Sunday, December 9, 2012

What is a good all natural puppy food for my large breed puppy?

Q. I have a new puppy that is saint bernard/great dane mix and vet said he should be on a large breed puppy food? I was just looking for any suggestions on a large breed puppy food that is all natural?

A. Here is a site that will show you which dog foods are the best and the worst. I suggest that you get any one of the dog foods that are top rated.
http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/
Most of grocery store dog food formulas, like IAMS, Pedigree, Science Diet, Purina,and etc contain "meat and bone meal" which has been known to contain dead dogs and cats that were euthanized in animal shelters. Their bodies are picked up and bought by the truck load by "rendering plants" , that also pick up road kill, dead live stock, and etc. They are shredded, and boiled. They skim off the fat on the top of the "soup" and collected it and sell it to pet food companies as "animal fat", the rest of the animals' remains are crushed up, dried and sold to dog and cat food companies as meat and bone meal.
You can read more about it here.
http://earthislandprojects.org/eijournal/fall97/fe_fall97petfood.html
Here is an article where the owner of a rendering plant talks about it. He says that cremating the dead shelter animals would cause pollution, and that rendering them is good.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m5072/is_12_26/ai_115041999
Here is further information on what you shouldn't see in the ingredients list in your dog's food.
http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=badingredients
Top rated dog foods like Canidae contain good healthy ingredients.


How old should my german shepherd puppy be before I feed him large breed puppy food?
Q. My german shepherd puppy is 10 weeks old and I have been feeding him regular puppy food. My breeder said I should wait a certain amount of time before I feed him large breed puppy food because of something that has to do with how fast it makes them grow & it's now good for them???
Has anyone heard of this or do you know if I should start feeding him large breed puppy food yet? Thank You

A. I've never been concerned with 'large breed' food. What's more important is what's actually in the food....the ingredients, the protein/fat content, etc. If you feed a well balanced puppy food with lamb or chicken as the main ingredient, that's free of corn and wheat products, animal by-products, etc., you really don't need to worry about large breed vs. small breed. That's more advertising gimmick than anything. In any case, shepherds growth slows down substantially after 6 months, and it's usually about this time that I switch them to an adult food. Look for a protein content of 25-30 percent and fat content no more than 18%,, along with the ingredient criteria listed above.


What is the best dry large breed puppy food?
Q. I have a 9 week old pure bred German Shepherd pup and I only want the absolute BEST for her! She is currently on Eukanuba Large Breed Puppy Food, which I've always thought was good but I read the ingredients and corn meal is listed as the second ingredient so now I'm not so sure it's the best. I've always been told that the first 4 ingredients listed on a bag of dog food should be meat and not grains or by-products. I am thinking about getting into dog shows with her and possibly breeding her when she's old enough. She is like one of my children and I really only want the best for her.

A. there is a website that does a comparison and rating of the different brands of dog food both wet and dry but I can not find it at the moment. my irish wolfhound puppy was raised on eukanaba, and iams, but on yahoo answers someone posted this dog food comparison website and told me that my puppy ( who is chewing his foot) would do better with canidae. according to the rating canidae is a good wholesome product for every stage of the dogs life. I have three dogs and I am glad to have one product that all my dogs can have. if you have a pet supply plus store in your area, they have all of the foods mentioned on the food comparison website. including canidae, inova, chicken soup for the pet lovers soul. becareful of the last one mentioned, chicken soup for the pet lovers soul has cancer causing agents so the webpage does not recommend this food. and not all of these are suitable for puppies because of the protien content. here are some websites.: feed my pet.com and consumer search.com. beware of website promoteing a particular brand of dog food for comparison. the best website to go to is : - WWW.DOGFOODANALYSIS.COM this is where I found the most information on dog food ingredients


What will happen if I feed a small dog large breed puppy food?
Q. I have a small corgy/dachshund who is about 7 months old and a lab/shephard who is about 4 months old. I feed the corgy/dachshund small breed puppy food and my lab/shephard large breed puppy food. what can happen if I were to feed my corgy/dachshund the large breed puppy food?

A. Your corgy/dachshund is not considered a small breed, and really shouldn't be on small breed food. It has too much protein and fat. It's really for breeds such as yorkies and chihuahuas. The large breed puppy food has less fat and calcium and more protein than regular puppy food. So even thought it's not really the correct formula for your smaller guy, if it's a quality food, than he should do OK eating it.





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