My GSD just turned 1 year old, beginning of June. She has been turning her nose up at Iams Large Breed Puppy food for a while now. I'm researching many of the products mentioned on this discussion board and am considering a switch.

Problem is the feedback from stores vets, breeders, etc., as to the proper age for switching from puppy food (26% - 28% protein) to adult food (22% - 24% protein). When is the correct age for adult food given the fact she is still a puppy, but has probaly reached 75% of her size and can be considered an adult? I'm getting mixed signals. My vet and local breeder say to feed adult food now. A dog food manufacturer (one not mentioned on this board) says feed puppy food till 2 years old.

The dog has already experienced Panositis (sp?) (thanks to whoever pointed that condition out to me), so I'm thinking a quality adult food with less protein to slow down the growing. Her potential, I'm told, is around 80 - 85 lbs and she's now at about 65 lbs.

Any thoughts from the group?

Adult food. As a general rule you can not put too much stock in what the dog food bag says. Back when I did feed kibble- I switched to adult between 4-6 months.

She sounds large for her age. Just a comparison, but at 1 year 8 months my male weighs 69lbs. He is not done growing, but he is neither too fat, nor too skinny. If he ever grows into his head we'll be good to go..

Originally posted by Gordon Vander Ploeg:
A dog food manufacturer (one not mentioned on this board) says feed puppy food till 2 years old.

Any thoughts from the group? Run, Run very fast and far from this dog food company..The guy must design artifical dog hips cause anyone suggesting a dog stay on puppy food til they are 2 must be wanting dogs to end up dysplastic. Who ever told you that has no clue on canine nutrition.

If you can not (or don't wish too) use a raw diet, use a holistic brand of kibble (solid gold, chicken soup for dog lovers soul, holistic eagle just to name a few) for your dog and get away from Iams.

Take your dog off of puppy food today.....

Karmen,

Actually, it was O&M (Owen & Mandeville). This food was recommended by a cooworker, whos son's state police dog is fed this food. It is human grade, not feed grade. Here is their quote:

"Owen & Mandeville's puppy food is formulated for slower, controlled growth, rather than contributing to the growth spurts that cause growing pains like your dog is having. Unfortunately, fast growth can lead to hip dysplasia as the bones are growing too fast so the energy goes to size rather than density. We also recommend you keep your dog on our puppy food until the reach approximately 2 years of age, when all growth is finished. Your dog may be at his adult height at the age of 1, but he is still filling out, developing muscle and bone until he is 2."

The thing that draws me away from their food is it is $42 for a 24lb bag, but is supposed to last 6 weeks @ 2 cups/day.

I have been looking at Solid Gold and Eagle Pack in my list choices. I'll consider the holistic and see how that looks.

Thanks.

No dog should be on kibble puppy food til they are 2..no matter what the brand..That is just asking for problems...Good luck and keep us posted on what you decide

Your dog should defintely be on adult food for reasons noted above .... but please, stick to the organic type dog foods. I tried many different types to include "Chicken Soup for the Dog Lovers Soul" but finally chose Natural Balance (www.naturalbalanceinc.com) My dog's coat shines like never before, his dandruff disappeared and his stools are consistently small and relatively oder free. It costs about $33 for a 35 pound bag. Do some of your own research and test different ones to see what works best for your dog. Good luck.

Greg

my gerda (carlo hilsblick X xitta haus moons) had quite a time until i finally wised up to what was going on. i tried all the "top" :rolleyes: commercial brands, but the poor little thing had one problem after another. conclusion: one brand doesn't fit all.
she has an intolerance to certain grains - corn especially. it will make her gimpy, loose stools, dead coat, etc. i have been feeding raw for a little over a year now. at one point i was feeding strictly raw, which i do feel is the best, but i do feed a little commercial food to fill in the nutritional gaps that i can't get with meats/bones alone. (rice....no corn)
you may have to do some experimenting to find a diet that your dog can tolerate, but i have to agree with karmen....raw is best. modified raw is second best. this board has wonderful articles on raw diet, lots of discussion and some folks here have been feeding raw for years. the big thing is, we have all been fooled and swindled by some of these big companies (science diet, iams, purina, etc) that take the money from their over-priced dog food and spend it on more advertising rather than better ingredients for the feed. they spend a ton of money convincing people that dogs won't thrive without their product and even get veterinarians suckered into the conspiracy by selling these overpriced, inferior feeds. i wish you luck and hope you find something that will satisfy your dog's needs very soon. i know how frustrating it is to watch your dog's condition go downhill, feel guilty about it, yet not know which way to turn. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I just talked to one of the people with one of my pups last night, he is just 8 months old, is 78 pounds at last vet visit. No one can believe he is only 8 months old! But the owner keeps him lean and watches what he feeds the pup, just substance in body and bone. No pano signs, no allergy signs, on adult Eagle Holistic, either Lamb based or Salmon based, since 3.5 - 4 months old. Eagle is also supposed to be coming out with a Duck based food I was told by distributor yesterday when I picked up food.

Pat - FYI - both the Carlo daughters who came here - the coated one came as a pet, the other just came back again, and is looking for yet another home as a pet - have same food issues.

Lee

I haven't checked this message thread for quite a while. A lot has gone on with my pup since June/July.

In my search for the best food to feed her I finally settled on Wellness. It was about $35 for a 33lb bag, which I thought was reasonable. She started to eat it regularly and then suddenly one day sniffed it and walked away! This went on for about 2 or three days. The only way to get her to eat was to put a cooked egg on the food, or other types of meat juices. At the end of July we went on a trip and had to board her. The kennel said she wouldn't eat the Wellness but seemed more attracted to Diamond (that was the brand they used on all their dogs). After that I kept feeding the Wellness to get rid of it and thought I would switch to Diamond. During this time she began limping again and wouldn't eat. A visit to the vet showed that she had tendonitis in her back leg and a blood test showed that her electrolytes were out of balance. Recommendation was a prescription for the tendonitis and to give her PediaLite along with cooked brocolli and califlower with her food. She turned around in no time, however the brocolli gave her the s***s, which took a while to get rid of. During this time she went down to 55lbs (63lbs when she went into heat at 10 months old). A month ago she was spayed and weighed on at 57 lbs and is back to her old healthy self. I will wait a few more months befor getting her back on the scale.

What's the point to all this? My dog is a finicky eater. I am feeding Diamond now and she will sniff and walk away from dry, however, put some warmed up meat juice on it and she'll eat it all. Is she lean? Yes. Is she strong? Yes. Is she underweight? Possibly. We were told she would be 80 lbs, but I doubt it. She is by no means lazy, as she will run circles around my son's 85lb Yellow Lab. So in 14 months she has had Pano several times, electrolyte imbalance, tendonitis, been spayed and not gaind a whole bunch of weight.

I guess I'm just going to have to continue with adding eggs, meat juice, yogurt, turkey or chicken to her food to make it more appealing. She may be a fussy eater, but, I wouldn't trade her loving attitude, loyalty, protectiveness, alertness and intelligence for anything.