How Much To Feed A Golden Retriever
Golden Retrievers usually weigh from 55 to 75 pounds and reach their full height and weight when they are 12 to 18 months old. Keep in mind that every dog is an individual and that it can take more or less time for your Golden puppy to reach his adult size. However, your Goldens caloric needs will greatly decrease when he reaches 12 to 14 months and he will no longer need the same amount of food as before.
An adult and active Golden will need to eat between 1,300 to 1,700 calories per day. However, keep in mind that age, weight, activity level, health problems, and overall lifestyle will determine how many calories your Golden needs per day.
For example, nursing mothers and dogs that perform heavy work will need more than 2,000 calories per day in order to maintain their weight and stay healthy. On the other hand, if your pooch is more of a couch potato type than an athlete he will probably need around 1,000 calories a day in order to maintain a healthy weight.
During adulthood, your Golden Retriever feeding schedule should consist of two equally spaced meals ideally, you should feed your dog in the morning and evening. If you opt for feeding high-quality large breed dog food, an optimal Golden Retriever food amount will be:
- Females: 2 to 2 ½ cups a day
- Males: 3 to 3 ½ cups a day
- Active Males: 4 cups a day
- Nursing Females: 5 to 6 cups a day
Solid Gold Wolf King With Real Natural Bison & Brown Rice
When it comes to dog foods, real meat is the most important ingredient. You can have smaller amounts of other ingredients, but real meat should always be the first ingredient.
The Solid Gold Wolf King with Real Natural Bison & Brown Rice is known as one of the best dog foods for Golden Retrievers as it contains real bison meat. It also contains a wide range of healthy fats and grains.
Well, it does have grains, but not too much and it has the right amount to make sure that your dogs would at least have a source of carbohydrates. The 20 Superfoods featured on this dog food can also help maintain and rebuild the muscles of your dogs and it can help with their digestion.
What to like About It
The best thing about this dog food is the 100% satisfaction guarantee, which means that the company is confident in the ingredients of the dog food. You will also get your money back if the dog food is not the same as advertised.
Some Suggested Foods For Your Adult Golden Retriever
The following list contains some foods for you to consider for your golden. Remember that if you feed a high-quality food to your dog without fillers, you often can feed less.
A general guideline Ive found when choosing a food is to make sure that it has specifically-named ingredients, not vague, generic ones. So lamb meal would be preferable to the generic term meat meal.
The same is true of preservatives and other ingredients.
I feed my golden a food thats been recommended by many reliable sources such as the Whole Dog Journal and thats been well-rated by the Dog Food Advisor.
I wont name it just because its one of many choices and what Ive found to be great for my dogs may not be for yours.
And I also considered various foods before making my selection. My dogs are doing well on this food.
You dont need to break the bank to find a great food. Goldens love their food and eat a lot because of their size. So Im providing a wide selection of price points to select from..
Im listing the top-five adult and puppy formulas for large breeds and links to the Dog Food Advisor and Chewy so that you can see additional information regarding these foods and their ratings.
The Dog Food Advisor is a public service website designed to help you make a more informed decision when buying dog food.
The write-ups are taken from those found on the Dog Food Advisor website.
The links will also lead to information regarding additional high-rated foods.
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Why Goldendoodles Are The Worst
They are known to be a great family dog and amazing friend. But sometimes situations are not under our control that eventually makes Goldendoodle worst. These buddies are the packages of energies and always prefer to be oriented by people that can adore and love them. There are some situations that you just have to deal with if you are adopting one.
It should be noted that every dog is different, so is your golden poodle. It might have all these problems or none.
- They might experience Separation anxiety.
- They might go for excessive barking, it can have a link to separation anxiety or they might be parted away earlier from their mother.
- They can experience distractibility and curiosity. As they are intelligent dogs, must be quicker in learning which make them curious and distractible.
- They might go for aggression and biting. They are approachable dogs but sometimes there is a chance that they might be improperly socialized. That results in showing aggressive behaviour towards strangers. This can be due to their protective nature for the owner.
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Why Do The Ingredients Of A Food Matter
Of course, your golden is a highly intelligent and sociable dog. Hes very lovable and everyones his friend.
Unfortunately, goldens have a higher-than-average incidence of cancer. Many factors, including genetics and nutrition, determine a dogs health.
All dog foods are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration . They must also meet the Association of American Feed Control Official nutrient standards for the correct life stage.
But AAFCO Dog Food Nutrient Profiles consist only of minimum values for all the nutrients required by dogs and maximum values for just a few nutrients that can be toxic if consumed in excessive amounts.
As long as a food meets the minimum nutrient values expressed in the profiles, and doesnt exceed the maximum values, it can be labeled as complete and balanced.
But, even with such regulation, not all foods are created equal.
Feeding a food with low-quality ingredients may contribute to chronic inflammation and obesity. And chronic inflammation can contribute to arthritis, diabetes, cancer, and infection.
Foods should be made from wholesome, natural ingredients with no fillers, by-products, or artificial additives.
They should be rich in high-quality animal sources such as poultry, meat, and fish. They should also name the specific protein sources such as chicken, duck, beef, lamb, not a generic meat label.
If your dog becomes obese, you can even ask your vet about prescription weight-loss diets.
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Feed Your Golden Retriever Kibble
The most common kibble choice that pet owners choose is commercial dry kibble. When looking for this kind of food, you have to ensure that it offers complete and balanced nutrition.
Many golden retriever owners opt for a meat/protein kibble as opposed to the chow one. How can you differentiate between the two? Protein kibbles usually have protein as their basic ingredients. These ingredients include meat, bone meal, and chicken meal. On the other hand, chow kibbles consist of grains or cereals such as soy, wheat, and corn.
Monitor Weight And Health
As with any new diet regiment, you want to make sure its having a positive impact on your dog. Be sure to monitor your Goldens health and weight for changes over time.
Not preparing a balanced meal that is individualized to your dogs needs can lead to certain conditions or diseases such as lack of energy, skin or coat disorders, malnutrition or obesity, and more.
Maintaining a healthy lifestyle can save you thousands on vet bills down the road.
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Best Homemade Dog Food Cooking Practices
Its vital you discuss your Golden Retrievers specific nutritional needs with a veterinary nutritionist as every dog is different.
Why is this important?
A study published in the Journal of Nutritional Science found that 48% of home-prepared diets for dogs had no precise determination of ingredients and quantities and that 71.3 % of pet owners lacked information on how much to feed the animal.
As you can see, while most dog parents want the best when it comes to their furry friends nutrition, most of them dont have a proper understanding of dog nutrition. Thats why getting professional guidance on how to properly plan a home diet for Fido will minimize the risk of exposing your Golden Retriever to nutritional deficiencies due to a bad diet.
Here are some general guidelines to follow when cooking for homemade dog food for your Golden Retriever:
- Never use unsafe or toxic ingredients for your dog
- Cook all animal products thoroughly to kill harmful bacteria
- Cook all grains, beans, and starchy vegetables to make them easier to digest
- Research every ingredient before using it for safety
- Follow the recipe as instructed
- Add supplements to their diet as needed
- Understand the impact of dietary changes
- Run any questions by a veterinary nutritionist
Diamond Naturals Large Breed Adult Chicken And Rice
Primary Ingredients: Chicken, Chicken Meal, Whole Grain Brown Rice, Cracked Pearled Barley, Ground White Rice
Diamond Naturals is one of the leading brands of holistic dog foods, producing kibble with high-quality ingredients like real meat and whole grains. This large-breed dry food can help your Golden Retriever maintain a healthy coat and great skin as well as smooth digestion.
Customer Review: I have six dogs ranging in weight from ~50 lbs to ~120 lbs. All of them love this food! Their coats are shiny and soft, and their poops are small!
Rating: 4.5/5
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Royal Canin Golden Retriever Puppy Dry Food
Top Ingredients: 1. Chicken By-Product Meal, 2. Corn, 3. Wheat Gluten, 4. Chicken Fat, 5. Wheat
Golden Retriever pups tend to have a different dietary requirement which a regular puppy food might not be able to fulfill. This Royal Canin recipe is formulated to cater to their specific needs. It is created to meet their nutritional requirements during the development stage, without expediting their physical growth. You get all a delicious meal with all the nutrients necessary for the pup to grow into a healthy, active, and beautiful adult. As with the adult formula, this puppy food is also among the best dog food for golden retrievers.
So How Do You Choose The Best Food For Your Golden Retriever
In a recent 2019 FDA dog food update about grain-free dog food that contained legume seeds, lentils, potatoes or peas as main ingredients, dilated cardiomyopathy in dogs was linked to grain-free dog food formulas.
Dilated cardiomyopathy is becoming more common in dogs on grain-free diets that as a breed are not predisposed to DCM. This includes the Golden Retriever!
In grain-free formulas there is often a high level of potato. FDA medical records indicate that dogs with DCM had low levels of taurine which may result in DCM. Dogs fed diets that included exotic proteins, and that were grain-free resulted in higher rates of DCM.
Heres what the FDA had to say. To better characterize diets reported in DCM cases, product labels were examined to determine whether the product was grain-free , and whether the products contained peas, other lentils including chickpeas and beans, or potatoes . Because so many products contained peas and/or lentils, a category was created for peas and/or lentils. More than 90 percent of products were grain-free, and 93 percent of reported products had peas and/or lentils. A far smaller proportion contained potatoes, via FDA
Animal protein sources in the reported diets varied widely, and many diets contained more than one protein source. The most common proteins in the reported diets were chicken lamb and fish however, some diets contain atypical protein sources such as kangaroo, bison or duck. No one animal protein source was predominant.
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Top Picks For Our Puppies
Check out more of our favorites on our New Puppy Checklist.
Limited Ingredient Diet For Golden Retriever
This is the first opportunity weve had to really review anything from Natural Balance. And we were pretty impressed!
This is a really good, quality, grain-free recipe that provides lots of protein combined with several other great ingredients.
Its got a fairly high protein contentabout 30%–which is more than enough for a golden retriever. The main sources of protein in this recipe are chicken meal, pork meal, duck meal, and salmon meal.
And remember, meat meals are basically meat concentrates, which means they lose much less water than whole meats during processing and that usually means theyre a lot more nutrient-dense.
There are also lots of great carbs and veggies here. Like most grain-free formulas, the carbs come from sweet potatoes. Youll also be able to find stuff like tomatoes, blueberries, flaxseed and ground sage.
Best of all, there are no weird ingredients here. Really nothing to be concerned about at all.
The verdict? Our pup loved it, and we were really, really impressed by this formula.
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How Do You Feed A Golden Retriever
Feeding your Golden Retriever does not differ from that of another dog breed. It should always start with choosing the best dog food that is very suitable for its life phase.
Starting with puppies, the only food for Goldie puppies in the first month of life should only be replacement breast milk or puppy milk.
Are in cases where the mother cannot feed. By the 5th week of experience, you can start adding solids to your food. You can start with high-quality wet or canned puppy food because the softer texture makes it easier to consume and can give lumps, but you may want to moisten it a little.
You can feed your puppy four times a day until it reaches its 9th week.
This will continue to feed your Goldie for the rest of its life unless directed otherwise by your vet.
Some pet parents feed their Goldies only once a day. Although this is possible, we do not recommend it because frequent small feeds are much better to prevent bloating, a condition known to Golden Retrievers and other large dog breeds.
Adults: What Is The Best Food For Golden Retrievers
Adult golden retrievers need less protein and fat concentrations than growing puppies. When choosing a food for an adult golden retriever, consider these factors:
- Sustaining a healthy weight: Though dogs need fats in their diets, a diet too high in fat can cause unhealthy weight gain. Choose a food option with a reasonable ratio of fat to protein. One of the best foods to sustain a dogs healthy weight is Orijen Fit & Trim, which includes chicken, turkey, fish and eggs.
- Preventing health problems: Your dogs food should be well-rounded to boost the immune system and keep your pet healthy make sure it has enough vitamins and minerals. You might opt for Blue Buffalo Livin Large Food, designed to support large breed bone and joint health.
- Staying full and energetic: Look for natural ingredients. Foods with a lot of palatable fillers are unlikely to keep your dog full and energetic. For a very active dog, try Diamond Naturals Extreme Athlete Formula.
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Merrick Real Buffalo Beef + Sweet Potato Grain
This grain-free formula by Merrick is generally well-loved by all pooches, including Golden Retrievers. And its actually quite good for them because of its high protein grain-free formula. Your retriever will get powerful proteins from quality buffalo meat and beef. Sweet potatoes are among the top five ingredients, which means your pet gets enough carb to stay active all day. Then you have also got peas, apples, blueberries and natural sources of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.
When Do Golden Retriever Puppies Open Their Eyes
The average litter size for golden retrievers is about 8. Golden retriever puppies usually open their eyes at around 2 weeks old. At about 2-3 weeks, golden retriever puppies go from the army crawl to waddling, to walking. Puppy teeth come in around three weeks.
Generally, a newborn Golden Retriever puppy weighs around 14 to 16 ounces. How big will your puppy be when it is ready to leave its mother and go home with you? Eight weeks is usually the earliest a puppy will be allowed to go to a new home. At this age, a Golden puppy will be around 10 pounds.
A 12 week old puppy needs the high calorie diet that comes with puppy food and cannot get that from adult dog food. For Golden Retrievers you should monitor the amount of time they take to eat. In general, you should give them about 20 to 30 minutes to complete a meal.
When your golden retriever puppy has reached 4 weeks, you should notice an increase in his energy level. He will still need a lot of rest, but should be getting around a little more. A 4 week old Golden Retriever puppy is not going to be weaned yet either, but you can try to see if he would be interested in puppy food.
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