Home Prepared / Cooked Diet for Puppy

I'm getting a 4 month old large breed puppy (Dobie x St. Bernard?? or something else big and fluffy crossed with a dobie). I would like to feed a home prepared cooked diet like I have been with my adult senior dogs.

I give a small amount of premium kibble but mostly a diet of lightly cooked poultry/meat, pureed veggies, eggs, powdered egg shell, and a little plain yogurt. I add a low dose (1/3 dose) multivitamin as "insurance".

Is this diet ok for puppy too, or does he need something different due to his age?

Thanks!!

Adding a multivitamin is only going to be an insurance if it actually meets the requirements of the growing puppy. The same goes for the home prepared food, you'llwant to make sure that especially the mineral ratios aas well as amounts aren't off, since large breed puppies have to build a lot of bone mass in a rather short time.

For my adult dogs I provide about one powdered eggshell. which should be around 1800-2000 mg Ca, per 1 pound raw meat (about 1/2 - 2/3 pound cooked meat) to balance phosphorous. The multivitamin also contains some minerals.

Is this an appropriate amount of calcium to provide a large breed puppy? I know I need to be careful as too much calcium can harm a growing pup also. I plan to feed Natures Variety Prarie dry kibble in addition to home cooked.

Also, I keep hearing that too much protien (such as in EVO) is bad for big puppies...so will it be a problem to feed a high protien / high meat home prepared diet?

Thanks!

I would be very careful w/ the NV kibble ... their calcium % level is high. For a LB puppy you need to keep it below 1.5%.

Required amounts differ depending on the dog's body weight, life stage and the amount of calories per day required to maintain weight.

The amount of Ca required to balance the Ph in meat differs depending on the type of meat, but generally 1800-2000 mg per pound is much more than required, but of course that also depends on the Ca-Ph ratio you are aiming for. Very generally speaking, the leaner the meat, the more Ca is required to balance.

Just as a really simple example, to balance one pound of 70% lean ground beef to a 1.3:1 ratio, you'd need to add approximately 670 mg of Ca.

Mordy, Thanks so much for the information!

I think I've been giving too much Ca so I'll decrease the amount to 1000 mg or less per pound raw (as I primarily feed poultry which is a bit leaner of course).

I got my new puppy last night and he's wonderful ; I found out that puppy was getting Innova at his foster home. I'm transitioning him to Natures Variety now using some Innova Senior I have already. I think I'll go easy on the home prepared stuff with him until hes a little older as I don't have the expertise to be confident that I'm getting it exactly right for a growing St. Bernard x Dobie (yep thats really his breeding as it turns out! ). I know hes getting good nutrition with the Innova and with NV.


MyGirlsMom,
I just looked it up, and the NV info says the food has 1.41 Ca and 0.9 Phos, so I'm hoping that will be safe if 1.5 Ca is the maximum for a LB puppy. Its all life states and I thought that would be good for a LB puppy as its not as "rich" as some puppy formulas. Thanks for the info!