Puppy food

[SingingGoldfinch]

Hi - I'm hoping to tap into the wisdom of mumsnet to help me through the minefield that is puppy food! We have a gorgeous 6 month old pup who we've been feeding safe raw diet breeder started him on. He's thriving and healthy but vet has raised concern that he's underweight and might not be getting all nutrition he needs from current diet. I'm well aware that some vets have issues with raw feeding so am bearing this in mind but obviously want the best for pup so am researching other options. Vet advised a puppy specific kibble such as Purina pro plan or Hills but reviews on nutritional value of these aren't great and they are high in grain and bulking agents which I'd rather avoid. There is so much choice out there and lots of great complete options with good nutritional reviews but it's a minefield! Does anyone have any recommendations of good, nutritious complete puppy kibble - and (at risk of opening a can of worms I know) any views on the benefits of moving an underweight puppy off raw and onto dried food?

None of it is easy SingingGoldfinch, between my own dogs and fosters I`ve few raw, homemade, kibble, canned and just about every combination of the above too.
There is no one right answer, as there is so much misinformation out there as all dog food companies want to sell their product.

Most dog food comparison websites, aside from their analysis method pitfalls, get their funding from click links (sorry am tired and can`t remember correct term) to the foods they list. They get an amount each time someone uses one of those links to buy food, so the cynic in me wonders if the reason the expensive foods are so highly rated by them is entirely altruistic.

Falsifying ingredients lists to better appeal to owners, and be scored higher by ingredients list comparison websites is becoming increasingly popular too, and several of the newer, highly thought of brands have had their fingers burnt for that.

When was the last time you heard a farmer complaining a dog had got in and eaten all the wheat seedlings?
I had my very prey-driven gundog puppy at training this afternoon, and what was she doing when left to her own devices, when not fixated by the local blackbird?
She was eating grass, and rabbit poo.

One of our other dogs went off spud-hunting the other evening: leftover spuds lying about in a field, very tasty apparently. the oldest one is very capable of taking a whole branch of blackberries into his mouth and just picking the ripe ones.

And while dogs like meat and will eat a lot of it given the chance, in many countries, at many times, they have been fed on whatever is available: leftover cooked rice, leftover maize porridge, leftover mashed potato - as well as tripes and whatever other bits of the most recent slaughtered carcass that the humans don't want. If a dog kills a bird, it will eat all of it, including whatever was in the crop (and the feet, feathers and bones).

Dogs are definitely omnivores: it's one reason they have succeeded so well around humans.