admin answers:

Well with a GSD you should be careful not to feed a high protein food
How to grade your dog’s food: (Some brands are done at the very bottom)
Start with a grade of 100:

1) For every listing of “by-product”, subtract 10 points.

2) For every non-specific animal source (”meat” or “poultry”, meat, meal or fat) reference, subtract 10 points.

3) If the food contains BHA, BHT, or ethoxyquin, subtract 10 points.

4) For every grain “mill run” or non-specific grain source, subtract 5 points.

5) If the same grain ingredient is used 2 or more times in the first five ingredients (i.e. “ground brown rice”, “brewer’s rice”, “rice flour” are all the same grain), subtract 5 points.

6) If the protein sources are not meat meal and there are less than 2 meats in the top 3 ingredients, subtract 3 points.

7) If it contains any artificial colorants, subtract 3 points.

8 ) If it contains ground corn or whole grain corn, subtract 3 points.

9) If corn is listed in the top 5 ingredients, subtract 2 more points.

10) If the food contains any animal fat other than fish oil, subtract 2 points.

11) If lamb is the only animal protein source (unless your dog is allergic to other protein sources), subtract 2 points.

12) If it contains soy or soybeans, subtract 2 points.

13) If it contains wheat (unless you know that your dog isn’t allergic to wheat), subtract 2 points.

14) If it contains beef (unless you know that your dog isn’t allergic to beef), subtract 1 point.

15) If it contains salt (or sodium, as it is also called), subtract 1 point.

Extra Credit:

1) If any of the meat sources are organic, add 5 points.

2) If the food is endorsed by any major breed group or nutritionist, add 5 points.

3) If the food is baked not extruded, add 5 points.

4) If the food contains probiotics, add 3 points.

5) If the food contains fruit, add 3 points.

6) If the food contains vegetables (NOT corn or other grains), add 3 points.

7) If the animal sources are hormone-free and antibiotic-free, add 2 points.

8 ) If the food contains barley, add 2 points.

9) If the food contains flax seed oil (not just the seeds), add 2 points.

10) If the food contains oats or oatmeal, add 1 point.

11) If the food contains sunflower oil, add 1 point.

12) For every different specific animal protein source (other than the first one; count “chicken” and “chicken meal” as only one protein source but “chicken” and “salmon” as 2 different sources), add 1 point.

13) If it contains glucosamine and chondroitin, add 1 point.

14) If the vegetables have been tested for pesticides and are pesticide-free add 1 point.

94-100+ = A
86-93 = B
78-85 = C
70-77 = D
69 = F

Here are some foods that have already been scored.

Dog Food scores:

Authority Harvest Baked / Score 116 = A+
Bil-Jac Select / Score 68 = F
Blue Buffalo / Score 114 = A+
Canidae All Life Stages Chicken & Rice / Score 94 = A
Canidae All Life Stages Lamb & Rice / Score 101 = A+
Canidae Platinum / Score 91 = B
Chicken Soup Senior / Score 115 = A+
Diamond Maintenance / Score 64 = F
Diamond Lamb Meal & Rice / Score 92 = B
Diamond Large Breed 60+ Formula / Score 99 = A
Dick Van Patten’s Natural Balance Ultra Premium / Score 122 = A+
Dick Van Patten’s Duck and Potato / Score 106 = A+
Doctors Foster and Smith Adult Chicken & Brown Rice Formula / Score 101 = A+
Doctors Foster and Smith Adult Lamb & Brown Rice Formula / Score 102 = A+
Eagle Pack Holistic Select Large & Giant Breed Adult Formula / Score 101 = A+
Eagle Pack Super Premium Large & Giant Breed Puppy Formula / Score 97 = A
Eagle Pack Super Premium Natural Formula / Score 96 = A
Eukanuba Large Breed Puppy Formula / Score 82 = B
Foundations / Score 106 = A+
Hund-n-Flocken Adult Dog (lamb) by Solid Gold / Score 93 = B
Iams Lamb Meal & Rice Formula Premium / Score 73 = D
Innova Dog / Score 114 = A+
Innova Evo /Score 114 = A+
Kirkland Signature Chicken, Rice, and Vegetables (Costco brand) / Score 110 = A+
Natures Recipe Lamb Meal & Rice / Score 96 = A
Nutrisource Lamb and Rice / Score 87 = B
Nutro Natural Choice Large Breed Puppy / Score 87 = B
Nutro Natural Choice Large Breed Adult / Score 86 = B
Nutro Max Large Breed Adult / Score 85 = C
Pet Gold Adult with Lamb & Rice / Score 23 = F
Premium Edge Chicken, Rice & Vegetables / Score 111 = A+
Premium Edge Lamb, Rice & Vegetables / Score 110 = A+
Premium Edge Puppy Large Breed Lamb, Rice & Vegetable / Score 104 = A+
ProPlan Natural Turkey & Barley / Score 103 = A+
Purina Beneful / Score 17 = F
Purina Dog / Score 62 = F
Purina Come-n-Get It / Score 16 = F
Royal Canin Bulldog / Score 100 = A+
Royal Canin Large Breed Giant Adult Formula / Score 95 = A
Royal Canin Natural Blend Adult / Score 106 = A+
Sensible Choice Chicken and Rice / Score 97 = A
Science Diet Advanced Protein Senior 7+ / Score 63 = F
Science Diet for Large Breed Puppies / Score 69 = F
Wellness Fish & Sweet Potato (

admin answers:

Organix would be better for the fact that organic foods use no pesticides, chemical fertilizers, antibiotics or growth hormones. The best way to look for a good food beyond this is to check the protein source. Avoid by-products. Chicken/beef meal is good but fresh is better. The protein source should be the very first ingredient, there shouldn’t be a lot of fillers such as corn, the food should be naturally preserved with vitamin E (mixed tocopherols), free of preservatives, artificial flavors and colors, the more protein sources the better, it is good to have digestive enzymes and omega 3 and 6 in the food. If the food is made by a major brand, avoid it…such as Science Diet Naturals. Major companies that put these products out are just trying to keep up with the profits and are more likely to use inferior ingredients. Natures Variety is a good organic food. I think Nutro is at the lower end of your list. The others are all good foods, just check ingredients as outlined above.

admin answers:

Oh, no, no, no! Science Diet and Pedigree are two of the worst! You don’t want to feed your pup anything that contains corn (dogs cannot digest corn well at all), by-products, animal digest (animal feces), artificial colors and/ or flavors, etc. I would strongly suggest that you don’t talk to your vet about nutrition. Vets take a class on nutrition and it’s taught by a dog food company. The vet learns whatever that company wants them to learn and then they sell that dog food in their office. Also, any dog food that you see on a commercial or that you can buy from the grocery store is going to be a poor quality food. Grocery stores are for people, pet stores are for pets.

My husband and I have been very happy with Natural Balance and Canidae. They are both good quality dog foods and those are the two food our three dogs have done the best on. They eat Canidae because they seem to do a bit better on it, but we were very happy with Natural Balance as well. I would highly recommend both brands!

Here’s a kibble rating chart and some foods and what they scored. This is what we used to find a good quality food for our pups.

You will need your kibble’s list of ingredients, as found on the bag (or oftentimes their website).
Please note, however, this is for ingredients ONLY…. So before feeding a pup be sure to look at
the protein and fat and calcium and calories in the Guaranteed Analysis.

Start with a grade of 100:

-For every listing of “by-product”, subtract 15 points
-For every non-specific animal source (“meat” or “poultry”, meat, meal or fat) reference, subtract
10 points
-If there are no specific meats or meat meals, subtract 25 points
-For every grain “mill run” or non-specific grain source, or grain “middlings”, subtract 10 points
-If the food contains BHA, BHT, or ethoxyquin, subtract 15 points
-If the same grain ingredient is used 2 or more times in the first five ingredients (i.e. “ground
brown rice”, “brewer’s rice”, “rice flour” are all the same grain), subtract 5 points for each
occurrence
-If the protein sources are not (specific) meat meal and there are less than 2 meats in the top 3
ingredients, subtract 3 points
-If it contains any artificial colorants, subtract 5 points
-If it contains ground corn or whole grain corn, subtract 3 points (subtract 5 if corn is listed in the
top 5 ingredients)
-If the food contains any animal fat other than fish oil, subtract 3 points
-If lamb is the only animal protein source (unless your dog is allergic to other protein sources),
subtract 2 points
-If it contains soy or soybeans, subtract 5 points
-If it contains wheat (unless you know that your dog isn’t allergic to wheat), subtract 2 points
-If it contains beef (unless you know that your dog isn’t allergic to beef), subtract 1 point
-If it contains salt, subtract 3 points
-If it contains corn syrup, molasses, or other added sweetener, subtract 10 points

Extra Credit:

-For every different specific animal protein source (other than the first one; count “chicken” and
“chicken meal” as only one protein source, but “chicken” and “turkey” as 2 different sources – do
not count egg, cheese, or other similar ingredients), add 1 point
-If the food contains 3 or less different mentions of grains (or other high-carb plant-based foods
like potatoes), add 5 points
-If any of the meat sources are organic, add 5 points (if the number 1 ingredient is organic meat,
add 10 points)
-If the animal sources are hormone-free and antibiotic-free, add 3 points
-If the food is baked not extruded, add 5 points
-If the food contains probiotics, add 3 points
-If the food contains fruit or vegetables (NOT corn or other grains), add 3 points
-If the vegetables have been tested for pesticides and are pesticide-free, add 1 point
-If the food contains barley or oats or oatmeal, add 1 point
-If it contains sunflower, hemp, flaxseed, or other polyunsaturated vegetable oils, add 3 points
(add 5 if it is the #1 fat)
-If the vitamin and mineral sources are chelated, add 5 points

94-100+ = A
86-93 = B
78-85 = C
70-77 = D
<70 = F

Food Grade Results
A's Score
A+ Chicken Soup for the pet lovers soul 113
A+ Eagle Pack Holistic chicken 114
A+ Eagle Pack Holistic LG and Giant Breed Adlt 113
A+ Eagle Pack Natural 104
A+ Timberwolf Organics Lamb and Venison 136
A+ Solid Gold Bison 123
A+ Solid Gold Wolf King 109
A+ Solid Gold Hund N flocken 105
A+ Solid Gold Mmillennia 111
A+ Innova 117
A+ Natural Balance Duck and Potato 114
A+ Canidae 119
A+ Foundations Chicken and Vegetable 109
A+ Flint River Ranch Fish and Chips 109
A+ Wysong Synorgon 110
A+ Flint River Ranch Lamb, Millet and Rice 117
A+ Back to Basics 107

B's
B Eukanuba Natural Lamb and Rice 87

C's
C Nutro Lamb and Rice 85

D's
D Iams Lamb and Rice 74

F's
F Pedigree Adult Complete 14
F Ol'Roy 9
F Science Diet Chicken Adult Maintainance 45
F Purina Beniful original 23
All Purina and Pro Plan foods rate as a F
F Pro Plan Giant Breed Adult 41
F Pro Plan Performance 53
F Pro Plan Chicken and Rice
F Purina Dog chow
F Purina Large Breed 40
F Diamond Lamb and Rice 61
F Diamond Performance (formerly professional)
F Diamond Large Breed 55

As for mixing the wet and dry food together, yes you can do that. Both of our females will eat anything, but our male is really picky! So, we feed them the Canidae dry food and mix in some Canidae wet food and they LOVE it! : )

Also, here's the Canidae.. Http://www.canidae.com/dogs/all_life_stages/dry.html

And the the Natural Balance website.. Http://www.naturalbalanceinc.com/

This website was also very helpful to us.. Http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/

I hope this helps some! Good luck! : )