What kibble to feed 8 week old Corso?

[alou]

I will be getting my first Corso in 2 weeks. I'm beyond excited! I'm trying to get everything ready now. My biggest unknown is what puppy kibble to give him. My understanding is Corso pups need kibble with lower protein to control their growth rate and prevent excessive stress to their joints. I've been feeding my dogs Taste of the Wild Sierra Mountain kibble and while they have puppy formulas, they don't identify them as being for large breed pups or not. Can you guys recommend some brands? Thanks!

 

[DennasMom]

The main thing for the giant breeds during growth is to keep it SLOW and feed a food with LOW CALCIUM.
Protein is no longer the "bad guy" in kibble. Slow growth is achieved by not feeding too many calories. Balanced growth is achieved by keeping calcium low.

Adult or All-Stages food is fine - but check that the calcium is <1.5% and phosphorus is balanced near 1:1 or with a little lower phosphorus, say <1.2%

DogFoodAdvisor is a good resource for checking on different brands for quality and ingredients.
Some foods don't list calcium, so you'll have to contact the mfg direct for answers.

Taste of the Wild gets good marks, and from this discussion, it looks like calcium is <1.4% in their puppy formulas, you'd have to call on the adult versions - if the adult formulas are also <1.5% calcium, I'd probably go with that over the puppy formulas.
https://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/forums/topic/taste-of-the-wild-calcium-content/

 

[tgrant56]

hey my boy leo just got to 5 months he was doing okay on taste of the while perfect coat energy and he really liked it but his stool was very loose on it and we could only get it to firm up using pure pumpkin puree so we recently decided to switch him to acana meadowland and so far he has more consistently firm stool the ratings and sources of the food seem to be of a better origin than totw. With having that said i would still start with the test of the wild its still an amazing food and most of my pups have dont great it little leo just has a sensitive stomac, i have a year and a half female CC as well and she does great on it not one problem hope this help

 

[Jarena]

Openfarm.com
We switch her food between the pork, lamb, white fish, and salmon. Anything that doesn’t fly haha. This is also an impressive company that uses human grade ingredients and humanly sourced meats. They are all grain free and I can pronounce (almost) every ingredient They have the ratios as mentioned above and they are the first food we found that our Cane Corso loves and doesn’t give her diarrhea. You should check them out.

 

[alou]

Thanks for the info guys! I called TOTW and got nutritional info for the adult kibble I used for our GSD and Shih Tzu as well as their puppy Kibble:

Sierra Mountain (current adult kibble)
Calcium: 1.6%
Phosphorus: 1%
ME: 3,611 kcal/kg
338 kcal/cup
Fat: 15%
Protein: 25%
Calcium/phosphorus ratio: 1.6:1

Pacific Stream (puppy)
Calcium: 1.3%
Phosphorus: 1%
ME: 3,567 kcal/kg
354 kcal/cup
Fat: 15%
Protein: 27%
Calcium/phosphorus ratio: 1.3:1


High Prairie(puppy)
Calcium: 1.4%
Phosphorus: 1%
ME: 3,661 kcal/kg
363 kcal/cup
Fat: 17%
Protein: 28%
Calcium/phosphorus ratio: 1.4:1



So according to dogfoodadvisor, here are the recommended guidelines for calcium and phosphorus:

• 1.2 to 1.8% calcium
• 1.0 to 1.6% phosphorus
• Calcium-to-phosphorus ratio 1:1 to 1.8:1

Based on these recommendations, all 3 of the above mentioned TOTW kibble would be OK to feed a CC puppy. However, if my understanding is correct, it would seem the puppy kibble might be better as it has lower calcium levels, even though it has higher protein (which shouldn't matter) and higher calories. Also, I wonder if it would be OK to feed the same puppy kibble to my adult Shih Tzu (just to make feedings logistically easier)? So basically, should I stay with TOTW adult kibble or puppy kibble?

 

[Hazel_Jane_mama]

I just recently switched to taste of the wild my 7 month old CANE has had issues digesting anything that flies.. So we stick to Salmon/fish flavor... we had HORRIBLE diarrhea literally awful every day and night in crate

 

[alou]

I just recently switched to taste of the wild my 7 month old CANE has had issues digesting anything that flies.. So we stick to Salmon/fish flavor... we had HORRIBLE diarrhea literally awful every day and night in crate

Are u saying ur pup had diarrhea with TOTW Pacific Stream puppy formula?

 

[marke]

My understanding is Corso pups need kibble with lower protein to control their growth rate and prevent excessive stress to their joints.

if the protein is low , the remainder will be made up by carbs and fat , both of which will contribute to weight gain at a much greater rate than protein ........ the low protein accelerated growth warning has been around on the internet a long time , it is completely false ........... as far as stress on the joint , skinny is good for a pup , and lots and lots of low impact exercise ....... walking , free range in a big yard both good ........ chasing a ball , running , cutting , jumping , springpole , horrible choices ....... giving them limited exercise , bad choice also ............