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Hi Marietta –
You’ll need to upload a photo to Gravatar.
Hi zolicylus –
Supplementing a raw diet with items such as those suggested above – RMBs, sardines, oils – will not result in the components “digesting at different rates.” Why would a chicken neck digest at a different rate than ground chicken?
In fact, it’s very beneficial to supplement any diet with healthy fats such as coconut oil and sardines, as Sandy mentioned. Coconut oil offers many benefits – it has natural antiviral, antibacterial and antifungal properties and may help improve skin and coat health. More info here.
Darwin’s does not add a source of available omega 3’s (DHA/EPA) to their foods so it would actually be advisable to feed sardines (or another fatty fish on a regular basis). The only source of omega 3’s in the Darwin’s recipes is flax. plant based omega 3’s (with the exception of algal oil) contain omega 3’s in the form of ALA. ALA is a a short-chain fatty acid that is, essentially, a pre-cursor to long chain omega 3’s DHA and EPA. It is DHA and EPA that the body utilizes and because ALA is poorly converted (in most cases less than 10% actually gets converted) it’s necessary to feed foods naturally rich in long chain omega 3’s (EPA/DHA) such as fatty fish, algal oil or cage-free eggs.
Feeding RMBs in conjunction with a balanced ground raw diet (such as Darwin’s) will provide the dog with the dental benefits they miss out on when eating ground food.
Hi Nat R –
Just so you know, no studies exist demonstrating that protein has negative effects on giant breed puppies or adults – anything you read about this is myth and nothing more. There is, however, a lot of research proving the protein is not harmful.
Feeding Large Breed Puppies by Susan Winn DVM (Featured in IVC Journal)
“A common misconception found in many internet articles is the claim that dietary protein should be controlled in large breed puppies to prevent skeletal abnormalities. This theory was disproved some years ago (Nap, 1991). Most commercial puppy foods contain more protein than is thought necessary, but studies have shown that protein contents of 23% to 31% (dry matter) do not have a deleterious effect on growth.”
“Decades ago, we considered some adult diets appropriate for puppies. However, a calorie-calcium mismatch is probably common. Adult maintenance foods are often less calorically dense than puppy foods. Additionally, these diets may have calcium and phosphorus levels that are higher in relation to energy density than a large breed puppy diet. If a rapidly growing puppy has to eat more food to obtain enough calories for growth, a calcium overdose is possible.”
“Most nutritionists recommend that large, fast growing puppies eat diets containing AT LEAST 30% protein and 9% fat (dry matter basis).”
The Effect of Breed Size on Nutritional Considerations for Growing Puppies
“Excessive intake of dietary protein has been suggested as a contributing factor to skeletal developmental problems, such as osteochondrosis, in large breed dogs. This hypothesis was tested by feeding Great Dane puppies either 15%, 23% or 32% dietary protein (13%, 21% or 29% of energy). While the low protein diet reduced growth, no detrimental effects from the higher protein diets were observed.”
This is a FANTASTIC article (one of my favorites) on large breed nutrition written by Susan Lauten PhD – I would HIGHLY recommend reading it in its entirety, however here are some of the highlights:
Nutritional Risks to Large-Breed Dogs: From Weaning to the Geriatric Years
“Currently, no evidence exists to suggest that high-protein intake contributes to the development of orthopedic disease in growing large-breed puppies. Previous studies suggesting a risk for high protein and DOD were confounded by higher energy intake in high-protein foods. In general, large-breed puppy diets are formulated to contain approximately 30% protein (DMB) similar to other puppy foods.”
“…feeding adult foods to large-breed puppies before 1 year of age is not recommended because the calcium-to-energy ratio is generally lower in adult foods compared with large-breed puppy food. Feeding an adult food can actually result in greater intake of calcium than feeding puppy foods. Because the puppy must consume a larger portion of adult food to meet energy needs for growth, total calcium intake may actually be higher than with a properly formulated large-breed puppy formula.”
Here is the link to a study done on Great Dane pups that was featured in the Journal of Nutrition. The study concluded: “the differences in protein intake per se did not affect the occurrence of disturbed skeletal development in young Great Danes.”
Do You Know What to Feed Your Large Breed Dog? By Karen Becker DVM
“Studies have repeatedly concluded dietary protein levels have no effect on the development of skeletal problems in large and giant breed dogs. But still today, many breeders of large dogs, owners and even some veterinarians will tell you protein is the problem, even though there is no evidence to prove it. Protein excess is not the problem. In fact, it’s often a dietary protein deficiency that contributes to skeletal problems.”
You may find this of interest as well. Here Dr. Becker interviews a Newfie breeder (not Great Danes I know – however Newfies are generally considered to be a giant breed). This breeder feeds his dogs HIGH protein raw and his dogs don’t experience many of the health problems typical to giant breed dogs and his dogs live much longer than most giant breeds (he had a dog live to be 17 – the typical life span of a giant breed is about 8).
Sorry to bombard you with reading, but large breed nutrition is one of my favorite subjects and I like to make sure people have the facts. 🙂
Hi Christine –
I’m fairly certain that Royal Canin only makes the canned mousse for puppies. There’s no reason you can’t feed this to a senior dog. In general, most foods labeled for “seniors” are a marketing ploy and nothing more. Seniors don’t need a special food, a quality all life stages food works great and in fact better than most senior foods. Many companies, unfortunately, get it wrong when it comes to senior food formulation and reduce the protein levels when it’s well known that seniors actually require more protein than adults.
With this said, you definitely could find a better product than Royal Canin – imo. My recommendation would be to try a quality 4 or 5 star canned food and mix in a spoonful or two of Tripett (canned tripe). If this doesn’t work you could look into some other moist options such as a dehydrated or freeze-dried food (re-hydrate to canned food consistency) or Fresh Pet (refrigerated). If she seems to like “human” food you could also look into making a homemade diet if you think that’s something you could afford and have the time to do. If you want to make food completely from scratch I’d recommend checking out “Unlocking the Canine Ancestral Diet” by Steve Brown and/or “Real Food for Healthy Dogs and Cats” by Dr. Karen Becker. There are also numerous pre-mixes available for making homemade diets. Generally, with pre-mixes you only need to add fresh meat and, if you want, other extras such as eggs, yogurt, etc. The mix will usually contain vegetables, fruits and vitamins/minerals. My favorite pre-mix is See Spot Live Longer Dinner Mix, I also like Urban Wolf. There are several out there though.
Hi Martha –
The star ratings assigned on the review side of DFA and strictly based on the ingredients and the general analysis (protein, fat, carbohydrates). The company itself it not taken into consideration. For the Editor’s Choice report many factors were taken into consideration when deciding which brands to feature including the star rating, the company’s reputation, recall history, ingredient sourcing, manufacturing, the company’s customer service and transparency, etc. For more information on how the companies for Editor’s Choice were selected you may wish to read this article: A Guide to Finding Superior Dog Food Brands. I hope that helps.
At my shelter we don’t spay the queens until a few weeks after their kittens have been weaned. If the kittens’ eyes opened 10 days ago, I’d guess that they’re roughly 3 weeks old. With kittens, even more than with puppies I’d say, it’s very important that they be kept with mom and allowed to nurse for eight weeks if at all possible. Kittens really tend not to do well when they’re weaned early. It’s a good idea to start offering wet food around 4 weeks, they’ll usually start eating a little dry around 5-6 weeks, but they really should have access to mom for 8 weeks. If the mom is already nursing, she likely would still produce milk after being spayed however I would advise waiting until at least two weeks after the kittens are weaned until spaying her. This will give her time to dry up and for the mammary tissue to regress. Not only do I feel that that a spay surgery is an unnecessary amount of stress to put a queen that is nursing ten kittens under but it’s also a more complicated surgery when the cat has mammary development (most vets don’t want to do it). During this time period, however, it will be very important to keep her contained because she can become pregnant again. Are you keeping the cats in your house? If not – would it be possible for you to create a makeshift “nursery” somewhere (a shed, garage, etc.) where it’s clean, comfortable and that you’re sure mom can’t escape and no outside cats can enter?
Plasma is the liquid component of the blood that remains after the cells are removed. Porcine plasma is essentially pig’s blood with the cells removed. The plasma that appears in pet foods is generally spray-dried. Some have an issue with the ingredient, others don’t.
I’m not sure exactly which “disease that has killed thousands of pigs” you’re referring to, there are many diseases that can be contracted by all animals – pigs included – but if you’re referring to Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus (PEDv) you may find this comforting:
“Recent publicity concerning the transmission of PEDv has resulted in questions about the potential role of spray dried porcine plasma and porcine red cells in the spread of this disease. Based on current scientific evidence, collected and processed porcine blood and porcine blood products are safe and do not contribute to the spread of PEDv.”
More here: Spray Dried Porcine Blood Products Are Safe Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus
If you’re referring to circovirus:
“PCV2 DNA and antibodies are commonly found in commercial spray-dried plasma. However, no evidence of infectivity of the PCV2 DNA was found in naïve pigs when commercial spray-dried plasma was included in the diet under the conditions of this study.”
Here are a few articles with various opinions on the use of spray-dried plasma as an animal feed ingredient, they may help you form an opinion:
Blood Meal — Dog Food Ingredient or Fertilizer for Your Garden?
Spray Dried Plasma – Dr. Becker
Porcine Plasma Proteins for Feed Intake and Health
Here’s some information from two companies who utilize spray-dried plasma in their foods:
Liver is a species-appropriate means of supplying several trace minerals such as copper, iron, manganese, iodine and zinc and it’s also a good source of vitamin a and vitamin d. A properly balanced homemade diet should be comprised of about 5% – 7.5% liver – as long as this amount isn’t exceeded the dog isn’t at risk of consuming too much vitamin a. Because the liver (this also applies when feeding kidney or spleen) is a filtering organ, myself (and many others here) prefer to use liver from naturally raised animals. It’s certainly possible to supplement separately for the nutrients liver supplies and exclude it from the diet but, with the exception of someone who can’t get liver or can’t get liver from a clean source, I’m not sure why someone wouldn’t want to include liver in the diet. As for exactly how much of which nutrients the liver is contributing to the Urban Wolf recipe, you’d have to contact the company directly for that data.
Just a few other suggestions.
I would not recommend feeding only turkey or mostly turkey – it’s very important to feed a variety of protein sources and especially important to ensure an equal balance of red meat and poultry is being fed (unless you want to go through a lot of additional work to balance the fats). Poultry is very high in polyunsaturated fats (especially linoleic acid – a short-chain omega 6) while red meats are high in saturated fats and low in polyunsaturated fats, therefore rotating between red meat-based and poultry-based recipes is ideal.
You don’t want to add calcium to a pre-mix. Pre-mixes (such as Urban Wolf) are designed to supply a proper ratio of calcium and phosphorus with the addition of boneless meat. As long as you follow the instructions on the package there is no need to supply additional calcium.
Personally, I wouldn’t add additional starches such as yams and garbanzo beans. Urban Wolf already contains potatoes and several vegetables so your dog will be getting more than enough plant matter, you’ll just be diluting the protein further and cancelling out one of the main benefits a home-prepared diet has over kibble – more meat and less plant matter.
Also – just in case you missed it on the ingredient panel – Urban Wolf already contains nutritional yeast so if that’s something you want included in your dog’s diet there’s no reason to add extra outside of the pre-mix.
The information can all be found here: http://truthaboutpetfood.com/purina-sues-blue-buffalo
According to Purina:
Two samples of Blue Buffalo Life Protection Chicken & Brown Rice Formula (which claimed to be free of chicken by-products) were tested at an independent laboratory and sample 1 was found to contain 25% chicken by-product (by mass) and sample 2 was found to contain 24% chicken by-product (by mass).
The life source bits were tested as well for the nutrients they claimed to contain and were found to contain none or less than the amount in the kibble itself.
I’m very interested in seeing how this all plays out.
Hi Ray C –
I think most of us here would agree that when it comes to feeding dogs the most important thing is feeding a wide variety of species-appropriate foods. Species-appropriate foods will be high in animal-derived protein, high in moisture and minimally processed. For this reason the best option is a balanced raw diet (home prepared or commercially prepared), the next best option is a fresh cooked diet (home prepared or commercially prepared), followed by dehydrated and freeze-dried foods (many commercial raw products – such as Stella & Chewy’s, Primal, etc. – are available in both frozen form as well as freeze-dried form and there are dehydrated products such as The Honest Kitchen and NRG that are great), canned would be the next best option and kibble would come in last as the worst thing to feed. If you do have to feed some kibble for budget or time related reasons don’t fret – there are some decent kibbles one the market and you can always “top” the kibble with a more species-appropriate food form to increase the overall quality of the meal. For a puppy you will want to make sure the food that you feed is either approved for “growth” or for “all life stages” (may also read approved for “growth and maintenance”). Head over to the review section of the site and look through the 4 and 5 star foods to find some you want to try. And remember – don’t pick just one food! Rotating is very important, feeding just one food over time will lead to a weak gut (these are the dogs you hear about that get diarrhea/upset stomachs when their owners try to switch their food – don’t let that be your dog!).
Good luck and congrats on the new puppies! 🙂
Hi Rudy –
I wouldn’t recommend Blue Buffalo products for a large breed puppy. Proper calcium levels are crucial during the first 8 months or so in order to minimize the chances of developmental orthopedic disease and Blue won’t disclose their calcium levels.
There’s a large breed puppy forum here. There’s a list of appropriate 4 and 5 star foods somewhere in that forum, I’m sure there’s something you could find at Petsmart.
I wouldn’t recommend adding vitamins to an already balanced food unless done so at the recommendation of a veterinarian. However, there some nutraceuticals that can be beneficial – such as probiotics, enzymes, omega 3’s, wholefood/superfoods (i.e. kelp, spirulina, bee pollen, etc.), coconut oil, glandular supplements, garlic, etc. I like to keep several of these types of supplements on hand and rotate around.
Hi katj813 –
It’s great that you’re adding wet food to your dog’s dry food. Wet food is actually much healthier than dry food – especially if you go with a good quality product. The reasons for this is that wet food more closely resembles a dog’s natural diet – high in moisture, higher in protein and less processed. Providing high quality (unprocessed) protein is especially important for seniors (such as your boy) because as dogs age they become less efficient at breaking down dietary protein yet their body’s need for the amino acids that protein requires doesn’t diminish.
Some reasonably priced and highly rated canned options you may want to consider are 4Health (sold at Tractor Supply), Kirkland Cuts in Gravy (sold at Costco), Pure Balance (sold at Walmart), Natural Life (sold at Walmart and some grocery stores), Whole Earth Farms (sold at Petco, specialty retailers and many online retailers) and By Nature 95% Meat (sold at specialty retailers and online retailers). All of these options are, to the best of my knowledge, around the same price or cheaper than Nutro’s canned food.
Some other options would be using a dehydrated food as a topper. Dehydrated foods, when re-hydrated, are similar in consistency to canned food and when re-hydrated tend to be cheaper on a cup per cup basis.
You could also consider adding healthy human food toppers such as leftover lean meats, tinned sardines or salmon (great source of omega 3’s), cage free eggs (raw or cooked – also a great source of omega 3’s), plan yogurt (probiotics) or kefit (probiotics). Just be sure that if you use unbalanced extras like these that they account for less than a quarter of the meal or else you could risk throwing off the nutritional balance of his food.
Recent Topics
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Yorkies require no chicken food, but two types of crystallized formula
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1 week, 1 day ago
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Homemade Beef & Quinoa Dog Treats with Coconut Oil
by
2 weeks ago
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Raw Meat + Munchbird Dog Treats Food Topper + Goat Milk
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3 weeks ago
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can’t view Next level food Review
by 1 month, 1 week ago
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Food Recommendations
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