Getting New Pup - What food?

fameb

Should I keep our pup on this food or should I switch him to a higher grade?

Keep him on it while he settles in.  Switch it later, if you want to.  And I would switch gradually, as well.  Nutrition is not my forte, so I will leave it at that and someone else will jump in any minute with more info

 I've heard good things about both the Solid Gold large breed puppy and the Eagle Pack large breed puppy foods, if I weren't probably switching to raw I'd put my next puppy on one of those.

Puppies have so many changes to get used to when they first get home that their tummies are usually already a little upset without having to go through a food change at the same time everything else is changing too. You might find your little one already has loose stools when it gets home just from stress. Give it a couple weeks before changing his food,then do it gradually. Mixing the old with the new a little at a time over a couple weeks.

I dont know much about large breed puppies so I will leave that for somebody else to talk to you about. Enjoy your new pup! :)

I LOVE Orijen. I've only used the regular puppy formula, but poops and coat were amazing.

My personal dog east Blue Buffalo - as do many of my puppy fosters, and eveyone does very well on that.

I would start switching over after I had the puppy for week. I think early nutrition is important and just a couple of weeks is a long time as far as a puppy's growth and development. If I had a large breed puppy, I would feed Eagle Pack Holistic large breed puppy food. I changed my Chihuahua puppy's food after a week and he did just fine.

We got our Nova Scotia Duck Toller at 4mnths old, a retriever built very similar to the Golden's only thinner boned, I fed him Innova Large Breed puppy food for 2-3 mnths, then switched to the Orijen large breed puppy with GREAT results.

It's not the amount of protein you have to worry about, it's the calcium/phosphorus levels, of which the Innova and the Orijen both are VERY strictly controlled for the good of the large dog. Just be sure to purchase the large breed puppy food, not the regular puppy food.

Not all dog foods even though they specify *for large breed puppies* are controlled, so be very cautious.

However, there is NOTHING wrong with feeding the Orijen large breed puppy food.

I'm not a fan of the Eagle pack foods, only because I think they have ingredients that are unnecessary; i.e. beet pulp and not as nutritious; i.e. dried egg product.

I switched Rivers over immediately, he had been eating Pedigree or Purina, can't remember which one now, but he had horrible ear infections, skin infection, fleas, etc he was a mess....obviously his food wasn't doing him any good. I did however add a bit of brown rice to his new food for a couple of days, along with plain yogurt, didn't have any issues.

Here he is at around 16mnths old, he's skinny as a rail but grew in moderation.

Beautiful Picture...Love the background, where is it?

I'm just concerned because he'll only be 8 weeks old when he comes home. Besides getting used to new surrounding, I thought it might be too much for him, if I change the food right away too.

I want to change it to Innova as soon as I can though. Then after 6 months or so to Orijen.

I would give him about a week to settle and then start a transition to either Innova or Blue Buffalo Large Breed Puppy.  A large breed pup isn't always full grown at a year, or even two, as I've seen first hand with my shepherds.  I have only now, at almost 4 years, switched Thunder to the Blue Wilderness (42% protein) and the only reason I did that is to keep weight on him this winter.  He tends towards dropping weight horribly in the colder weather.

What is *classifed* as a large breed?

I mean, how big are your shephards, weight and height?

Rivers is around 52# and 26" tall at 19mnths old, I hope I didn't do him any harm by feeding him Orijen large breed puppy food for several months, I always thought it was the calcium/phosphorus you had to be careful of as well as the quality of protein.

The pet food industry considers any dog who will be 50 lbs or over as an adult to be a large breed.

If you were feeding him LB puppy formula, I doubt you did any harm.

Gosh, I haven't measured the shepherds in ages, but they weigh in between 70 and 90 lbs.  Sheba has a slighter build than the boys, Tyler still looks like a youngun with the longish legs and slight build, but I blame that on the two months of Pedigree he ate at his adoptive home....And I believe that you are right.  It IS, I think, the c/ph ratio and the quality of the protein.

Cool.

You know, I had an alaskan malamute/Dal mix that weighed in at 75-80# of pure muscle machine, she too had the same skinny legs Rivers has, and was actually probably an inch or so shorter, but not by much.

Is it considered healthy to have such a tall dog, i.e. 26" and only weigh in at 53#??

I mean he has a very slight thin layer of muscle/meat over his ribs, vet thinks he's great. Everyone keeps telling me he'll fill out, but I just don't see it....he reminds me of a 6-foot 12yr teenage linky boy...hehehehe!

fameb

Beautiful Picture...Love the background, where is it?

Called Summit Lake up near the top of Mt Evans, at 14,264ft in Colorado....it was COLD. Even Rivers was cold...this is when I decided he DID need a good couple of sweaters to have for the winters.

Kids are kids though, they refused to put on their heavy coats, but the wind was howling!

Whole different breed, but....

Sheba stayed skinny looking until almost 3.  Thor always looked like a big dog, even as a pup, but, he didn't really fill in and get the good strong muscle look until around two and I don't think any of the others filled n before two.

I think most dogs will grow at their own rate and fill in eventually.  But, it is never a bad thing to have a lean large breed dog.

Yeah, I do like the skinnyness he has, just wish his legs were a little beefier.

OP: Also check out Healthwise chicken/rice puppy food, also made by the same company as Innova. This food is fantastic for regulating cal/phosphorus and has less complicated ingriedents without being considered boring.

Take a look

 http://www.healthwisepetfood.com/products/default.asp?id=547