Anyone else here feed their puppy Merrick? Also, does your puppy still eat wet food?

[BabieChloe]

My puppy loves it, I just wanted to know if anyone else feeds it to their puppy as well? I've been hearing a lot about royal canin but merrick has a higher rating so I'm not sure which is actually better for her? She loves the merrick so I've been feeding her that. Also, she is 10 weeks and I was told to give her wet food when I got her, so I've been doing that as well (merrick puppy plate) but I wanted to know when I can stop giving wet food or does she need wet food together with the kibble in her daily diet? Thank you!

[tokipoki]

I rotate a lot of different canned/wet foods and have used Royal Canin and Merrick. Honestly, I don't notice much of a difference at all...Toki likes them and does fine on both. She's not very picky! We tend to use Natural Balance Stews, Hill's Ideal Balance, Wellness, TikiDog, Party Animal, Weruva, and Earthborn moist entrees the most...whatever I can find the best deal on locally

Toki is 2 1/2 years now but when I got her at 10 weeks old, she came to us eating just kibble and we only fed her kibble pretty much exclusively the first several months that I had her and she did perfectly fine. Occasionally I'd mix in wet food just because I had it but it was not a regular thing.

If your puppy is doing well with the canned Merrick and you don't mind the cost of feeding it, I'd stick with that. It's not necessary to feed wet food or even a combination of wet/dry although I do believe it is beneficial and try to do so with my pups. I feed Teddy (1 1/2 years) a combination of kibble that I moisten with water and add fresh toppers/canned food and Toki has been eating primarily canned food (we just started experimenting with homecooking) but that is our personal preference.

[ShowGirlLola]

When I first got Lola at 12 weeks I used to feed her wet Merrick twice a day and she had Merrick dry food all the time.

This was before she got really difficult.

[BabieChloe]

I bought Merrick one time from a small store and I noticed that the wet food inside had black pieces but the expiration date was October 2015, anyone else notice this? I threw it out. I've decided to only buy the food from big stores.. black chicken looked strange to me!

[tokipoki]

Originally Posted by BabieChloe

I bought Merrick one time from a small store and I noticed that the wet food inside had black pieces but the expiration date was October 2015, anyone else notice this? I threw it out. I've decided to only buy the food from big stores.. black chicken looked strange to me!

Are you sure the black pieces were chicken? I've seen little black pieces occasionally in the food that look like apple seeds which I just pick out but I've never seen anything that looked "bad" like that to me...I know the small breed ones we tried had apples in the ingredients list so I assumed that's what they were. You might take a picture and contact Merrick to inquire about black stuff in some of your cans if it looked like the chicken was black.

[BabieChloe]

Originally Posted by tokipoki

Are you sure the black pieces were chicken? I've seen little black pieces occasionally in the food that look like apple seeds which I just pick out but I've never seen anything that looked "bad" like that to me...I know the small breed ones we tried had apples in the ingredients list so I assumed that's what they were. You might take a picture and contact Merrick to inquire about black stuff in some of your cans if it looked like the chicken was black.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it wasn't the seeds because it was the actual chicken pieces that were completely black. I threw them out because my puppy wasn't going to eat that for sure. I think it had something to do with the store because I've been buying from larger stores and haven't had a problem with it. The lady who owned the store probably kept it in heat or something definitely went wrong cause I've never seen black chicken before. Does real cooked chicken have the same nutrients as the puppy wet foods do or are there more added nutrients in the cans?

[jeane]

I feed merrick grain free and never had a problem

[KEmbrescia]

My Prissy is 7 months. I have tried several different foods. She has been on Merricks for a few months. She likes it and does great on it. I still feed canned. I give her about 2 spoonfuls of canned Merricks in the morning. Pretty much just a little taste. Then I leave her a bowl of Merricks kibble in her crate for her and go to work. When I get home and set her free from the crate she usually has eaten well. I try to encourage her to eat mostly kibble and just a little canned. Sometimes when I come home and she hasnt eaten well I will give her more canned. But I only do that when I have to. I also have heard of Royal Canin and am curious about it, but havent tried it.

[Lovetodream88]

Rating is not everything you really need to research the company and where they get there food they put in the food, do they do trials, do they have a vet nutritionist on staff, if they have had a recall why and stuff. You have to make sure the company it trustworthy because many are not.