New owner seeking advice

[Norman Hechavarria]

Hi all. My wife and I was getting 2 female puppies. The mother is supposed to be an American Bandogge Mastiff and the father a full English Mastiff. This is our first larger breed dogs. What puppy food do you guys recommend? We have done all kinds of research and are determined to feed them the best we can to try and lower the chances of them developing hip dysplasia. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Smokeycat]

I choose to feed an all life stages food instead of puppy food. My EM is unable to have any food or treats with poultry, I tried chicken, turkey and duck based foods, so I ended up using fish based Go! Shine and Sensitivity.

 

[Hiraeth]

The recommended calcium/phosphorous ratios for giant breed dogs are calcium between 1-1.5%, and phosphorous between .08-1%.

Many puppy, adult and 'all life stages' foods fall within those parameters. I'd suggest avoiding anything with by-products and fillers like corn. The first two ingredients should be meat meals (not just plain meats).

Side note: Please research littermate syndrome. Getting two puppies of the same age can be very challenging, as the puppies can bond with each other more than they bond with their humans. This can lead to separation anxiety, difficulty training, and even aggression towards other dogs. I don't know of any ethical breeders who would sell two puppies to the same household for these reasons. In order to make sure your puppies grow into well-adjusted dogs, you will need to ensure that they are trained together and separately and are kept apart sometimes so that they can develop identities outside of their littermate's presence. It's three times the work to raise two puppies as opposed to one.

 

[marke]

having raised 2-3 littermates together from birth to adult , and or death , 9 separate times , from my perspective there is no such thing as littermate syndrome ....... I've yet to have a pup or dog prefer a littermate over me .......... and I've bought two littermates from as reputable a breeder as there is . and I've placed littermates in the same household , it depends on the situation ........ raising pups together is a healthy situation , mentally and physically ..... speaking for myself I would never do otherwise ......

 

[TWW]

They do not need puppy food, look for a quality dog food with the ratio's listed above.

 

[DennasMom]

For the "giant" breeds (not just "large"), the lower the calcium the better during the growth period. As Hiraeth said, under 1.5% for calcium, balanced with a little less phosphorus.
Many mastiff lines also are sensitive to both grains and chicken in kibble. You can ask the breeder if they know of any chicken issues with their pups, or you can just opt to start with a chicken & grain-free food to begin with.

We started out with Solid Gold Wolf Cub, but it's probably a mid-grade food. Acana, Orijen, Fromm and many others are on the "good" list - as long as you pick a recipe at the lower calcium range.

DogFoodAdvisor-dot-com is a wealth of information on different foods.
If you like to read and do research, here's a link to some of their discussions on feeding big puppies: http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/forums/topic/large-and-giant-breed-puppy-nutrition/

Puppy food has more fat and calories and is often formulated to promote FAST growth... which is BAD for big bones. You want the muscle to grow at pace with the bones, and the slower the better. So an adult or all-life-stages food is often recommended for giant breeds.

You might also research raw feeding, if you have resources to prepare your own meals (i.e. hunters can really make it cost-effective). We converted our pup at 6 months to a "whole prey model raw" diet (a google search returns LOTS of help), and I love giving her fresh food (and I think she likes it too, HA!).

Congratulations on your new additions!

 

[Norman Hechavarria]

Thank you guys for all the advice! I will post pics soon.

 

[marke]

Puppy food has more fat and calories and is often formulated to promote FAST growth... which is BAD for big bones. You want the muscle to grow at pace with the bones, and the slower the better. So an adult or all-life-stages food is often recommended for giant breeds.

I don't believe this is true , I see it on the internet all the time , I can't find anything to substantiate it ....... the research which is near a half century old , done by dog food companies like purina are where everyones information on how to feed a large breed puppy comes from ...... why would they do the research and then sell a product that is the opposite of their own information ? while I can't speak for the newer large breed dog foods like orijen , blue buffalo , fromm ........ large breed puppy food should have less kcal per cup and requires less cups than what is recommended when feeding adult food to a pup ............ while the calcium phosphorus ratio and percentage may be similar in large breed puppy and adult food , the amount taken in is usually larger when feeding the adult food , as the recommended quantity fed is greater .....

 

[PippatheMastiff]

I don't go by recommendation of amount to feed on bag when feeding pups adult food. That just doesn't make sense. But nutritionally, I agree that good adult food slows the growth of giant pups, which is what we want.


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[DennasMom]

Marke - I probably agree with you - the fat/calorie argument is one that I have seen the 'experts' note, and also have noticed on some bags, but not all... I chose Solid Gold Wolf Cub for Denna as a puppy - it had the right Cah ratios and I liked the other ingredients on the list, but I don't think I looked at fat or calories. We allowed Denna to pick her portion size at that point, and we moved form there to raw-fed, so I couldn't tell you if portion sizes changed once she was off the puppy food.

 

[Nik]

Marke - I probably agree with you - the fat/calorie argument is one that I have seen the 'experts' note, and also have noticed on some bags, but not all... I chose Solid Gold Wolf Cub for Denna as a puppy - it had the right Cah ratios and I liked the other ingredients on the list, but I don't think I looked at fat or calories. We allowed Denna to pick her portion size at that point, and we moved form there to raw-fed, so I couldn't tell you if portion sizes changed once she was off the puppy food.

I miss having a dog where you could let the dog pick portion size.

Both Diesel and Kahlua would eat themselves sick if I allowed it.

Cerberus, on the other hand, never over-ate once in his life. If anything he was more on the finicky side and we were forever monitoring to make sure he ate enough with particular attention to his body condition (he was always on the thin side but we were very careful to make sure never unhealthy - which meant occasionally adding these beef sprinkles over his food to make it more appetizing to him).

 

[Norman Hechavarria]

Here they are! Love these girls to death.