Hi All - my new pup Django is about 5 & 1/2 months old and 43 lbs. He's probably going to end up around 70-80lbs I think.

I've been feeding him some raw occasionally but mostly he's been eating THK Embark and Orijen large breed puppy kibble. Usually half & half, 3 cups per day. I've been feeding 3x per day (so 1 cup per meal)

I'm just wondering when I should reduce his feeding to twice/day?

Also, feeding Embark to a large breed puppy, should I have any concerns about the calcium level?

Thanks - Matt

I would not feed a large breed puppy food. Causes too fast of a growth which can effect the skeletal system. Switch to an adult kibble....SOME of THK are for all life stages, not all of them. You need to look at that particular one. I haven't used it in a while so they may have changed the formulas. I mostly used it as an add on to meals never fed it exclusively as a meal itself.

Don't mix kibble & raw. Feed one am & the other at PM.
They digest at different rates. The main reason dogs can eat raw is that it goes through their digestive track quickly..that along with a very high acidic count allows for bacteria not to get a chance to increase to a detrimental rate. Just a note: do not give acid blocker type meds to raw fed dog. Killing the digestive acid is dangerous to a raw fed dog.

I feed 3 meals until 6-7 months. Ok have no problem later on occasionally adding an additional meal if I feel the dog needs the extra calories. I would do that rather then significantly increasing meal size which can promote diarrhaea.

I don't see any reason that raw feeding should effect dogs negatively unless not correctly done. I have fed a homemade raw diet exclusively for 13 years to 7 week old puppies to aged adults.

I would recommend a premade raw food (THK, Bravo, Omas Pride etc ) for beginners to raw diets. It is imperative that you feed a puppy perfectly. There is no slight wiggle room for error as there is in adult dog. In pups you are forming their future with what you feed them..good or bad.

Hope this info helps

Anne, what is it about a large breed puppy food that causes growth to be too fast? I always thought they were lower in calories and calcium to help with the skeletal health issue? Did I buy into something not true??!!

I think you're correct, Lori. The thing about puppy food is that it has the proper calcium /phosphorus ratios for growing pups. All life stages food also has the proper ratios. And then feed them to keep them lean.

I raised a pup on high calorie 30/20 performance food. But I kept him lean and he grew fine

With all due respect to Anne ........I am primarily a kibble feeder. My understanding is that large breed puppy formulas are designed for dogs that will be over 50-55 pounds at maturity. Those dogs will grow faster but also take longer to reach maturity than smaller dogs, and the caloric and calcium levels are optimal for those circumstances. My understanding is that it would also be appropriate to feed an "all life stages" food to such a pup, but they should not be fed an adult maintenance formula while still growing.

You may well be correct about the puppy formulas. They may have changed them since quite a while ago that I was checking out different puppy & adult foods when my son was getting a new dog. As I said I have been a raw feeder for 13 years so my focus has been elsewhere other than to research foods for him a number of years ago.
Sorry for any confusion I may have caused.

I would like to be a raw feeder again when we get our puppy, but it's really really hard to do it here where we live. I struggled just to keep chicken backs coming - we just don't have meat markets here anymore except whole foods and the grocery store stuff just doesn't work here either. And we certainly don't have places to hunt our own!

I have always purchased most of mine from a restaurant wholesale supplier. You have to buy in 4lb cases or whatever size that particular item it come in.. I buy of fresh chicken backs & necks, leg quarters, duck necks, Turkey necks, 10lb rolls of Turkey & beef, 10lb bags of hearts & gizzards, gr.pork, lamb, liver,kidney etc. Obviously you need a large freezer to store these amounts. 7-8 week old pups usually started on wings then on to backs.

Call around & see if you can find one. I travel 45 min to the one I buy from. I go usually every -2- 2 1/2 months. I would travel up to a couple of hours for the prices I get if I had to. It is worth trying to find place.

With one dog you might consider a pre-made raw like I mentioned instead of homemade especially for another puppy.

Don't know if you have a COSTCO warehouse store near you...but they have a good price on whole chickens if you buy by the 40lb case. I have friends that use them & Add with the other stuff from the grocery store. I buy some things there in between wholesale trips if I need to.

Hi everybody -

Yep, as far as kibbles go, I feel like the Orijen large-breed puppy is a good one for him at the moment. I'm not sure about THK Embark though. I know it's made for all life stages but its calcium level is higher than the Orijen.

I do feed him some raw food (never with kibble - I learned that lesson when Dante was a puppy!) But it's hard to keep all the ingredients on hand for every meal. Usually it has been 1/4 THK and 6 oz chicken wings and 6 oz ground beef. He's got most his adult teeth coming in now so I can probably start to switch off of the wings to thighs instead. You right Anne - that ground up commercial frozen raw is pretty good too, though expensive.

I now feed my 9 1/2 yr old GSD the Blue Buffalo products and have been happy with it.

I've never been a fan of feeding puppies puppy food for more then the first 5-6 months at best.

That was also when I had a number of different terriers.

Never saw any issues.