[blaze_the_boxer]

Is anybody feeding Royal Canin Maxi or the Boxer formula? Our vet told my wife that we need to switch Blaze to a large breed puppy food. He is worried that if he grows to fast it could affect his hips later.

 

[Flutterby]

I read somewhere just to keep them on adult food.

At Mia's breeder they're on puppy chow (i'm pretty sure).. I'm going to buy a small bag of it to gradually switch to the Natural Choice that Toby is on.. And I talked to a Natural Choice rep at the petstore and she said that puppies will eat what they need on adult food and it won't effect their growth (stunting it). So, I'll be fine with a strictly adult diet...

 

[southerngirls]

I dont reccomend feeding the large breed food. It wont hurt the puppy at all though if you do feed it. I know tootsie has a real good response with this. . . .i have seen it before i just cant remember. She points out both good and bad. Anywho-i personally think the "breed specific" foods are a gimmick to generate more food sales. Not sure on what everyone elses opinions are. We have both dogs (18 wks and 2yrs) on and all stages food.

 

[blaze_the_boxer]

Thank you for the response, if you don't mind my asking, what are you feeding exactly?

 

[OdinsDad]

It's more important to feed a HIGH QUALITY food then a "large breed", "all stages", or "puppy/adult" food.

Look at the ingredients list on the bag... you're looking for REAL MEAT listed as the main ingredient, and as many meat products over garbage fillers as possible.

Remember, when looking at ingredients, the FIRST product listed is the BULK of what is in the dog-food... the 2nd is the second-most common ingredient and so-on.  You want a real meat product there (not a by-product or worse, something that isn't even meat).  I'll compare three Purina products as an example.

For instance... Purina Puppy Chow (the normal cheap one in Supermarkets) has the following ingredients listed as the main ingredients:

Ground yellow corn, chicken by-product meal, corn gluten meal, brewers rice

Yes... the main ingredient is YELLOW CORN... in Purina Puppy Chow, your dog is mostly getting yellow corn to feed those bones... NOT GOOD.

Now Purina One Puppy has the following:

Lamb, brewers rice, corn glutten meal, oat meal

A lot better, with real meat listed... you can still do better in the Purina line though...

Now Purina Pro Plan Puppy has:

Lamb, brewers rice, chicken meal, corn glutten meal

Better still... it has TWO meat products listed in the top three, which is really good for your dog.

I'd worry less about if it's puppy or large breed or all stages or whatever, and rather pay much closer attention to what is actually going into your dog, and that means reading the ingredients and realizing what is listed first is the largest percentage of what's in the food... even if two products had the exact same ingredients, the order in which they are listed on the bag is important... higher up the list to the top means more of that product in the food.  There is a huge differance between LAMB being the main ingredient and YELLOW CORN.  There is also a differance between CHICKEN and CHICKEN-BY-PRODUCT (for non-lamb foods).

Look at the ingredients and make your decisions on that, not by the name on the bag.

P.S.
For the record, we feed our 4-month old puppy Purina Pro Plan Puppy food.

 

[Diesel-and-Kira]

www.dogfoodanalysis.com

My dogs eat canidae, which is a great food.

No offence odin's dad, but purina food is horrible. Even the top of the line purina.

Here's the link: http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food ... 54&cat=all

they only gave it 1 star.


Here's a link to Canidae. This is a 5 star food: http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food ... 28&cat=all




I'd reccomend checking out the 5 and 6 star dry foods, and seeing which you can find in your area.

 

[beckhamboxer]

www.dogfoodanalysis.com

My dogs eat canidae, which is a great food.

No offence odin's dad, but purina food is horrible. Even the top of the line purina.

Here's the link: http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food ... 54&cat=all

they only gave it 1 star.


Here's a link to Canidae. This is a 5 star food: http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food ... 28&cat=all


I'd reccomend checking out the 5 and 6 star dry foods, and seeing which you can find in your area.

Canidae is supposed to be wonderful.  Beckham is on Solid gold, which is a 6 star dry food.  Contains NO corn, and we currently have Beckham on the Wolf Cub Mix.

 

[Diesel-and-Kira]

I've been thinking about trying that Merrick puppy plate food. it's also 5 star, but it looks like it would be more appealing to Diesel, who still doesn't like crunching away on kibble.

maybe once our food gets low we'll try it out.

 

[southerngirls]

Our girls are on Nutro. we had a Eukanuba rep try selling us the "boxer breed specific" food when we went to get our last bag of food. He was persistant-and he talked down to me like i didnt know anything about my own dogs. After about 10 minutes i was just like no we have a food thank you. Food reps :roll:

 

[beckhamboxer]

Our girls are on Nutro. we had a Eukanuba rep try selling us the "boxer breed specific" food when we went to get our last bag of food. He was persistant-and he talked down to me like i didnt know anything about my own dogs. After about 10 minutes i was just like no we have a food thank you. Food reps :roll:

Ugh yes, the food reps are a bit annoying.  We ran into one for Bil Jac who was really pushy, and my girlfriend couldn't get a word in.  I said, "no thanks, Solid Gold is an awesome food and we just ordered about a hundred bucks worth."

Also?  When she was talking about Bil Jac the first ingredient she says is "corn."! I thought that was hilarious; do your homework, lady.

 

[Diesel-and-Kira]

I hate that. My vet did that with the science diet crap they sell.

he said Canidae is one of the top foods out there, but here have some hills a/d to go along with it.

uh...no?

 

[beckhamboxer]

I hate that. My vet did that with the science diet crap they sell.

he said Canidae is one of the top foods out there, but here have some hills a/d to go along with it.

uh...no?

My mom has a Black Lab and feeds her Science Diet because it was so pushed by the vet.  I've tried telling my mom its crap but she will not listen  Too bad for Lily!

 

[samsonsmom]

A lot of vets really push the Science diet  as they get a kickback from the manufacturer, but I would be curious as to how many vets actually feed their own pets that food? It's crap!! Puppies can start eating an adult food really from the time you get them..There is a lot of thought that if you keep them on it for the year ( that we always thought was the best thing), there is a chance of actually doing more harm to their joints, as they grow too fast! Back when I didn't know any better I used to feed mine "large breed", but boxers are not a large breed, so it's best to stick with an all stages. That way both your pups and adults can eat the same thing.
I switched to Blue Buffalo lamb & rice and have been very happy with it..Neither of my 2 are picky eaters, but I did have some problems with loose stools, which got better...The best advice I can give, is look at that dog food analysis, print it out and take it with you to the store...Buy the best you can, but just keep in mind, not all foods are available everywhere..I would prefer to use Canidae, but I can't get it locally..As it is, I pick up the Blue when Angel & I go to meetups every month..

 

[tootsie]

That Purina food has got an awful lot of corn ingredients and by-products in it. Try to stay away from any corn ingredients in food. Corn is difficult for dogs to digest and is a very high allergen.
As far as your original question about the large breed puppy food. There have been so many studies on this that show there may be a link with bone problems and the amount of protein in food.
Boxers are technically a medium sized breed, however the dog food manufacturers formulate their large breed foods for any dog over 50 pounds. Large breed foods were formulated to encourage slower and more even growth by controlling the amount of fat and protein in their foods. Boxers are fast growing pups, and with fast growth we see more skeletal problems such as hip and knee dysplasia, which large breed dogs are more prone to.
Puppy formulas tend to have more protein in them which can promote faster growth in puppies leading to some of these skeletal and joint problems later on. They are formulating the large breed puppy foods with less protein and fat to try and slow down the growth.
I personally still believe that large breed puppy bone problems are primarily genetic and inherited, but given the choices of food available today, I would opt for the best and healthiest choice that I can find. At the very least, it is excellent nutrition and if it does help with the skeletal issues, I would consider that a big + ! :wink:

 

[Diesel-and-Kira]

FYI I order most my food online. They have constant sales running, and you can find just about every brand.


http://www.petfooddirect.com/


They advertise 3 days tops to get to your home, but it sometimes takes longer, since they wait for the freshest food to come in before they ship it.

 

[Mastray]

Thanks for the site... we actually saw Solid Gold at a petstore here and I'd love to put Odin on that... I mean WOW. That's some great food there! The only thing I didn't like about that webste Dieselsmom is it didn't even list everything on the Guaranteed analysis... and it didn't list them properly either. Maybe they've changed their food since then... I don't know. We just want to make sure we don't get into one of those binds of buying a food that all of a sudden we can no longer find. Though I would love to put him on that Solid Gold... maybe I can talk hubby into it!

 

[beckhamboxer]

Thanks for the site... we actually saw Solid Gold at a petstore here and I'd love to put Odin on that... I mean WOW. That's some great food there! The only thing I didn't like about that webste Dieselsmom is it didn't even list everything on the Guaranteed analysis... and it didn't list them properly either. Maybe they've changed their food since then... I don't know. We just want to make sure we don't get into one of those binds of buying a food that all of a sudden we can no longer find. Though I would love to put him on that Solid Gold... maybe I can talk hubby into it!

I would totally recommend it!  Obviously its a little bit more, but its totally worth it in my opinion!  I have heard only great things about it.

 

[Barbs2Ks]

The rescue recommends Solid Gold so that is what I have Kiah on.  She loves it and is doing well on it.

 

[Starr05]

I recently put my dogs on Solid gold and they are doing pretty well on it. Even the allergy prone pitbull. It took Gisselle a few days to start eating it but I don't have to put ANY THING on her food anymore!! YEAH!!!! They have been around a while and I think they will be around for a long time.

 

[blaze_the_boxer]

Thanks for all the response, it looks like I'll be spending sometime at Petsmart to see what they have as far as brands.