Nutrition

Today there are more options than ever when it comes to choosing food for your dog. Where to begin? We started by doing quite a bit of research online. Our favorite sites we used were Dog Food AdvisorConsumer Search. Brad also asked a veterinarian who works in house at PetSmart corporate offices for tips and advice. It took a while and a few trial & errors – but we finally found a food the pups love.

We first started the dogs on Authority from PetSmart (Roxy the Large Breed Puppy Formula, and Quincey the Adult Large Breed Chicken Formula).  These were highly suggested by the veterinarian at PetSmart corporate, and he recommended chicken over lamb, and lamb over duck. Duck food and treats are processed only once a year, so it is not nearly as fresh and healthy. It priced very well – a 34 lb bag on sale is around $25. Roxy gobbled her food up no problem, but Quincey didn’t seem very enthusiastic about Authority. It did kind of have a play-dough smell to it, so after a few months we decided to switch and try out a new brand. Note: the vet also highly suggested Blue Buffalo – but that was out of our price range (over $45 for a large bag).

I noticed a brand called Nature’s Domain and Costco. I took note of it and did some research on the sites listed above, and also viewed their website. It received wonderful reviews, and it was priced very well for a higher-end natural dog food. We first started with the Salmon Meal/blue bag (it was the only one available at that time). Immediately Quincey took better to this food, and Roxy loved it as well. Our only complaint was once again the smell. It smelled very fresh, but unfortunately it was very fishy – and made the dogs smell fishy as well. Since it was a new item, we were also worried that it might be discontinued .

We decided to try Kirkland Brand food at Costco because it also got very good reviews and the price was great (Adult Chicken Formula – around $24). The dogs both liked it, but it didn’t smell or look as moist/fresh as the Nature’s Domain. We fed them this food for about 6 months.

On another trip to Costco, I saw the Nature’s Domain food again. This time there were two options, the salmon meal (blue bag) and a turkey meal (red bag). I googled it on my phone, and saw that the Nature’s Domain website had been re-vamped, and they had an exclusivity with Costco. I felt confident that this food was there to stay for a long time, and was excited to try the turkey meal & sweet potato formula. The dogs loved it, and we loved that this time they didn’t smell like fish. We have been feeding them this now for about 3 months, and don’t plan on changing it as long as Costco sells it.

We’d love to hear your stories or food recommendations!

2 replies on “Nutrition”

Thank you for writing this! I am adopting my first dog, a Golden Retriever, next week and I am looking for as much information I can get. Great blog!

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