A good rule of thumb when looking at dog foods for your Pit Bull is that three or four of the first six ingredients of dog food should be animal derived. They tend to be tastier and more digestible, which means less stool volume and less gas issues.
The components that vary most from one brand to another (besides preservatives) are protein and fat. Protein provides the necessary building blocks for the growth and maintenance of bones, muscle, coat/hair, and the production of antibodies, which fight infections. The quality is more important then the quantity. Meat-derived protein digests better then plant-derived protein. Most adult Pit Bulls do fine on protein levels of about 20% in dry food.
Fat is calorie-rich and most dogs prefer the taste of higher fat contents. Fat is necessary in aiding transport of important vitamins and providing energy. Pit Bulls who do not consume enough fat often have dry coats. More protein will only be necessary if your Pit Bull is under a lot of physical stress. If they do more then run around with the kids, such as weight pulling or any other sport, they may need more protein to keep the muscles going strong.
If your Pit Bull is obese or skinny, read more here to help diagnose the problem and choose a better diet or food choice for them.
Now choosing the food for your Pit Bull’s lifestyle!
You can find a food for just about any health problems or lifestyle your Pit Bull may have.
- Puppies and pregnant and nursing mothers especially need higher protein and somewhat higher fat levels in their diets, such as the levels found in puppy foods.
- Stressed, highly active, or underweight dogs should be fed food with a high protein level.
- Obese dogs or dogs with heart problems should be fed a low fat food. This may mean they have a less shiny and full coat, but the health is more important here.
- Older dogs, especially those with kidney problems should be fed moderate levels of food with very high-quality protein. High protein diets do not cause kidney failure in old dogs; but a high protein diet will do a lot of harm to a dog who’s already suffering from kidney stress. So decrease the overall level of protein, but increase the quality.
Hi, My puppy of 5 months eats A LOT and doesnt have worms but she cant keep the food in? She will eat, get fat, then poop and be skinny! i dont understand what’s wrong! And i am VERY tired of people saying i dont feed her enough when i go to the dog park! PLEASE HELP!
-Concerned Pit Bull Pup mommy!!
I went for broke and picked up Blue Wilderness puppy food. I’m happy to say we are starting to notice a little more padding around her rib cage. I have been supplementing occasionally with fish oil or olive oil to help with the itching. She still has minor itching but no where near as bad.
Great, glad to hear the great news
Hi. We’ve had her about a month. The best guess is she is between 3-5 years old, She did have the itching when we got her. Our vet put her on steroids and Science Diet, but as soon as the steroids ran out she started itching again, as well as snoring a lot at night. In fact the itching seemed worse. I’ve read that Science Diet really pushes deals with vets.
I’ve switched over to Nutro lamb & rice. She seems a little better. My vet doesn’t like Nutro but if I trust the ingredient label, it seems like better food.
Do you have an opinion on these choices, or do you tend to go with the less retail foods? Thanks.
The food seems like it has a good formula, with great reviews. Sometimes for some reason some dogs’ body will reject some ingredients. But almost 100% of reviewers gave the food 100% ratings. But like I said this is a good time to split test a little bit and see which dog food your Pit Bull will react better to. You’re at the point where you’re on the right track, because the skin is a little better. But maybe there is an all natural food that will do even more for the skin.
Also did you get puppy food or adult food in the Nutro brand? The puppy food should help the weight issue. But always remember sometimes changing dog foods can upset a dogs digestive system, and diarrhea can become an issue for a few days. The first time I changed my dogs food, I came home and there was diarrhea all over my floor. If you run into this problem, check this article out:
http://defendpitbulls.com/introducing-new-foods-to-your-pit-bull/
I got the adult version. I was going for the lamb and rice meal since I’;ve had success with using it for other dogs. I’ll look for puppy food. There’s a feed and tack store nearby that might have beeter selection then the big box pet stores.
Sounds good. Please let me know what you get the best results from, I’d love to know how it turns out. Also try to find food with high polyunsaturated fat. That helps out itching as well.
This is exactly an issue I am having. We got an abused pit from an animal rescue. She is a very personable dog who had a tragic life before.
She is underweight and having skin issues. The Dr gave her steroids and shampoo for deramtitis, and we changed food, doubling quantity, but she is still underweight and still itching like crazy. The stool sample was negative.
What has worked for others? Thanks
For the underweight issue, you might want to try a high grade puppy food. Those are usually stacked with fats and proteins to help growth in puppies. The only reason I say high grade, is because of the skin issues. In lower grade foods, they tend to do more damage with itching. You might want to buy a small bag of a higher grade puppy food, and if it helps the itching, great, but if it makes it worse, move to the next one. Your Pit bull should see better results with both the weight and itching.
Did she have itching when you rescued her, or did it get worse while she was with you? How long have you had her? How old is she?