We are in the process of getting a puppy. Anyone have any thoughts/opinions on Orijen, Blue Buffalo Wilderness, or Wellness Core dog foods? I am leaning toward Orijen. I have read that it's best to feed a food that's grain free. Our last dog had some health issues, so he was on a prescription food. I haven't had to deal with this in a couple years, so there's probably a lot of new info out there. TIA

ETA: I tried correcting my spelling but it doesn't seemed to have accepted the change.

No dogs, but two cats - but I just wanted to say how amazing Orijen is. Big, big fan. Healthy coats, healthy cats - and the picky guys love it. I gave it to them as a treat before starting to provide regular hard food.

Not a directly helpful testimonial, but I think Orijen makes some amazing stuff. I'm convinced the grain-free is a good thing. They wanted one of my cats on prescription food after a health thing, and the prescription food was completely full of junk and fillers -- ridiculous! Anyway, hurrah for Orijen. It's not cheap, but I'm pretty sure high quality food costs a lot less than the vet bills.

Thank you for your reply. I did the prescription thing because of the health issue. I didn't particularly like the ingredients, but I felt pressured to do it. You know how that goes. I really want to start the puppy off on the right foot so to speak. I totally agree about quality food and less health problems.

Wellness Puppy is what my Breeder recommended and we used

Www.dogfoodanalysis.com rates brands on a six star system and then explains why brands fall where they do. If anything, it is a great way to compare ingredients before entering a store.

My little chi/terrier mix does really well with Wellness small breed dog food. She can get an upset tummy quite easily with other foods but has never had a problem with any of their products. I won't feed her anything else

Yes! That's where I started my search. There's another site too. They both had the same recommendations.

jm474 & Roo2 It seems like Wellness is highly recommended.

My 2 little guys get Canidae. They have beautiful coats and never have any digestive problems. I had a sample of Blue Buffalo once that I gave them for a day and they had terrible gas. I suppose that could have just been from making a sudden change, but it definitely put me off switching to that brand!

I don't have a specific brand to recommend, but just wanted to chime in and say that I agree with you that grain free or minimal grain pet foods are best (I used to work at a pet store).

I'd add that it's important to stay away from corn fillers too (in case you don't consider that to be a grain). Pets don't digest it well and they end up producing more stool (that you have to clean up!) when they have a diet high in corn.

My past great dane - I would feed him Orijen Regional Red (and I did A LOT of research as GD usually have stomach issues). Had no issues at all except little on the pricey side.

I now have a Bernese Mountain dog (10 months old) which is also another breed with very bad GI issues. I started her off on TOTW kibble as I wanted to try something a bit cheaper. She did alright for the first month or so but then started having diarrhea. I decided to go with the Costco brand Nature's Domain Turkey and Sweet Potato (also after doing much research on the great dane forum from before) and since it was also the kibble my breeder was feeding her. She is doing alright but it took a few months for her to have no diarrhea and she still has the occasional one. I like to mix her kibble with pumpkin puree and yogurt.

She does BEST on raw food tho. I feed her this in the evening time and her bowels are always solid in the morning (it's the evening bowel movements I sometimes have issues with - ie. the kibble coming out).

I would probably feed her raw all the time except I thought when I go on vacation, it be too complicated for someone puppy sitting her to follow my raw food routine. So she would need to be on a kibble diet for when I was away. Well I thought I couldn't switch her from 0 kibble to only kibble for the time I'm away - and only for a ~2 week switch. This would probably give her major diarrhea. So I decided to stick with kibble once a day so her GI system is used to it.

Thank you so much for your replies. I think I am going to try Orijen. Hopefully we won't have any problems.

We use wellness, it's awesome!!!!

I used to feed my dogs Taste of the Wild. They did really well on it, and I went with it mainly because it was the cheapest grain-free option for me. I have three 100+ lb dogs so it's gets freaking expensive lol. I downgraded after my husband lost his job to Ol'Roy's new food, Pure Balance. It's not grain free, but it uses rice which dogs tend to not react to as much. My great dane is allergic to corn, but she's fine on Pure Balance. So I'm very happy that it's around as we don't have a lot of money right now (he has a job again, but trying to sell our house, ect), but feeding cheap stuff isn't an option for us. Most grain-free foods will be fine, but some are better than others. Your dog may not react well with certain brands, you may have to try a few to find one that works the best for you. Good luck

I switched my elderly Corgis to Taste of the Wild over the winter, and they love it. Although, they ARE Corgis, so they're walking stomachs. Their skin and coats are SO much better! My boy used to get terrible flaky clumps of skin when he blew his coat, and it did NOT happen this spring! For that alone I'll keep buying it. The kennel man even noticed.

I can't bring myself to go raw with the dogs, but I think grain free is the way to go.