What food do/did you feed your puppy?

[.sarah]

Thanks Anna! My vet reccommended Innova Puppy, and so far that looks like the best choice. I also just started feeding my girls RAW food at night & kibble in the morning, and I was wondering if anyone knows how much RAW a puppy can have? I'll probably give it to him 2-3 times / week.

[Logan]

My kids are older.......Honey is 7, Lilly is 6, and Zipper is probably 11 or so (we don't know, for sure). After the loss of Murphy in December, we knew we needed to alter the eating habits of our Golden Retrievers. We had been adding extras for Murphy, as she was thin, and a senior girl, and had been adding the extras to the Goldens as well. We have moved to Iams Weight Control, since her death, and they are doing GREAT!!!! None of them have been weighed, but I feel that they have probably all lost weight, and are much more healthy. And they eat, willingly..........something that surprises me, actually, after supplimenting their food for so long.

We're going to stick with the the Iams "blue" for a while..........

Logan

[.sarah]

Never mind about feeding RAW to puppies - I have figured out the general rule to feed.

I am thinking I will go with RAW food and buy everything on sale. Winn Dixie and Albertsons *always* have sales on meat!

[Crazy-Cat-Lover]

Never mind about feeding RAW to puppies - I have figured out the general rule to feed.

I am thinking I will go with RAW food and buy everything on sale. Winn Dixie and Albertsons *always* have sales on meat!

Raw is the BEST food you can feed a dog! Let me know how it goes - I would love to feed raw, but knowing the size of a Dane - I might go broke every payday!

[.sarah]

lol ... well, I imagine my food bill is twice as much as yours will be because I have 4 large dogs. The new pup will probably be 80ish lbs. Nova and Luka are both 70 lbs and Mandy is 57. If it gets too expensive I'll probably feed raw only a few times a week.

No word from Natura yet?

[Crazy-Cat-Lover]

No, Natura hasn't emailed me back but the website does say...

Here is what I found about raw diets:

The case for raw

* Provides a fresh diet, without preservatives

* Raw bones are not dangerous. They are soft enough to bend easily and
break well for the dog to digest

* Clears up long-standing allergies

* Fewer visits to the veterinarian for health reasons

* Eliminates dog odour

* Naturally cleans pets' teeth

* Produces much less stool, and stool is firm and disintegrates easily

* Mirrors what a dog would get in the wild

* Develops jaw, neck and shoulder muscles

* Pets have more energy

* Reduces arthritis

* Better weight control

* Pets live longer

* Bitches manage pregnancies better

* Better weight and survival figures in puppies

* A healthy pet fed on raw food manages the bacteria found in raw meat

The case against raw

* All health claims are anecdotal, not the result of long-term research

* Concern about the nutritional balance of these diets. It can be difficult
to formulate a balanced homemade diet in the best of circumstances

* High protein and very high fat diets (fat contributes 40% to 70% of
calories)

* Can be low in calcium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, iron, manganese and
magnesium

* Can have unbalanced calcium : phosphorus ratio

* Can have excess vitamins D, E, zinc and magnesium

* Questions about quality of ingredients

* Concerns about health

* Raw bones are dangerous for the pet

* Secondary hyperparathyroidism

* Dermatosis (zinc)

* Anemia (iron)

* Orthopedic conditions (Calcium/vitamin D)

* Bioavailability (excess zinc)

* E. Coli/salmonella often found in raw meat

There is so much you can screw up in a raw diet, not to mention the E. Coli/Salmonella that can be present on the meat. That means that it would be in your dogs mouth, in the food bowl, in his feces etc. I would be scared that my daughter would get E. Coli or Salmonella from playing with the dog, letting him lick her face etc.

I would advise using Grapeseed Extract. It kills all of these bacterias, therefore making it safer to feed raw.

Good Luck!

[Roxyluvsme13]

We feed Lily Pro Plan Small Breed, and she does VERY well on it. She has no gas or anything, and it works great for her!(although I heard other people say they dont like it too much...)

[.sarah]

I would advise using Grapeseed Extract. It kills all of these bacterias, therefore making it safer to feed raw.

But dogs are not supposed to get grapes