Is Hannah a midget?

[juliefurry]

oh so she should probably live longer than her brothers and sisters than by not gorging herself like they do. They don't get as good of a food as she does either though. I think they are on Pedigree.

Originally Posted by Mordy

"cups" are an arbitrary measurement. some foods have 280 kcal per cup, others over 600, so that is definitely not a deciding factor to determine how much to feed a dog.

see here:
http://www.chazhound.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9206

i'd definitely not put any dog on a poor quality food like puppy chow, that stuff is just plain nasty.

if your dog is in good shape and doesn't appear emaciated, i wouldn't worry. in the long term slow, even growth is so much healthier than causing a puppy to develop at the fastest possible potential.

i'll also post this link again for your information, not sure if you saw it in any of the other similar threads.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicl.../dog-diet.html

And I assume you automatically ASSume Puppy Chow=Purina? The brand Julie is feeding does not make a Puppy Chow=version??? Many of us breeders advocate keeping a puppy on puppy formula for a year with the medium to large sized breeds.

I am curious however upon what you base your denegration of some of the more popular breeds. Having very limited experience with actually feeding these foods to dogs and have actually see results, you seem to base your expert opinion on reports written by others???

Originally Posted by Mordy

"cups" are an arbitrary measurement. some foods have 280 kcal per cup, others over 600, so that is definitely not a deciding factor to determine how much to feed a dog.

see here:
http://www.chazhound.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9206

i'd definitely not put any dog on a poor quality food like puppy chow, that stuff is just plain nasty.

if your dog is in good shape and doesn't appear emaciated, i wouldn't worry. in the long term slow, even growth is so much healthier than causing a puppy to develop at the fastest possible potential.

i'll also post this link again for your information, not sure if you saw it in any of the other similar threads.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicl.../dog-diet.html

Lookie here, Mordy.........

Seventy years after a classic Cornell nutritional study showed that cutting rations dramatically prolongs rats' lives, nutrition scientists have come up with even more evidence of the benefit of slender diets: A recently completed 14-year study found that dogs forced to eat 25 percent less than their littermates of the same balanced diet lived significantly longer and suffered fewer canine diseases.

In an age of increasing incidence of obesity among Americans, "maybe it's time we watched what the rats and the dogs are eating," advises George Lust, a Cornell professor of veterinary medicine and a collaborator in the experiment with dogs, sponsored by the Nestlé Purina Pet Care Co.

Oh my goodness.....sporsored by Purina......the makers of poison for dogs!!!!!!!

Plus it has been know for years that dogs fasted every third day live 1/3 longer according to studies. But puppies should not be deprived of food for whatever reason. You did note the article said that puppies WERE FORCED TO EAT LESS. One limited study does not scientific fact make!

Anyway......I would love to hear what any breeders have to contribute.

[juliefurry]

Originally Posted by bubbatd

Have you done a worm check lately ???

yeah she had a worm check I would say a month ago (if you call that lately). Mack had gotten worms and so we had them all get checked out for worms and then they all got shots too (I'm guessing to prevent worms).

[Debi]

just regarding her size....when I got Addie, my neighbor got her sister. Well....seems her sis is sooooo much larger. (they are husky mix...have no idea what dad was in that mix) I also remember the males being huge little guys! I felt like maybe poor Addie wasn't eating properly....but she was, and doing just fine......she is just the little gal in the litter.

[Athe]

Keep in mind, a pup will only grow as large as they are genetically predisposed to grow. No matter how much you feed she will not get any bigger (maybe fatter) than she is genetically coded to do. Even a dog not getting proper nutrition will grow as large as they are genetically programmed to do. Of course, if the pup was starving to death then that would affect the growth.
I have seen many litters produce a runt of some of the pups do not get as big as the others. Don't compare with the other pups in the litter, just keep your pup healthy and happy and don't over due the feeding.

[Adrienne]

What are her other littermates eating Julie? It could be that because she is eating a "premium" food that she is growing more appropriately. If she is meant to be a large breed dog then DO NOT feed her puppy food, too much growing is done on puppy foods and the joints will suffer. Stick with your Eagle Pack and she'll grow at a nice even rate.

[gaddylovesdogs]

Labs are supposed to weigh between 55-70 lbs.. Mayberry is healthy at 63 lbs., and nice and short like a lab is supposed to be. There are way too many people out there that are breeding labs to be huge giants. There are so many of them because labs are so popular right now.

[becca_4321]

Andrienne, you are saying large breed puppies shouldnt eat puppy food? Do you think that would hold true on a chow?

[Adrienne]

Unless it is specialy designed for large breed pups. Regular puppy food is to high in levels of calcium and phosphorus (I believe that is the two that cause the issue), making the dog grow a lot faster than it should which can lead to joint issues. A chow would be in that range of medium-large breed so I wouldn't feed a regular puppy food. I perfer to stick to an all life stages kind of food like Canidae or Innova that way I don't have to get three different foods for three different ages/types of dogs!