Dog Food
We want to make sure all of our dogs and puppies stay healthy and maintain a proper diet. When our puppies leave here, we ask that our puppy buyers keep their puppies on an approved diet. There are many dog foods out there that cause puppies to grow too fast, joint issues, health issues, and just are not good quality. Unfortunately, some are even recommended by vets because they are endorsed by those companies. We have tried about every dog food under the sun and have found what works well for our dogs. Of course we want what is best for each and every dog. There is no one food fits all solution. We have picked a few options that vary in price range but with different price ranges there is different qualities. The top of the line might not be an option for all of our families so we have come up with really good alternatives. Some families may even do a combination of the options. ALL options will be shipped straight to your door, with the dog food shortages in the past two years, we have found the best way to get food and consistently is ordering online. Another benefit to ordering online is that all the food you receive is fresh, and has not sat on warehouse shelves in high heat. All of the companies listed below make their food in small batches to ensure their food is safe and fresh. We rotate our dogs kibble to ensure they are getting a variety and also to ensure they do not miss out on any nutrients. I definitely would not want to eat the same food every day of my life and like variety in my diet and so do my dogs, we rotate between brands and recipes from each brand. We tend to stick with one brand for 3-4 bags but switch recipes after each bag.
Best option nutritionally, most natural, most expensive and can be hard to store for some families.
Raw
Viva Raw
Raw is the most natural option and nutritionally is the best option. We freeze it in daily portions and feed it frozen. All of our dogs do really well on raw and it is also great for puppies. If you have the freezer space and want the best of the best for your dog food wise, this is the route to go. Viva Raw is amazing when it comes to sourcing their ingredients and they are the only company I would trust to buy from for raw. DO NOT DIY feeding Raw. It is incredibly hard to maintain appropriate nutritional levels. Viva has done this for you already- just make sure you buy a complete recipe.
Air Dried Food is a great in between of kibble and raw. It has many of the good benefits a raw diet does but is not as complicated to feed/store as raw
Air Dried
Ziwi Peak
Ziwi Peak is a great option if someone wants to feed better quality food than kibble but does not want to or cannot feed raw. They have many good recipes. They are technically “grain free” like raw but it does not contain the fillers or ingredients they substitute grains with that causes issues in other grain free diets. This and raw are the only “grain free” diets that we allow.
Kibble
More cost effective, many different quality levels of kibble, easier to store
PawTree
We raise most of our litters on pawtree. Out of the options for kibble, Pawtree is the top of the line. It is nutritionally dense, so you feed less of it than lower quality dog food and it has high quality ingredients. We love PawTree as a brand and many of the other products they offer. If kibble is the route you want to go but still want the best of the best for them, PawTree is the route for you. They also offer a ton of different recipes. The only thing we do not allow puppy buyers to feed is any grain free recipe (grain-free diets are linked to heart failure but they are unsure what exactly is causing it that is in the grain free diets- until they understand this better, we avoid all grain free recipes in kibble). PawTree is one of the few brands to have poultry free recipes for any dogs with poultry allergies (not something we have come across in our dogs but many people with older dogs or doodles come across this allergy). We extend our health guarantee for anyone who feeds Pawtree to their puppy.
FirstMate is a Canadian dog food. Dog foods made in Canada are under stricter restrictions for what they put in their kibbles. The quality of Canadian dog foods are better than almost all American made dog foods. We have been happy with hour our dogs do on FirstMate dog foods. Just make sure if this is the route you choose that you pick a grain-friendly recipe. We also strongly encourage the Wild Pacific Caught Fish & Oats Formula, it has the correct nutritional values and ratios for growing corgi puppies (up to 3 years of age) it also is great for adults. We also suggest that you feed their wet dog food with our Feeding Guidelines no matter what kibble you pick.
FirstMate Dog Food
Inukshuk
Inukshuk is another Canadian brand that we have used and love. They are also under stricter restrictions for what they put in their kibble due to being in Canada. We feed the Professional Performance Marine 25, Professional 30/25, and the Professional 26/16 formula. If the Marine 25 and 30/25 recipe is too high in fat for your dog, we suggest the 26/16 formula
Muenster
Muenster is a great budget friendly brand that we have used and works well for our dogs. They are a smaller family run company based here in Texas. Although we prefer the Canadian Brands listed above due to better restrictions, we trust that Muenster is good about what they put in their food and we like that their food is made in small batches. We love that we can add in things to their food. Our dogs love when we rotate our food and the Muenster food has stuff added to it.
We add a little bit of canned into every meal to add moisture and of course the dogs all love it!
Canned Food
FirstMate Wild Pacific Salmon & Rice Formula
We add a spoonful of this to every dog and puppies food. We create a gravy on their food with this and bone broth. The dogs love it. We are picky about what we feed and canned foods are generally not a great quality. We found that the Canadian branded canned food was much better quality and healthier. This canned food does not contain Corn, Wheat, Soy, Gluten, Peas or Potato. It is also Carrageenan & Guar Gum Free. All of which we stick clear of. A little goes a long way with canned food. If it is out of stock on chewy, check back every few days and check if it’s back in stock. They restock it fairly quickly, they just have a little bit of a delay due to it coming from Canada. Any of FirstMate’s other formulas are a good alternative as well, if the salmon and rice is not in stock. Be careful not to order the cat food if you have to get another formula, their cans almost look identical.
Farmina Natural & Delicious Ocean Trout & Salmon Canned Dog Food
The FirstMate Canned food tends to be out of stock at times. When this is the case, we use Farmina Canned Food. They have a good selection of flavors and their ingredients are to our standards. We also like to keep our dogs eating a variety so we often switch between the two brands and their flavors.