New Puppy next week!

Question
Hey,

   My Boxer puppy comes home next weekend!  Is there a safe and healthy kibble I can buy at Walmart?  A friend told me that all the food was unsafe, unless you go to a pet store.  On his recommendation, I went to Petsmart and looked up the very "expensive" stuff he feeds his Boxer.  It made me feel bad inside, because I know I could never afford to buy food for my new buddy at a pet store.  Hope you can recommend a national brand worthy of my new puppy.

Best Regards,

JD
Dallas, GA.

Answer
Hi JD,

First of all, congratulations on your new baby! Nutrition as you know, is key to a dog's good health throughout his or her life, but never more important to get right than when dealing with a puppy. Something I would like you to consider is this; the cost of a dog should be evaluated over the entire lifetime and that includes veterinary costs. In my forty some years of experience, many MANY expensive veterinary problems are directly related to the feeding of cheap, unwholesome food over a long period of time. If owners think ahead to what they will do if their dog develops severe allergy or IBD or pancreatitis or renal disease - then most will opt to spend a little more for their best friend in terms of daily food, and avoid these and other potentially nutrition-related conditions.

So the short answer is no, I cannot recommend any of the Walmart brands - first, because I have never been IN a Walmart and I don't know what they carry, and second, because even the foods considerd to be good quality by most are not foods I would personally use or recommend. Many of the brands carried by PetSmart are overpriced for the quality they offer, so my own preference is to use a truly premium food with good ingredients, such as Canidae, Innova, Wellness or Natural Balance.

I feel bad on the one hand because I know you want to give your dog the best start and I also appreciate how tight money can be. On the other hand, you do owe it to your new family member to provide him or her with both excellent diet and veterinary care. And I can only reiterate that while diet does not prevent or control all forms of canine illness, it plays a huge role in the longterm wellbeing of the individual - much more than many people are aware. Would it be possible for you to use a premium food say for the first year of your pup's life, and then, if need be, downscale to a less expensive food? I'm just concerned about the dog's health while growing.

If you cannot consider using a quality food at all, then what we might be able to do is look at the brands from Walmart - you will need to give me their names so I can research them - and see which ones are better or worse.

I truly do not mean to sound judgemental or overly dire, but nutrition is what I do for a living and having grown up with a veterinarian father I have seen the results of poor diet - especially on a disease-prone breed like the Boxer - SO many times, I feel it's my responsibility to make sure you are aware of the trade-off; save a litttle now at checkout, pay bigtime a few years down the road when the dog starts to exhibit health issues.

Let's see if I can help some more...
Catherine