Confused About Feeding

[colkrnl]

Hi,

Its been a long time since Ive had a puppy, and Im getting a bit overwhelmed with feeding choices - Helppppp!!!!

Pup is a large breed, ocd and hd in the breed. Pups parentage is an unknown quantity, and she is 4 months old. Had been fed Bonnie puppy cut down with rice by the person I got her from (another thread :p ) Pup has poor conformation, so Im keen to give her the most appropriate diet I can, to minimise joint problems. That being said, I know my faults, and I dont think Im up to figuring out a full on Barf type diet, yet I dont want to purely feed her dry food - the vet recommended feeding only Advance with an occasional bone for teeth.

Soo, in my dog world friends, one suggests Advance, but blended with supercoat sensitive (partly to drop the protein, partly cost I think) and small amounts of meat and veg. Other friend suggests basing her diet on pet chicken mince (she recommends adding a teaspoon of calcium to a pound of mince as she doesnt believe the calcium in it is readily available(?) to a cup of dry food. She also recommends leftover vegies etc and vitamin c for connective tissue....

Im confused! Id like to base around the chicken mince - am worried about adding calcium - and dont want to muck up my pup any further - cost of course is a factor too - any comment about these suggestions?

[Guest Tess32]

BARF or raw food is not as hard as you think and I"m sure everyone here could help you

My pup is four months old and this is what he's fed as an example:

Morning: Meat (beef mince or beef meat or lamb meat, sometimes with vegetables, with omega oil supplement, fish about 2 x a week and egg once a week)

3 x a week - about 40 grams of offal (liver or kidney)

Dinner: combo of these to make up weight -

Quarter/maryland chicken - just given whole.

Chicken carcass frames

chicken wings

Lamb neck

beef ribs

That's it really. It's pretty simple :p

Do not add calcium, does more harm than good.

If you do go the dry food way - there are better options than supercoat, advance and so on. Most people here would feed Eagle Pack Holistic.

Edited February 21, 2008 by Tess32

[stormie]

Have a look at www.greatdanelady.com

I'd go for a large breed puppy food like Eagle Pack Large/Giant Puppy. They have a premium and a holistic range.

The dry foods are generally pretty well balanced, so I wouldn't go adding anything to it such as straight meat or extra carbs as you may upset the calcium/phosphorus ratio which is so important in puppies.

[Poodle wrangler]

My understanding is that minced meats don't give a very balanced diet. It will depend on the quality of the chicken mince.

Breeders used to add calcium, but found this actually caused more skeletal problems, so it's no longer advised.

HD is largely genetic- the joint isn't well-formed to start with then add a too high protein diet (pup grows too fast), overexercise and you make the problem worse. Dog can be born with mild, but made severe, for example.

General advice is:

*Keeping your dog very lean

* No long walks (15 minutes is enough), no frisbee, no activities that are really hard on joints and ligaments until dog is fully grown.

* Lower protein, lower calorie formula than standard puppy dry/ canned food. You want pup to put on weight and grow gradually.

Some people feed the adult formula, though there are also special large breed puppy dry foods available.

Read the packet- sometimes the large breed puppy and adult formulas are virtually identical.

[Nekhbet]

Eagle Pack giant breed formula - absolutely excellent for poorly conformed puppies and grows them slowly. I used it on my DDB and it worked a treat for his skin adn flat feet

[colkrnl]

Thanks for the replies! Sounds like Eagle packs a bit of a winner :D