requesting dog food advice

[rdeborah]

I have a 6 month EM female. The breeder fed her raw deer bones and Nutrisource large breed puppy food. I continued with that dog food. The breeder told me to put her on adult large breed dog food at 5 months. She is currently on the Fromm Large Breed dog food. However, she is shedding a lot. Not sure if it is from the Fromm dog food. I do not want to feed her the raw food diet. Although, I do give her apples, and carrots (as snacks), mix scrambled eggs, cooked pork, cooked hamburger, hot dogs in her food. She has never been a good eater of her dry food. I know it is because of the cooked food that I add. I would love to know what everyone feeds their EMs. Should she be on puppy or adult food? I would appreciate your advice. Thanks, Deb

 

[Pastor Dave]

I do give our dogs, Black Labrador and Mr. Cheevers the mastiff, an occasional snack, mostly to get them moving to the back door when I want them inside or whatever...but for the most part, Coal the Lab gets one level cup of kibble 3 times a day when we have a meal, and the mastiff gets 2 heaping cups 3 times a day of this kibble mixture. I use For Health Lamb and Rice from Tractor Supply, and another decent brand of kibble mixed. The dogs devour the kibble and are always ready for more. Chev the mastiff will readily eat hunks of apple, and he does a "banana dance" most mornings in his enthusiasm for some banana. Coal has learned to enjoy some banana also. Otherwise..it is kibble.

 

[Pastor Dave]

By the way, I think your fine looking pup is lying on your wall.

 

[rdeborah]

I know. I don't know how to turn it around. I'm new to all this. Thanks for the info.

 

[trg]

We use 4health as well, our dogs do really well on it. For what you get it is priced cheaper than some of the other comparable brands.

 

[Boxergirl]

It's generally suggested that giant breed puppies be on an all life stages food with the appropriate calcium to phosphorus ratio. There are large breed puppy foods that have the correct ratios too. Usually that's somewhere around 1 -1.5% Calcium to .08-1% Phosphorus. Protein is not an issue.

 

[rdeborah]

I'm currently using the Fromm Large Breed Adult Gold. The protein% is 24.39. Fat%13.04, Calcium%1.44 and Phosphorus% 0.92. I contacted Fromm and they said to keep her on the large breed puppy until she is full grown.
Protein$26.58, Fat%14.67, Calcium% 1.33 and Phosphorus% 0.95. Lola is my first giant breed dog, so I want to make sure I am feeding her a good kibble and one that she likes. She just seems to be shedding a lot. I never noticed it when she was on the Nutrisource puppy. Thanks.

 

[DennasMom]

I feed raw - it took some planning to get started, but it's really easy once you get a system down.

There's also the option to do a homemade cooked diet, but that takes a bit more planning and work.

There are lots of quality kibbles out there - and I think you're doing a good thing by adding some "real" food to the dish, as well. Just try to keep the adders to under 25% of the diet, to avoid causing any nutrient imbalances (or research how to make your 'adders' nutritionally balanced).

Shedding - you might need to add some fresh fats/oils to the diet - most likely omega 3's. Fats don't preserve well in dry kibble. I'd get a good fish oil supplement and work up to 2000 mg/day (start with 1/4 dose for a few days to make sure the added fat doesn't upset the system); and also add a Vitamin E supplement, working up to 400 IU/day.

The difference between Adult and Puppy food is normally marketing and a few added calories for the puppies. If they add extra calcium to the puppy food, that's BAD for mastiffs. These are GIANT breeds, not "Large" breeds. From you're numbers above... it looks like the puppy version has LOWER calcium?? if that's true - go with the puppy food! The lower the calcium the better for giant breed puppies.

 

[Pastor Dave]

How about this???

 

[Pastor Dave]

I have no idea how to get this pic on your postings...I'll leave that to you. I clicked on the sideways pic, saved it in my picture files, used Photoshop to straighten it, and voila...here it is. Best to you...have a great day!!!

 

[Pastor Dave]

We have a terrific (using the term loosely) blonde hair issue with our mastiff...thanks for the tip about the Omega 3's. I never thought of that, although I take one daily. Thanks, Denna's Mommy.

 

[trg]

This looks like it meets the criteria listed in the post above for a giant breed puppy. We have a tractor supply close or our home where this is sold. We currently have one large dog on the 4health brand and she does really well on it. Let me know if you see something I may be missing please. Thanks in advance. Btw this is about $38.00 per 30 lbs, and they deliver. No I do not work for tractor supply. Lol.

 

[Boxergirl]

Looks good to me. I fed all my dogs 4health when Ella, my EM, was growing. Salmon and Sweet Potato formula. We switched between that and the Whitefish formula.

We do Nature's Domain from Costco now because I have five large dogs or more here at any given time with fosters, boarders, etc and it's more cost effective for us and works just as well.

 

[Sheila Braund]

Beautiful pup! I've been feeding my EM pre-made raw diet with beefy bones.... She doesn't seem to shed like the other mastiffs we know.
I don't give her a lot of scraps either unless it's meat and veggies I've cooked.
Her treats are dried beef mostly.... Now and then I give her peanut butter in her kong... She loves it. I use it to distracted her while I trim her nails

 

[Comet1118]

I have my 3 month old female cane corso on victor professional food and my 5 year old male cane corso on Taste of the wild bison . He had food allergies and needs bison or duck food . Both do well on their food

 

[Pastor Dave]

We use the "Lamb and Rice" 4 Health kibble...somewhere I read that mastiffs are a bit sensitive to the poultry, so I avoid chicken based food. Have a great day !!

 

[DenyMcKusker]

I feed raw. I have many dogs and the 1 thing I found is they all love this. I have tried so many of the dry kibble's and several of them won't eat it without me doctoring it, so I studied raw and started it. The dogs are all happy and Healthy. MaxAmillion our Neo is always at the front of the line. I also feed the Barf diet. They have 1 meal a day with this food. I feed 2x per day. I get the variety from Barf which is Beef, Chicken, Turkey & Lamb. They love this as well. I have 2 special needs chi's. They also love it. I think I have created the cleanest diet for them possible. It's a little pricey but I figure if I can minimize Vet. visits it will help pay for it.