# Puppy food question/reassurance!



## CharismaticMillie (Jun 16, 2010)

Most Large Breed Puppy foods that I have seen are in fact designed to slow growth by having the lower calcium/phos. ratios. I went through this when Millie was a puppy and I was feeding her kibble at that time. 

When she was a pup, I looked at a whole bunch of LB Puppy foods and most had appropriate calc/phos ratios to prevent rapid growth. I did see a few, though, that had high calc/phos and there is no way I would have fed it to her. 

I haven't fed kibble to a young puppy in a while and I feed raw now, but I would suspect that either Large Breed Puppy kibble, if appropriate calc/phos would be just fine. An All Life Stages maintenance kibble would be very good as well. Just check that calc/phos.

Hopefully someone else has more input! I feed raw so I am not as up to date on kibble as I could be.


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## Sookster (Apr 11, 2011)

Agreed. A lot of people are (for some unknown reason) under the impression that LB puppy foods are designed to make puppies grow larger, but that isn't the case. They should have the appropriate levels of minerals to complement the way large breed puppies grow (which is different from small breeds). You made a good choice. Your friend just has some outdated information, or may have simply been mis-informed himself.


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## partial2poodles (Feb 11, 2010)

Blue Buffalo is not that great of a food and I believe its made by DADS but with a premium price tag. I feel that Blue Buffalo is going to turn into an IAMS or EUKANEUBA....it starts out OK but then turns very ordinary, or should I say it turns into a bad food.....By the way, this food is not new....its just on a new advertising campaign and its been around for about 6 years or so.


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## Sookster (Apr 11, 2011)

I have to say I disagree about the quality. The ingredients say it all, and for a puppy food I would say that Blue is one of my favorites. I have heard that their customer service isn't great, but I have never had a problem with them. 

Do you have any articles or anything about the DADs issue? I'm pretty sure that Blue is a company of it's own. What the future holds? Who knows. Look what happened to Natura. But for now, I think that Blue is a very good quality food. I don't like the regular formula for adults because it is grain inclusive, but we feed the Wilderness variety in rotation to my bf's Labrador retriever. It's almost impossible to find an appropriate grain-free puppy food, especially at an affordable price, so I feel that Blue is a great choice. Of course that is just my opinion, and to each their own.


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## sneakers012 (Jun 2, 2011)

Thank you all. Like I said, I did a good amount of homework, and read the forum posts about puppy foods, so was fairly upset when this person who otherwise seems very knowledgeable, told me this with perfect confidence! 

Partial, the ingredients list is NOTHING like Iams or Eukanuba- I checked when I bought them (that, at least, I can figure out!). I am planning on switching to Merrick's Before Grain line when he gets a bit older, if only because the quality seems similar and the price tag is a bit lower. They just don't have a LB puppy line, so I am going to wait until most of his major growth spurts are in the past. 

sookster- Thank you for the reassurance. I realize I'm a tad bit neurotic about Loki but it stems from my belief that the breeder did not do a great job by him. I think she felt that because he was the runt and I was getting a significant discount because of it, she didn't have to go all-out for him, so 3 weeks after picking him up, we just finished medication for coccidiosis (sp?), worms, and double ear and eye infections. AKA my "discount dog" turned into a primo pedigreed pup!! LoL So, hearing that I was killing him with food was enough to make my head spin! 

Again, thanks! I'm so glad I found this place, you all are lifesavers!!


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## faerie (Mar 27, 2010)

i have a 14 week old puppy and he is on wellness adult kibble. i also fed temperance and eva adult wellness as puppies also.


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## WestCoastSpoo (May 11, 2011)

I was planning on feeding Horizon Legacy adult food to our pup (whenever we actually get one that is!)  We had the same issues with finding a good food to feed our Great Dane puppy (although maybe on an even larger scale). Our Dane really thrived on a good adult food and never had issues with growth.


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## outwest (May 1, 2011)

I feed Blue Puppy and I also believe it is a very good food. Just read the ingredient list. The guy was misinformed. 

I don't use the large breed puppy because my spoo should only end up around 45 pounds, which I do not consider 'large'. I think of a large dog as anything over around 60 pounds like a German Shephard, Saint Bernard, Great Dane, Rhodesian Ridgeback and the like. I don't really think of standard poodles as a particularly large breed, although obviously some of them are. Most would fall into the medium category. albeit on the larger side of medium along with boxers and dalmations. If you spoo had particularly large parents, I can see considering him a large dog. 

What does the back of the bag say as far as what they consider a large dog?


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## sneakers012 (Jun 2, 2011)

I was told Loki's sire was 90 lbs. but I would bet he was closer to 75-80 and his dam was 55 lbs. At 12 wks. he weighs right about 17-20 lbs. and is creeping up on the height of our shorter Springer Spaniel who is, I believe, about 19 inches tall at the shoulder. The vet said he was going to be huge for a poodle when she saw him at 9 wks, and agreed that to be safe he should be on Lg. Breed food... I'd be curious to know what size other people's poodles were at this age.


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## Sookster (Apr 11, 2011)

At 12 weeks, Sonya was only about 10-12 lbs and probably about 10-12 inches tall. As an adult (14 months) she is about 35lb and 22 inches tall. She is a petit little girl! 

Nova is a 70lb, 28inch tall standard, but I got her at almost 2 years so I have no idea how big she was as a puppy.


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## sneakers012 (Jun 2, 2011)

OMG! Way to try to kill a person! LoL Reading about Sonya, I almost keeled over in shock thinking I had a mutant!! Thank God for Nova! 

I know from research that Loki's dad is on the much larger side. He stands right about... 30-31 inches at the shoulder (judging by memory and on the basis of my inseam hah!). So, even if Loki takes the middle road, he's going to be about 65 lbs., which is borderline med/lg. breed.


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## Sookster (Apr 11, 2011)

LOL Sorry! If anyone is the mutant, its Sonya lol. She is so tiny next to Nova. But I would consider Nova a large dog. Sonya, more medium sized. But there is nothing medium about Nova. She may not be a _giant_ breed (that is what I think of Danes, Mastiffs, etc as) but she is big enough to be considered a large dog. 

I really think in general that I would classify standards, labradors, dobermans, GSDs, etc as large breeds. I consider dogs like most spaniels, schnauzers, etc at "medium" and dogs like dachshunds and chihuahuas as "small". Regardless, I think you can't go wrong with a large breed puppy food for your pup!


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## WestCoastSpoo (May 11, 2011)

Huxley was 12lbs 4 ounces at his last vet appointment (8.5 weeks old) and I'm interested to see how big he gets too. His Dad was pretty average size - 26 inches and 60lbs but his mom was big for a female - 26 inches and 50lbs. But Huxley was...um I'm not sure there's a polite way to say this...the "widest" of his litter. LOL He's not fat - skin and bones actually - but just "thicker" than his tall, narrow, elegant looking brothers and sisters  He's about the same height as the rest of his litter though (but I don't know what that is and as he is passed out on my feet right now I can't really find out at the moment!) lol


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## CharismaticMillie (Jun 16, 2010)

sneakers012 said:


> OMG! Way to try to kill a person! LoL Reading about Sonya, I almost keeled over in shock thinking I had a mutant!! Thank God for Nova!
> 
> I know from research that Loki's dad is on the much larger side. He stands right about... 30-31 inches at the shoulder (judging by memory and on the basis of my inseam hah!). So, even if Loki takes the middle road, he's going to be about 65 lbs., which is borderline med/lg. breed.


Goodness - 30-31 inch tall standard? That is _EXTREMELY_ large. That is nearly the size of a smaller/ female great dane.


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## sneakers012 (Jun 2, 2011)

Sook- in terms of large vs. medium, my understanding of WHY you'd feed LB versus normal puppy food is due more to their height than their weight. LB food is designed to give them special Ca/K, fat, protein levels to keep their weight and growth spurts at a level rate so you don't wear out their tendons/ligaments by them shooting up faster than their soft skeletal tissues can handle. So... I would think that LB food is fed due more to final height (long bones are primary growth spurt components) than weight factors, although weight is an easier way to determine feeding ratios.

I believe I am backed up by this theory because I've noticed that although some of the shorter, more muscular dogs weigh similar to a tall slender Poodle/Doberman/GSD/etc, they aren't classified as Large Breed dogs- another idea I'd be curious to get feedback on.

WCS- That is about how much Loki weighed at his 9 week appt., but I'm waiting to get to the vet for his next set of shots and have him weighed now that he's off meds and seems to enjoy eating a little more than he had. Then will be the moment of truth.

Millie- I realize that Loki's dad was much larger than any other Std. Poodle I'd met, but I may be incorrect in my memory (please note I disclaimer'd myself on that!) of his height against my leg. But... it was probably close...


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## outwest (May 1, 2011)

I saw a parti poodle at a dog show last weekend that looked like a small great dane. It was the biggest poodle I had ever seen and he was probably in that 30 inch range, too. 

You will notice, as I did on this forum, that there is an enormous range of what is considered a standard poodle. Anything above 15 inches to the skies the limit is a standard poodle in the US. I am calling mine a small standard poodle and she'll be 22 inches or so like Sonya, but many are even smaller! An average one would be around 25 inches. A large one 27 inches or above. Yours sounds large, so the large breed puppy would be appropriate for him. I don't think it would be right for mine. I still think most standards wouldn't need the large breed food. 

I wish they would standardize the size of the standard poodle, but they refuse to. There are a few medium poodles on this group that they call Klein or Moyen poodles (medium). They are around 17/18 inches, but are still registered as standard poodles and not minis.


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## neVar (Dec 25, 2009)

I groom oneboy (parti poodle) he's a solid 29" according to owner- but feels bigger to me. He's also heavy- in bone for my liking (and his coat was super coarse- like a wire hair terrier)


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## CharismaticMillie (Jun 16, 2010)

outwest said:


> I saw a parti poodle at a dog show last weekend that looked like a small great dane. It was the biggest poodle I had ever seen and he was probably in that 30 inch range, too.
> 
> You will notice, as I did on this forum, that there is an enormous range of what is considered a standard poodle. Anything above 15 inches to the skies the limit is a standard poodle in the US. I am calling mine a small standard poodle and she'll be 22 inches or so like Sonya, but many are even smaller! An average one would be around 25 inches. A large one 27 inches or above. Yours sounds large, so the large breed puppy would be appropriate for him. I don't think it would be right for mine. I still think most standards wouldn't need the large breed food.
> 
> I wish they would standardize the size of the standard poodle, but they refuse to. There are a few medium poodles on this group that they call Klein or Moyen poodles (medium). They are around 17/18 inches, but are still registered as standard poodles and not minis.


LB Puppy food is nothing miraculous nor is it only appropriate for dogs that fall under your definition of what a large standard poodle is. LB Puppy food really is not that different from an adult maintenance food. The difference between LB Puppy food and regular puppy food is simply that the calc/phos is balanced to prevent rapid growth. IMO, this is important in medium to large dog. 

A 22 inch standard poodle is well within the average size of poodles. According to PCA, most standard poodles are between 22 and 27 inches tall. 22 inches is not a small dog and IMO a dog this size still should _not_ be fed puppy food that promotes rapid growth. I would only feed adult maintenance food, LB Puppy (or a raw diet  ) to a dog if this size. FWIW, Large Breed Puppy Food is identical to most adult foods in many ways.


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