Favorite Large Breed Puppy Food?

[Casey09]

diffuse01 wrote

I’m not a big fan of Innova or the like since the PG buy out. Regardless of if you do large breed or ALS, stick with grain free. Owning a blue dog (who had Demodex as a pup), I know all about their lovely skin issues.

I know, and I worry about that aspect as well. I feed it because of the low calcium. I’d read something about under 1% being best, and that was the best food I could find with that low of calcium.
I personally would definitely feed large breed puppy food to this puppy. We can’t know how big she will be, but we do know that she is pretty big at 6 months. I’d say she’ll probably be a pretty big girl.

[diffuse01]

@Ainsley688;5831739

Thanks for the advice! I just end up reading too much, and then being indecisive, lol. My last puppy was a long-haired shepherd mix, who was around 100lbs. at a year old. I gave him the Wellness Large Breed Puppy kibble, and he did okay on it. So, now I’m all worried it’s not going to work for this one, do all this research, and then I get in the store, and panic. (Maybe I’m just gun-shy after the neglected pony turned out to be REALLY metabolic, so now I’m all paranoid about the unknown dietary past of my “rescue” animals.)

Yep, I was looking at pictures, and totally see the Pit Bull in her face, instead of AmStaff. But, if you could see her legs, and how much skin there is to grow into, there is NO way she doesn’t have something leggier in her, haha. It’s hard to tell, since the legs on her look like Great Dane, as well as Boxer…and I’m kind of glad she has a docked tail, so now I don’t have to worry as much about having coffee tables. :lol:

Thanks for the sensitive skin worries, I had no idea it came with the color!

You’d be surprised what can happen as they grow. Everyone thought my Wilson was going to be HUGE as an adult… I believe he was around 45lbs. at 6 months as well. All legs and a ton of extra skin (which he never did grow into) too, this was him at around 9 months I believe:

http://kadysturtsman.smugmug.com/Animals/TDI-CGC-Wilson/Img1443/1226394237_F5Rxt-L-3.jpg

At almost 2 1/2, he’s a lean 57lbs.:

http://kadysturtsman.smugmug.com/Animals/At-the-Park/i-ggspmCV/0/L/IMG4607-L.jpg

So they can be a little tricky! Wilson is an American Bulldog/APBT mix, btw.

As for the blue coat, yes, it does come with sensitive skin very often. That’s usually because people breed blue dogs without considering anything else, they just care about the color. I actually feed my blue girl prey model raw now, after battling her stomach and skin issues for basically her entire life (she’s almost 2). She’s doing amazing now.

[Philibuster]

[QUOTE=wendy;5832164]
Taste of the Wild is absolutely a NO NO for a large/giant breed puppy- the calcium level is WAY too high. There are three major considerations for raising a large-breed puppy (anything you expect to get larger than 55 pounds or so when mature): keeping the puppy from growing too fast, which is best handled by not over-feeding the puppy- rolly-polly puppies may be cute, but they turn into unhealthy adults. You want a skinny puppy.
Second consideration is the calcium- if you feed anything with much more than 1.5% calcium there is a really good chance you will end up with a dog with skeletal problems. Crippling your dog just because a particular food is good for adults isn’t something you’ll be happy you did later on.
Third is often people suggest feeding adult formulas to large/giant puppies: this can work out, but unfortunately many adult/all life stages formulas are rather deficient in protein; adults can make do (even though it is not optimal) but puppies can’t. So make sure whatever it is you feed has at least 27% protein (from meat, not glutens or soy or corn).

Orijen large breed puppy food is the best on the market right now.

Lots of people say they like “taste of the wild” because it’s affordable- but it isn’t really. The bags cost less per pound than many other brands with somewhat similar ingredients and macronutrient profiles, but taste of the wild is rather low in calories per cup, so you’re actually paying MORE for taste of the wild than many of those other foods. For example, Taste of wild praire you get 851 kcal per dollar; vs. Nature’s variety instinct chicken you get 940 kcal per dollar; and EVO red meat you get 899 kcal per dollar. And consider TOTW is made by a company of dubious repute (Diamond) and has a lower-quality nutrient/ingredients profile than EVO or Natures variety instinct. Note that EVO, Natures variety instinct, AND TOTW should not be fed to puppies due to their too-high calcium levels.[/QUOTE]

FYI, TOTW Sierra Mountains has 1.6% calcium and orijen large breed puppy has 1.7% (and way too much protein)

[Mao]

I have 2 five month old Scottish Deerhound puppies. They currently weigh just under 60 lbs. Based on their breeder’s recommendation, we are feeding them Eukanuba Large Breed Puppy food, until the age of 6 months. Then switch them to chicken-based adult food. The breeder has 30 years experience with Deerhounds and is President of the National Deerhound Club - so we went with her suggestion. : -)

[Blinkers_On]

Orijen large breed puppy. Tho now I feed Acana.

[KristiKGC]

As long as you feed good quality large breed puppy, brand isn’t going to matter too much. Everyone has their own preferences, but what works for one dog won’t necessarily work for another. I have a GD who weighs well over 200lbs. He also has a very sensitive stomach so I had to play around with his food a lot. I monitored what he was eating very closely both because of his stomach and because I wanted him to grow as slowly as possible. What I found was that I had to find a food that worked for HIM, not what other people recommended. If you don’t like how the puppy is doing on one food, switch!

And congrats on the puppy!

[vtdobes]

[QUOTE=wendy;5832164]

Orijen large breed puppy food is the best on the market right now.

Lots of people say they like “taste of the wild” because it’s affordable- but it isn’t really. The bags cost less per pound than many other brands with somewhat similar ingredients and macronutrient profiles, but taste of the wild is rather low in calories per cup, so you’re actually paying MORE for taste of the wild than many of those other foods. For example, Taste of wild praire you get 851 kcal per dollar; vs. Nature’s variety instinct chicken you get 940 kcal per dollar; and EVO red meat you get 899 kcal per dollar. And consider TOTW is made by a company of dubious repute (Diamond) and has a lower-quality nutrient/ingredients profile than EVO or Natures variety instinct. Note that EVO, Natures variety instinct, AND TOTW should not be fed to puppies due to their too-high calcium levels.[/QUOTE]

Agreed. I’ve fed Orijen Large Breed puppy to both of my current Dobermans (one blue/one black) but switched both to the Orijen Adult at 6 months of age.

While TOTW uses similar ingredients they are POOR QUALITY ingredients. Not to mention being made by Diamond… I wouldn’t touch it for anything.
No more Natura brands for me anymore either due to the P&G buyout.

[nms24]

All diseases run into one, old age…!

[nms24]

[QUOTE=KristiKGC;5837751]
As long as you feed good quality large breed puppy, brand isn’t going to matter too much. Everyone has their own preferences, but what works for one dog won’t necessarily work for another. I have a GD who weighs well over 200lbs. He also has a very sensitive stomach so I had to play around with his food a lot. I monitored what he was eating very closely both because of his stomach and because I wanted him to grow as slowly as possible. What I found was that I had to find a food that worked for HIM, not what other people recommended. If you don’t like how the puppy is doing on one food, switch!

And congrats on the puppy![/QUOTE]

I’m new to this ‘keeping a pet thing’. And in last month i bought a puppy and i asked perfect diet for him to my neighbour but when i start this diet to my puppy he is doing abnormal activities i don’t know exactly what’s happening with him. And i am really scare to get close him. So, plz someone can help me and tell me what should i do…!

[Mali]

I fed my current lab the Smartpak Livesmart puppy formula. He did wonderful on it, and I transitioned him to the adult formula at 12 months. 5 months ago I decided to try Taste of the Wild (thought it might save me a few bucks). UGH - after 3 months, his coat looked horrible. I switched him back to Livesmart and within 2 weeks he was back to his old self. He looks & feels wonderful and I learned a valuable lesson. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Everybody has their own opinion about dog food, so all you can do is try different formulas until you find what you & your dog like best.