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What Is the Best Dog Food for English Bulldogs

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Bringing a new English Bulldog puppy home for the first time can be one of the most exhilarating but also terrifying experiences. One of the most important decisions is choosing the best dog food for English Bulldogs. Because this is such an important topic we wanted to break down the discussion in both video and written format. Feel free to continue reading as well as watch our video on the best Bulldog Dog Food.

Best Dog Food Video – Erica Explains What Dog Food We Recommend

The Correct Dog Food is Essential to a Bulldog’s Diet

Bulldogs are uniquely individual in their dietary needs. Some struggle with sensitive tummies and will need a specific diet catered to that but most will respond well to the foods that we recommend and not require a special diet. I will share with you over a decade of experience with dog food and what we have found works best.

Finding a Balance in Ingredients:

Ingredients are extremely important and unfortunately research led “public” recommendations as well as marketing over the past 20 years have created a mismatch of information and caused much confusion on the subject.

Corn/Wheat

Whole grains such as corn provide dogs with important digestible nutrients including energy, protein, vitamin E and linoleic acid. It is those nutrients that are crucial to a dog’s overall health. The most important thing to remember is to choose a food that provides your dog with complete and balanced nutrition. This is true whether or not the food contains grains. In some cases, dogs can become allergic to grains which is one of the reasons why grain-free dog food exists.

The American Kennel Club points out that corn is not bad per se. But, it’s best to avoid too much corn in dog food.  Everything in moderation…

Protein

Protein is the number one ingredient you should look for in your bulldog food. When you research a dog’s diet you will find sources that many categorize dogs as carnivores. And while that’s not exactly true, as they are omnivores that will eat both meat and plant matter, their diet does heavily rely on needing protein. Our puppy food has 31% protien and our adult food 26%

Grain-Free

In your research for the right dog food, you will find an overwhelming amount of information regarding “grain-free dog food” as the best diet plan. While this has grown in popularity (mostly due to marketing) there are studies that show links to an entirely grain-free diets and heart issues.

The Florida Department of Agriculture (FDA) did a study on grain-free diets in canines. They found that it could link to dilated cardiomyopathy. “Problems with the heart that can make it harder to pump blood.” And while this hasn’t been fully proven, there is evidence in the studies that we don’t recommend a 100% grain-free diet unless absolutely necessary, i.e. extreme intolerance/allergy to grains.

Gut Health

Probiotics: Every bulldog (as well as humans) can benefit from probiotics. Gut health is the root of overall health and a stronger immune system. According to the AKC, “Sometimes beneficial microbes are damaged or destroyed, and that can cause stomach upset and a general decline in health. If your dog is suffering from diarrhea or related issues or seems to get sick more than other dogs for no apparent reason” a probiotic is recommended.

Our Puppy food Combination!

Now that you’ve been educated on ingredients… let’s dive into the specific foods and brands that we recommend to you here at Bruisers Bulldogs! We have found a combination that works great for our puppies and is the best of both worlds, Proteins, Corn/Wheat but also the benefit of a little grain free and the gut support of daily probiotics! Below is the blend we recommend.

Recommended Dog Food For English Bulldogs

We want to add a really quick side note here. Many bulldog breeders may recommend the most expensive kibble and claim it is the best dog food for English Bulldogs. This is a front to make it seem like they know what they are talking about. But, we will never do that. Many breeders will also recommend or require the use of a dog food solely because they earn a commission from the food sales.

We always provide the absolute best food for our English Bulldogs, and “most expensive” does not mean it’s better. You can purchase the same food at a lower price, and there is nothing wrong with that. 

After much research and many phone calls to manufacturers, we decided to go with Diamond Puppy/Adult food. This decision came after several years of using Royal Canin which we were mostly happy with although our bulldogs struggled with soft stools. We also began searching for a food with higher calcium and phosphorus – both are needed for our mommas. We decided to move on to Diamond because we wanted to find food that was formulated for bulldog moms as well as our puppies.  

Diamond puppy food is specifically designed for pregnant, nursing moms, and puppies.  It exceeds the minimum amount of calcium and phosphorus that a pregnant and nursing mom needs. While weaning, our moms and puppies are sharing food so naturally, the puppies are also eating Diamond. 

Although we do love Diamond food we are not dogmatic (see what we did there) that our adopters continue with it if they choose not to. There are various reasons that an adopter may choose a different brand of food. And one of the main reasons is the availability of Diamond in their area.  

We also recommend Royal Canin and Taste of The Wild (also made by Diamond). Which you can usually find all across the United States in big supply chains. And through local pet supply stores as well. And while you can easily purchase online, it isn’t ideal to always have to order your dog food online. This is why we encourage our adopters to do their research before bringing their puppy home.

If you choose to adopt one of our English Bulldog puppies, the package you take home will include a small pack of Diamond puppy food combination.

If you need to transition your bulldog to another brand of food be sure to make it a gradual process. Mixing the foods together will help ease the transition and be gentler on your puppy’s stomach. Of course, we are more than happy to discuss this with you further should you have any questions on the right nutrition for the new bulldog puppy in your life.

Bulldog Puppy Feeding Schedule 

Don’t leave food out all day. Keep bulldog puppies on a strict schedule. We like to compare this to humans eating on a schedule. Have you ever skipped your normal lunch time because maybe work was too busy, and you developed a headache until you were able to eat? Well, puppies can go through similar “withdrawals” which can cause overeating or eating too fast due to their empty stomach tricking their brain into signally a need to too much food.

The Veterinary Centers for America shares that “A regular feeding schedule helps with house training puppies.” It is much easier to know when your bulldog puppy needs to use the bathroom if you have a schedule and know the last time that they ate.

Once you are home with your new puppy we recommend doing feedings three times a day.  Below is the feeding times we use but you can adjust it to fit your work/sleep schedule but keep it to three times daily!

• First feeding –  7 am
• Second feeding – 11 am
• Third feeding – 4 pm

We recommend your puppy’s last meal should be by 4:30 pm at the latest. This will give them lots of opportunities to “clear out their system” before bedtime. It’s important to remember that puppies will relieve themselves after mealtimes. The majority of the time when a puppy is struggling with accidents during the night it is because of eating too close to bedtime. So, we want to avoid eating late as much as possible. 

The amount of food you will be feeding will depend on the age and size of your puppy when you take him/her home. This is something we will go over with you at pickup and are always available for a chat as your puppy grows.

-Erica

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