I am looking for a new food to feed pups that is lower in protein than what I feed my adults. I want a 24% or less protein food without corn, wheat, soy and preferably glucosamine and chondroitin in it although I can use a supplement for that if needed. I also want it rather reasonably priced and accessible so pup families can continue feeding it. Ideas?

You might try and look at some the Natural Balance. Not sure what they have but they do tend to have a lower Protien level then some other foods.

Pink bag Fromm Puppy Gold has text book levels for growth of any dog of any breed. It can found via Internet sales like Chewy .com or in specialty stores of the Mom and Pop type.

Max and mins are not all the same when it comes to comparing foods for puppies. Your wanting 24 per cent or less protein is is not considered a healthy figure for growth. The amino acids are needed more in this stage of life. Fromm Puppy Gold provides the right levels of every ingredient.

Sending pups home and thinking about cost may not make sense in the long run. If your puppy buyers can't afford quality food will they be able to pay Vet bills?

Remember you are not just growing bones and joints, but healthy organs. You never want to go cheap on food. Breeders are faced with cost of feeding large numbers of dogs. Your puppy buyers for the most part will be feeding just the pup. If they have more then one dog Fromm Puppy Gold can be fed for All Life Stages so the family can feed the one food.

Fromm is a family owned company that makes it's own food in their own plants, and been in business for over 100 years. No recalls ever.

??, are you employed by Fromm?

No. But if I were it would be inappropriate to post without saying.

Oh okay, no sweat, if you were I had a question for you.

The original poster mentioned 'reasonably priced' which doesn't mean she is looking to feed a 'cheap' food as you stated. Fromm looks good, but certainly is not 'reasonable' for many at $51.99 for a 33# bag (plus S & H)!

OP - To name a few you may want to look into Canidae and Diamond Naturals. No corn, wheat or soy. Not sure of the protein contents, but they cost less than TOTW, Fromm, etc. Also check out 4Health at Tractor Supply.

The Dog Food Advisor website has good info on many, many foods. I use that website as a guideline.

Good luck!

Wellness has a large breed puppy food that my pup has done great on; corn, soy, wheat free; good controlled growth. I have not had good results with the regular 4Health puppy food with puppies from 2 unrelated lines- growth problems. Price of no grain free food is cheap, really. But I do completely understand where you are coming from. It worries me what buyers will feed their pup. WalMart has so much dog food for a reason- lots of people buy their food there. Many people don't want to spend lots of money on dog food.
I have loved Kirkland's grain free food for my adults. It has 24% protein and 12% fat. It is supposedly for all life stages, and has potential to control growth, but honestly I'm scared to try it on pups. And not everyone has a Costco within reasonable driving distance. So i hate to start pups on something people cannot continue. The price is excellent.

My big issue when a thread is started like this is who is the breeder, and what is the motivation to post this question.

Is it a backyard breeder, a puppy mill? Most respectable breeders who show or enter field or hunting events know the answer to this question and mentor newbies . Their dogs do well on a certain brand.

So if the OP is a backyard breeder the answer may be just feed the bitch Purina puppy Chow and wean the pups to that. The buyers will find Purina Puppy Chow in every grocery store. I wouldn't give the time of day explaining dog food to a mill operator.

If this a respectable breeder on hard times buying buy the Pallet from Ohio Pet a brand like Annamaet or Dr. Tims can be very affordable and your getting quality and feed trial tested food.

Everyone has heard the stories of successful breeders feeding their dogs Purina Dog Chow. It can work if you have a great line of dogs who are not in need of great nutrition. But for most everyone they get better results on Purina Pro Plan because it has more animal amino acids.

If you then want to talk about field trial dogs, owners want food that performs.

Dog Food Advisor is a great site for starters. His rating system is limited. He puts most weight to the amount of animal protein in a diet. He does Zero research into the owners of the foods, is it co-packed, family owned, or run by a corporation. Or amount of recalls.

At the Fromm web site you can view the PDF of the best puppy food sold today for any breed. Fromm Gold Puppy, pink bag. Quality sourcing, family owned with their own plants. Using fresh meats as well as Chicken meal. An All Life Stage food feed trial tested. A far different food then Purina puppy Chow, but what Puppy Chow does have is 27 % protein . What Purina Puppy Chow lacks in quality sourced ingredients, it has one of the best man made Vit/ Mineral packages added to the food to make it work.

You are going to be hard put to find a food formulated for puppies with lower protein than the adult formula. If you are willing to consider it, Eukanuba Excel formulas for adults will fit the bill - the chicken formula is 23% protein, and there are others that you can look at (lamb, salmon, etc.). None of these Eukanuba product contain corn or wheat - they are not grain free, however, as they do contain brewer's rice. All of the information is on the Eukanuba website.

we have been feeding 4 Health from Tractor Supply for a few years and like it very much. We have one puppy that needs a low protein diet and their Lamb and Rice is 21 %. I have always weaned our puppies to the food we feed the adults, the Salmon and Potato. I can't remember ever having dogs on anything lower than 26%. I am not sure why the low protein for puppies? We fed Fromm Gold Adult for awhile but couldn't keep weight on the dogs. It is more expensive. I know people like the Kirkland really well, it is probably priced around the same as the 4 Health. $31 for 35#

If I were to go to an inexpensive food nationally available that puppy buyers could get easily, I'd go to Purina One as I trust Purina far more than Diamond, which manufactures Kirkland, 4Health, Canadae, and others, last I checked. The Purina foods are actually used to grow the Purina Farms Labradors, which is good to know if you are presumably feeding Labs. Yet Purina One is usually available to Costco or Sam's club, grocery stores, and even Walmart and Target. For Labradors, I would use the Large Breed Puppy for pups over 4 months, and regular Puppy for in whelp girls and their weanlings. I see that the 31 lb bag is retailing from about $31 to $35. It is 26 percent protein but only 12% fat, with controlled mineral levels. Add a vitamin C supplement or tomato juice, and you may avoid pano, if that is your goal in going to low protein. If that is too pricey, I guess there is Purina Dog Chow, but I don't like the formula changes it has gone through over the years. Purina One is better than having the folks go to Big Red or Ol Roy!

That being said, at least one major guide dog school promotes using Iams, which is also cheap and readily available. I just don't like the recent track record for food safety from Iams/Eukanuba.

The average pet puppy buyer would rather pick up the food where it is convenient and not order off the internet, or you could do the Puppy Gold from Fromms. There are other foods I strongly prefer, but they are less convenient and cost more. In Purina family, I strongly prefer Pro Plan, but that involves at least going to the pet supply store or Tractor Supply. The food seems higher priced at TS.

Personally, I did not like Fromm puppy at all. Pups were not bloomy, lacked bone & coat. Similar lines did much better on ProPlan puppy.

CANIDAE Large Breed Puppy
http://www.canidae.com/dogs/life-stages/dry/large-breed-puppy/duck

Disclaimer: I am employed by CANIDAE. While, this is not my food of choice for my Labrador puppies, it fits your request.

It can be found at most independant retailers and Petco. CANIDAE has a great breeder program.

Or there is always our CANIDAE ALS formulation also found in the same places and I prefer it over the Large Breed Puppy and is a very cost effective choice.
http://www.canidae.com/dogs/life-stages/dry/all-life-stages

I actually feed my puppies CANIDAE Chicken and Rice.

Dog food is an amazing market every dog is different and can do better on one food over another. It is great to have so many choices.

Best of luck on choosing :)

@Julsby, is it true that Canidae is manufactured by Diamond, as suggested by "Shopper"?

Yes, Diamond does co-pack for us to our specified standards. We do also have our own plant where we produce our own foods too.
We are still a small family owned company. I have worked in the home office in sunny California along side the owners for over 6 years. The owners are very passionate about pet food and their dogs are spoiled rotten members of the family. We currently have 3 Labradors, a Jack Russel mix, a Yorkie, and a Chihuahua running around our office today.
For what it is worth and because I know people worry as do I. While I was in the area for my son's Basic Training Graduation from Fort Jackson, I scheduled a tour of the Diamond SC plant. I wanted to ask the plant manager face to face the pressing questions we all wanted to know. What did you learn and how did you improve your plant after the most recent recall? The overal plant was quite impressive. I was very impressed with the many changes they had made in the recent years to improve their product safety. I have toured other Pet Food plants prior to the recalls and it was evedent to me they had taken note and learned from the recall.
I brought my Husband along and he was equally impressed. In fact he stated that dog food is cheap compared to the amount of work it takes to produce one bag. I hushed him right away. LOL.
I did not post this to persuade anyone into buying CANIDAE. I posted to answer the original posters question. There are many great brands of dog food out there and it is awesome that we have so many choices and options available. I just so happen to know personally what goes into every bag of food I feed my dogs and am very please with how well my dogs do on CANIDAE.

Julie :)