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When do I start feeding adult food?

My parents, sister, and I recently bought EM puppies. All three have just turned 8 weeks old today. I know that they are not supposed to stay on puppy food for too long because their bones will grow too fast. At what age should I swap them to adult large/giant breed food?
I am trying to do my best to prevent growth issues, and any help would be greatly appreciated.
 

Smokeycat

Well-Known Member
Interesting. The blog states the opposite of what many on this forum would state about puppy vs adult food.
 

angelbears

Well-Known Member
I would totally disregard the link above that Chicano provided. The blog is nothing but advertisement and a link to where they sale dog food. It is common knowledge that giant breeds should not have puppy kibble. Smart Family is the expert here, hopefully she will pop in. We feed raw so I can't help you much in what is available in kibble these days.
 

Smart_Family

Dog Food Guru
Thanks Angelbears. You want to feed a quality adult or all life stages food. You do need to transition over from the old food to the new food though slowly to avoid digestive shock. So you would do 3-5 days of 75% old, 25% new then 3-5 days of 50% old, 50% new and then 3-5 days of 25% old, 75% new before you go to the new food completely. Many mastiffs have issues with grains and chicken so I advise going grain free and chicken free to have one less thing to worry about. Also calcium levels should be no lower than 1.0% and no higher than 1.7% but the ideal range for good, slow growth is 1.4-1.6%. You also want a ratio of calcium to phosphorus as close to 1.2:1 as possible. Again no lower than 1.0:1 and no higher than 1.4:1. Mastiffs are not large breeds but giant breeds and most of the "giant" breed food is either off in calcium and phosphorus or has grains and chicken. My usual go tos are Earthborn Holistics Great Plains Feast, Meadow Feast or Coastal Catch, Acana Wild Prairie or Pacifica or Orijen 6 Fish. If you need other suggestions I can certainly make some. Hope that helps!

---------- Post added at 04:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:41 PM ----------

Yea that link is incorrect as far as when to feed puppy food and the foods they recommend are for the most part foods I advise against.
 

Smart_Family

Dog Food Guru
Yea that link is incorrect as far as when to feed puppy food and the foods they recommend are for the most part foods I advise against.
 

chicano

Well-Known Member
I agree with link as we have our CC on Diamond Naturals Dry Food for Puppy, Large Breed Lamb and Rice Formula and will stay on it till he is 2yrs old, this is something I checked with our vet and was highly recommended.
 

Smart_Family

Dog Food Guru
I agree with link as we have our CC on Diamond Naturals Dry Food for Puppy, Large Breed Lamb and Rice Formula and will stay on it till he is 2yrs old, this is something I checked with our vet and was highly recommended.
Well any food made by Diamond is quite a gamble with their recalls and the state of their production facilities as evident in their latest inspection report. Also most vets are not good sources of information as far as nutrition when it comes to giant breed nutrition, mostly because nutrition is a tiny part of vet school and many vet schools are funded by companies such as Hill's so they are taught to only recommend foods like Science Diet. In general most foods labeled puppy, large breed puppy, senior etc are just marketing gimmicks that have you paying more money for nearly the same product as the regular or adult formulas. All this comes from a canine nutritionist who actually went to school just for nutrition and specializes in large and giant breed dogs. Foods like Eukanuba, Bil Jac, Hills, Iams, Pedigree and ProPlan are full of fillers and less than desirable ingredients. It's a rule of thumb that for the most part, any food that can be found at the grocery store or walmart is not a food that is a good choice for a mastiff or any dog really. Also lamb and rice diets are usually intended for allergies and to be used short term.
 

bellareea320

Well-Known Member
Well any food made by Diamond is quite a gamble with their recalls and the state of their production facilities as evident in their latest inspection report. Also most vets are not good sources of information as far as nutrition when it comes to giant breed nutrition, mostly because nutrition is a tiny part of vet school and many vet schools are funded by companies such as Hill's so they are taught to only recommend foods like Science Diet. In general most foods labeled puppy, large breed puppy, senior etc are just marketing gimmicks that have you paying more money for nearly the same product as the regular or adult formulas. All this comes from a canine nutritionist who actually went to school just for nutrition and specializes in large and giant breed dogs. Foods like Eukanuba, Bil Jac, Hills, Iams, Pedigree and ProPlan are full of fillers and less than desirable ingredients. It's a rule of thumb that for the most part, any food that can be found at the grocery store or walmart is not a food that is a good choice for a mastiff or any dog really. Also lamb and rice diets are usually intended for allergies and to be used short term.

Its funny you said this because I took luna to the vet for her 16 week checkup last thursday and told then she was on earthborn and that totw didnt agree with her...they said they never heard of earthborn. In my mind i was like really?? I guess i thought they knew more about food then they actually do!
 

Smart_Family

Dog Food Guru
I mean it is somewhat understandable that they don't spend as much time on nutrition in vet school as some other stuff but still. It can get annoying, even more annoying is that we feed Science Diet at work. I hate hate hate it!
 
Thank you so much for all of the help! I had been searching for a giant breed food..and the best one that I had found (with protein, fat, and calcium in the correct ranges) was Eagle Pack large & Giant Breed adult food. It was actually the only food that came up through days of internet search that was made for Giant Breeds adn was sold in some sort of pet supply store in the area.
 

Smart_Family

Dog Food Guru
Eagle Pack isn't my first choice and it does have chicken and grains. You really don't need a giant breed food at all.
 
okay. My mom was concerned that the pieces of a giant breed dog food would be too big for the pups to eat.. currently, their food ( Wellness puppy super 5) is mixed with some water (by suggestion from the breeder) to help prevent bloat...
would I need to add vitamins to their food? or would the food itself have the vitamins needed?
I know its a lot of questions, but I figure its better for me to ask those of you with experience with the breed than to go out and trust hte majority of what I read online..
 

DennasMom

Well-Known Member
Our breeder had the puppies on Diamond large breed lamb and rice. We moved Denna over to Solid Gold Wolf Pup after doing a bunch of internet research. The Wolf Cub was the only one I found that mentioned regulated levels of calcium for slow growth of large/giant breeds. It's a bison, fish, rice and barley based diet with lots of veggies. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the Wolf Cub/King food, Christina!

Our previous dog, a 100 lb Dane/Lab mix, grew up on Eagle Holistic large breed adult (per the Dane Lady's recommendations), and he did well. We switched him to a grain-free diet in his later years (again, per the Dane Lady's recommendations, as Eagle/Holistic was sold to a larger conglomerate) - and he loved the grain-free stuff. We still lost him earlier than we'd expected. He was in excellent health and danced around like a puppy at the off-leash parks, but developed an inoperable cancer tumor in his spine when he was just under 9 years old. :(

After losing two great dogs to cancer (both around the 8-9 year age), I'm open to any suggestions on food supplements to support a healthy immune system. Denna loves raw/frozen broccoli stems, and we also plan on adding some raw food to her diet once we know we've got her GI issues understood (she still has random bouts of soft stools that we're trying to identify all the culprits for...). Sorry.. didn't mean to take over this thread...
 
Thanks so much Christina. I just wasn't sure about giving them glucosamine/chondritin supplements to aid in joint development or anything of the sort, even though we are planning on easing them into Earthborn Holistic Meadow Feast (my mom wants them to have food for sensitive stomachs just in case..). Just making sure I have all of my bases covered.
Dennasmom: I am so sorry to hear that you lost two danes at that age! no worries on taking over the thread either. I hope you are able to get all of the help you need from here. Good luck!
 

Smart_Family

Dog Food Guru
No problem. Once they are totally transitioned onto the Meadow Feast and you go through like two or three big bags you can rotate thru the three appropriate formulas if you'd like to add some variety to their diet, not a necessity but some people like to do it. We started on Great Plains Feast and have rotated but are currently doing a couple bags of Coastal Catch because it's their favorite! Keep us posted about the pups and how they do :)
 

Robtouw

Well-Known Member
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Originally Posted by chicano I agree with link as we have our CC on Diamond Naturals Dry Food for Puppy, Large Breed Lamb and Rice Formula and will stay on it till he is 2yrs old, this is something I checked with our vet and was highly recommended.


Diamond Foods processes a great number of feeds, and has a proven history of recalls and tainted products. They have paid some settlements to pet owers and repeatedly refer to your beloved pet as "property". I don't know how you view your baby but mine is never treated as "property". My dog does not have the like value of a suitcase to me, he is a family member. I refuse to use any product that was processed by Diamond an go through great lenghs to avoid them. I also contact food manufacturers to see if any any of their ingredients are imported from outside the USA. I do not feed products with ingredients imported from China, Korea, Tawaiin or Mexico. I feed a human grade food/raw/kibble mix.
 
I lost my 8 year old German Shepard in April this year, to liver failure, he was eating Nutro for large dog, since he was 1 year old. Diesel my EM eats Taste of the Wild- Prairie formula, we will see how that works.