Essential Health and Nutrition Information for Your Golden Retriever

Essential Health and Nutrition Information for Your Golden Retriever

Essential Health and Nutrition Information for Your Golden Retriever

Dog Food

We feed our "kids" only the highest quality food within our budget. Start them with puppy food, then transition them to adult and senior. We mix the dry with different wet flavors each day, preventing them from getting bored with eating. We fed using two other recipes: Regional Red and Six Fish each day. It is essential for their overall health that they receive their proteins from different sources rather than the same each day. It's the same as us if we ate fish or red meat every day and did not switch it up.

Dry dog food we use: (See pics above)

Orijen's brand of dog food, "Amazing Grains," is the best kibble we have found. It is a bit pricey, but our "kids" are worth it.

Chewy

1. Orijen - Amazing Grains - Puppy Large

2. Orijen - Amazing Grains - Regional Red

3. Orijen - Amazing Grains - Six Fish

Orijen Amazing Grains

Puppy

Orijen Amazing Grains Regional Red

Orijen Amazing Grains

Six Fish

Understanding Pet Food Ingredients

The four ingredient lists below are among the most popular and best-selling dog food brands. (We will not reveal the brands here.) Just read the ingredients. If the main ingredients are mostly "fillers" like rice, wheat, corn, and potatoes, they must add all the vitamins and minerals because the ingredients they use do not have adequate nutrition for your dog. You are feeding them rice, potatoes, wheat, barley, and a multivitamin. Not anything we want to feed our "kids." Just do your homework and provide the best you can for your four-legged "kids" that fit your budget.

How to Read a Dog Food Label

The Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) - A bit complicated and confusing but thorough.
American Kennel Club (AKC) - Less complicated.

Pre and Probiotics

Gut Health

Research shows up to 80% of a dog's immune system lives in the gut and fights against allergies and other common health issues. That is why we take our "kids" gut health seriously. Even though the dog food we feed our "kids" has probiotics listed in the ingredients, we do not believe it provides enough for their optimal health. Click here for more information on the benefits of pre & probiotics for your dog's gut health. We provide supplemental pre- and probiotics with each meal to ensure they maintain the best gut health. We use DocRoy's GI Synbiotics granules supplement and add it to each meal.

Dietary Supplements

If you cannot feed your dog high-quality food, compliment their diet with a daily supplement. The cardiology team that cares for our "kids" highly recommends a multivitamin with taurine and L-carnitine as ingredients. We recommend Houndz - Heart Health. Your dog will love the chicken-flavored chew with all the good stuff they need.

Amazon

The body requires taurine, an essential amino acid typically found in meats, for eyesight, reproduction, bile acid (for fat digestion), and a healthy heart. However, the process that some dog food companies use to make "kibble" dog food uses high heat that reduces and sometimes eliminates this critical amino acid. While a dog's system does make this essential amino acid, their body has to work much harder to produce it in the quantities required when they are not getting it in their food. Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) in dogs is associated with inadequate taurine levels. Click the link for more information about an ongoing Stern Cardiac Genetics Lab study at the University of California-Davis.

We all know that dogs love to chew and eat anything and everything. Our "kids" are no different. With all this chewing and stick eating, their poop sometimes gets to be a little "loose." We have learned that giving them pumpkin with their meal will minimize the frequency of "soupy poopy." We started by giving them canned pumpkins. We add hot water, make the pumpkin soupy, and pour it over their kibble. They love it.

Make sure it says on the label that it is 100% pumpkin. The only ingredient listed is "pumpkin." You want to avoid getting the pumpkin puree or pie mix. Those have other ingredients you don't want your puppy or dog to have.