Hope you don't mind a newbie chiming in. I am now feeding Honest Kitchen. Cara is such a sensitive dog, and Aetos was having diarrhea when he first got here. They both do well with this brand. The recalls also worry me. Cara was eating TOTW previously.

HK is a good food, I've thought of trying it here too, eventually. Pretty pricey for large dogs! I started Jazz here (all 13 pounds of her) on Pinnacle, grain free salmon. She didn't like it, and her ears and eyes started getting red. Currently I'm feeding Primal Beef. I haven't tried her on chicken yet, guess I'm waiting to see how she does on other things first, since there was some type of chicken product in the Science Diet that the shelter had her on.

ladyfreckles-How many calories is he getting a day?
That doesn't sound like a lot of food per day for his age, but depending on the calories it could be.

You're pretty active with him, seems that he should probably be in the 1800-2200 range

Our Dexter has been on Royal Canin German Shepherd puppy food, but at $50-60 for a 30lb bag, I'm a little concerned about how long we will be able to maintain those eating habits. My husband wants to try Blue Buffalo, but I don't know how good it is for him.

At the moment, it seems that he has a very sensitive stomach. I had to keep him away from rawhide because it gives him the runs. Sometimes, like last night when his uncle (my genius brother) let him eat puppy poo that was left on the lawn (due to his soft stool, it's just too difficult to pick up til it freezes, sorry the TMI).. and then he gets soft poo again!

Basically, we've had to deal with bad gas, constantly getting the runs, and an overall sentitive stomach. We live in NY, so there are plenty of options, but we don't want to switch him too often. Any suggestions, comments, or ideas?

His coat has been beautiful, he's stopped itching once we put him on RC, but the stomach issues are just frustrating! He has hardly had any solid poos in weeks!They are always soft!

My experience with dogs with sensitive stomachs, is that, in the long run, you spend less by keeping them on a food that they are doing well on, if posible. Food switching, vet bills, etc, are no fun. Of course if you do try something new, switch very very slowly.

Krissy - Has he been tested for Giardia? If not I'd start there and ask for the Antigen and not the usual fecal float

That's a good point, Barb
And check for coccidia, too. I know Aodhán had a problems with that hwen she was a pup.

He was tested fully as a puppy because he came home with something... we had him 3 days and then he was at the vet for 4 days with pneumonia and a bug. He's been on frontline plus and has Heartguard. I thought he should be okay. The poor pup gets into everything!

I thought it was the rawhide, but he still hasn't been normal. I doubt it's the peanut butter I just started him on and his treats have been severely limited. We've spent so much at the vet already and I would hate to take him unless necessary.. he's acting like himself, just with really soft stool and mud butt!

Jean, Barb and anyone else that did the cal natural- did you use puppy or adult?

The Chicken/rice puppy is 1.36% cal 0.92% phos with 466 kcal/cup

The Chicken/rice adult is 1.51% cal 1.03% phos with 511 kcal/cup

The Herring/s pot adult is 1.0% cal 0.80% phos with 419 kcal/cup

All the lamb ones are over 2% calcium and I think that's just too much for growing puppy. The ones above have lower cal/phos but as it lowers so does the calories so they need to eat more which means they get more cal/phos.

I like the idea of LID for a bit, but don't know what the best choice would be.

Penny ate chicken soup while a pup, has good cal/phos but a lot of ingredients. I like the innova puppy large breed, but again lots of ingredients and only 367 kcal/cup.

The nat bal LID seem good as far as cal/phos but low on calories, around 340-350 kcal/cup. . .

I guess a lot of the choice is dependent on how pup likes the food. . .

Penny eats raw homemade food, has for years, but I am concerned about puppy nutrition and want to start with kibble/canned.

Any thoughts?

Maybe this information and this reference will be helpful.

Ciara's breeder recommended the Fromm Large Breed Puppy.
Here's a link to the details for that food. She seemed to do pretty well on it until I swtiched her to raw.