regular puppy chow or large breed?

juliefurry

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#1
I have a lab puppy, and up until now I have been giving her the large breed puppy formula. My friend, who works for a vet, says that labs don't need to large breed formula. My vet also gives me the free bags of puppy food everytime we are in and he has never given me large breed. I haven't brought this up to him because I haven't seen him since my friend has confronted me about the food. I figured that labs would need the large breed since they do grow over 50 lbs. Am I right, or do labs not require the large breed formula. I haven't really noticed a change in Hannah since bringing her home. She seems a little skinny though, and I'm feeding her three times a day. Does she require large breed formula or just regular puppy food?
 
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#2
What kind of food is your vet giving you? If it's Hills/Science DIEt or Eukanuba/Iams I wouldn't even feed it - it will cost you in the long run.

I would either feed a Lab pup a large breed formula or an all stages formula from a reputable, human grade, organically producing manufacturer.
 

Amstaffer

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#3
When I had Rotts my vet told me not to feed these "Large" breed puppy foods because you don't want your puppy to grow too fast. They have all kinds of joint problems if they grow too fast. He told me just to get a good puppy food and mix a little plain yogert in with it.

Good luck
 
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#4
Inhibiting rapid growth is exactly the reason you don't give regular puppy food to a large breed pup. A good large breed puppy food is balanced to prevent just that. Mordy's explained it a few times. If you don't go with a quality large breed puppy food you should choose a high quality feed that's for all stages.
 

Amstaffer

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#5
Whoa, I guess I need to have another chat with my vet (all though I have medium size dogs now and won't have a puppy for sometime.) or maybe another vet.

My vet made it sound like the large breed puppy foods enhance fast growth for max potential. That was a long time ago though. I have had Amstaffs for almost 9years now.
 
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#6
Mordy has amassed an incredible source of information on dog foods. If you haven't been to her site, you really should take some time and go through it. Sadly, few vets get any appreciable nutrition training, and most of what they get is sponsored by Hills/Science Diet and Eukanuba - hardly reliable sources :rolleyes:
 

showpug

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#7
Totally true...the vet clinic I worked for was educated by the science diet staff. The science diet reps would come in and do "staff education." It was so annoying because I could not and still can't stand science diet. The owner of the clinic would push and push the food so he could make money while the other vet would sit silently...she new better, and always fed Canidae. When we would question the reps about the difference between Science Diet and say Solid Gold, they would just bash the other food. Their main argument was phospherous levels and how the "other foods" don't control their phospherous levels and how that leads to health problems etc. because the phos. is too high. I wanted to laugh. A lot of the foods are comparable in phos. levels to science diet and that is the only foot they had to stand on. Let's not worry about all the corn, by products, BHA and BHT that's in science diet, let's worry more about phos. What a joke!!! :eek:
 

juliefurry

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#8
Well my vet gives her the 5 lb bags of Science diet (I always throw it away though). I tell them not to bother giving it to me but they do anyways. I just started Hannah on the Nutro Natural Choice large breed puppy formula. She seems pretty happy with that, although she'll eat whatever is in front of her. The only problem that I have noticed is she seems too skinny to me. I feed her 3 times a day (11a.m., 6p.m. and then agian at 1a.m.). She was just at the vet two weeks ago and they had to worm her because she had round worms and ever since they wormed her she has gotten skinny.
 

showpug

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#9
Keep in mind that roundworms give a puppy a "pot belly" look which is not healthy. The distended abdomen is due to worm infestation which causes them to look bloated etc. It is much better to have a lean worm free puppy than a fat worm free puppy. They grow better that way. You should always be able to see the last rib on your large breed puppy. Too plump could cause them to grow too quickly and cause joint/bone abnormalities. On the food note...I would get something better for your pup to eat. Nutro is not that great of a food. It has a lot of fillers in it and I have seen it cause struvite crystals in the urine of dogs. I would recommend that you feed a better human grade food like Innova, Canidae or Solid Gold. You can visit www.naturapet.com or speak with Mordy who can fill you in on all the good stuff ;)
 

juliefurry

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#10
To me she just seems too skinny though. The vet says she's fine though. She just will sometimes look sickly skinny to me. She does eat everytime I feed her, and she's still bouncing around being a puppy. I haven't noticed any changes in her otherwise. She has to go back to the vets in a few days so I will try and bring it up with the vets when I am there.
 

juliefurry

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#12
I usually feed Eagle Pack but we ran into some difficulties and need to switch for a little while. It probably will just be for a few bags though, then they'll get Eagle Pack agian.
 

GSDFan05

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#14
juliefurry said:
To me she just seems too skinny though. The vet says she's fine though. She just will sometimes look sickly skinny to me. She does eat everytime I feed her, and she's still bouncing around being a puppy. I haven't noticed any changes in her otherwise. She has to go back to the vets in a few days so I will try and bring it up with the vets when I am there.
It can take a while for them to fill out since they put all their resources into their bones, muscles, etc while they're still growing so rapidly. Definitely keep monitoring her weight to make sure it goes up consistently, but if your vet isn't concerned she's probably just in that 'awkward' gangly stage! (Is anyone reminded of adolescent boys with their chicken legs? ;) )
 

juliefurry

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#15
Good, I feel much better now. She is going up in weight, we got her she weighed 2 and a half pounds and now she's 8 pounds. Ok, now I can relax and breath sigh of relief.
 
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#16
Amstaffer, if you'll look on the bottom of one of Mordy's posts you'll find a link. :)

Julie - Charley is constantly asking me if Kharma is getting enough to eat. She's one of those rangy dogs still - lots of good hard muscle, but she's all legs and torso and big feet and big head, lol. But she's beautiful :)
 

juliefurry

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#17
I feel better knowing that other puppies go through the same stage. I have never had a puppy this young so I freak out over the littlest things.
 

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