Food for Thought....Thought for Food

One thing that is of serious consideration is what to feed the new puppy. When I was growing up, we had a small number of big dog company foods to choose from, including Purina, Alpo, and General Foods. As a kid in the 1960’s and ‘70’s, I hadn’t heard about Eukenuba, (founded in 1969), Hill’s Science Diet, (1939), Nutro, (1930’s), or Iams, (1946). When I was growing up, you fed your puppy puppy food, and then switched to an adult version. What most people chose was whatever they’d fed their previous dogs. Now and again, the vet recommended something.

Nowadays, however, it is much more complicated than this. In fact, picking your dog’s chow can be the most confusing, yet important, decision you must make. And in the case of a puppy, a choice you need to make soon.

I’ve learned to talk to a variety of knowledgeable folks, from my vet to my one dog’s breeder, and to other dog owners. Norman, like all the dogs in the rescue, has been fed a popular puppy food available from one of the largest and oldest dog food companies. (Please keep in mind that the needs of the rescue, which must be able to feed the dogs and cats until they find their permanent homes, dictate that what’s affordable and available is what is fed.)

For Norman, like all puppies, the challenge is two-fold: healthy food that will enable him to grow safely and thrive, and cost of feeding. Most commercial puppy food is full of filler and the “byproducts” of the meat production industry, as well as corn, which has long been implicated in food sensitivities and allergies in both people and pets. Most people concerned about healthy intake for their pets look for something better.

I well understand this desire, since I, too, want my dogs to have healthy diets that are readily available and fit within my budget. Since I’m a clean-eater, I want my dogs to eat clean, too. Dogs are carnivores who are also opportunistic omnivores. Yet, there is a concern about protein, for puppies, that too much causes too rapid growth, creating weak bones.

What’s a puppy owner to do? Well, the best thing is to talk to others, breeders and people who own your breed, and check out the websites dedicated to providing information to dog owners, such as Dog Food Advisor. www.dogfoodadvisor.com

For Norman, I've been talking to German Shepherd Dog folks, and fortunately, have found a couple of very experienced owners, as well as two breeders, (one of GSDs,one of another large breed), and have gotten some really good ideas. If I was keeping Norman, I would be taking him off his current food and switching him to a healthier, single-source protein, corn-free food. Since he is a foster, though, he'll remain on his current food. If he ends up being adopted by someone else, it will be their decision about his food.