Dalmatian Nutrition

[peaceful_minion]

Hello All,

So I'm going to be adopting a dal mix puppy. I've done a fair amount of research of what their specific requirements are, but seeing as there is a lot of misinformation out there on the internet, I was looking for some real life experience! I do plan on doing partial raw feeding and canine caviar, but was looking for specific alternatives as well. As in, what in the nutritional analysis should be red flags, or are specific ingredients within the food red flags?

Thanks!

[naturalfeddogs]

Dalmations tend to have a purine (I think thats what it is) intolerance. They can be fed raw, but a certain way I believe. I think this is where I saw something about it, somewhere on this site.....If I can get the link to work.http://preymodelraw.com

[Gypsydals]

Hi PM, welcome to the forum. Congrats on your new puppy, I can't wait to see him/her. Your Dal mix may or may not have to be fed the way a ful Dal would. The reason is most purebred dalmatians have a uric acid defect. It is caused by getting 2 copies of the genes from the parents. With your pup being a mix, he/she would only have one copy. Most dalmatian owners either feed raw or a high quality food that is low in purines. Here is a link to the list of purines. http://www.thedca.org/purines.html. Here is another link with more infomation in it http://www.thedca.org/stones.html Most feed a kibble that a chicken or lamb based for meat sourse. Most also float the food in water to make sure the dog is getting more than enough water to flush their system.
I feed my male dalmatian raw. He mainly gets chicken and turkey, with some pork and venison thrown it at hunting season. I do severely limit his organ(I.E. liver) consumption much to his dismay. I do watch him closely when he goes out to pee, so that I can watch for any sort of straining. I also try to limit how long he has to go inbetween bathroom breaks. The more he has a chance to go the more he flushes his system out.

I hope this helps.

[peaceful_minion]

Thank-you both so much for your replies. It helps a lot, especially knowing that if my new pup is a dal mix then she shouldnt have the very specific nutrition requirements.

Gypsy- Do you know if there is a test that can be done to determine if a dal (or dal mix in my case) is predisposed to stone formations? Or, is it more of a wait and see game? Just curious, because I would much rather be safe than sorry