6 Month Large Breed Pup. Adult Or Puppy Food?

[NorthernStarPits]

Have alook on the packets and compare, some Adult and Puppy kibble is exactly the same.

[bloss344]

Eagle Pack Natural for adults and Eagle Pack Large Breed Puppy is the same food, just different packaging.

[Hounder]

My 6 month old puppy is on Adult Bonnie and has been for 2 months now. He is still growing well. It is not the Ca/ph which is the problem but the high amount of protein. Puppy foods are generally called a "hot" food. My vet also recommended taking him off puppy to slow his growth rate.

[NewKid]

Sorry, should have mentioned, I dont have a breeder, she is a rescue x breed. To date the following breeds have been mentioned as possibilities, mastiff, APBT, great dane, labrador, staffy, boxer. The staffy bit was feasible when small but now????? She is 25 kg now so even if she doesnt grow any more, (impossible at 6 m I know :D ) she is still large.

Hi, I have a labrador puppy and my vet told me to avoid supermarket brand puppy foods as they are too high in calcium - he stressed this because of hip displaysure (sorry about spelling). He said high calcium foods are incredibly bad for dogs that might develop this condition. I see in your list of possible breeds a few that might have the potential to throw this condition so it's probably a good idea to be careful which food you use. I use a dedicated Labrador puppy food from Royal Canin (Lab 33) but they do a large breed puppy formula as well. I tried it first, but it made his poos incredibly smelly whereas the lab 33 mix is fine. Another brand that has low calcium is Eukanaba Large Breed Puppy. Probably any of the better brands that are aimed at large breed puppies would fit the bill - just read the ingredients to figure out the ratio of calcium etc.

[Poodle wrangler]

Eagle Pack Natural for adults and Eagle Pack Large Breed Puppy is the same food, just different packaging.

Yep, looks like it if you compare ingredients and nutritional info on the Eagle Pack website.

Handy info. as the puppy label costs a fair bit more .

[goldielover]

I was told a while back that it's almost the same formula, but the large/giant breed puppy has higher levels of glucosamine and perhaps omega 3 and 6?

[ILuvAmstaffs]

I use Science Diet Large Breed Puppy. It is fantastic and I totally recommend it

Thanks My vet etc etc told me the puppy food generated growth too quick as it had too much calcium, protein etc for the large breed dogs????

Im totally confused

I was told the same by my dogs orthopaedic surgeon. While she DID say that premium large breed puppy kibble is relatively ok, she would still advise that medium to large breeds go on a premium adult food ASAP.

The reason being that larger breeds can be prone to joint issues caused by rapid growth (such as ED) & by reducing the overall calorie intake, it will slow the growth rate slightly, though she did say the dog will still reach it's optimum size in the long run.

[bloss344]

This might be of some interest to someone.

It's an interview between Linda Arndt, a breeder of Great Danes and the owner of EP.

http://www.greatdanelady.com/eaglefoodsinterview2.htm

I've copied the relevant bit as it's a bit long. There's actually 2 pages of interview.

I know it's all marketing but I'm always open to different opinions. I feed my puppy EP adult food.

Q:Linda: I encourage breeders to get these giant breeds off puppy food by 8 weeks of age at the latest, and switch to a high quality but lower protein food to slow the growth process. I was so interested to see that you are the only company that actually states something to this effect on the bag.

A:Joe: Yes, we agree with your statement. In fact, if you look at our packaging, it states that you should switch from our puppy food very early to one of our other Eagle Pack products. The reasons being, if you look at the food structure of our products, you will find that all of our products incorporate all of the ingredients that we have in our puppy food … that is generally not the case with other companies.

Our food is formulated for the specific application of feeding a puppy when he is very small, then moving him over to one of our other products. A lot of other products force the breeder to buy a variety of things to supplement a poorer quality food in order to accomplish the same thing that we do with the product alone - it is already in our diets. For us, it is important to have a complete quality vitamin and mineral package in all our products. Here is a good example: let's say a breeder is feeding a maintenance food, then they realize there has been an accidental breeding. This could present some serious problems because the female is not nutritionally ready to support these puppies. So it is our feeling, why not make sure she is ready no matter what the situation.

Q:Linda: I know that if I wanted to raise a litter on your 20% or 23% protein diet I could, because the caloric intake is such that it is suited for growth; plus you use high-quality sequestered vitamins/minerals, digestive enzymes and friendly bacteria. What I mean, is every product in your line has the same important ingredients. The protein and fat levels vary depending on the product and its application.

A:Joe: Yes, sometimes breeders think that a lesser-protein diet is a lesser quality diet, and a higher-protein food means a higher quality diet. This is not necessarily true. We can look at an Eagle product with a 30% protein - 20% fat that is delivering approximately 2,220 calories. Now we can take the protein down to 20% and fat to 12%, and essentially we have reduced the product content by 35%, if we just look at the imperical numbers. But we have only reduced the caloric content by 10%; this shows you what you can do if you carefully select your ingredients. We have taken the high caloric intake value (which is fat) and reduced 40% of the animal fat yet only reduced 10% of the calories.

[joelle]

Thank you for replies, after taking all replies into account, I think I'll make an executive decision and keep her on the adult food. She gets 2 n half cups per day, plus 2 chicken carcasses. Or 4 / 5 cups daily with no chicken. These are spread over 2 meals. She gets bones and pigs ears regularly too. She also gets a cup of tucker time most days for training treats too. . She is doing well and gaining weight, maintaining her lean build, so I'll keep her as she is, thanks again.

It is a very interesting topic though

(She is on slightly more food than 3 yr old staffy - who was on same diet, but I have noticed she (3 yr old) is gaining weight so have cut her down to 1 n half cups kibble, still with the chicken, tucker time etc.)

Edited July 7, 2007 by joelle