Kibbles and brand name options for your puppy
Border Collie Nutrition
Purina Pro
Willowcreek nourishes our growing puppies with Purina Pro Puppy Formula, a premium kibble designed to meet the unique nutritional needs of young dogs. This specially formula is rich in essential nutrients, including high-quality proteins, vitamins, and miner
als, promoting healthy growth and development. Purina Pro Puppy Formula has proven to be a reliable choice, trusted for its quality and the positive impact it has on the health and happiness of our furry companions.
***Please note, we have stayed up to date and focus on the allegations of early December. As of January 2024, independent 3rd party testing has been complete and to date, no results have come back that indicate any issues with Purina or any of their Pro Line foods. We will continue to monitor the situation.
Purina Pro Puppy | Shredded Chicken & Rice
Go Solutions
Go and NOW are dog food brands that emphasize quality ingredients and nutrition for canine well-being. Go, by Petcurean, focuses on providing solutions for a range of dietary needs, with formulas crafted to address specific health concerns and lifestyle preferences. Whether it’s a grain-free option or a protein-rich diet, Go aims to cater to diverse canine nutritional requirements. On the other hand, NOW, also by Petcurean, offers limited ingredient recipes with a commitment to simplicity and wholesome nutrition. Both brands strive to deliver high-quality, balanced meals to support dogs’ overall health, ensuring pet owners have options tailored to their furry friends’ specific dietary needs.
Go/NOW is an excellent option but we highly recommend that if using GO, particularly grain free that you include toppers or topples regularly with nutrient rich quality grains.
Additional quality options for kibble and toppers:
Honest Kitchen
I love Honest Kitchen, always have and used it with our terrier who lived to be 21 years old. It is a great option for ‘package’ dehydrated meals and they also have a number of great toppers and add-on’s.
If you’re considering home-cooked, you can also ‘substitute’ your base with this and simply add your proteins, OMEGA’s, healthy oils and a few nuts for an awesome complete diet.
The Honest Kitchen Human Grade Pet Food
GRAIN FREE
The only real ‘strong’ position we have, Designer diets have no place in you fur baby’s bowls. Grain free
diets are not only silly, but they are being investigated for serious health conditions including canine heart disease.
While we cannot decide for you, we are apposed to designer diets (that seem cool or ‘high end’ but are
designed by marketers, and yes – I am a marketer!). Please understand that thousands go into ‘branding’ an image – that is not always superior or even safe. Inevitably you will be in control but please do your research.
RAW
There are two types of RAW, RAW and ‘Cooked’. RAW comes in ground format that you can purchase, and
you can also do home RAW (which is what I do). The later can be time consuming and a lot of research goes into ensuring you have the right balance.
Pricewise, I find RAW or “Cooked” to be the same if not less than a higher priced kibble (I shop in bulk, buy on sale or discounted and am relatively good at keeping my prices low.) Cooking or preparing RAW can be time consuming, I am blessed that I work from home with the needed time but it isn’t an option for everyone.
If you are interested in learning more about RAW, an excellent resource is RAW university on Facebook. They have a wealth of information including calculators, example diets, nutrition requirements (including
corresponding foods that meet those) and a very welcoming and helpful community.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/rawfeedinguniversity/
There are dozens of RAW pre-made options out there and it’s difficult to say which is superior, I would highly recommend that your rotate and mix/match for the best chance at a balanced diet.
No matter which diet you opt for, we do recommend that you do rotate brands and introduce toppers and home additions to keep things balanced. No kibble is truly the perfect combination, they all have different values, different ingredients (which digest differently) and rotation assist in ensuring that your dog has a balanced diet.
Lastly, toppers are an excellent way to keep it interesting for your dogs while reinforcing key vitamins and minerals.
Safe and yummy addon’s
Sardines in Sunflower oil (this is a two for one as both are excellent sources of OMEGA and healthy fat), there are tins available at most dollarama’s, $.88 and make sure you get either sardines in water or sunflower oil.
Mackeral in Water
Comes in a large can from the dollarstore for $1.25-$1.50 and will easily cover 4 meals.
Yams/Carrots/Sweet Potatoes
These are also a GREAT teething treat, if you’re lucky enough for your pup to enjoy veggies (Lucy eats everything, lol) you can literally give them these raw but you may also cook one up, mash and add to kibble.
Healthy oils
Coconut oil and sunflower are my go too. I also add sunflower seeds (raw/natural) to their food once or twice a month.
