# Toy Poodle Puppy Food



## LynnB739 (Jun 28, 2021)

I am bringing my toy poodle home next Saturday. The breeder currently has her on Eukanuba small breed. We had a discussion regarding food. She is very anti grain-free. My Razz is 16 and was on grain-free all of his life, but I want to do what's best for my little girl. I know that some foods are supplemented to taurine, which theoretically would offset the taurine deficiency caused by grain-free food. She had said that any of the grain-free foods that have legumes in will cause any added taurine to not be absorbed. 

So, my quandary is: What is a good-quality small kibble for a toy poodle puppy? I looked on Chewy and I really didn't see anything better than Eukenubia that is a small-breed kibble and is not grain free. Any recommendations? Any info/knowledge related to legumes and taurine deficiency? Thank you!


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## Dechi (Aug 22, 2015)

Eukanuba is a very average food. Look on dogadvisor.com for some suggestions. Also note that there is not one dog food that is better than the rest. You need to go with the food that your dog does best on. Also, some people choose to vary their dog food all through their life. They will change every bag, or every 2-3 bags and pick new 5 star foods. I think that’s a very good approach if your dog doesn’t have a sensitive stomach or allergies.

Make sure to transition very slowly, whatever you choose. If not, your puppy will get diarrhea.

For toy puppies, you will want to choose a small kibble.


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## LynnB739 (Jun 28, 2021)

Dechi said:


> Eukanuba is a very average food.


Yeah, I didn't want to keep her on Eukanuba, but the "no grain free" seems hard to find in a small breed kibble. I didn't see anything on Chewy, but will check out dogfoodadvisor .


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## PeggyTheParti (Sep 5, 2019)

Peggy’s a spoo, but she’s done well on Farmina Ancestral Grains, which is legume-free. There are a couple of small breed puppy options: 









FARMINA N&D Ancestral Grain Lamb & Blueberry Recipe Puppy Mini Dry Dog Food, 5.5-lb bag - Chewy.com


Buy Farmina N&D Ancestral Grain Lamb & Blueberry Recipe Puppy Mini Dry Dog Food, 5.5-lb bag at Chewy.com. FREE shipping and the BEST customer service!




www.chewy.com













FARMINA N&D Ancestral Grain Chicken & Pomegranate Mini Puppy Dry Dog Food, 5.5-lb bag - Chewy.com


Buy Farmina N&D Ancestral Grain Chicken & Pomegranate Mini Puppy Dry Dog Food, 5.5-lb bag at Chewy.com. FREE shipping and the BEST customer service!




www.chewy.com


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## Rose n Poos (Sep 22, 2017)

Brand is sort of secondary to total and proper nutritional balance. I'm going to copy some bits from some recent threads on choosing food for your pup or dog.

Excerpt from:
What’s the Difference Between Adult Dog Food and Puppy Food?

_Reputable manufacturers produce foods that follow the guidelines put forth by the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO). The following table compares the AAFCO minimum requirements for a variety of vital nutrients:_



_Puppies need to eat more in the way of protein (including higher concentrations of specific amino acids), fat, and certain minerals than do adult dogs. Additionally, many manufacturers provide higher amounts of nutrients that are not regulated by AAFCO in their puppy foods. Good examples are the omega-3 fatty acids that have been shown to promote healthy brain and eye development in young animals.

The caloric density of foods designed for adults and puppies can also be very different. Growth and development take a lot of energy, so puppies need to take in more calories than do adult dogs of a similar size._

source: PetMD

additional info:

Excerpt:
_The biggest primary difference between puppy food (growth and reproduction recipes) and adult (maintenance) food relates to protein. Puppy food should derive 22.5% of their calories from protein sources, while adult foods need only 18% of their calories from protein.

Adults can certainly tolerate the higher protein levels of puppy food, but it may lead to weight gain, due to the higher amount of protein calories.

However, puppies will often suffer from developmental problems if fed an adult food and deprived of the proteins they require.

Remember: “protein” really refers to a soup of different amino acids. Because not all amino acids are created equally, the AAFCO recommends differing amino acid compositions for adult and puppy dog foods.

Some of the starkest contrasts of amino acid compositions include:_


_Argine_
_Histidine_
_Isoleucine_
_Leucine_
_Phenylalanine_
_Ohenylalaline-tyrosine_
_Thereorine_
_The AAFCO requires nearly 2x the amount of each of these amino acids in puppy foods than it does in adult dog foods. That is because these amino acids are intrinsic to the growth process.

The AAFCO also requires puppy foods to contain a bit more fat than adult foods do. Per the guidelines, adult food need only derive 5.5% of their calories from fat, while puppy food must derive 8.5% of their calories from fat. This is primarily to ensure that puppy foods are “energy dense.”

Fats contain more calories per pound than either proteins or carbohydrates do, which ensures that puppy food is packed with energy for stoking their internal fires. Adult maintenance formulations, by contrast, are designed to be leaner, so they contain less fat, and therefore fewer calories in every bite.

The mineral content of puppy foods also differs from those of adult dog foods. For example, per AAFCO guidelines, puppy foods must be 1% calcium, while adult foods need only be 0.6% calcium. Similarly, puppy foods must be 0.8% phosphorus, while most adult dog foods are only 0.5% phosphorus.

What about Foods for “All Life Stages?” Are They Safe for Puppies?
In addition to foods that are labelled as being appropriate for “growth and reproduction” or “adult maintenance,” you may also see foods bearing a label that indicates they are appropriate for “all life stages.”

These foods are appropriate for most healthy dogs (they may not be good for some senior canines), so you can go ahead and feed them to your puppy.

These foods are designed to meet the requirements for “growth and reproduction” and “adult maintenance.” But because the nutritional requirements for puppy foods exceed those of typical adult foods, it means these are essentially puppy food._

source:
Can Puppies Eat Adult Dog Food? Puppy vs Dog Nutrition & What You Need to Know! (k9ofmine.com) 

Oft repeated here but you will get about as many brand name suggestions as members responding. There are a lot of foods to choose from!  It's finding foods that are nutritionally balanced (not hard) and that your dog likes (trickier for some) that will make you all happy.

Riffing on several others above...

Balanced diet isn't just having a range of ingredients, it's also a proper combination of nutrients and how those ingredients mix with each other to provide proper nutrition.

Here's some resources to help you determine whether a food will be nutritious and healthy for your poodle. A food doesn't need to be expensive to be very good so don't let that be too big a criteria. After you find a couple to try, your poodle will likely have the final say .

About ingredient lists:

*Why you shouldn’t judge a pet food by its ingredient list*
Although ingredient lists are commonly used by pet owners and most pet food rating sites to determine the quality of pet foods, this approach has many pitfalls and usually is not a good way to select a food.
vetnutrition.tufts.edu

*Some tips on deciphering dog food labels from:*
Best Dog Food: How to Know What's Right for Your Dog (akc.org)
How to Read a Dog Food Label – American Kennel Club
Your best tool for deciding what to feed your dog is right on the can or bag. But first, you need to know how to read a dog food label.
www.akc.org www.akc.org

Pet Food Labels - General | FDA
Animal Food & Feeds | FDA
Pet Food Labels
The pet food label contains a wealth of information, if one knows how to read it.
www.fda.gov www.fda.gov


*It's Not Just Grain Free

It’s Not Just Grain-Free: An Update on Diet-Associated Dilated Cardiomyopathy*
Dr. Freeman provides an update on diet-associated dilated cardiomyopathy in dogs
vetnutrition.tufts.edu

*Questions You Should Be Asking

Questions You Should Be Asking About Your Pet’s Food*
How can you tell about the quality and nutritional expertise of a pet food company? Here are some questions savvy owners should ask companies to select the best possible food for their pets.
vetnutrition.tufts.edu

*Selecting The Best Food - World Small Animal Veterinary Association*
https://wsava.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Selecting-the-Best-Food-for-your-Pet.pdf

*AAFCO - Association of American Feed Control Officials
The Role of AAFCO in Pet Food Regulation*

talkspetfood.aafco.org

I wouldn't rule a company out automatically because they have a large advertising budget. That kind of company can probably afford to have veterinary nutritionists on staff to formulate the various foods for various sizes, special needs, and stages.

If you prefer to stick with smaller manufacturers rather than big name companies, remember to look for the AAFCO label on the food, and something I knew to research on appliances but didn't think of doing for dog food til another recent thread. Search for "Who makes *___* dog food?". You might get some surprises, Some familiar names seem to have been traded around like major league athletes for some years now.

Look for the AAFCO label or stamp on any food. FDA and local and state agencies all play a role in regulating pet food and participate in the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO)External Link Disclaimer. While AAFCO itself has no regulatory authority, this voluntary association of local, state, and federal feed control officials works to:


Safeguard the health of animals and people;
Ensure consumer protection; and
Provide a level playing field of orderly commerce for the animal feed industry.


*Food for thought*

“My primary recommendation would be to look at nutrients rather than ingredients in foods,” says Wortinger*. “The body does not care if the meat is chicken, beef, or reindeer; what it cares about is the amino acids included in the food. The body does not care whether the fat is animal or plant-based, but whether all the essential fatty acids are present. Look at nutrients, not marketing,” she says.

“As with any grain, when higher levels are included in the diet, protein digestibility can go down. That is why there are no ‘all grain’ diets for dogs or cats,” she says. “As a grain, it has a biologic value [a measure of the amount of essential amino acids in a food] of 74; muscle meats, such as beef and chicken, have a BV of about 75. Egg is the gold standard for BV at 100, with whey and casein [milk proteins] just below that.

“When corn is combined with other plant products, they together can easily reach a BV of 100. All plants, due to their cellulose layers, have decreased digestibility when compared to meats. But when ground and cooked, so that the cellulose layer is broken, digestibility is comparable,” Wortinger noted.

*Ann Wortinger BIS, LVT, VTS (ECC, SAIM, Nutrition). She is a veterinary nutritionist who has worked in the field for more than 20 years and is currently the hospital administrator for Animal Cancer and Imaging Center in Canton, Mich.

Jennifer Larsen, DVM, PhD, DACVN, is an associate professor of clinical nutrition at the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital (VMTH) at the University of California, Davis. She also does clinical nutritional consulting through the VMTH Nutrition Support Service. She says, “Grains, and any other single category or individual ingredients, are neither good nor bad.

“Rather, what is important is how the ingredients work together to create the full nutritional profile of the diet. Likewise, carbohydrates, as an energy source, are utilized by the body the same way regardless of source, such as grain, legume, or tubers, and different sources of carbohydrates also bring other nutrients, such as fiber, fatty acids, and amino acids. Again, no ingredient has a simple effect since each provides multiple nutrients, and it’s not consumed in a vacuum.”

“It’s important to think of food in terms of energy; animals need energy to live,” says Robert Backus, DVM, PhD, DACVN; he is associate professor and director of the Nestle-Purina Endowed Small Animal Nutrition Program at the University of Missouri. “That energy comes from protein, fats, and carbohydrates. The question is creating the most efficient mix. You could do that with all protein, but the animal would then burn protein for energy, which is inefficient.”

Rebecca Remillard, PhD, DVM, DACVN
*Myth #3:* One can evaluate the ‘quality’ of a pet food by reading the ingredient list.

Remillard says, “Despite aggressive marketing campaigns by various manufacturers and self-appointed websites, the ingredient list according to AAFCO [the Association of American Feed Control Officials] should not impart any information regarding the quality, nutritional balance, or digestibility of the pet food product.

“The ingredient list was simply not designed, or is not regulated, as a measure of pet food quality. So the source of meat or carbohydrates in a pet food is not important to the nutritional profile in a complete and balanced product,” she notes.

*Myth #4:* Corn/grains are non-nutritive ‘fillers.’


Whole grains contribute more fiber and vitamins while ground grains are more digestible and provide more protein. Which is chosen will depend on what other ingredients are contained in the food.

“I've heard concerns about them [grains] being ‘filler,’ which is nonsense,” Larsen says. “They are added because they contribute energy and other essential nutrients, as well as very useful dietary components, such as fiber, which is an underappreciated nutrient.”

Cline similarly relates that corn and other grains can be part of a nutritious pet diet: “Depending on how grains are processed, they can be highly digestible. Some grains contribute dietary fiber to pet foods, which can play an important role in intestinal health.

“Although fiber is not a required nutrient, I find that it can be very beneficial in optimizing the stool quality and the overall health of my patients. Grain-free diets can provide optimal nutrition for cat and dogs, however diets containing grain can do the same.”

Source Busting Myths, Corn and Grain - Best Friends Veterinary Center


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