Long story short I had lab for 12 years and paid up for Science Diet and then he died of cancer all throughout his body. I have a Pyredoodle (couldn't handle another lab after losing my buddy) puppy now and figured I might be able to save some money by not buying science diet this time around. This dog is 6 months old and already weighs 75 lbs so food is getting expensive! What do you all use/recommend? Thank you.

Science Diet didn't cause your labs cancer and no diet will prevent it. There are plenty of threads with my comments on diet. Feel free to believe marketing vs evidence.

Stay away from Blue Buffalo. Have our dog pancreatitis. Vet said that stuff has made him allot of money.

Over 7-years i've tried most brands of quality food. Fed Fromms for years.

Dog does the best on Purina Pro Plan, and likes the Purina Pro the best.

Recurring Amazon Prime a 18# bag every month.

I don't think he was blaming the dog food for the cancer in his previous dog, just hoped to go a less expensive route (not Science Diet) for the new dog??

GSS said:

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I don't think he was blaming the dog food for the cancer in his previous dog, just hoped to go a less expensive route (not Science Diet) for the new dog??

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Yes. Not sure why he was upset. I don't frequent the dog food threads often.

I've done Science Diet and Purina Pro Plan with great success. I'm going to give Victor a shot with our new pup and see how it goes. Can get local at a store that gives a punch card for free bags of food. Victor seems to be pretty highly recommended on these threads

cupofjoe04 said:

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I've done Science Diet and Purina Pro Plan with great success. I'm going to give Victor a shot with our new pup and see how it goes. Can get local at a store that gives a punch card for free bags of food. Victor seems to be pretty highly recommended on these threads

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This. I've been in Victor for years and have had zero issues.

1 vote for purina pro plan

I've been feeding Nutro Lamb and Rice since the mid 90s. Started with the L&R and allergy shots with a cocker with food allergies who's coat recovered beautifully ... later stopped the shots. Most all of our dogs ... all Sporting breeds ... have lived 11 to 14 healthy years.

Only 18 days. Didn't even make 60.

https://texags.com/forums/34/topics/3197289/replies/59229968

We feed our German Shepherd and Aussie VetDiet. Noticeable differences in coat, shedding, and maintaining a healthier weight as compared to the bigger names we fed before.

The only downside is it's not available in the big box stores, but it can be ordered from the below link or found in smaller, independent stores.

https://www.petflow.com/explorer?f[]=brand:vetdiet&f[]=category:food&type=grid&utm_source=pfblog&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=floodrelief

Another vote for pro plan

I've used Pro Plan in the past and now I use Victor. Never had an issue with either one. We get it through Chewy and it's nice to not have to go to the store to get it and it ships fast. Generally here within a few days of ordering.

My childhood dog lived to be 15 - his diet was a carefully selected variety of Alpo and Ol' Roy, bacon grease and scraps.

As an enlightened adult, My dogs have lived to at least 12 years with tons of money spent on diets of Blue Buffalo, Nutro, other expensive crap, and all sorts of "recommended" diets.

I don't know how enlightened I actually am based on that, but it's my opinion that the best thing to do to ensure long life is to get a mixed breed with some of that hybrid vigor and feed it what you want. That said, the science doesn't support that opinion either so, I guess I think you should just go to tractor supply or your pet store and pick any number of the high quality foods available that aren't "Ol Roy" and forget the marketing gimmicks and TV commercials.

Victors dog food.
Good stuff made in Texas. Our local feed store sell it for $40 for a 40# bag.

Canidae, Nulo, Merrick, Muenster Milling , & Victor are all Texan owned & made premier dog food brands.

I feed Nulo to my two Weims.

We are on lab #4 and #5. We did pro plan and then later science diet. One died of cancer at 10 yet #3 is still kicking it at 16 years old. Both of the young labs were fed Purina pro by the breeder and they refused to eat it once they tasted the old labs science diet. I want to switch to victor to see how they do.

Beckdiesel03 said:

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We are on lab #4 and #5. We did pro plan and then later science diet. One died of cancer at 10 yet #3 is still kicking it at 16 years old. Both of the young labs were fed Purina pro by the breeder and they refused to eat it once they tasted the old labs science diet. I want to switch to victor to see how they do.

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Wait, you found a Lab (or two!), that refused to eat something that even remotely looked like dog food?

GSS said:

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Beckdiesel03 said:

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We are on lab #4 and #5. We did pro plan and then later science diet. One died of cancer at 10 yet #3 is still kicking it at 16 years old. Both of the young labs were fed Purina pro by the breeder and they refused to eat it once they tasted the old labs science diet. I want to switch to victor to see how they do.

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Wait, you found a Lab (or two!), that refused to eat something that even remotely looked like dog food?

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GSS said:

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Beckdiesel03 said:

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We are on lab #4 and #5. We did pro plan and then later science diet. One died of cancer at 10 yet #3 is still kicking it at 16 years old. Both of the young labs were fed Purina pro by the breeder and they refused to eat it once they tasted the old labs science diet. I want to switch to victor to see how they do.

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Wait, you found a Lab (or two!), that refused to eat something that even remotely looked like dog food?

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Believe it or not lab pickey eaters exist as I have one of my own!

Probably won't help OP, but if you ever need it or else someone else needs it, my dog has acid reflux disease and the only food that has helped her so far is prescription science diet low fat food. Haven't had an issue in months and prior to that I was feeding her regular adult science diet and was having issues. Hopefully your pup never has that problem!

Also, DO NOT feed your dog grain free dog foods. It's a stupid trend that is not good long term for your dog. Also not good if your dog has a sensitive stomach either....

Thanks for all of the responses. I decided to try out the pro plan late last week. Remarkably the puppy's farts that stank up the room disappeared which is good news. Doesn't seem like it's going to save me any money like I was hoping but might save my nostrils...

Victor has been great for my three. I would feed Hi-Pro Plus until he hits two and then you can reevaluate based on exercise/activity level. Mine are all well into adulthood now and Hi-Pro still works great for them. The Victor formulas seem to be very similar to Purina Pro-Plan, but i believe they are a couple bucks cheaper per bag.

agcrock2005 said:

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Thanks for all of the responses. I decided to try out the pro plan late last week. Remarkably the puppy's farts that stank up the room disappeared which is good news. Doesn't seem like it's going to save me any money like I was hoping but might save my nostrils...

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THis was my initial reason for switching. Had been using regular old blue buffalo on previous dogs. Got our lab and when he got about 8 months old he starting farting my wife out of the room. Switched and the digestive issues were gone. Both dogs on it and they do great. Then I found out on this board how bad the Blue Buffalo has been recently. Glad I went ahead and switched.

Nulo is made in Perham, Minnesota, by Tuffy's (makers of Nutrisource).

Deutscher_Aggie1 said:

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Nulo is made in Perham, Minnesota, by Tuffy's (makers of Nutrisource).

Yea. It's a Texas owned company from Austin. I was listing Texas owned and/or if Texas Owned and made in Texas as well.

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Recently switched my 3 year old lab to Heritage Ranch from HEB and he loves it. Can't go wrong with Purina Pro Plan either.