Nutrition

Originally written in 2011. Product names, prices, and availability may have changed.

Choosing the right dog food can be overwhelming with so many options on the market. We spent a lot of time researching on sites like Dog Food Advisor and Consumer Search to find the best food for our goldens. Brad also asked a vet at PetSmart for their recommendation. Here is a rundown of the foods we have tried and what we settled on.

Authority (PetSmart)

We started our dogs on Authority, the PetSmart store brand. Roxy ate the Large Breed Puppy formula and Quincey ate the Adult Large Breed Chicken formula. At around $25 for a 34-pound bag it was a pretty good deal. However, Quincey was never really enthusiastic about eating it. The vet also suggested Blue Buffalo, but it was too expensive at $45 or more per bag.

Nature's Domain

We found Nature's Domain at Costco and it had great reviews and a good price for a natural dog food. We started with the Salmon Meal formula (the blue bag). Quincey liked it much better than the Authority. Our one complaint was that the fishy smell made the dogs smell a bit fishy too.

Kirkland Brand

Also from Costco, the Kirkland brand had good reviews and an excellent price. The Adult Chicken Formula was around $24 per bag. The dogs liked it, but it seemed less moist than the Nature's Domain. We fed this for about six months.

Nature's Domain Turkey Meal & Sweet Potato

On another Costco trip we found the Turkey Meal & Sweet Potato formula (the red bag). The dogs absolutely loved it, and best of all there was no fishy smell. This is the food we currently feed our goldens and we are very happy with it.

We'd love to hear your stories or food recommendations!