[New England Golden]

I am sure this question is buried in this forum somewhere so I appologize in advance. I am going to vet in less than 2 hours and do not have time to sift through.

We are feeding Innova dry puppy food to our 3 month old female. Dog food store recommended it over large breed Innova puppy food and I forgot the reason. Something about rate of growth, being a female so smaller etc...

What are your experiences in this area? I know the nutrition content of both foods. Is there a major reason I should switch to the large breed?

 

[wabmorgan]

The main thing is to avoid excessive calcium levels which can cause skeletal issues. Large Breed food has less calcium.

 

[tippykayak]

My vet, who does not get worked up too much about nutritional issues or boutique foods, thought it was important to go with LBP food. Even though Goldens are barely "large breed" compared to others, they do grow very, very quickly, and overly rich foods (particularly in calcium) can cause problems with growth.

LBP foods are supposed to be specially formulated to support appropriately slow growth in larger dogs, though you have to have some trust in the manufacturer, since LBP isn't an official or regulated designation.

 

[New England Golden]

If I switch from reg to LB within Innova, will it still be necessary to do the weaning thing?

 

[Our3dogs]

It never hurts to move a little slowly when switching food. Most likely you have a little bit of the old food still left so mix the new food into for the next week or as long as it will last.

 

[Willow52]

The Innova LBP has less calories/cup than the Regular Puppy. The idea is less calories = slower growth rate. Possibly the shop owner was suggesting that your pup needs more calories because she is small?

I feed my almost 9 m.o. 65lb. male the LBP formula. He's not fat but doesn't need the extra calories in the regular puppy (or adult) food.

 

[New England Golden]

Thanks for the replies. The Vet left it up to us if we wanted to switch to LBP. He acknowledged that some Goldens are just over the line (size wise) in the large catagory.
We feel or girl will be small so I am leaning towards not changing. She could use the calories too.

 

[GoldenJona]

From what I've heard LBP food has more protein than regular dog food, which you want to avoid alot of protein because of them growing up too fast?

 

[wabmorgan]

It's not the protein that is the probelm.... its the calcuim.

By utilizing special low-ash chicken and fish ingredients, ORIJEN avoids the elevated calcium and phosphorus levels that often concern large breed puppy owners.

http://www.orijen.ca/orijen/products/puppyLarge.aspx

 

[DanielleH]

how much calcium would be too much?