Food Questions

by **whatagoon** » Sun Feb 14, 2010 4:26 pm

Ok, here's my rambling assortment of questions

River is 5 months, 35 lbs, currently on Chicken Soup for Large Breed Puppy. I know several people here do not continue to feed puppy food past a few months. I've been thinking of taking her of of it soon. She does decent on it. Coat is good, smells fine, eats it all up. Her ears are always dirty, and stools are ok, not as firm as I would like, but not terrible. She's also teething so I know that might be affecting it also. When I give her a new treat I do try to gradually add it in, make sure that it agrees with her first before giving it freely. I've been thinking of doing either the Innova or Blue Buffalo.

Now, do you feed a food for large breed dogs? River is not going to be a huge monster dog, so is it necessary? And if you do not feed large breed, do you supplement with anything?

Also, the Innova website has a feeding calculator. But for Blue Buffalo, if I did the large breed Fish & Oatmeal, the feeding guidelines start at 50lbs. So would I just calculate the calories she would need and figure it out that way?

Is there anything else that as a growing puppy she needs added to an adult food?

Thanks for the advice, we both appreciate it!
Kate & River

by **SaltyDog** » Sun Feb 14, 2010 5:21 pm

I've been studying dog food including nutrient breakdowns and calculations for almost 3 years now. I still always find it good to ask others what they use and how each dog does on each food. No matter how much research you do, there still isn't anything better than trial and error.

I currently have my almost 6 month old on Wellness Large Breed Puppy. I had her on Merrick Puppy Plate but the calcium was way to high for a large breed....what a bummer. For me, Wellness was the best I could consistently get my hands on, though I also like the ingredients and the NA in California Natural Puppy which I can get consistently.

I'm switching her to Orijen Large Breed Puppy this week now that I can finally obtain it regularly. I'm also putting my 4 year old weim on this as well.

I never stop researching and am adament about where the food is produced and have found disturbing results at where dog food is actually made. So not only do I care about ingredients and NA's...but I want to buy only from company owned facilities.

Here the only premium companies I've found that make their own food

Champion Pet Foods (Orijen, Acana)
Merrick Pet Care (Merrick, Before Grain, Whole Earth Farms)
Natura (Evo, Innova, California Natural, Karma)
Fromm Family (Fromm)

To answer your question though, I'm keeping my pup on a large breed pup formula until she is about 18 months. Nothing wrong with puppy formulas, in fact your adult dog will benefit from being on a puppy formula as well. (if you read the lables, the pup formulas have better breakdowns)

If your dog is getting the ear problems I believe there is beet pulp in Chicken Soup along with white rice (I could be wrong). I had my older weim on Canine Caviar (contains beet pulp) for about a year and a half and everything was great except the ears. Switched her to Wellness Super5 large breed back in October and the dirty ears went away. Stool size has increased though and energy level is noticibly down do to less K/cals per cup. If money isn't an issue and you can regularly obtain it, I trully believe you will not find a better food than in Orijen and Acana.

my $.02

by **versatilek9s** » Sun Feb 14, 2010 6:21 pm

I fed my recent litter Chicken Soup after a lot of research and liked it a lot. The pups stayed on it until about 6-7 months with their owners but I usually only feed my guys puppy food for 10-12 weeks. You'll find LOTS of opinions on this topic, as I'm sure you've seen by browsing the posts!

I don't think large breed is necessary (IMO) and your pup isn't going to be a "large" dog anyway--just a normal sized weim.

We feed Innova and Before Grain, choosing these foods based on what the above poster mentioned and also because the dogs do terrifically on them. There are plenty of other foods that my dogs also do well on, but I like the consistent quality and knowing where the ingredients come from. I could also name quite a few others that I would wholeheartedly recommend. The only thing you'll need to watch is I don't think most people recommend feeding the higher protein foods to young puppies.

If you feed a high quality food you won't need to add anything to it.

by **fireflyweims1** » Sun Feb 14, 2010 6:58 pm

whatagoon wrote:Ok, here's my rambling assortment of questions

River is 5 months, 35 lbs, currently on Chicken Soup for Large Breed Puppy. I know several people here do not continue to feed puppy food past a few months. I've been thinking of taking her of of it soon. She does decent on it. Coat is good, smells fine, eats it all up. Her ears are always dirty, and stools are ok, not as firm as I would like, but not terrible. She's also teething so I know that might be affecting it also. When I give her a new treat I do try to gradually add it in, make sure that it agrees with her first before giving it freely. I've been thinking of doing either the Innova or Blue Buffalo.

This is a sign that histimines are being over produced. Are her ears always warm? They should be cool. I had the excessive ear wax and warm ears, when I switched to a grain free diet this went away. I also had spoke with a vet and was told this was a allergic reaction, the over production of histimines.

As for the stools, if they aren't firm enough you can have some problems with anal glands being expressed naturally.

Now, do you feed a food for large breed dogs? River is not going to be a huge monster dog, so is it necessary? And if you do not feed large breed, do you supplement with anything?

I don't feed a 'large breed' food. I feed one of the highest quality kibbles when I feed kibble and don't have to add anything
Also, the Innova website has a feeding calculator. But for Blue Buffalo, if I did the large breed Fish & Oatmeal, the feeding guidelines start at 50lbs. So would I just calculate the calories she would need and figure it out that way?
Just be aware that they use these calculators to sell more food. You should be able to judge by your dogs body condition as to how much food she will need. I have a 58lb Weim that is very active, agility, obedience and hunting 5days a week and she eats a 1/2 cup in the am and a 1/2 cup in the pm of Acana Grasslands. She should according to all calculators be eating 2 cups + a day. If I fed her this she'd be 70+lbs. She is at a perfect weight and I can lightly push on her ribs to feel them and is very muscular.

Is there anything else that as a growing puppy she needs added to an adult food?

Thanks for the advice, we both appreciate it!
Kate & River

by **whatagoon** » Mon Feb 15, 2010 11:12 am

Thanks for the advice everyone, I really appreciate it!

Also, I don't think that there is beet pulp in the Chicken Soup, but there is white rice. Ears are not warm either. When she was going frequently to the vet for shots they always checked her ears. Seemed to think that she was simply a dog that leaned toward waxy dirty ears. So I've been trying to stay on top of them. I personally want to try a grain free to see if that helps, but didn't think the higher protein was good for a puppy, so maybe one day. I have added yogurt and kefir to her food before as some have said that helps, gradually, only once every few days, but I don't think she can handle it everyday...or that I can, gassy! I'll prob still try to gradually add in food though, unless I see a real problem with it.

Time to continue the research...

by **Idaviruma** » Mon Feb 15, 2010 2:21 pm

I would go with grain free, grains tend to make ear infections worse, Uno used to get couple ear infections during summer, but havent had any since I switched to grain free.
You might want to look into Taste of the Wild, its affordable compared to some of the other grain free foods.

by **anne** » Tue Feb 16, 2010 8:20 pm

Might also be the frequent vaccinations that were causing the ear problems. I don't think there is really such a thing as a dog that "naturally" have dirty waxy ears, except puppies, who get dirt IN their ears from playing around on the ground etc. Supplementing food with yogurt usually almost always helps ears totally.

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