Misskiwi67
Posted : 4/2/2007 5:31:30 PM
ORIGINAL: mudpuppy
It's simply not true that puppies have special or different nutritional needs than adult dogs. Many of the so-called adult foods on the market are nutritionally inadequate and would kill a puppy, true, but these foods are also no good for adult dogs.
As a great dane breeder/owner, you should know better than anyone that puppies have different needs, since giant breeds are the best examples of this, and more prone to developing problems when something is a little off.
Too much calcium and the bones grow too fast, puppies DO NOT limit the amount of calcium they absorb until they are 6 months old. This alone should be cause for concern (as well as a poignant example of just how different puppies are), because most BARF diets hugely oversupplement with bone, and are therefore not appropriate for puppies.
Too little calcium and your puppy will have nutritional hyperparathyroidism, a disease even more serious and crippling than the diseases caused by too much calcium.
Here is a quote from the conference proceedings
Nutrition, Prevention and Treatment of Disease in Dogs and Cats ACVIM 2003
ORTHOPEDIC DISORDERS The developmental orthopedic disorders (DOD), disorders in maturation of osteochonral cartilage, are the orthopedic disorders most associated with nutritional causes and treatments. The key to preventing and treating developmental orthopedic disorders through dietary intervention seems to be, first and foremost, avoidance of excesses in diet and gross imbalances in nutrients. Certainly instances of secondary hyperparathyroidism from gross imbalances in calcium and phosphorus exist, but such cases generally occur in animals on home-prepared, meat-based formulas with the calcium and phosphorus content of the diet not appropriately assessed and balanced. Within the group of DOD the one given the most objective scientific scrutiny has been hip dysplasia (HD). Kealy et al. in 1992 published results demonstrating the number of dogs determined to develop HD by 2 years of age could be significantly decreased by feeding 25% less food to Labrador retriever puppies with a genetic predisposition to HD than paired littermates consumed ad libitum.7 Continuation of a 25% restriction in amount of diet through 5, and then 8, years of age was demonstrated to decrease the development and/or severity of radiographic signs of osteoarthritic changes to the coxofemoral, stifle, shoulder and elbow, joints in these pair fed dogs.8,9 Thus, as with the renal studies above, diet can be concluded to have an effect on the incidence of HD and subsequent development of osteoarthritis, but the specific nutrient(s) responsible cannot be determined from the studies by Kealy et al. Some commercial formulas have adjusted the energy density, macro- and micro mineral content of growth products marketed for large and giant breeds to guard against excesses, but the basis for these adjustments rests in extrapolation from other studies and theory rather than definitive demonstration of effect on incidence of HD and osteoarthritis. Some evidence has been generated that loss of excess body weight in conjunction with controlled, moderate activity (e.g., leash walking) improves the mobility and comfort of dogs with HD.10,11 However, the cited studies suffer from lack of a clear control group for differentiating between weight loss, activity and placebo effects.