# Best food for standard poodle?



## salexander04

Hello,

I am getting my standard puppy soon and had some questions about his food. 
We are planning on feeding dry in the morning and wet food at night, with some raw food on occasion. We were hoping to cover all bases of nutrition this way.

Firstly, is this a good diet plan or does anyone see any issues that might come up?

Secondly, there are SO many brands out there that claim they are very healthy, and I'm sure some of them are, but which brands are the best for the standard poodle diet specifically? 

For dry food and for wet food?

Thanks poodle people!


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## Petitpie'sDH

I don't think there is a definitive answer to your question about the "best" food. There are many different opinions, all of which have good reasons to support them. I have agonized over this question for a long time, and have done a lot of research, but I don't know that anyone can really answer this question other than by giving you an opinion. Furthermore, different poodles could fare better on one type of food than another and it might not be the same for each poodle. It also has to be a food that they like to eat, and some poodles are picky eaters, not to mention the issue of allergies and food sensitivities. I suggest that you search this forum for information on the various types of diets and try to make up your own mind what is best for your poodle. I wish I could give you an easy answer to your question, but I just don't have it, and I don't know that anyone does.


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## faerie

I feed my guys raw.

I think it's best. 

I used to feed wellness, but if I fed kibble I'd feed fromm


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## outwest

I feed kibble in the morning and kibble mixed with meat at night. I don't think canned meat alone is a good idea because their teeth get yucky. There are lots of good dog foods. You should choose one that is easy to get, within your budget and a 4 or 5 star dog food:
Dog Food Reviews and Ratings | Dog Food Advisor

The 5 star are a little pricey. I feed Blue Buffalo Wilderness kibble (grain free), plus high quality canned of different flavors and brands. If the canned is mostly used for flavoring, there is no reason you couldn't go to a 3 star for that. I also give left over human food. I also cook chickens and shred them in their food. I started doing that to put more weight on my puppy. He eats everything i give him now and he is no longer too slim.  I have to be careful with my other two not to make them fat. LOL 
They also get a little raw for treats, not much. I do sometimes buy premade raw patties to use in place of the canned. 

Jazz gets only raw with his handler when he is there (hasn't been there a lot) and he seems to do fine on that, too. 

If you are on a budget and belong to CostCo they have great dog foods at a fraction of what you would pay elsewhere. They are 4 and 5 stars, but i wouldn't suggest their puppy food. I don't think it is as good as their adult foods, but they do have an all stages grain free now that is really reasonable.


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## peppersb

My opinion is that there is way too much unnecessary animal and human suffering involved in the way meat is produced in the US. So there is no factory-farmed meat in my house. It is pretty easy to put together a human diet with no factory-farmed meat, but not so easy for the dogs. The solution I've come up with is vegan kibble which is available to them all day and about 1/4 pound of meat or eggs purchased directly from small family farms added to the kibble at night. The meat comes frozen so I just pull what I need out of the freezer and sometimes feed it raw, sometimes cooked. Real meat raised without antibiotics or added hormones is much better for the dogs than any canned dog food. Beef heart is great because it is muscle meat but cheaper than ground beef. I also use livers and kidneys from both beef and chicken. And when I can get them, my dogs love chicken or turkey gizzards. One farmer that I buy from sell ground up chicken backs as dog food for $2/pound. He grinds up the backs with the bones. Also, I always boil any chicken bones (including chicken bones leftover from human meals) to make stock that goes on top of the dog's food.

To find a farmer near you: Eat Wild or Eat Well Guide :: Local, Sustainable, Organic Food

Vegan kibble delivered to your door: V-dogfood — Welcome


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## Lou

I also feed Blue Wilderness grain free Duck. Kibble + Canned mixed together. It's a 5-star food if I am not mistaken and Lou has adapted really well to it, sometimes I use canned Evo 95% meat as well. The canned helps it smell and taste more yummy for her since she is a very picky eater. I also buy frozen cooked chicken breats that I microwave for 1 minute and give it to her at room temperature as a reward treat and also some other treats such as duck jerky, bully sticks, the cruncky greasy pig ears etc...


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## Lou

outwest said:


> I feed kibble in the morning and kibble mixed with meat at night. I don't think canned meat alone is a good idea because their teeth get yucky. There are lots of good dog foods. You should choose one that is easy to get, within your budget and a 4 or 5 star dog food:
> Dog Food Reviews and Ratings | Dog Food Advisor
> 
> The 5 star are a little pricey. I feed Blue Buffalo Wilderness kibble (grain free), plus high quality canned of different flavors and brands. If the canned is mostly used for flavoring, there is no reason you couldn't go to a 3 star for that. I also give left over human food. I also cook chickens and shred them in their food. I started doing that to put more weight on my puppy. He eats everything i give him now and he is no longer too slim.  I have to be careful with my other two not to make them fat. LOL
> They also get a little raw for treats, not much. I do sometimes buy premade raw patties to use in place of the canned.
> 
> Jazz gets only raw with his handler when he is there (hasn't been there a lot) and he seems to do fine on that, too.
> 
> If you are on a budget and belong to CostCo they have great dog foods at a fraction of what you would pay elsewhere. They are 4 and 5 stars, but i wouldn't suggest their puppy food. I don't think it is as good as their adult foods, but they do have an all stages grain free now that is really reasonable.



your post was very helpful. I've spent a few hours so far today reading veterinarian's articles on dog nutrition and reading about Blue Wilderness too because that's what I feed them. I also mix different brand canned foods to get some different ingredients/vitamins etc... 
I just want to make sure I'm feeding them well, because I want them to be as healthy as they can be. I'm reviving this thread to see if people will share more info, because I still wanna learn more, to see if I can add anything else that is good for them, to their food. I recently added yogurt because of Apollo's ear infections, because I read that it helps.
So i hope maybe we will get more info here, maybe PF members share websites and stuff like that too.
Thanks again for your post!


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## Jamie Hein

I feed raw. Make it for my cats and do the premade Nature's Variety for Kennedy. For a standard I would make it. It would be cheaper and since you have a puppy it would be easy to start out- not so much with a senior dog who is picky from years of bad semi-moist nugget kibble crap haha.


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## kontiki

I feed 99% raw meat. Tiki almost died on kibble, even the most expensive and vet recommended. He thrives on raw.


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