So, I am working with a dog trainer for my dog and they provided a handout on dog nutrition. They reccomended some brands of kibble, but ultimately said that feeding raw is the healthiest for your dog.

After doing some research I have found premade raw food to be expensive and I am a little hesitant to put raw meat in my dogs food bowl myself.

I have done quite a bit of research and there are so many conflicting opinions on the best dog food, kibble vs raw, etc.

My dog is a healthy 11 month goldendoodle, but I thought it might be nice to get some advice and experiences from real people. What brands of food do you feed your dog? Do you feed raw? Do you use supplements? I am just looking for some advice on how to maybe better help my pup stay healthy and happy with his food.

I would talk to your vet, not your trainer. Raw can be done but it is very difficult to do properly and not often worth the hassle. Dog food brands put a LOT of research into their product, there really isn't anything wrong with feeding only kibble as long as it contains the nutrients your dog needs.

Thanks for the advice. I don't think my vet would say anything except possibly switching over to the brand they have a contract with and would therefore got part of a profit from.

I've gone through a TON of foods with my dogs. If you don't have copious amounts of time and a tolerance for understanding how to formulate homemade raw, it's absolutely not worth it. It's a ton of information to digest, understand, and apply to make sure your dog's diet isn't lacking in anything.

It took a ton of research and a ton of time. My dogs (Australian Shepherds) thrived on it, but I simply couldn't dedicate a big chunk of my weekend for making their meals and have enough freezer space to keep everything.

I ended up transitioning them back to a salmon based kibble (can't tolerate chicken) that they thrived on. They aren't as enthusiastic about their meals, of course, but it's keeping them as healthy as a raw diet.

Starting with a kibble your vet recommends is a great place to start. Most dogs will thrive on a typical, high quality kibble. If your dog has issues, then work with your vet to find the best formula/protein base for them.

You can mention your concern that the vet is biased to the vet, but as a whole your vet wants your dog to live a long and healthy life. They're not going to contract with a crap food.

Hey there! I have had a lot of dogs and several dog breeds and mixes. My current pup is a French Bulldog and she is incredibly picky. We have gone through somewhere between 6 and 8 dog food brands to try and get it to work where she would it and she just wouldn't until we found the brand Nutro. My past two dogs were on Royal Canine (breed specific) and my dogs before that were normally on Purina. Although raw is good, it can be very expensive. What we have been doing is mixing raw and kibble for my dog. Since my dog is allergic to a lot of foods including all poultry, salmon, and pumpkin, we are very particular as to what we give her. Her food is 90% beef with some veggies in it like carrot and potato and egg. We mix raw foods with kibble which is totally okay. My biggest advice with dog food is to find one's that are mostly meats or meat products and I go by the 5 ingredient rule so the first 5 ingredients have to be some kind of meat. Brands to steer clear of are Blue Buffalo and Taste of the Wild. Taste of the Wild has been found to cause heart disease in dogs and Blue Buffalo has had a few recent recalls. Brands I recommend are Nutro and Honest Kitchen with both of them offering raw food "toppers" which are fantastic. Actually Honest Kitchen is something people can eat because it's made in an actual kitchen and doesn't taste bad (we tried it ourselves because if you don't want to eat it, why should your dog). The only reason we switched my dog off of Honest Kitchen is because we live on an island and it was hard to find here. It's okay to feed your dog kibble food. It won't hurt them, you just have to find a good brand that works for your dog. And you can mix it with a little bit of raw food and that's totally fine too. You don't have to go completely on a raw diet for your pup to be healthy and well. I hope this helps :)

dog nurtrition is a fucking trainwreck shit show dumpster fire man

everybody gonna tell you something different

its exhausting honestly.

my vet gave me a handout thingy for all the different brands she recommends. shes a bit nutsy kookoo when it comes to kibble and is convinced its satan's spawn but she has good recommendations for raw and other shit

I liked Nulo kibble and lucky's on First Mate right now. he also gets homecooked meals with the kibble.

organ meats are great by the way
heres a pic of brands she recommends

This is not a thing. There is no such thing as a vet contracting with any food company. Veterinarians are not in bed with "big kibble." The only way any veterinarian makes any money off of you purchasing dog food is if you are purchasing a prescription diet that you can only purchase with a script and if you purchase it from your vet... Please listen to your vet and only feed a WSAVA compliant kibble.

Keep in mind that it makes no sense to think there is a way that you would go to a pet store and purchase dog food from that store, and your vet would somehow get money from that. Again, the only way any veterinarian anywhere gets any profit from selling dog food is if you purchase prescription dog food from said veterinary office (and even then, in my extensive experience, they are making only a few dollars of profit from any bag they sell).

Do not take nutrition advice from dog trainers, the internet, or anyone here that isn't a DVM. If you really don't trust your DVM, you should get a different one. If you do want to try raw (although I don't recommend it for various reasons), I implore you to reach out to a board certified veterinary nutritionist to help you create a balanced recipe to avoid any nutritional deficiencies, and understand that raw feeding is expensive and difficult to do when done properly.

Sincerely, a 2nd year DVM student who really wants the idea of veterinarians not understanding nutrition to stop.

I feed mine Hill's Science it's a vet recommended brand. I also use lots of food toppers such as broth (for dogs), pumkin puree (organic), greek yogurt, boiled eggs, plain cooked chicken, and wet dog food toppers made with few ingredients. There's a very wide range of healthy food toppers. I usually use them every other day and try to change it up as much as possible. (:

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