Puppy Food suggestions?

I'm not a raw feeder as there's not much available science showing it to be superior. There is plenty of anecdotal reporting of dogs doing better on it though. Still, if I applied the same logic to humans, primitive humans ate raw food too but I don't see a big health movement for that coming back. Dogs have been domesticated for a huge slice of time and I'm sure they have to have developed away from the original wild ancestral versions into today's dogs.

I have nothing bad to say about the raw diet but I like easy and I admit I stick with Costco's Kirkland brand kibble, starting off with a puppy formula and migrating to an adult kibble when she was older. It is so easy to deal with.
 
shelee said:
Thank you alot, I am not sure if raw if for me, but will decide after hearing what the breeder says. Thanks for a suggestion of a food if I don't go that route. Can you tell me why Shelties should not have a high protein diet?
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Most veterinary nutritionists will tell you that a high protein diet can be hard on the kidneys, and for some reason Shelties tend to be prone to reacting that way. You also have to consider how suspeptible Shelties are to gallbladder mucoceles (see the threads here about that and articles from the American Shetland Sheepdog Association...all Shelties should have gallbladder ultrasounds to check them after age 5) and you don't want to overtax the kidneys processing protein they don't need.

That said, performance dogs who do agility, flyball or other active sports that might benefit from additional protein should be evaulated according to their individual needs. For most of us, a protein around or under 30 percent is the best level for our dogs.
 
I thought it wasn’t necessarily low protein just not high? Aiming for 24-28 even up to 30 range? I will have to find the thread from a ling time ago. Dr shelley explained.

my breeder fed purina pro plan, I didn’t live it five years ago and switched to merrick for my skinny hungry boy and did a combo to lower protein a bit. With this puppy I like the proplan and am switching my other dog over to it gradually. Right now I am a combo It was what my vet recommended when there were those heart concerns with some foods.
 
GlennR said:
Dogs have been domesticated for a huge slice of time and I'm sure they have to have developed away from the original wild ancestral versions into today's dogs.
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Dogs and wolves DNA is virtually identical. Over 99% the same. So big or small, dogs and their ancestors haven't changed much The biggest changes noted in the genome, interestingly enough, is the "friendliness" gene....
 
Margi said:
Dogs and wolves DNA is virtually identical. Over 99% the same. So big or small, dogs and their ancestors haven't changed much The biggest changes noted in the genome, interestingly enough, is the "friendliness" gene....
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And chimps and humans correlate to 98.8% the same genes and I'm pretty sure they are significantly different to us. :)
 
Margi said:
Dogs and wolves DNA is virtually identical. Over 99% the same. So big or small, dogs and their ancestors haven't changed much The biggest changes noted in the genome, interestingly enough, is the "friendliness" gene....
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Even so, dogs and wolves are very different
 
GlennR said:
And chimps and humans correlate to 98.8% the same genes and I'm pretty sure they are significantly different to us. :)
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I’d say that chimps and humans diverged millennia ago so comparing a dogs ancestry to a humans is like comparing apples to oranges.
 
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