Puppy Food Recommendations: Purina, Royal Canin, or Hill's

Galing si mother namin sa doctor (vet) ng aming babies. Ito ang recommended na foods. Not sure kung ano meron dun sa may check mark.

No explanation about sa not recommended na foods, pero based dito sa group, pwede sya magcause ng health problems (liver, heart, kidney).

Sana makahelp mga fellow paw-rents namin. ☺️

What’s the best puppy food for my english black lab,he’s 17 weeks,currently on Purina ProPlain for large bread puppy. He’s having the occasional looooose poo. Just wondering if there’s something better, better for him? The breeder sent us home with the adult version of the Purina pro plan, she said it helps them to eat slower, but my vet said it didn’t have enough of the nutrition they need as puppies are growing. Any suggestions? Greatly appreciated 🙏🏼

I scraped comments from 90+ posts where people asked “what’s the best dog food?” (plus some big pet and vet recommendation threads), then ran the whole pile of thousands of comments through an LLM pipeline to see which brands consistently get love vs. mixed reviews. Goal wasn’t “most mentioned,” but “most positively talked about.”

Method in a nutshell:
– Scraped 90+ “best dog food?” threads & pet care megathreads
– Ran GPT-5 + Gemini 2.5 to extract brand names and classify sentiment
– Scoring = ~70% positive vs. negative differential + ~30% positive/total ratio
– Merged name variants so duplicates didn’t inflate results (e.g., “Purina Pro Plan Sensitive Skin,” “Purina Pro Plan Salmon” → one entry) + some other nerdy sentiment tweaks that I won't bore you with
– Added a “Signal Score,” which mixes positive/negative ratios, upvotes, and comment quality, highly upvoted or detailed comments count more than short, low-effort ones.

Would love your feedback!

Would be helpful if you had a review stage by veterinary nutritionists….aggregating opinions from a lot of people who don’t have the expertise or knowledge to pick the ‘best’ is just a list of opinions.

That not “best” dog foods. That’s “most used” dog foods

I feed Purina Pro Plan Puppy Large Breed and it is recommended by thousands of golden owners on the goldenretrieverforum.com.

I had a border Aussie puppy that I fed exclusively grain free Acana and she developed dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) with a stage 5 heart murmur at age 5. She passed away from heart failure 16 months later and only lasted that long due to a strict, very expensive routine of meds and vet apts. It was awful and heartbreaking and I still cry about it a year and a half later.

Whichever food you choose, just make sure it is NOT grain free.

Why are you doing grain free? It’s been linked to heart problems in dogs.

Do not listen to Users people about dog food. TALK TO YOUR VET.

These are my beautiful puppies born on Oct.2 of 2025 I’m a first time puppy mom since their mother is absent what kind of puppy food do I give them ? I gave them nulo puppy and adult wet food But they seem to love it but then have the runs a bit ? Idk if it’s too rich but could someone help me with good food for them I can hopefully get at my local petsmart or petco :)

Also around this age can they be trained ? My mom says that they can but they’re too young 😂

We are three days into having a lab puppy. She is 7 1/2 weeks. She came with some kibble. The brand is Diamond. When I went to petsmart they do not carry that brand. I can order from chewy as well. Wondering what everyone else is using. Thanks!

Non-grain free puppy food. I made the mistake of going grain-free for my golden puppy as well. After my dog was puking every morning when he was around 1.5 years old, I switched him over to Hills Science Diet and Purina Pro Plan. Royal Canin should be a great choice too; I just find that it’s pricier.

Choosing puppy food feels weirdly overwhelming at first — so many options and opinions! I’ve seen Pawstruck’s air-dried food come up a few times in forums and vet blogs when I was looking into better ingredient options. It’s not one of the super mainstream brands, but it seems to check a lot of boxes (limited ingredients, no weird fillers, high protein, etc.). Could be worth keeping on your radar, especially if you’re open to something that’s not your typical kibble.

The foods that meet WSAVA guidelines, Iam’s, Purina (pro plan & Purina one), Eukanuba, Hill’s science diet, Royal Canin

Purina Pro Plan is far and away the most recommended on this sub and by most vets.

Hills Science Diet and Royal Canin are also top contenders.

The gold standard for assessing dog food are the WSAVA guidelines, and some big, easy to find brands that are compliant with those guidelines are Purina, Iams, Eukanuba, Royal Canin, and Hills.

I give my pup science diet. I just checked that WSAVA list and it’s on there

Make sure you use a large breed puppy food. The mineral content is formulated to keep their bone growth at ideal levels.

I never thought picking dog food would be this confusing, but here I am.

I have a dog who’s pretty sensitive when it comes to food. Some brands he eats fine at first, then after a while he either gets bored, starts having stomach issues, or just refuses it completely. I’ve tried switching between a few well-known brands, and it always feels like I’m guessing more than actually choosing something good.

Right now I’m just trying to find something consistent that keeps him happy, doesn’t upset his stomach, and ideally is easy to stick with long term.

So I’m curious, what’s the best dog food you’ve actually used that your dog has done well on over time?

I went down all the rabbit holes when I was trying to decide what to feed my puppy and I ended up on literally just royal canin. What swayed it for me was reading vet recommendations. IIRC it was one of just a few brands that follow the WSAVA guidelines.

Also

-my dog likes it

-she's never had any digestive issues while on it

-we can pick it up most places, even if we're travelling, we don't need to order online or anything

We use Purina Pro Plan (lamb since she's sensitive to chicken) as it's cheaper per pound but also "approved."

I have a 4 month old Rottweiler. I need some other large breed dry food recommendations. I am currently feeding her the Iams Proactive Health Large Breed Puppy Dry Food. She's not the biggest fan of it. I was hoping to get some other recommendations that weren't chicken flavored.

I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations for puppy food (good quality / not too expensive)

Looking for dry food suggestions mostly but wet food too!

Places I would be going to are (Pets at Home, Sainsburys, Asda)

So if anyone has any suggestions that would be great! I am also open to any tips on treats as well

I have had the best luck with Royal Canin, but admittedly my last two were small breed puppies. They have a variety of formulas, but just tossing out a warning that it’s not the most budget-friendly option. If that’s a consideration, your vet would likely recommend something like Purina Pro Plan puppy food. Large breed depending on what the mix is.

Hi guys! I recently adopted a 2 month old, female, lab mix puppy from my local shelter. I was told by the shelter that she was currently on wet food and to continue to feed wet until our next vet appointment to check and see if she could start transitioning to dry food. Because of all of this I have gone down the rabbit hole of dog food options, the WSAVA guidelines, wet vs kibble vs fresh debate and all of the things. I, of course would be consulting with my vet as soon as we take her to her next appointment, but I was also looking for some opinions on some good brands and options I could start thinking of or even bring up to my vet for confirmation. I appreciate all the help in advanced!

Despite several reports, I don’t believe this post violates any rules so I am leaving it up for now.

Just to reiterate:

The OP is basing their list on comments made on Users. The list is NOT based on nutritional analysis, recalls, etc. nor is it an endorsement of any sort.

Thanks everyone! You are all awesome and if you have a dog please give them a treat immediately!