Hello
MY 8 1/2 month old Dobe has been having some digestive problems (bad gas, excessive loose stools every so often etc...). We currently have her on Solid Gold Wolfcub which is supposed to be a very high quality puppy food for large breeds. I have been told however to try and find a non-grain diet (grains might be the problem apparently).
So, I have been looking at Innova EVO. (Not quite ready to feed BARF just yet)
Innova EVO has a protien content of 42% and Fat 22% (which is higher than accepted large been puppy formulas). I have done some reading and apparently, the protien is not as important as the Calcium and Phosphorous content in foods for large breed puppies. Innova EVO has 2.44% cacium and 1.36% phosphorous.
I have contacted the company and their customer service rep told me that the EVO kibble should be ok since my pup is 8 1/2 months old (ie: over 6 months), despite the higher calcium and protien. This contradicts some of the other posts I have read on the forum which say that EVO should not be fed to large breed puppies
So my questions are......
1) Is an 8 1/2 month old dog still considered a puppy for feeding purposes? Should I be overly worried about the higher calcium content in EVO at this age? (I have read that calcium should be around 1-1.5% for large breed pups)
2) What about all those other parents and breeders out there feeding BARF to their large breed pups from 8 weeks of age onwards? Surely a BARF diet is even higher in calcium and protien than the EVO kibble and those pups do fine dont they?
3) Am I being overly cautious? At 8 1/2 months she is already at 75% of her full body weight anyway, and all non-grain kibble i have looked into seems to have a higher content of protien and calcium.
Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks
MY 8 1/2 month old Dobe has been having some digestive problems (bad gas, excessive loose stools every so often etc...). We currently have her on Solid Gold Wolfcub which is supposed to be a very high quality puppy food for large breeds. I have been told however to try and find a non-grain diet (grains might be the problem apparently).
So, I have been looking at Innova EVO. (Not quite ready to feed BARF just yet)
Innova EVO has a protien content of 42% and Fat 22% (which is higher than accepted large been puppy formulas). I have done some reading and apparently, the protien is not as important as the Calcium and Phosphorous content in foods for large breed puppies. Innova EVO has 2.44% cacium and 1.36% phosphorous.
I have contacted the company and their customer service rep told me that the EVO kibble should be ok since my pup is 8 1/2 months old (ie: over 6 months), despite the higher calcium and protien. This contradicts some of the other posts I have read on the forum which say that EVO should not be fed to large breed puppies
So my questions are......
1) Is an 8 1/2 month old dog still considered a puppy for feeding purposes? Should I be overly worried about the higher calcium content in EVO at this age? (I have read that calcium should be around 1-1.5% for large breed pups)
2) What about all those other parents and breeders out there feeding BARF to their large breed pups from 8 weeks of age onwards? Surely a BARF diet is even higher in calcium and protien than the EVO kibble and those pups do fine dont they?
3) Am I being overly cautious? At 8 1/2 months she is already at 75% of her full body weight anyway, and all non-grain kibble i have looked into seems to have a higher content of protien and calcium.
Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks