Feeding Giant/large Breeds

[Legacee]

Just wondering what dry food breeders feed to large/giant breeds? Any extra information on dry foods welcomed.

thank you in advance.

Edited March 14, 2008 by ozk9s

[Tilly]

Our GSD's breeder recommended "Dog Delite" which is based on corn not wheat (economically priced) but we could never find a place that actually sold it so I don't know what is was like. The also recommended Pedigree Breeder Formula range or Advance - we also had trouble finding both of these.

Our rottie at the time was eating Eukanuba (I can never remember the correct spelling) and wouldn't eat any other dry food. So we ended up feeding our GSD on Eukanuba as well.

We did try a few others dry foods including Nutro. Our boys looked great on Nutro but then our GSD started to get really smelly pees and would drink lots and lots of water. Once we stopped feeling Nutro he went back to normal.

We have now just stuck to Eukanuba and currently feeding the high performance large breed variety.

Edited for spelling...

Edited March 13, 2008 by Tilly

[Danois]

Hi

Depends what breed you are talking about I suppose. I know a number of dane owners feed Eukanuba Large Breed Puppy or Royal Canin Giant Puppy/ Junior. I have used these 2 in the past and now feed Eagle Pack Holistic.

From what I understand, a number of breeders do not feed a super premium food due to cost etc

[ShesaLikeableBiBear]

We dont actually have large/giant breeds but we do feed Nutro Natural Choice to ours. Unlike Tilly we have never had a problem with either smelly pees or poohs, and have been feeding it for nearly eight years.

It is a super premium food and is expensive compared to some brands, but then as with many things you pay for what you get and we were after quality. You actually feed less than say supercoat.

We have 7 dogs here so guess that would more than equal what you would feed in quantity to a giant breed.

[Guest bigdogg]

does anyone use bonnie puppy?

[jaegertheweim]

I'm not a breeder but I feed my wei Eagle Pack holistic select large/giant breed puppy. He's doing really well on it - growing nicely and having good solid poos.

I've also fed the regular EP large/giant breed puppy (purple bag) but prefer the Holistic one (green bag)

Before that I fed Proplan large breed puppy which I didn't really like this

My breeder's rec was Bonnie Puppy and while he thrived on it, it gave him soft and bulky poos which I wasn't happy with

As you can see I've had some kibble issues in the past but have now found the right one for my pup. I guess it's all a matter of trial and error!

[Legacee]

Thank you for all your responses. I am curious to know if any of you have found any of the giant/large breed dry food cause problems? ie. too high in protein, growing puppies too quick etc. Giant/large breeds for example st bernard, newfie, bernese even malamutes.

Thanks again

[Crysti_Lei]

i have just added Royal Canin Giant Breed to my Saint pups diet. i loke RC as i have had great experiance with it.

[Crysti_Lei]

does anyone use bonnie puppy?

i put Bonnie in the came class as Pal and Chum

[cassie]

I feed my 3 year old Bernese Mountain Dog Eagle Pack Large/Giant Breed Adult, but he was raised (as a puppy) on ProPlan Puppy, as by the breeder's recommendations.

I feed my 3 month old Saint Bernard puppy Royal Canin Giant Breed Baby Dog, as by the breeder's recommendations.

[Addicted2gold]

Hi Bigdogg, Yes I use Bonnie puppy, have raised 3 litters (Golden Retrievers) on it to date and not had a problem with any of them. My adult dogs also get fed the Bonnie working dog plus chicken frames & bones and look amazing. Have tried the more expensive brands but never saw any difference in my dogs, maybe the poo's were a bit smaller but thats all.

[Guest bigdogg]

bonnie is mainly what i use now - sometimes mix a bag of cobber.. im always willing to try other bickies if they dont cost an arm or a leg.. The expensive brands may well be better for your dog - but the quality vs cost plays a big part in my decision..

home brands, chums, pals etc are a definitely a step behind bonnie - i reckon its good as a midfield player in the market..

[Crysti_Lei]

home brands, chums, pals etc are a definitely a step behind bonnie - i reckon its good as a midfield player in the market..

so on par with Supercoat and optimum then?

[centitout]

Hi

Depends what breed you are talking about I suppose. I know a number of dane owners feed Eukanuba Large Breed Puppy or Royal Canin Giant Puppy/ Junior. I have used these 2 in the past and now feed Eagle Pack Holistic.

From what I understand, a number of breeders do not feed a super premium food due to cost etc

my dogs are fed bonnies adult complete from 12 weeks as the 'premium large breed"dry foods cause their feet to "collapse" as the protein levels are way to high.but i also feed raw minced frames,liver,roo(small amounts) .vegies ,yogurt etc.bonnies puppy is fed until 12 weeks.it is not cost at all,i prefer to feed minimal dry food of any type and my dogs look fantastic and are healthy.

[rijbiz]

Just wondering what dry food breeders feed to large/giant breeds? Any extra information on dry foods welcomed.

thank you in advance.

I've got 4 large breed dogs and feed them Advance, used to feed Eukanubra but swopped after I found out that Advance is the only one made in Australia from Australian products. I have no problems with this food and their coats are great. Do not feed them large breed variety after 6 months old as I find it makes them grow too quickly and they can end up "bum high".

[Nekhbet]

Eagle Pack Giant puppy ... cant recommend it highly enough it did wonders for my Bordeaux

[woody2shoes]

Just wondering what dry food breeders feed to large/giant breeds? Any extra information on dry foods welcomed.

thank you in advance.

Hi,

We feed Eagle Pack Large & Giant Breed Puppy Formula to our young labs, then at 12 months switch to an Adult Formula for those in active work/training. Our older girl and the two terriers are fed Bonnie - feeding 6 dogs Premium dry food was becoming a very expensive exercise! lol All of ours routinely get chicken carcasses, bones and some raw meat as part of their diet. We've always found our pups and those in work do brilliantly on EP.

Two pups we recently bought (from two different litters) had both been raised on Advance Large Breed Puppy. Thinking I'd stick with their original diets, I rang a supplier in Melbourne to order some in. He told me that Advance (and I have no idea if he's right in saying this) is the only premium dry food brand which still uses chemical preservatives so they don't recommend it to their clients. I opted to change them over to Eagle Pack.

I hope this helps.

w2s

Edited March 15, 2008 by woody2shoes

[Guest bigdogg]

home brands, chums, pals etc are a definitely a step behind bonnie - i reckon its good as a midfield player in the market..

so on par with Supercoat and optimum then?

in my experience bonnie is better than supercoat - that just may suit my dogs and their lifestyle.. I have not tried optimum to judge it..

[sas]

Thank you for all your responses. I am curious to know if any of you have found any of the giant/large breed dry food cause problems? ie. too high in protein, growing puppies too quick etc. Giant/large breeds for example st bernard, newfie, bernese even malamutes.

Thanks again

If you're purchasing a Kibble especially for Giant breeds then the protein ratio is suited to the Giant Breed.

For my Great Dane puppy we started on Eukanuba, we found that it heated him up too much as some prem. brand kibbles can do, he also wasn't getting quite enough calicum during teething and his pasterns started to slope quite badly. We switched to Eagle Pack, this grows Giant Breeds very slowly, we didn't actually go through the ugly period where they are all leggy and weird looking and only went bum high for about a week and his pasterns came right in about a month.

We always put a bit of water in the bowl and a handful of mince and made a gravy which we'd mix the kibble through.

At 10 months (At the end of the major growth period) we switched foods again as he was having allergy issues.

[sas]

does anyone use bonnie puppy?

i put Bonnie in the came class as Pal and Chum

That's a bit harsh. If you look at the side panel and so-forth you'll see that there is a difference. I wouldn't call them prem. Kibble but they're not junk food like Pal & Chum etc.