I am going to pick apart the Science Diet Lamb and Rice Puppy Food ingredients first because I don't know what formula you are feeding:
Lamb Meal, Brewers Rice, Rice Flour, Corn Gluten Meal, Ground Whole Grain Wheat, Animal Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), Dried Egg Product, Dried Beet Pulp, Chicken Liver Flavor, Soybean Oil, Dicalcium Phosphate, Fish Oil, Flaxseed, Potassium Chloride, L-Lysine, Iodized Salt, Choline Chloride, Vitamin E Supplement, vitamins (L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin, Folic Acid, Vitamin D3 Supplement), Taurine, minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite), preserved with Mixed Tocopherols and Citric Acid, Beta-Carotene, Rosemary Extract.
Lamb meal is simply lamb meat with the moisture removed, making it suitable for use in dry food. Not bad.
Brewer's rice is a lower quality rice product that is missing many of the nutrients found in ground rice and ground brown rice.
Whenever flour is part of an ingredient's name, the grain has been processed and some (or all) of the nutritional value has been lost.
Corn Gluten Meal is used as a very cheap protein filler.
Ground wheat is a good quality source of carbohydrates. Because it includes the entire wheat kernel, it contributes additional protein.
Animal fat is a by-product of meat meal processing.
Egg product consists of the unused leftovers from eggs for human production. It can include undeveloped eggs, shells, and other tissues unfit for human consumption.
Dried beet pulp is added to some pet foods to act as a fibrous stool hardener. It's just more of a filler.
Chicken liver is used in pet foods primarily as a flavor enhancer.
Citric Acid is a weak water-soluble acid found in many fruits (especially citrus fruits) ; used as a flavoring agent. Can also contribute to the Bloat risk if food is moistened.
Rosemary, along with its cancer prevention properties, is a highly effective preservative.
This formula is much better to feed than the original Science Diet Puppy food. That formula has Ground corn which is the entire corn kernel, ground or chopped.
Corn products are commonly used in pet foods as a main protein source. I believe that was the first ingredient listed.
It also has Chicken by-product meal which consists of the dry, ground, rendered, clean parts of the carcass of slaughtered chicken, such as necks, feet, undeveloped eggs, and intestines -- exclusive of feathers except in such amounts as might occur unavoidably in good processing practices.
The rest of the ingredients are about the same as the lamb and rice recipe. I personally wouldn't feed this food because of the corn, wheat , citric acid, and by-products that are used.
And that's just my 2cents worth! :wink:
Sounds like she might be a big girl..Are her parents of German lines? They tend to be a bit bigger than American boxers.
