[glp103]

Pure Balance puppy food

We have a new puppy in the house from a rescue and the breed is unknown, we are waiting for the DNA tests. The shelter thinks he may have some German Shepard mixed with a smaller breed, possibly Beagle, (he has the howl). We adopted him at 8 weeks old and 10 lbs. He is now 10 weeks and at least a couple of lbs or more heavier. He is very active and playfully aggressive. He has been eating Pure Balance puppy dry kibble food from Walmart for two weeks with no issues and likes it. He did however throw up for the first time in the middle of the night which we will monitor and tell our vet. He has some dry skin or dandruff in his coat now too. My question is can I continue with this puppy food, it is priced lower than a lot or is it poorly rated?

 

[E&C]

Hello! I am sorry to hear that you are having those issues with your Puppy! I hope everything smooths over soon but here is what i used when purchasing our dog food for our 7 month old Catahoula Leopard!

Best Dog Food Brands %%currentyear%% | DogFoodAdvisor

Here are The Dog Food Advisor's best dog food brands for %%currentyear%% in each of 39 different categories.

www.dogfoodadvisor.com

Hope this helps!

 

[storyist]

Yes, do some research at the Dog Food Advisor site. Generally, cheaper is poorer quality. When you think about it, that makes sense - the only way to charge less is to use cheaper ingredients.

 

[pandora]

I dont know the food but poor coat condiion is often caused by poor feed

 

[LeoRose]

Pure Balance is a decent food for the price. And a more expensive food isn't always "better". I've tried high-end "super-premium" foods that I paid a small fortune for, only to have my dogs look terrible on them, and my Rattie to develop acute pancreatitis on one.

Dry skin and coat can be caused by factors other than food, like intestinal parasites and/or over-bathing.

That said, you can see if changing your pup's diet makes a difference, since there is no one "best" food for all dogs. My dogs are doing well on Pro Plan, despite the fact that there are a lot of people who hate anything Purina.

 

[RonE]

When you think about it, that makes sense - the only way to charge less is to use cheaper ingredients.

Another way to charge less is to forgo an expensive national advertising campaign. That's why many of the best foods for the price are brands you've probably never heard of. I was feeding Blue Buffalo for a time, but decided that most of what I was paying for was TV advertising.

I don't think a vet is necessarily the leading authority on canine nutrition, but my own vet urged me to switch to a grain-inclusive kibble because of possible links to cardiac issues related to an exclusively grain-free diet. She also suggested I avoid so-called "all-life-stages" kibble. I eventually settled on ProPlan. My younger dog is on a ProPlan weight management kibble because he's gotten a tad chunky and my senior girl is on the ProPlan senior formula.

Sadly, a certain amount of trial-and-error is inevitable. I got a huge bag of Victor kibble after reading high praise on Dog Food Advisor, only to find out I'd ordered a performance kibble, which was much too rich for either of my dogs.

 

[storyist]

I guess even before COVID-19 I lived in a restricted world. I've never seen national advertising for dog foods except at the Kibbles and Bits level. Oh, and right now I see ads for some kind of "fresh" food on tv - which can't be that fresh if they can ship it around to people - unless it's frozen, which it doesn't look to be.

I do agree that vets are not necessarily the best source of diet info. A vet friend told me years ago there were financial incentives to him from the manufacturers for pushing certain brands of dog food. I doubt that's any different today. I've read articles claiming that the only nutritional education vets get comes from the big dog food manufacturers, but I don't know if that's true or exaggerated, and I'm not sure it would be a bad thing anyway as I know companies like Purina do a lot of nutritional research, even if some of the kind of testing they do makes me queasy.

I also agree that if I got a puppy and its coat became dry and dandruffy, my first consideration would be diet. However, I wouldn't be flipping a puppy from one food to another frequently or abruptly.

 

[LeoRose]

You must not watch much TV, then, and aren't on Facebook. There is a TON of advertising out there.

I do agree that vets are not necessarily the best source of diet info. A vet friend told me years ago there were financial incentives to him from the manufacturers for pushing certain brands of dog food. I doubt that's any different today. I've read articles claiming that the only nutritional education vets get comes from the big dog food manufacturers, but I don't know if that's true or exaggerated, and I'm not sure it would be a bad thing anyway as I know companies like Purina do a lot of nutritional research, even if some of the kind of testing they do makes me queasy.

They take university classes on nutrition. And no, they aren't paid for by pet food companies. They do, however, cover a wide variety of species, and unless a person has a particular interest in and/or wants to pursue a career as a canine nutritionist (or feline, equine, bovine, whatever) then they don't usually study more than generalities.

I can't say that vets don't get rebates, etc. from companies for selling/prescribing their foods, but I can tell you that the vet I worked for in Oklahoma said he lost more than he ever made on food, because we fed Science Diet in the kennels, and used four to five bags in-house for every one sold to clients.

As far as research, Hill's Prescription Diet k/d food has been around since the late 1930s, and they have been a leader in canine and feline nutrition for decades, along with Purina.

 

[storyist]

You must not watch much TV, then, and aren't on Facebook. There is a TON of advertising out there.

You are definitely right about Facebook. As far as I'm concerned the Masters of the Universe are going to have to take over the world without my help, which makes me inclined to forget how into it most of the rest of said world is. And probably right about tv, as all I have is network, which I watch maybe an hour a day on average, although there's as much advertising as programming. Chewy.com definitely must have a huge advertising budget because they blanket the stations I watch, but that's promoting their online sales, not a particular dog food. For that all I've seen is the one company, whose campaign can't be too effective because I can't remember the name, just that it's supposed to be fresh food. Name definitely isn't memorable.

With my own puppies, I always left them on the food the breeder fed until there was reason not to, and when I did rescue, I'd send the dog to foster or permanent home with several meals of what they'd been getting, but that doesn't seem to be the OP's case. When choosing kibble, I was most influenced by word of mouth from other dog owners, but then I belong to a dog club, go to training classes, and compete with my dogs, so dog people are my tribe so to speak, which isn't the case for a lot of people.

My only experience with Hills was with k/d for a cat. All the research in the world is worthless if your cat won't eat it, which my vet said is a pretty common attitude of cats toward k/d.

 

[LeoRose]

My only experience with Hills was with k/d for a cat. All the research in the world is worthless if your cat won't eat it, which my vet said is a pretty common attitude of cats toward k/d.

I had a couple of cats on Hill's k/d. The only reason I switched to Purina's NF after about eight was that it was a bit less expensive. Sandy was poisoned or something when he was about three, and ate either k/d or NF for the next 15 years with no problem. The other cat (can't remember if it was Marble of Cappuccino, now) ate it for about eight years.

 

[storyist]

We are really derailing this thread, but I'll be quiet about cats after this. My experience was with my Toes (polydactyl). I treated her for the last 5 years of her life for chronic renal failure. At that time there was a Yahoo support group, and among their resources was a file with a list of low phosphorus cat foods. So that's what she ate because she would. The last year of her life she got to where all she'd eat was Fancy Feast, and there were a few of their canned foods that were low phosphorus. The one I remember was the beef, which was Toes' least favorite of the things she'd eat, but at least she would eat it. The cat specialist I took her to called it "kitty cocaine," but also said you have to feed them what they'll eat. Darling cat, made it to 20.

To at least add a little about dogs - that's true for them too. Fortunately for me with Rotties it's not a big problem. Mine would eat cardboard kibble if that's what was in the dish. I only once had a puppy who seemed to have a very un-Rottweiler-like picky appetite - until I took her off the admittedly first-class kibble the breeder had had her on. Evidently that was a case of her just plain not liking it although she must have eaten it better when she was with her littermates and feeling a little competition.

 

[Quinsation]

Pure Balance is a pretty decent food. However, the best, highest rated food isn't a "good" food for your dog if the dog doesn't do well on it.
I feed Kinetic 26, which is a grain free food without any of the ingredients (legumes, peas, lentils,etc) that are a possible link to DCM , Victor multi pro and Eagle Pack canned.
When my youngest was a puppy, she refused to eat puppy food. My vet said as long as I'm feeding a quality food, she doesn't need puppy food.

I would check with your vet with the dry skin. It could be any number of things, food related,environmental allergies, parasites, etc.

 

[glp103]

Pure Balance is a pretty decent food. However, the best, highest rated food isn't a "good" food for your dog if the dog doesn't do well on it.
I feed Kinetic 26, which is a grain free food without any of the ingredients (legumes, peas, lentils,etc) that are a possible link to DCM , Victor multi pro and Eagle Pack canned.
When my youngest was a puppy, she refused to eat puppy food. My vet said as long as I'm feeding a quality food, she doesn't need puppy food.

I would check with your vet with the dry skin. It could be any number of things, food related,environmental allergies, parasites, etc.

Thank you, the dandruff didn't last long and doc gave some Omega 3 drops to add to food. He actually likes the food itself. Doc likes the way he is growing and he gained a healthy 4lbs in two weeks. He has regular healthy poops, lol. Doc says he hates to fix what's not broken. I did order Eukenuba puppy food too. I will look into the food you mentioned here. I wanted to stay away from grain free because of the possible DCM, but there are still a lot of unknowns.