'large breed' puppy food - why?

[eeejay174 10]

hi all

can anyone tell me the real difference between puppy food complete and large breed puppy complete? I am totally paranoid now that i have bought roscoe the wrong food, he has the plain ole puppy complete from wainwright (PAH), but thinking on it, with him being a mastiff cross, and looking at his legs and paws, he certainly has the potential for larger dogness, should i be giving him the other food? will i damage him by giving him this food until i use up all the bag and then change over in 1/2mths time? any advice duly accepted thanks emma

[*Peaches* 10]

Not 100% sure, but someone told me large breed has bigger peices to stop the bigger dogs wolfing the food too quickly and causing bloat.

[Rainrescue 10]

It could be do with the bloat Peaches and I'm terrified of big dogs on complete now after my lad got it. If gone right off it - but have 2 other large dogs, that have never had a problem.

 

tbh - pet food manufacturers have managed to brain wash us into thinking this is all a poor dog can eat - pellets - i'm sure he will be fine

[*Peaches* 10]

I always soak mine's food regardless, its supposed to help stop bloat.

[medusa 16]

I think that it's partly to do with the chunk sizes and partly higher calcium content and glucosamine to help big puppies' growing skeleton.

 

Either way round I think that pet food manufacturers are trying to make a huge thing about 'added value' products so that we feel guilty if we don't buy them, just like so many companies have tried to do with human babies. We are a failure if we don't 'do the best for them' and if we aren't really careful we allow the companies to define 'the best' and 'the best' varies depending on which veterinary consultant and which pet food company you listen to- so we're guaranteed to fail, even if we have a happy and healthy puppy!

[Lotti 10]

As Medusa says it helps them develop their larger bodies and joints as well as with the size of the kibble (very large breed dogs can actually inhale 'normal' puppy sized kibble).

 

Your puppy will be absolutely fine with normal puppy food, and could remain on it if you wished, or you could put him on the larger breed stuff. Personally I think it's down to personal choice, the larger stuff is better for puppies that will grow larger as they provide more of the stuff they need but a high quality 'normal' puppy food will be fine too

[SpeedDemon 10]

We put our Saint on large breed puppy food - only because the first bag of wainwrights we bought was really tiny pieces, and she'd eat a couple of bits n then not bother. We exchanged it and i got purina large breed, she seems ok on that. Does she need to be 12 months before I put her onto the CJS food that my other dogs eat?

[eeejay174 10]

was this pets@home in heeley, wondering if i can take it back and say he refused to eat it and buy the larger breed stuff??

[SpeedDemon 10]

Yes it was. As long as there's more than half a bag left, you can take back their own brand stuff

[eeejay174 10]

great. i'll go swop tomorrow,

[Lotti 10]

It depends what the CSJ is speeddemon - they do a puppy version I think.

 

She may even need to be 18 months with her being a Giant Breed, they take longer to mature fully.

[eeejay174 10]

had a look at orijen, looks amazing so have ordered a 7kg bag for each dog, hope they like it, will return everything else tomorrow, yay,

Edited December 16, 2009 by eeejay174