Suggestions for Dog Food Especially Breeding Females - Page 1

Looking for suggestions on a dog food (kibble) for my breeding females now and while pregnant. 

 We use Diamond Large Breed Puppy Lamb & Rice for our pregnant female. I think it's a very good dog food. It's first ingredient is meat, and not some by-product. It's also reasonably priced. Our female does really well on it, as do our pups. 

Didn't Diamond have numerous recalls?

If money is not as much of a concern nothing beats Orijen. It is 80% animals, 20% plant. First five ingredients except the senior formula is animal. Thye vaccum seal their bags also. I am feeding my Malinois puppy the large breed since I got him at two months old. All I get when I walk and the dog park is how handsome he looks. He looks like he is almost ripped. You can feed almost half less than the standard junk food. It is grain free. There is a slightly cheaper food that is 60/40 by the same company that is called Acana. When my Mal gets older I am going to rotate between the Orijen RR, the 6 Fish and the Adult. I don't mind spending a little bit more and I am a college kid with not much money. The one thing I like about Champion dog food, the people who make both is that one building is where the raw ingredients come and get cooked and packaged. Everysingle step is done under one single roof in pristine Canada. Being down here in the US, I like the idea of lage amounts of wild caught fish, etc.... I really think it is the best kibble. If you start feeding don't really worry about that crazy 2 month slow change. Just feed much less to start. My pup had runs on and off for the first two weeks. If it is runny you just need less. I was freaking at first because I got down to just feeding him a half cup total per day at two months old. But then his poop was solid and I slowy brought it up. Now he turns 10 months old tommrow. Is 65lbs and eats 4.5 cups total per day. 2.5 in the AM and 2 at night. He is awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you BMI, I appreciate your useful information....

Second the Origen recommendation.  On the expensive side of the spectrum, but I rate it as the very best when it comes to kibble-based dogfood. 

I think Origen has too much protein ! but what do I know.

I've fed ABADY (Granular and frozen) for the past 28 years.
they make a special formula for gestating/lactation.  My first bitch delivered 3 of her four litters on this food -  her smallest litter was 11 pups -- her largest 16 -- I think the food helped  a lot !!
  

and I think i would freek out if i had to feed any of my dogs 4-5 cups of food per day.
My puppy is now  8 months old today --  he weighs 65 pounds - and he is not fat --
he eats the ABADY large breed puppy --  ONE CUP twice a day - that's it --
He's gained an average of 3 pounds per week between 8 weeks and 30 weeks --
now he's gainng about one - 1-1/2 pounds per week. 
Kibble scares me anyway --  set a cup of it on the counter with 1/2 cup of warm water and come back in 15 minutes and see how much it swells !!    

When it comes to high quality feed like Origen, the key is to control the portion sizes.....their recommendations are around 1/2 to a third the quantity that cheaper kibbles prescribe. 

Here is a site that provides some ratings of the various dog food products available:

http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/index.php/cat/1

Here is another (click on the links within the link below):
http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-reviews/dry/

Yeah, I will cut back when he is done growing. He doesn't have the runs at this much food so I just uped it a little. When he is full grown I think 3 cups a day will be what he will get. That food smells so good for kibble. The 6 fish is awesome for smell. Orijen is hard to beat that is for sure!