G.R. pup prefers pedigree to Innova

[Gold_Digger]

This is weird, I've been weaning my 3 month old golden retriever off of pedigree puppy and on to Innova Large Breed Puppy for the passed 2 weeks. Now that he's getting down to about 10%-15% pedigree he's losing his appetite. I usually train him using his food as a reward but when I give him an Innove kibble, he just spits it out. Where as he still eats the pedigree.

And he does have the "runs" since I started feeding him mostly Innova. Am I over feeding him? The recomendations on both the pedigree and innova bags are very close to one another which is about 5 cups a day. He's up to about 24 lbs body mass.

 

[Tinaweena]

Wow 5 cups a day for a 24lb pup seems like alot. Boone is about 35lbs and his bag of Canidae recommends about 3-4 cups per day.
Maybe Innova just isn't right for him. Please don't give up on premium foods tho, there are many other brands you can try that the little guy might find more tasty!

 

[Fran27]

You're feeding way too much of innova. From their website, for a 24lb puppy, you have to feed between 1 3/4 to 2 1/4 cups a day for the large puppy dry, depending on activity. You have to feed 5 cups of pedigree because it contains much more fillers, but innova has more calories so you need to feed much much less.

How much of innova/pedigree have you been giving for every meal?

The diarrhea is normal, it takes a while for his system to get used to a better food. I had the same problem with mine when I switched, but they have perfect stools now (if there is such a thing, lol).

Otherwise I agree, you can try solid gold or canidae also if your puppy really doesn't seem to like innova.

 

[Gold_Digger]

WOW, innova's website is way different than the recommendations on the bag itself! The feeding instructions for a dog Marley's size and age are about 4-4.5 cups a day on the back of the bag. I was feeding him closer to five because there was still a percentage of pedigree in the mix. I've been giving him 3 feeds a day, but not anymore . I'll be changing the routine real quick, but I'll still stick with Innova for at least one more bag. Thanks!

 

[Zoom]

Were you looking at the correct activity level? I could feed Sawyer three different amounts, but he's so active that I have him on the performance amount, which is 1 1/3 cup twice a day. He's 50 pounds, so you are definetly overfeeding!

 

[Gold_Digger]

Yeah I was overfeeding him, but not quite as much as my avatar . The back of the bag doesnt have a very accurate chart on feeding amounts, in fact it is about twice what it should be. I sent them an email telling how much the website feeding wizard and the bag differ, but I'm not expecting a response back. They probably just want to sell more food. It's hard to believe that a company would accidentally overlook something like that.

 

[Mordy]

the reason many dogs are drawn to poor quality food are the artificially designed flavorings used in them. if it weren't for those, no dog in the world would be interested in eating pellets made predominantly from grain byproducts and rendered meat refuse barely containing a shred of high quality protein.