large breed food necessary?

[View Discussions]

Hi,

 

I never fed large breed food, don`t know why.

At the moment Vito gets "Acana lamb and apple". He loves it and he looks great.

What do you think?

Do you feed large breed food, would you recommend it?

[Dixie Cruise]

I would ignore how the food is labeled (large breed, small breed, puppy, etc.) and focus only on the ingredients. Is corn one of the top five ingredients?? Then don't buy it ... corn is a cheap filler and often an allergen to dogs. Too many "byproducts" (a fancy term for feathers, beaks, and other indigestible items)? Next. Several breeders have told me to feed irish puppies food with no more than 21 percent protein so that they will grow slow enough for their hips and joints to "keep up."

Real food is probably the best ... even expensive "dog food" tends to contain poor quality sources of protein (from dead or diseased animals, for example). But cooking for one's dogs is very time-consuming and expensive ... I had a setter who was very allergic to corn and rice and it ALWAYS seemed like "dog food cooking day" even though I made large batches to freeze. As a compromise, I try to purchase good quality food (Nutro Lamb and Rice) and supplement with green tripe, carrots, and yes, the occassional pizza crust tidbit!

[Dixie Cruise]

That list of ingredients is VERY impressive ... I would not worry a second longer and continue on as you have been!

[Dixie Cruise]

If your dog is anything like mine ... s/he will "supplement" the diet with any number of things, to include stolen people food, pizza crusts, mulch, what I like to refer to as "cat biscuits" (ick!), etc. !!!

[Dixie Cruise]

Nothing missing ... I was just joking around about the junk he will eat on his own, whether it is good for him or not!

[Sue and Cash]

The reason for large breed food is because of calcium/phosphorus levels. Lower like 1.5% or less for large breed puppies is recommened as to not cause HOD. If your Arcana is low enough in calcium then it is fine. Many high end organic foods such as yours, have all life stage formulas. Research the exact number to look for with calcium levels and large breeds pups, your food is 1.8% and I would compare that to Orijen puppy and some others to see if that is appropriate for a large breed pup. I am sure your doing just fine. I just wanted to explain why they make large breed versus small breed formulas or all life stages. I am in the food dilema myself here. Breeder uses a well known food and has always used it, her dogs look fantastic too. But I want to change brands and have tried before and his stool isn't as nice as it is on this product. Hate to mess his stomach up flipping but I know that I could feed him better and eliminate the corn in the food as well. I have worked in the dog food field for many many years and you would think I would know what to do with my own dog and yet I am always worried about upsetting my dogs stomach with food changes.

[silvia]

Thanks Christine for posting this!

Actually I feed Oberon with Royal Canin maxi junior (he's nearly 6 months now) and once/twice per week he gets minced beaf. Occasionally he likes to have some of our steamed vegetables (spinach, peas, asparagous), but it is just a little treat from the table.

When he has a bad tummy (for instance he had lot of diarroeha in the last two days - he has a simple diet, made only of boiled rice with olive oil, boiled chicken - and, ehm, a little bit of grated parmesan on the top just to cheer him up ;)

sorry for the long summary: basically, I was wondering if there was any special reason why Vito didnt like the adult version of royal canin maxi, since I hope to keep going with that brand (seems quite good to me)

any guessing or it was just his personal preference?

thanks !!
Best, Silvia

[Dixie Cruise]

I'm sure you have tried this, but just in case ... when changing foods, don't do it all at once. For example, if your dog gets 3 cups of food A and you are switching to food B, give 2.5 cups A and .5 cup B mixed up. If the dog tolerates that well, move to 2 cups A and 1 cup B mixed well, etc. Hope that doesn't insult your intelligence!! This process has worked well for me and getting the corn out reduces the quantity of undigested food left to pick up out of your yard ... a nice payback in addition to a healthy dog!!

[Dixie Cruise]

A good resource for examining the actual contents of dog foods and some guidance on which ingredients to avoid and why is www.dogfoodanalysis.com. My problem is that the really good brands are either hard to get and/or very expensive!!

[Teresa]

Hi Christine,
My girls are faddy eaters, so from time to time I am forced to change food, in order to keep them eating.
Here is how I proceed everytime I change food:
First I take a very good look at the composition and ingredients of the particular brand I am interested on buying. Then, I take a look at each type of food from the brand and compare them. If i still like the kind of changes they make, I'll start looking for large breed or active dog food. If they have both, I'll generaly go for active dog. But if I like the brand and there is no active dog or large breed, that won't keep me from buying it! I just look for a particular kind of food I like and think will work. I also pay a lot of atention to the kind of grain the food has, it can never be too small of to "boring" - otherwise they won't chew it correctly and won't get the best out of the food. currently I'm feeding an Active Dog fod from Purina that has two sizes of grain, mostly composed by lamb and that they love, it's actually been the longest I have kept a particlar kind of food for them.

[Laura Kolbach]

bleib bei acana ;-)

[Teresa]

Well, if he is an healthy adult, a proper diet should be all that he needs... Higher quality food (and I don't mean fancy brands, I mean good ingredients..) will give a better support for their joints and bones, but setters are not heavy dogs, so if they are healthy they normaly do fine with medium size dog food. That is actually what I meant when I said I was picky about the composition and ingredients. I do tend to give large breed puppy food, but as soon as they are older and start eating adult food I usually forget all about it, even in my bigger and heavier dogs. I give Romã a joint protector suplement, because she broke her arm and limped for longer than expected, but did not make changes to her diet other than that...
I hope this answer s closer to what you expected!

Teresa

[Sue and Cash]

Christine after reading about the food you use I checked it out and liked it! I just bought a bag for Cash to try out. Thanks for talking about it. Looks great! Made my the Orijen people.