Changing Foods

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apollosdad
Posts: 16
Joined: Tue Jul 06, 2010 9:01 am

Changing Foods

Post by apollosdad »

Hey

I am exploring possibly changing foods for my 6 month old Boxer. He is very energetic and burns a lot of calories, therefore, is about 8 lbs too skinny (said my vet). Right now I feed him Taste of the Wild Pacific Stream food. I previously fed him Diamond Naturals and he had constant diarrhea. When we switched to TOTW, his stool firmed up almost immediately. My concern is what food to switch to. Obviously, with the Diamond food, it was upsetting his stomach so I switched to TOTW which has no fillers like corn meal, etc. However, a local vet friend told me high protein levels (TOTW is 25%) can lead to an aggressive dog. Since I am now urged by my vet to increase the amount I feed my pup, I'm worried feeding him too much of this high protein food will have adverse affects. What do i do?!
Dakine'smama
Posts: 21
Joined: Tue Sep 28, 2010 1:49 pm

Re: Changing Foods

Post by Dakine'smama »

My dog is a GSD and I have no experience with boxers but my vet told me that because my puppy is lean and growing so fast he needs EXTRA meat and protein. In fact, we're supplementing his regular food with eggs, chicken necks, or small amounts of ground beef. If puppy's stool is loose, you might just add a bit of cottage cheese or plain yogurt. My puppy LOVES cottage cheese and the solid stool is much easier to deal with.
josie1918
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Re: Changing Foods

Post by josie1918 »

The previous poster is under the care of a DVM, please do not supplement a large breed puppies diet without first consulting your veterinarian, too much calcium in their diet can cause permanent bone damage such as hypercalcemia, feeding raw eggs can cause a riot of skin and coat problems due to the enzyme avidin present in raw eggs. So,please be aware there are numerous risks with random diet supplementing in puppies, that should not be attempted unless advised by your dogs vet.
Dakine'smama
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Joined: Tue Sep 28, 2010 1:49 pm

Re: Changing Foods

Post by Dakine'smama »

Yes...I was just using my case as an example of how it might not cause negative effects to supplement with protein. Obviously the apolosdad should check with a vet who knows his dog's history not just a friend who is a vet. I was not recommending anyone randomly supplement a dog's diet.
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Nettle
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Re: Changing Foods

Post by Nettle »

Sometimes people - even professionals - confuse protein - which builds and mends bodies, with calories - which provide warmth and energy. Too many calories result in fat stores, but your dog needs to build flesh, hide and bone. Each individual has different needs depending on their metabolism, life stage and life style.

Growing pups need good protein to grow with. As he gets on with the current food, why not give him more?
A dog is never bad or naughty - it is simply being a dog

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Mattie
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Re: Changing Foods

Post by Mattie »

I agree with Nettle, feed him more.

I check my dogs every day to see if they need the amount of food either increased or decreased to keep them at a decent weight, it is much harder to get them to loose weight than to put it on. If this food is suiting your dog, just feed him more of it.
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emmabeth
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Re: Changing Foods

Post by emmabeth »

I sometimes feed ToTW, mostly I feed a raw diet... in all honesty there is no difference whatsoever in my dogs tendancy towards aggression on either and I will increase or decrease the amounts of either food depending on how much 'work' they are doing too.

So if we have a busy week and go lots of places and walk a long way.. they get more food. If we have a lazy week and just pootle round the block for some reason (we will soon have a fair few of those as its firework season here and horrid weather too and the dogs don't enjoy walking when it resembles a walk through a war zone in monsoon season!) then they get much less food.

See how you go with just increasing the ToTW... its a good food and your dog gets on with it fine.

I have heard this thing about protein and aggression... ive never seen it. I HAVE seen dogs fed rubbish foods packed with sugars and colours and fillers, bouncing off the walls, redirecting aggression borne out of utter frustration.. but that does not apply to your circumstance at all.
West Midlands based 1-2-1 Training & Behaviour Canine Consultant
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