Dogs > Nutrition

Large breed puppy food?

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Amber:
Since it is official that River staying now, I need some help. Based on my research, coonhounds can get up to 80lbs. I have no Idea what River is mixed with, and I know that the size of her paws isn't an entirely accurate indicator, but I think she is going to be pretty big. So.... large breed puppy food? She is going to have to eat mostly commercial food, at least in the beginning. Right now I have a bag of Merrick Whole Earth Farms puppy food... I didn't think she would be staying with me long-term, needed to grab something quick, and she showed up between paychecks. I need to get her some appropriate food, and I have NO experience with large breeds. There is some research that indicates that a raw diet may not be so great for large breed dogs until they are older. Probably bogus, but I don't want to screw up the calcium amount and cause her problems. From what I have seen, Orijen Large Breed Puppy seems to be the best, but I am open to suggestions.

Also, and this is the wrong place for this, but... I am getting her used to a collar right now, so she has a generic little breakaway safety collar on, but when I start least training her, should she have a Martingale collar? A front clip harness?

DeeDee:
To help you understand the difference in larger breed dogs from smaller breeds, I'm going to send you to where we were sent when Vlad developed his shoulder problem.

The Great Dane lady specializes in raising larger breeds, and she's got several options for feeding a large-breed puppy to adulthood.

I don't agree with all her food choices, and we continued feeding Vlad a mix of raw & kibble (separate meals) until last year when we found an option that Barkly would eat in emergencies. Now I just feed them raw.

Remember, you don't have to feed exactly what she recommends. But you need to keep an eye on the amounts of things like minerals, etc. that the foods she prefers contain. She specializes in fixing problems like Vlad's possible OCD, but she also has a LONG running, proven program of just raising large dogs. Vlad's breeder thinks none of those special blackwatch supplements are a real need though--unless you run into problems like we did with Vlad by letting him run when he was growing so ridiculously fast there for a few months.

http://www.greatdanelady.com/

And foods:

http://www.greatdanelady.com/articles/criteria_list_of_better_foods.htm

There are plenty of foods out there that work. There are plenty of foods out there that are specifically made for large breed puppies, so if you have a preference for any one company, go with it. Most of Vlad's formative growth was spent on Nature's Variety Instinct with the raw coating as the kibble part of their meals.

You can start looking at other foods specifically for larger breeds by looking through this search:

http://www.petco.com/shop/searchresults.aspx?Ntt=large+breed+puppy&x=0&y=0

I don't have any proof, but I've been told that a lot of those foods have been developed using Great Dane Lady's nutritional research over the years of raising Danes.

EDIT: I DO think that puppy of yours has some awfully big feet to grow into. Unless it's a dwarf, a puppy's size can usually be determined rather well by its paws.

Amber:
Reading it now. Thank you :)

Amber:
So. No Orijen large breed puppy; thats a pity. It looks like Precise Holistic Complete Large breed puppy is the most highly recommended. I'm a bit iffy about some of my ingredients, but it doesn't look horrible and I am going to defer to those with greater knowledge. Would you be comfortable discussing exactly what you fed Vlad?

I appreciate your time and help :)

DeeDee:
From day one, Vlad has gotten 6 different types of raw meat rotated (Duck, venison, beef, chicken, quail, green tripe); various vegetable & fruits in a puree (w/kibble meal); a couple of tablespoons of yogurt or cottage cheese; raw eggs; a puppy vitamin to make the vet happier so that he knew "for sure 'the holes' are being filled in"; coconut oil when he was 16 weeks old and started "puppy acne"--breakfast and lunch.

We started out with Wellness for kibble, then Taste of the Wild, then went to Nature's Variety Instinct when Taste of the Wild was recalled--for their supper w/the vegetable puree.

When Vlad was between 5-6 mths old and had his shoulder injury, his breeder sent me to The Great Dane Lady's site and told me to read the OCD info and get those supplements she suggests. So we started him on the supplements in this blackwatch protocol: http://www.greatdanelady.com/articles/feed_program_for_ocd_repair.htm No, at that point, I didn't worry about grains being the carbs, and his vet wasn't worried either when we went over the GDL protocol.

We MIGHT follow GDL's regime altogether from day one if we ever have to get another large guard and wait till it's older to start raw, but I WILL follow the large-breeder rule and not let it run at all until it's at least 18 mths old because it helps prevent things like OCD. No BRT seems to have problems being fed the Russian way (only had processed foods over there between 20-30 years now, so many of their dogs still eat the way I've fed Vlad) if the dog is prevented certain activity. This woman is Russian, one of the original importers of BRTs to US & I went by what she says: http://www.russianguard.com/diet.htm when deciding how to feed Vlad. I talked to her and she contends that a lot of dogs that were over in Russia lived 2-3 years longer over there than large dogs over here do, and she believes that diet plays a big part in it.

I will continue to veer from the strict predator-diet and give fruits and vegetable puree because I believe there are antioxidants in those that help with things like cancer. Maybe it's just my dogs, or the fact that I make puree, but I don't see anything in their poop that says they're not digesting it. After 3 cases of cancer in a row, I'm sick of it, so now we're doing everything we can think of to stay away from it, and fresh antioxidants are going to be part of it.

Kibble ended altogether last year when we found out Barkly would eat Dr. Harvey's Grain-free Oracle Beef, so that's what we keep for emergency food now and don't have to keep them eating kibble anymore. Don't ever stop kibble if you want them to keep on eating it. They've been offered plenty of samples in the pet stores since I quit it, and they turn their noses up at it.

When Vlad was 18 mths, after talking to his breeder, I switched his GLD recommended digestive enzymes for: http://www.entirelypets.com/caplvi1ta.html (Barkly has also gotten the enzymes & glucosamine, since Vlad had to start them, and vitamins since he's also raw-fed.) The Canine Plus; human brand Glucosamine Sulfate; and Coconut oil are the only supplements they get now.

At this adult age, they still get 3 meals a day, 2 meats at breakfast and supper and 1 veg/fruit puree at lunch, but they get 3 meals only because I want them to have the veg/fruit. If I didn't, they'd only get two.

Edit: I forgot that they get a piece of liver, gizzard, beef heart, or some other organ meat at each breakfast too.

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