# Best food for a GSP



## mrand (Feb 2, 2009)

I have a German Shorthaired Pointer who's 4. She's a little overweight (i think) and her coat has some dandruff and she seems to be going to the bathroom alot. I'm currently feeding her Beneful (regular and healthy weight versions). I'm sure I can do alot better in terms of nutrition for her, but I'm not sure what would be a good food. Any thoughts? She does exercise more in the summertime, but the winter is hard to get her out.

Thanks.


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## Doc (Jan 17, 2009)

For the price, and assuming you are going with a kibble, you might look into Costco's Kirkland Dog Food.


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## Postal (Jan 23, 2009)

mrand said:


> I have a German Shorthaired Pointer who's 4. She's a little overweight (i think) and her coat has some dandruff and she seems to be going to the bathroom alot. I'm currently feeding her Beneful (regular and healthy weight versions). I'm sure I can do alot better in terms of nutrition for her, but I'm not sure what would be a good food. Any thoughts? She does exercise more in the summertime, but the winter is hard to get her out.
> 
> Thanks.


Step away from the Beneful! heh

If you're wanting to stay with your dry food, I would suggest heading over to your local pet store, or even Petco. I haven't found a lot of decent food choices at Petsmart, not to dog them, but Petco just seems to carry the better choice. A lot of members here use Innova EVO and Orijen. Although I live just north of the Texas capital, it's hard for me to find either those brands.. So my next choices would be Blue Buffalo, Solid Gold, Wellness, or Natural Balance. There's reviews and opinions all over the board, just search for them. 

You generally want look for grain free kibble, which all those brands offer a version of kibble that IS grain free. Apparently, Blue Buffalo has Wilderness, which seems to be pretty top of the line for a great price.. then there's Wellness Core, which is anything but cheap, but still a great kibble.. and lastly, I hear now that Natural Balance's LID (grain free) choices are pretty weak in meat products. So don't bother with Natural Balance if you're pursuing a grain free product heh. I also want to recommend Solid Gold's Seameal. It's a powdered supplement you sprinkle on your dog's food. You can find it next to the Solid Gold food section and I will swear by this product.

I'm sure you'll get a lot more elaboration on my post.. and don't be hesitant to look around the board. There's more information here than you can read in a day, I promise :biggrin:


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## rannmiller (Jun 27, 2008)

Yes, you're right about being able to do better than Beneful. It has a ton of allergens that are probably the cause of the dandruff, and loads of sugar and other species inappropriate ingredients that are probably causing the weight gain. 

It's so hard for me to recommend kibble when it all has species inappropriate ingredients in it, but I'd say if you had to choose one, go with the Wellness Core Reduced Fat, it helped my overweight dandruff puppy lose the weight she needed to a while ago (coupled with portion control and a lot more exercise, of course).


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## birddog1 (Jan 26, 2009)

I've got a GSP also. She's 1.5 yrs old now and I've been feeding her ProPlan Select Salmon. I just recently tried the Canidae All Life Stages. So far so good. She enjoys the food and has done well on it although I'm still mixing the 2 foods. I've done a lot of reading on the foods and there are some folks who say their dogs have gotten sick on Canidae but no problems here. Based on the feeding guidelines on the bag, it's going to take less of the Canidae too.


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