What to feed my new hunting dog

[Galt]

Oh man that would break me trying to source food for that haha. I live in a town of 200 people so just going to a market is out of the question. I'm already looking into options for getting food shipped to me rather than paying gas to drive 2 hours to the pet store.

The weekend market is only a few blocks away or go to St Jacob's during the week and walk away with bushels of carrots and tomatoes and squash..turnip for cheap so they don't have to take home. Apples.. fruit etc.. we feed our birds fresh too.
Cheaper for us because the Dalmatians have problems with most commercial food and are finicky eaters...our Lab eats bear poop, so not a worry about her.

 

[MiG25]

For dry food, we feed our dogs whatever is on sale, they like variety.

When I cut my game all the scraps that I don't want to eat get vacuum packed and frozen. Then thawed and microwaved for 5 minutes, they prefer cooked over raw.

The other year I found Pink Salmon for 93 cents per pound, bought a bunch and pressure canned it, they got that weekly for a year.

The people that I know that consistently have the longest lived dogs have mutts and feed them the cheapest food they can find.

 

[Yotarunner]

The weekend market is only a few blocks away or go to St Jacob's during the week and walk away with bushels of carrots and tomatoes and squash..turnip for cheap so they don't have to take home. Apples.. fruit etc.. we feed our birds fresh too.
Cheaper for us because the Dalmatians have problems with most commercial food and are finicky eaters...our Lab eats bear poop, so not a worry about her.

Closest to cheap alternatives I can get is dead sick steers from the work feedlot haha. Commercial food is my only rational option

 

[Antonino]

I researched this very question myself many years ago and found the B.A.R.F. diet for dogs. Biological And Raw Food diet. Written by a veterinary doctor and based on biologic nutrional needs of canine and feline species at the time it was unheard of so I bought meat and bone scraps from butchers and used all our kitchen vegetables to augment. Since then you can find raw food diets prepackaged and convenient though more expensive. I swear by it my dogs health and vitality was fantastic, his coat shiny teeth never needed cleaning and stool is hard solid crumbly and not smelly. You won't be disappointed if you give this a try all my friends and family I have turned on to this idea have loved it and we feed our cats in the same manner.

 

[blasted_saber]

We feed our dogs raw food. Comes frozen in 2 and 4 lb resealable containers. Doesnt get much better or more natural then that.

They are in incredible shape. No excess fat. Excellent teeth. Their poop is small and if we miss some in the backyard it disintegrates much faster as theres zero filler in it.

All that said, it is expensive. Do the health benefits and potential savings at the vets even that out? Possibly. Our dogs are both very healthy. The only vet visits have been porcupine related.

 

[Rowlf]

I currently feed our two 90lb golden doodles 'Go! Limited Ingredients Grain Free' (by Petcurian). There are a few flavours we rotate through to keep it interesting.
It's not cheap, ~$65-70 for 22lb bag at ag/farm stores. Pet stores rarely sell the big bags and are generally the most $$. So far it's one of the few feeds that doesn't cause allergies and skin rashes in our older pup. In the end I find it's cheaper than going to the vet and keeps my boys healthy. There is no oversight and a lot of greed in the industry, so do your research and choose carefully. There's a lot of really bad food out there with fillers and worse. On a related note, make sure you feed a growing puppy the appropriate food and don't switch to an adult blend too early when they're still growing. If you only have one pup you can often train them to use a feeder and graze.

 

[Redsoilreaper]

We feed First mate or Arcanna as they are Canadian /North American sourced with no weird Chinese additives or poisons. Many people fee RAW which is very good but takes a good deal of time and doesn't travel well unrefrigerated which is problematic for hunting dogs on multi day hunts. There is a website
ht tps://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/ that rates dog food and puts out advisories that might help you make up your mind. I start pups off on a high protein puppy food and its worked for me Have fun with the new pup. My new guy likes to eat his First mate puppy food.

Good looking Brittany pup!

 

[billard81]

I currently feed our two 90lb golden doodles 'Go! Limited Ingredients Grain Free' (by Petcurian). There are a few flavours we rotate through to keep it interesting.
It's not cheap, ~$65-70 for 22lb bag at ag/farm stores. Pet stores rarely sell the big bags and are generally the most $$. So far it's one of the few feeds that doesn't cause allergies and skin rashes in our older pup. In the end I find it's cheaper than going to the vet and keeps my boys healthy. There is no oversight and a lot of greed in the industry, so do your research and choose carefully. There's a lot of really bad food out there with fillers and worse. On a related note, make sure you feed a growing puppy the appropriate food and don't switch to an adult blend too early when they're still growing. If you only have one pup you can often train them to use a feeder and graze.

We have a 2.5 year old black lab and have had the best luck with petcurean GO limited ingredient grain free as well. No accidents or sloppy messes to clean up since making the switch.

 

[Machinegun Al]

puppies need lots of good food the first 2 years for sure we have good results with pro plan large breed puppy not cheap but the dogs seem to do VERY well on it and lads leave large stools even on good food thats enough reason for me lol

 

[medvedqc]

I am an animal nutritionist and have formulated my share of dog foods. Including high performance working dog diets. The basic science is pretty well known and is not mysterious. But the commonly seen marketing hype in dog foods is way over the top. People will tell you all kinds of things that are not true in order to reinforce their beliefs or to sell you expensive food that's no better for your dog. As an example, people who say a dog can't properly utilize some "byproducts" or rendered ingredients are full of ... crap. But, Soy is not a good source of protein for dogs. Some grain is OK, even essential to a balanced dry diet. I'd avoid buying foods that have wheat though. Dogs fed wheat can have some allergic sensitivities develop. Rice and corn and oats are decent ingredients, but not if they're too much of the total. Fat content is quite important, especially for puppies and working dogs. 18-22% or so total fat is good for those categories. And proper antioxidant protection is extremely important in any dry dog food containing fat. If the fat is not protected with a good antioxidant, such as ethoxyquin, rancidity quickly robs the food of fat soluble vitamins ( A,D,E) and the free radicals produced by rancid fats have many other bad effects. So be wary of foods that say " no artificial additives" They may be using expensive vitamin E as an antioxidant, which works, but is inefficient and you're paying for a vitamin to do the job of a preservative. Silly and expensive and no better for the dog. I'm all for supporting local, and Canadian, and wholesome ingredients. But be wary of the hype. Buying reasonably fresh stock is important. Some small town stores have dog food that is months and months old. Not good for vitamin and fat stability.
The big name proven brands are OK. You don't need to buy an expensive, specialty or fashionable dog food. Purina Pro Plan is a good place to start, or Eukanuba, Iam's etc. are all good. Even Costco Nature's domain is OK for adult dogs. You should feed hunting dog puppies large breed puppy formula while they are under one year of age, and a high fat "active" formulation for adults in the late summer and fall working season.

thank you very much for the post.

any recommendations for high fat active formulation. our girffon 13 months is fed with purina one lamb and rice puppy then recently adult one under the recommendation of vet and our local breeder. any differences between pro plan and purina one?

thanks again

 

[MK2750]

thank you very much for the post.

any recommendations for high fat active formulation. our girffon 13 months is fed with purina one lamb and rice puppy then recently adult one under the recommendation of vet and our local breeder. any differences between pro plan and purina one?

thanks again

Purina One and Beneful are as good as most any pet food but lack the protein and fat content of Pro Plan. I fed Pro Plan and mix in One and Beneful when I know they are not working really hard. When training in spring and summer I fed PP Sport Performance, PP Savior and One/Beneful in equal portions. When activity builds in preseason I drop the One/Beneful and fed 50/50 PP Sport and Savior. In bird season they are fed mostly PP Sport Performance.

There is a huge difference between Pro Plan and One. It is like a completely different animal IMO. Pro Plan Sport Performance is like rocket fuel compared to diesel. I would fed it all the time but I don't have the time or energy to keep up.

 

[Longwalker]

Phil, I don't know the particular details of those two formulations. But I know quite a few breeders who feed Pro Plan and are satisfied with the results for their dogs. I suspect "One" is good food, but appears to be a higher priced version appealing for people who don't mind spending the extra money to avoid "byproducts" and "preservatives" - pretty much what I was referring to in my post above.
Just be aware that a high fat/high protein active formation is good, and necessary for hard working dogs. But " hard work" is very variable depending on the situation and the perspective of the dogs master. I put my versatile breed hunting dogs ( Pudelpointers, Drahthaar ) on an active/performance formulation in mid summer when I start to seriously train again. continue through fall and wean them off it and onto a maintenance diet by mid December or so. That sort of seasonal diet change would likely fit for your Griffon too. A dog will be happier with more gut fill and larger portions of a "maintenance" or standard diet during the less active winter and spring months. More hunting dogs suffer from obesity than the few that work themselves to skin and bones.
On another note, you can supplement dry dog food with household scraps and leftovers, but depending on what those scraps are it is often not a very good idea. Dogs do better on a diet that simulates a carnivores diet, and don't handle a lot of wheat, soy, salt, or even vegetables very well. Don't feed a dog raw eggs or onions.
I just cleaned out my freezer this afternoon and am in the process of preserving a dozen big jars of dog food made from some freezer burnt big game hearts and livers and some too-old sausage and some other meaty odds and ends. Mixed with 1/3 or so pressure cooked rice, and a quarter cup of bear grease in each jar, it will be a good supplement to standard dry dog food and will be a reasonable way to use stuff that would otherwise be thrown out. I'll take out a jar every two - three days and feed some on top of the regular dry dog food. 1/3-2/3 portions. That has worked well in the past, the dogs like the variety and I like that it's thrifty and less wasteful than throwing out freezer "culls"
If you feed dogs exclusively on home brewed diets they should have some multi-vitamin and trace mineral supplements. Just buy the cheapest human multi vitamin in your local drugstore and give a pill to your dog each day with their food. That will take care of any shortfalls of those micro nutrients.