# Puppy Food or all life stages



## Riggs (Dec 9, 2021)

I have a 10 week old vizsla puppy. The breeder we got him from said to feed him Purina pro plan sport. He seems to do very well on it. but when we went to our first vet visit, the vet said we should switch to a puppy formula. Should we switch or stay on the Purina pro plan sport. Thanks


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## gunnr (Aug 14, 2009)

There will be debates on dog, and cat, foods, for as long as we own them. It can be difficult to determine which is the best way to go. I also do not think there is one "best dog food", simply because not all dogs like the same food.

Vizslas can be notoriously picky eaters. If yours is not, that is wonderful, and makes things easy for you. No matter how high the quality of food, they have to eat it consistently to give them the necessary calories to burn. A "lower rated" dog food that they will eat, is better than a "higher rated" dog food they will not eat, or just pick at.

Purina gets some bad knocks. Some they deserve. Some maybe not.They're probably the largest producer of pet foods and animal feeds in the world. I can't think of an animal out there that Purina does not have a food product line for.
I have always liked their Hi Pro line for dogs. I do not feed Purina, but I have in the past.

With regard to the particular product you referenced, your vet is probably taking issue with the lower protein count by percentage. It's 30%. The other issue the Vet may be having is that 4 of the first 5 ingredients are grains and grain byproducts. A gluten product and a corn product are numbers 2 and 3. Grains are an ingredient that can be misued by pet food manufacturers to boost total caloric content by type percentage data.

I fed Finn Orijen "Large Puppy Food" for probably the first 20-22 months,and then switched him over to Orijen "Original Whole Prey" food. In my opinion, the Orijen "Large Puppy" is a more complete for a growing puppy than the Purina appears to be. This doesn't mean that the Purina is junk, or a bad feed, just that one is in my opinion better for the stage of development. This is also reflected in the cost per bag.

All that being said, there are foods that I think are better than the Orijen Puppy line, but Finn would not eat them consistently, and some were hit or miss as far as availability. The Orijen line is readily available, and he eats it. It's not cheap, but on a cost per day, per meal, it's really not that expensive. His meals are also supplemented with cooked chicken.

Hopefully you'll get a lot of responses and recommendations to try out.


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## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

I’ve heard of a lot of Vizsla breeders doing the all life stages for puppies, and a lot of them doing the puppy food, and changing to the all life stages at 12 months. Neither had problems with the puppies, so I guess it’s just a matter of choice.
If you decide to chance your pup over, do it slowly as not cause upset stomach.


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## suveran (Oct 22, 2021)

_Here's a good resource, _

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BalanceIT.com


Provide tools, recipes, and supplements for a pet's balanced nutritional needs.




secure.balanceit.com




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