When I got Kodi from the breeder, he was on Purina Puppy Chow. I tried to keep him on it at the beginning but after about a week of constant diarrhea, the vet recommended moving him over to Royal Canine. That coupled with some meds cleared up the diarrhea and stools went pretty normal.

However, shortly after I saw a post recommending DogFoodAdvisor. There, I saw that the RC Large Breed Puppy was a 3 star food. I looked around and decided to try out BW Puppy due to 5-star rating, price & availability in my area. I switched slowly over two and a half weeks and the stools stayed reasonably normal. However, after a few weeks I am at a point where I cannot possibly take the gas any longer!

Because he and I spend so much time in my office during the day, the entire office smells like a public bathroom at a mexican restaurant. He tends to pass it mostly while he sleeps -- unfortunately he likes to sleep right below my chair and I'm the victim of his frequent "outbursts."

I know everyone's results are different... But I am looking for any recommendations from others who experienced gas on BW Puppy. I prefer to stick to the 5-star dry -- hopefully anything that is reasonable to find at local pet stores (mom & pop and PetSmart are close by). Price is not a problem, but I would like the best bang for the buck. Right now, I am considering Acana (based on google searches on the prob & DFA rating) or I may just make the jump to Orijen.

Any advice or suggestions?

I am a big fan of Orijen. Both of my furbabies are on Orijen (and half Honest Kitchen) and neither of them have bad gas. I don't even know when they fart! (I work from home so I spend a lot of time with them.)

I wouldn't stick with a food that causes gas either. If it were me, I'd try either Orijen, Acana, or Fromm and see how it goes. The thing with food is that every dog is different so it's really all about trial and error.

Hope you get it resolved soon!

+1 for orijen or Acana.

But, may I ask which one you are feeding? My male had that issue on chicken, but when we switxhed to salmon it was fine.

I know a lot of people don't like it because its from Diamond, but Cloud and Yuki are on taste of the wild. Yuki did horrible on wilderness (oh lord don't remind me!) but she's been completely fine on TOTW. Anyway its your decision ultimately, whatever works best ^-^

mheath0429 wrote:

+1 for orijen or Acana.

But, may I ask which one you are feeding? My male had that issue on chicken, but when we switxhed to salmon it was fine.

I'm pretty sure the only Wilderness puppy formula is chicken based. We have big issues with chicken based foods causing gas with both Lulu and Ghost, and some good friends of ours have problems with their dogs as well. All the foods that people have been suggesting are great, and Ghost does really well on TOTW Pacific Stream. Definitely try to get sample sized bags, a lot of the higher quality food companies will do that. TOTW will mail you several sample bags (a mix of their flavors), and you will know pretty quick even on a sample bag if it's going to cause issues. We went through that with the High Prairie formula of TOTW, and after 2 feedings backed off because Ghost could peel the paint off our walls

You are right... I never fed the puppy because the ratios are all the same for adult.

mheath0429 wrote:

But, may I ask which one you are feeding? My male had that issue on chicken, but when we switxhed to salmon it was fine.

I have been using BW Puppy. I bought a bag of Salmon last week to add a little different flavor every now & then (just mix a small handful in occasionally -- once or twice a week). The gas has gotten worse over the past few weeks but doesn't seem to change on days when I don't add Salmon vs. when I do. I've only done it twice so far.

http://www.naturalpetfooddeliveryatlanta.com/

http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-reviews/natures-select-grain-free/ (4 1/2 stars)

Plus they are more then proud to tell you they've never had a recall.

As others have said, Orijen and TOTW are wonderful. I feed Blue Wilderness Salmon (but wouldn't if I ran into flatulence).

One thing that hasn't been mentioned yet is that you should (typically) avoid foods which are sold as puppy foods. Often times (though I can't personally speak towards Blue) the balance of nutrients is manipulated in order to stimulate faster growth. This can lead to weird bone and joint problems that don't manifest themselves until later in life. For example, you can run into situations where legs grow to different lengths by half an inch or so, or joints that aren't perfect fits for the bones they sit, or muscles being slightly the wrong size for the bones they attach to. None of these are serious, but can exacerbate future problems such as arthritis.

Actually puppy food helps puppies grow slower, especially large breed puppy food. It also has the appropriate calcium:phosphorus ratio. Either puppy or all life stages. I'm sure that small to medium breeds would be fine when fed adult food, but large breeds such as German shepherds, bull mastifs, great Danes, etc. need a large breed puppy food to prevent joints from developing too fast.

Brooke is right - SOME adult foods can be fed, ut only if the ratio is correct. Claudia and Val can help with that information. I believe it is 1.5:1 Ca:Ph

Interesting. I was told the opposite from 2 different vets, but this was several years ago. The vets could have been mistaken, or perhaps manufacturers changed their formulae to no longer encourage growth. I'll have to look into this some more.

After some research, TOTW and BBW appear to differ only by the Ca:Ph ratio and marginally in protein content. I stand corrected.

So, I went on a hunt for Orijen or Acana -- neither were to be found at my local stores. I was told it was more of a regional thing and they could order Orijen if I wanted it. The mom & pop store recommended Earthborn. I came back to do my research and saw it was a 5-star on DFA. I also came across the other thread raving over how well it was working for others, so I gave it a try.

I made a total transition overnight. I had some pro-pectalin in case of any stomach issues, but didn't even need to use it. They only had bison & lamb in stock -- I sampled and he took to the bison a little better but still wasn't crazy about it. I asked them to order in the Coastal Catch flavor and he absolutely LOVES it! Overall, I am very pleased with the Earthborn CC. Price is comparable to BW plus they also have the buy 10, get 1 free deal here too.

Funny thing is... I have been out of commission the past 24 hours with strep, so my wife was on puppy duty. She accidentally fed him the BW for one meal and he was gassy right away. Must be waaaaay too rich for his system.

As always, thanks to everyone for the great advice! Another great find!!!

My experience with Orijen was terrible, Balon had terrible runs on that food and would not touch Acana! I donated what was left to the shelter. Never tried TOTW but he has done really well on Blue Wilderness Salmon, or Duck. I rotate between the two with no issues, no gas, no runs! But like us they are individuals, I have a friend who has her husky on Iams and he does great with that believe it or not, he has a really nice coat on it too, go figure!

mheath0429 wrote:

Brooke is right - SOME adult foods can be fed, ut only if the ratio is correct. Claudia and Val can help with that information. I believe it is 1.5:1 Ca:Ph

Close, ideally for small to medium breeds you're shooting for a Ca:P ratio of 1.2:1. Since the Siberian is a medium breed I would be looking for a ratio closer to that.

For large breeds you want a ratio closer to 1.5:1. The sibe is not a large breed so a higher ratio is not what I would be looking for. However if, for example, you were looking at an excellent puppy food for a normal size Siberian puppy that had a 1.5:1 Ca:P ratio then I would not pass it up in favor of a lower quality food that had a 1.2:1 Ca:P ratio. But if you were considering two comparable high quality puppy foods for a normal size Siberian husky puppy and one had a ratio of 1.5:1 and the other 1.2:1 then I would definitely opt for the 1.2:1 ratio. I know it's not normally that cut and dry so I would definitely opt for the food that is closer to 1.2:1 if possible.