[nictye1]

We have a 4 year old lab mix and recently got a new English Cocker (3 1/2 months old) puppy.
We have always struggled a bit with what food to feed (we fed our lab Chicken Soup for the Pet Lovers Soul) when we got the new pup, we decided to try something really good for both or them.
After attending a Pheasants Forever Fest, every breeder there fed
Pro Plan performance. Knowing that, we tried it. Our lab, who was always a terrible shedder, stopped shedding and the puppy was growing well. After a bit of education we heard it was junk (Corn Gluten #2 ingredient) so we switched to Taste of the Wild which evidently is of rather good quality, now the pup has loose stools and deposits said stools about 4x per day in the yard and the lab is shedding again. Interestingly, they did well on the Pro Plan but I am concerned with long term effects, etc..
What would you recommend for a long term, quality food for both the lab and my new little pheasant hunting buddy?

 

[wags]

We have a 4 year old lab mix and recently got a new English Cocker (3 1/2 months old) puppy.
We have always struggled a bit with what food to feed (we fed our lab Chicken Soup for the Pet Lovers Soul) when we got the new pup, we decided to try something really good for both or them.
After attending a Pheasants Forever Fest, every breeder there fed
Pro Plan performance. Knowing that, we tried it. Our lab, who was always a terrible shedder, stopped shedding and the puppy was growing well. After a bit of education we heard it was junk (Corn Gluten #2 ingredient) so we switched to Taste of the Wild which evidently is of rather good quality, now the pup has loose stools and deposits said stools about 4x per day in the yard and the lab is shedding again. Interestingly, they did well on the Pro Plan but I am concerned with long term effects, etc..
What would you recommend for a long term, quality food for both the lab and my new little pheasant hunting buddy?

I like natura products also http://www.naturapet.com/grainless is a great choice, merric bg, orijen, evo, there are many out there that are of high quality. watch your calcium levels, and maybe adding priobotics ( plain vanilla yogurt) is great! Feed less. When in doubt when switching to grainless, always feed less at first. You can always increase the amount later. Feeding too much of the rich food is the most common problem though.
You know your dogs and you should go with what works best for them. Have you tried wellness at all?
go to dogfoodanalysis.com and look at the differnt high end foods!
As you can see I am not a pro plan fan! It has some nasty ingredients in it the first 10 are~Beef
brewers rice
corn gluten meal
whole grain wheat
whole grain corn
animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E)
poultry by-product meal (natural source of glucosamine)
fish meal (natural source of glucosamine)
dried beet pulp
animal digest

 

[rannmiller]

You can also try Blue Buffalo, that's one I've heard had worked well for digestive issues and I know a few members on here are on it. My mom's dogs are on it and doing well, too. Sometimes the grain free foods are a little rich for them at first so you have to feed less of it and they do great. When adding yogurt though, i'd recommend sticking with plain, non-fat yogurt rather than vanilla because it has less sugar in it.

 

[wags]

I actually do use fat free vanilla or low fat plain yogurt ooopppssss sorry for that one! UGH!:redface: