What to feed an English Mastiff?!?!

[skyclay]

I have an English Mastiff almost a year old now and I have been feeding him Blue and I am thinking about changing his diet to ScienceDiet Lamb formula. It has no chicken in it and some people I know have fed the same thing or very similar things to other giant breeds such as pitbulls, dobermans, and Danes. I figured that since my dog is the most massive one you can buy, I should feed him the food that is fed to other extremely large/muscular dogs. This is my first time owning an English Mastiff and any feedback from veteran owners would be much appreciated!

 

[Tunride]

Please go to the Health & Nutritional Care section for advice on feeding these giant breed dogs. We have a 1 1/2 yr old EM and feed Earthborn Holistic Meadows Feast. Science Diet is not a good food. (http://www.hillspet.com/products/sd-canine-adult-lamb-meal-and-rice-recipe-dry.html) It's full of grains which are fillers.

 

[Robtouw]

Science Diet is not a good choice for an english mastiff. Keep in mind that not all large dogs are the same as giant breeds, they have different needs. Dogfoodanalysis.com or the website Tunride mentioned can give you some insight. A premium food product with a high meat content is preferred. Mastiffs have genetic presdispositions that can cause gastric tortion or bloat if fed improperly, and trust me that is one experience you do not want. Diets that are high in grains, corn, glutens and byproducts are difficult for them to diagest. All four of my OEM's and my Saints have been fed a good premium or holistic food product and supplemented with yogurts, veggies and fresh meats, I've had no issues thankfully! All of my dogs have had different food products as well, each were a little different in their dietary needs.

 

[DennasMom]

What's the reason for considering a diet change?

 

[skyclay]

What about ReelRaw? I have heard good things about it

 

[MastiffDude]

Hi Skyclay,
"Moose" (in my avatar) was a big boy - 245# but had grain allergies, so we moved him over to First Mate grain free/fish-based kibble. There is a LOT of interesting nutritional information on this forum. A really good question asked above is why the interest in changing your baby's diet? We moved Moose over to First Mate due to his allergies.

We recently adopted an older female rescue EM, and she came to us on a grain-free kibble diet with some prefab frozen raw food added. We have moved her to the Costco grain free.

The diet goes hand-in-hand with the level of activity. We took Moose to doggy day care every day while we were at work and he was VERY muscular, so protein content was important. He was known as "Nanny Moose" as he looked after all the puppies and small dogs and always came home exhausted.

We had 3 EMs before Moose and always fed formula kibble. (not the "Purina" level kibble) There is a lot of chatter on this forum promoting raw feeding. We are currently considering moving from kibble to raw, but you have to be thoughtful about providing the right mix of raw foods to ensure complete nutrition. (e.g. muscle/bone/organ meat ratios)

You should also ask your breeder what THEY recommend. Obviously they know what works well for their studs/dams, and since you are now the proud owner of one of their offspring, whatever they are being fed should work well for their progeny.

 

[mastiffico]

i switched my english mastiff over to the raw diet ...i personally think it will be the best choice for all of my dogs ...makes more sense to me ..to me it is what they should be eating ...because what did we feed them before we invented dog food ..i see alot of dogs with tumors ...alergy issues and etc ..they dont seem to have those issues when fed raw ..and i love the fact that they wont have any doggie odor to them .

 

[VentiandMe]

Interesting...I also am having this issue.
I currently have my 6 month old EM on Wellness Large Breed Puppy, and I was going to start weening him onto Orijen Large Breed puppy 80/20 tonight. As a substitute/addition to the dry food, we also make lean ground beef/carrots/celery (1/2 of each) sauteed in low sodium chicken broth and then we food processor it, and then add about 3-4 tablespoons per meal. What do you guys think about this diet?

WHen we got him, the breeder had him on Fromm Adult duck/sweet potato but he had runny poops/farts all the time. So we then moved over to science diet (I know its not that good, but it made his poops rock hard). We only did one bag of the science diet. He does have more of a sensitive stomach and I am hoping this Orijen works out.

by the way
Raw bone marrow and my boy = explosive diarrhea
has anybody else ever had this issue? I figured its just too rich for his stomach to handle so I stopped giving those to him and will wait until he's older.

What RAW or partially cooked recipes do you suggest?

Thanks for the help/suggestions!!!

---------- Post added at 04:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:42 PM ----------

i switched my english mastiff over to the raw diet ...i personally think it will be the best choice for all of my dogs ...makes more sense to me ..to me it is what they should be eating ...because what did we feed them before we invented dog food ..i see alot of dogs with tumors ...alergy issues and etc ..they dont seem to have those issues when fed raw ..and i love the fact that they wont have any doggie odor to them .

What kind of raw diet?

 

[VentiandMe]

i switched my english mastiff over to the raw diet ...i personally think it will be the best choice for all of my dogs ...makes more sense to me ..to me it is what they should be eating ...because what did we feed them before we invented dog food ..i see alot of dogs with tumors ...alergy issues and etc ..they dont seem to have those issues when fed raw ..and i love the fact that they wont have any doggie odor to them .

What kind of raw diet?

 

[Smart_Family]

Please do not use Science Diet. If you need suggestions for foods I would be more than happy to help and if you are able to do so raw is a great way to feed mastiffs.

 

[VentiandMe]

I am using Orijen Large Breed now....Agreed on the Science Diet, its not good.

The raw diet seems a little overwhelming to me. Can someone give me a meal plan or schedule that includes what/how much/etc?
What about cost??? 30lb bag of Orijen is almost $70, and maybe lasts 3 weeks, maybe 4. Are we talking huge costs when on the raw diet? I assume since the food is raw there is no issue with the bones getting stuck in the GI track? Do you buy directly from the butcher or packaged stuff?? Why chicken to start and not beef?

So many questions, sorry to hijack the OPs thread, but hopefully he has similar questions.

Thanks,
Scot

 

[DMikeM]

Why cook the lean ground meat? Dogs don't need cooked meats like humans and gain far more benefits from raw meat over cooked.

 

[VentiandMe]

Why cook the lean ground meat? Dogs don't need cooked meats like humans and gain far more benefits from raw meat over cooked.

I don't know why I thought it needed to be cooked, its not one of my brightest moments. But I know now.

 

[DMikeM]

common misconception. You dog might like the cooked more or not. But the raw is better for him.

 

[VentiandMe]

I am using Orijen Large Breed now....Agreed on the Science Diet, its not good.

Scot

Update: He had explosive diarrhea ALL last night This was the 2nd day/night on Orijen/wellness mixture...the first night he was fine and had hard poops/no gas. I'm tired of cleaning up diarrhea at 3am in the morning.

 

[Smart_Family]

How are you doing the transition?

 

[VentiandMe]

I did 1/2 of each on Tuesday....same on Wednesday.

 

[Smart_Family]

That's probably why you have diarrhea. Mastiffs can have very fragile digestive systems. A slow transition usually keeps away diarrhea. Ideally you would do 3-5 days of 75% old food, 25% new, then 3-5 days of 50% old, 50% new and then 3-5 days of 25% old, 75% new before going entirely to the new food. If at any time during the transition there was diarrhea you would stop for a couple days until you saw solid stool again. Another way to do it is to go to a bland diet for a week or so and feed only boiled white rice and boiled chicken or boiled hamburg. After the week of that you would start the transition as mentioned above by using the bland diet as the old food and the kibble as the new.

 

[joshuagough]

My neighbor has some cats I could send to you via UPS... >=)

 

[cleomart92]

what does you raw diet consist of ?