Hi Knightquest - as the expert what would you feed a puppy (4 months-ish now) - when I got him he was on Beta puppy so I've continued as he seems happy on it - but would always welcome expert advice
Hello Brucklay. I would not call myself an expert but I have studied dog food. The better makes are (in no particular order) Burns, Arden Grange, James Wellbeloved, Royal Canin and a fairly new food called Symply. They are the less cheap feeds. Orijen is a cracking food but VERY expensive.
Some things to bear in mind. Generally, food that is gluten free is better. Royal Canin is good but not gluten free. My advice as before is always check labels.
Also, when puppies are sold, companies are happy to give breeders free 3kg bags of food to give away with the pups. Beta and Pedigree do this. Obviously they do it for the follow on sales.
On a different note, Arden Grange would have been my best tip of the better known brands but they have moved their production to another manufacturer. This isn't good news! Existing users should monitor their food.
Another alarming thing to be aware of is that one cheap food manufacturer who is hard to identify at this moment has purchased a massive amount of old and out of date food from supermarkets and thrown it all together and minced it all up to make dog food.
As we know, dogs digestive systems can cope with different types of food to ours but the truly alarming thing is that they left all the wrappers on. Plastic and polystyrene etc.
That's how cheap dog food is so cheap!
I should say that I have no connection with the manufacturers named above, in fact we have our own alternative food made.
Finally, raw food is a good viable option but probably best discussed on another thread. Hope this helps.
Ian