Best Food For Golden Retriever Puppies (And What NOT To Feed Them)

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There are so many options for Golden Retriever puppy food that it can be quite overwhelming.

And when you add in the strong opinions people have about dog food, the confusing marketing about what’s good and what’s bad, and the importance of choosing a high-quality food… it can be downright scary to pick a food for your pup!

But here’s the good news: this article will make this decision much easier for you.

You’ll see two studies to help you choose the best food for your Golden Retriever puppy, as well as learn what makes a good dog food, what to avoid, and get answers to the most common food questions Golden Retriever puppy owners have.

Now before we dive in, here’s a quick note: the best resource for deciding what to feed your golden retriever puppy is your veterinarian.

They know your puppy best and are most knowledgeable about their health needs.

Alrighty, now let’s dive into that first study!

Most Popular Food For Golden Retriever Puppies

If you ask what to feed your puppy in a Facebook group, you’re going to get a variety of contradicting answers.

To help you cut through the noise, we asked 600 Golden Retriever owners what they feed their Golden Retrievers.

Here’s what we found:

1. Purina Pro Plan
2. Royal Canin Golden Retriever (mostly “Golden Retriever Puppy“)
3. Hill’s Science Diet
4. Raw
5. Blue Buffalo

You can see the full results of the study here.

Now, let’s go to the next study.

The Dangers Of BEG And Grain-Free Diets

In recent years, DCM (dilated cardiomyopathy) has increased in Golden retrievers, according to this study in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association.

There seem to be two potential causes of this.

1. Taurine deficiency
2. Eating BEG (Boutique, exotic-ingredient, and grain-free) diets

When they surveyed what these dogs were eating, “more than 90 percent of products were ‘grain-free’, and 93 percent of reported products had peas and/or lentils.”

So when choosing which food to feed your puppy, you may want to think twice before you decide to go grain free.

Now you know what the most popular foods are, and which ones to avoid, let’s get into some of the most common questions Golden Retriever puppy owners have about food.

Here’s a table of contents for you:

1. Why you need to feed your Golden Retriever Puppy a high-quality food
2. How to read a dog food label
3. Golden Retriever food-related health issues
4. How much (and when) you should feed your Golden Retriever puppy
5. Why you don’t want to overfeed your puppy
6. Should I feed my Golden Retriever a raw diet?
7. Puppy food vs. adult food
8. Do Golden Retriever puppies need vitamins?
9. What we feed our Golden Retriever
10. How to switch food brands

Why You Should Feed Your Golden Retriever Puppy High-Quality Food

Controlling what (and how much) your Golden eats is one of the most important things you can do when it comes to their health.

And although many Goldens have lived healthy lives on Walmart brand pet foods, feeding them high-quality food will stack the odds of them being healthy in their favor.

Here are some benefits of feeding them a high-quality food:

• Healthy and beautiful coat (that you won’t want to stop petting)
• Healthy bones and joints
• Healthy heart
• Healthy digestive system
• Healthy skin
• Fewer allergies

That’s a lot of health benefits, right?

Now high-quality food can be a little on the expensive side, but chances are likely that you’ll save more money in the long run on vet bills.

What Makes Food “High-Quality”

Dogs are omnivores, so a good dog food will have a mix of meat, grains, fruits, and vegetables.

They’ll have few preservatives, added sugar, salt, or artificial colors.

The protein will come from readily available sources such as chicken or beef, and not exotic or boutique sources like kangaroo or venison (as you saw in second study mentioned above).

Make sure to choose a puppy food that is approved by the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO).

On the label, it will say “(Name of product) is formulated to meet the nutritional levels established by the AAFCO Dog Food Nutrient Profiles.”

AAFCO has strict standards for dog food and decides whether or not it is suitable to be sold as advertised.

Now here’s a common misconception about dog food: animal byproducts are bad.

According to the AKC, quality, regulated animal byproducts can be good for your dog.

These byproducts can include organ meats or entrails, which often contain more nutrients than, say, plain chicken breast.

Of course, some foods may contain non-regulated byproducts, like hooves, intestinal contents, or even manure, so it’s important that you choose a reputable dog food.

Another misconception is that dogs should eat grain-free diets.

As you saw in the second study mentioned above, that can actually be very harmful for your dog and cause DCM.

How To Read A Dog Food Label

To help make an informed decision about what you’re feeding your Golden, you’ll need to read the food label.

But food labels can be a little vague and confusing, so below is an explanation of what some of these terms mean, according to the Merck Veterinary Manual and the AKC.

Ingredients are listed in order of weight

The first ingredient listed is the ingredient that there’s the most of in the food, while the last ingredient is the ingredient that there’s the least of.

There is one caveat though.

Ingredients are listed in the exact type that they’re added in.

For instance, flaked corn, ground corn, and kibbled corn could be sprinkled in an ingredient list and not be listed as the first few ingredients, but in reality, if you were to add them all up (they are all corn, after all), you might find that this food is made mostly of corn.

The same goes for chicken, chicken meal, and chicken byproduct.

Meat vs. Meat Meal vs. Meat Byproduct

Let’s say you’re looking at a food label and you see “chicken”, “chicken meal”, and “chicken byproduct”.

“Chicken” means that it’s chicken muscle, skin and/or bones.

“Chicken meal” means that it’s essentially ground and dried chicken muscle, skin and/or bones.

“Chicken byproducts” means that it’s byproducts (organs, bones, etc).

“Chicken byproducts meal” means that it’s essentially ground and dried byproducts.

The quality of these ingredients can vary widely, so be sure to talk to your vet about this and choose a reputable brand of food.

Golden Retriever Food-Related Health Issues

There are several health issues that are relatively common among Golden Retrievers and many of those are linked to your dog’s diet.

Below are a few examples:

Obesity. Golden Retrievers love food and they do have a tendency to become overweight if you let them. This problem can often affect these next two problems…

Joint issues. Golden Retrievers are prone to joint issues and growing too fast because they eat too much can often make this problem worse (more on this in the next section).

Heart issues. There’s been a recent spike in DCM (dilated cardiomyopathy) in Golden Retrievers recently and many people think it may be linked to them eating BEG (Boutique, exotic-ingredient, and grain-free) diets.

Skin issues. Golden Retrievers are prone to hot spots and excess protein in their diets can be a factor that causes them.

Cancer. Cancer rates in Golden Retrievers are more than any other breed and the Morris Animal Foundation is conducting the Golden Retriever Lifetime Study where they’re studying 3,000 goldens to see if there are certain patterns (such as diet) that cause cancer.

Allergies. Many goldens suffer from food allergies.

How Much (And When) Should You Feed Your Golden Retriever Puppy

How much you feed your puppy depends on what your veterinarian says and what the label on the dog food says.

It’s tough to make general statements like, “feed your puppy one cup per day,” because 1) all puppies are different, and 2) different foods have different caloric densities.

One cup of Brand X food may have 300 calories per cup, while Brand Y has 400 calories per cup.

And here’s an example of why it depends on the individual puppy…

When we first got our puppy, Oliver, we were feeding him what the package told us to feed him.

During a vet visit our veterinarian said he looked too small and lethargic for a puppy his age (about 8 weeks at the time), and he recommended we feed him a little more.

So when deciding how much to feed your puppy, read the label on your food and talk to your veterinarian to see what’s best for them.

As far as how often to feed your puppy, this same rule applies.

Most people feed their puppies three times per day, and then eventually transition to two times per day when they’re a little older.

At this point, they’re not growing as much, so they don’t need to eat as frequently, plus it will usually help them poop less!

For us, we fed Oliver three times per day until he was a little over a year old.

That’s when we switched to adult dog food and changed to feeding him two times per day.

• Getting a Golden Retriever Puppy? Get the gameplan for raising them right with the Golden Retriever Puppy Handbook.

Why You Don’t Want To Overfeed Your Golden Retriever Puppy

Golden Retrievers are prone to hip and elbow dysplasia and they love eating.

Those two statements may sound random, but they are related.

According to the Banfield Pet Hospital, overfeeding your Golden Retriever can cause them to grow too fast and increase their risk of hip dysplasia.

To make sure you don’t overfeed them, use a measuring cup when dishing out their food and never free-feed them.

What About Feeding Your Golden Retriever A Raw Diet Or Homemade Food?

You probably noticed that a raw diet was the fourth-most popular diet Golden Retriever owners feed their dog.

Here’s what Dr. Lisa Freeman, from the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association study, had to say about it:

“We also emphasize that changing to a raw or home-prepared diet may not be sufficient to improve cardiac abnormalities and may increase the risk for other nutritional deficiencies or infectious diseases.”

What Are The Differences Between Puppy Food & Adult Food?

Since puppies are growing and adults are just maintaining their weight, they have different dietary needs.

According to AAFCO, puppy food should have at least 22.5% protein, compared to 18% protein for adult food.

And for fats, puppy food should have at least 8.5% fats, compared to 5.5% for adults.

As far as when to switch from puppy food to adult food, talk to your veterinarian.

They’ll likely recommend making the switch when they’re done growing at about one year old.

To see a list of other milestones your puppy will hit (like when they lose their first teeth, or when their coat is fully grown) check out this timeline of Golden Retriever puppy milestones.

Do Golden Retriever Puppies Need Vitamins?

Like most of the other questions in this post, this is something to talk to your veterinarian about.

Many foods will have the same vitamins that pills have already in them, but on the other hand, some breeders require that you give your puppy vitamins for their health guarantee to be valid.

What We Feed Our Golden Retriever

Oliver had a few different brands of food that he ate as a puppy.

First, we (unknowingly) started him off on one of the brands listed in the graph above that is correlated with DCM.

Once we heard about the study we switched to another brand, although he didn’t like that at all.

Then we switched to another brand that he just sort of liked.

Finally, after talking to a few veterinarians and Golden Retriever breeders, we decided to test out Royal Canin’s Adult Golden Retriever food (this was at the time we were switching from puppy food to adult food), which has been his favorite food so far.

If we were to have another puppy, we would definitely start with the Royal Canin Golden Retriever Puppy food.

How To Switch Food Brands

The other day I was talking to someone who was complaining that her puppy was having lots of stomach issues.

She said she’d tried several different food brands and her puppy had problems with all of them!

Well, in this case, it’s probably not the food that’s the problem…

It’s the fact that she kept switching foods so quickly!

Dogs have sensitive stomachs so if you want to switch foods, you need to do it slowly.

You should take about a week to transition from the old food to the new brand.

For example, on day one, their meal might be 10% new food, 90% old food.

On day two, their meal might be 25% new food, 75% old food.

You’d slowly add in more new food, and give them less of the old food, until you’ve fully made the switch.

And this rule applies whether you’re switching to a different brand of puppy food, or switching them from puppy food to adult food.

If you don’t make this transition slowly, you’ll probably be dealing with a lot of diarrhea.

(We did this once with Oliver and we felt so bad — don’t do it to your pup!)

Feeding Your Golden Retriever Puppy

Although it can be overwhelming to choose which type of food to feed your Golden Retriever puppy, it’s a very important decision.

To help make that decision, talk to your veterinarian and (if they’re good) your breeder, and consider the study mentioned about DCM.

Also consider how long the brand of food has been around, whether or not there have been any recalls of that brand, and if there is any research behind it.

What do you feed your Golden Retriever puppy?

Have any questions about what to feed them?

Let me know in the comments below!

And if you liked this article, check out the Complete Guide To Raising A Golden Retriever Puppy.

P.S. Getting a Golden Retriever Puppy? Get the gameplan for raising them right with the Golden Retriever Puppy Handbook.

Related articles:

• 8-Week-Old Golden Retrievers: Training, Sleeping, Eating & Behaviors
• How Much Do Golden Retrievers Cost? (Initial Price & Yearly Costs)
• Puppy Starter Kit: 17 Essentials For Your New Puppy