got into doing this after I had BAD problems with bags on clearance of a brand that I'd had great results from previously.

Had not considered the hot versus cold weather. I'll keep it in mind in the future.

I have another basic litmus test. It's a pretty bad comment on my nature, so I'm hesitant to describe it, but here goes...

I generally do all of my errands on Saturday. I go to a store and go to the stack of the foods that I'm looking at. With a Sharpie, I write 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 in an inconspicuous place on the bags from top to bottom. I return the following Saturday and check the stack.

It's not definitive at all, but when you see all five bags still there and with dust collecting on '1", it sure gives you a gross idea of what's going on.

[natel24]

So what i'm getting from this post is as long as its fresh, my dog likes it and its not the cheapest stuff out there I can't really go wrong? from reading other posts i'm leaning towards either black gold or native level 3. I would like to get native but its just harder to get, i can have it shipped to a local do it best 15mi. away, or the breeder where i bought my pup 30mi. away sells it. but where i'm from i can get the black gold at the local feed store. i'm gonna be going to the pheasant fest in madison next month and there will be a lot of dog food companies there so maybe i'll talk to all of them and make my decision based on what i get from them. thanks to all those that posted.

[ezzy333]

My definition of a good dog food is:

1-Readily available
2-Dog likes it and is doing ok
3-You can afford it.

There are thousands of good feeds out there and most dogs will do find on any of them. I have personally fed some where over 500 dogs through the years and am yet to run into a dog that has had a problem with any of the feeds I have used during that time. I have seen owner induced problems but those were easily corrected once we got the dogs on a reasonable schedule. This doesn't mean there aren't dogs that have problems but it is rare. I think Greg's point has some validity also but I guess it isn't one of the things I have ever worried about. But if those dates are on the bags I would check them. All feed is identified by a lot number but those rarely show you much if you don't know how to read them.

One other thing, I would put little validity into talking to the company reps. They are paid to tell you what the marketing people have told them to say. And I will tell you now each one will have the best feed going. Look at the 3 or 4 points above and make your choice from those.

JMO

Ezzy

[mountaindogs]

Many many dogs have done well on black gold. We cannot get it over here so, I have never fed it. Availability is extremely important because if you run out and have to suddently switch, it worse for your dog than just feeding a different food to begin with.

Check with your individual feed store in the freshness issue. Our tractor supply goes through certain feeds quite quickly. To the point that I have to call before I drive 50 minutes there, to be sure they have it, but I rarely worry about it being fresh. They don't hold the hi energy foods longer than a few weeks if that.

Our Co-op on the other hand is not temp controlled and the food is stored in the warehouse that can get quite hot, they have mice chewing up the bags all the time and :roll: so I resist bying the food there if I can.

[mountaindogs]

BTW, nice looking pup