Feeding A Puppy

[Peggy]

As an intro, Pat Hastings has been involved with dogs since 1959. She started as an owner handler exhibiting her dogs, then moved on to breeding and later teamed up with her husband as a professional handler.

She is currently an AKC jugde. She has had articles published in a wide variety of dog magazines. Her husband was an AKC rep for a time also. He and his wife have evalutated over 250 litters per year and mentored countless dog fanciers. Pat continues to judge, evaluate litters, give seminars and mentor many dog fanciers.

From "TRICKS OF THE TRADE" by Pat Hastings:

FOOD FOR GROWING PUPPIES

When you consider that a puppy grows for 18 to 20 months and a child grows for 18 to 20 years, the speed at which damage can be done by improper puppy nutrition is staggering. Feeding a puppy improperly for one month is the equivalent of feeding a child improperly for one year. Thus, it is imperative to make sure your puppies are doing well on whatever you are feeding them. Just remember how quickly nutritional damage can occur, and once the growth plates close, nutritional damage is permanent.

One issue we as consumers must give careful thought to is the idea that more is better. Why would we want to feed our puppies more powerful nutrients than we feed our adult dogs? The overwheliming consumer response would be: "Because they're growing babies."

Let's think about that one for a moment. Do human babies recieve more powerful nutrients than human adults? They start out on formula or breast milk, then slowly move to strained, bland fruits and vegtables. They are hardly coaxed to gum down salads, steaks, or multigrain dinnner rolls. When was the last time you saw an infant chomp into a pepperoni pizza?

By the same token, do coyote pups or wolf cubs get prime morsels of their parents' hunt? Certainaly not. They either recieve a regurgitated portion of the kill or morsels left over after the adults have eaten.

In a sense, we as consumers may have convinced the dog food companies that we want a special food for our growing puppies and that we are willing to pay extra for it. And no one in Corporate America's right mind would ignore that kind of message. So it goes - we give the message that more is better and we believe if something on the market costs more, it must be better. But what does this cycle mean for our puppies?

High-powered nutrients can make it possible to grow bone faster than it is meant to grow. However, the growth rate of tissue is unalterable. If a puppy recieves more nutrients than it can utilize so that those nutrients accelerate the growth rate of bones beyond the growth rate of tissue, the tissue can be weakened.

When we conduct our puppy evaluations, we always pay close attention to how puppie are doing on the food they've been given. When we see nutritionally-based problems, our first recommendation is always to drop back one level in the quality of food the puppies are eating. This change almost always corrects the nutritional problems we see in front legs and feet. (See Chapter 2, Puppy Evaluations in "Tricks Of The Trade".)

Try to feed puppies only what their systems and structures can use. If your puppies are running in the woods with their mother from five or six weeks on, they are spending enough energy to utilize almost any level of nutrients you choose to feed them. However, most of us raise out puppies in small yards, kennels, exercise pens, and kitchens. In these cases, we need to be careful about what we feed.

Also, smaller breeds burn greater amounts of energy in confined spaces, so less damage is seen when these puppies are fed more high-powered nutrients. By the same token, however, the smaller the breed, the smaller the space provided, so nutritional damage is possible.

We recommend you feed a name-brand product that clearly states it is forumlated for all stages of a dog's life. If you see any structural weaknesses that could be caused by what is being fed, switching to a lesser-powered food generally corrects the problem, as long as the growth plates have not yet closed. The younger the puppy is when the change is made, the faster the problem is corrected. As stated earlier, the nutritionally-based weakness becomes permant once the growth plates have closed.

We belive if you are feeding a quality food to your adult dogs and they are in excellent condition, then that is what you should be feeding your puppies from day one.

Puppies should be given only thier food. Try not to offset the balance of this nutritional formula by addding other food items or supplements. The only supplement we suggest is Vitamin C. A study out of Cornell University indicates that a Vitamin C supplement allows a dog to utilize more readily the available calcium in thier bodies. Giving dogs a calcium supplement can cause more problems than it cures.

Supplementing with Vitamin C, which is water-soluble, can help only if help is needed. Vitamin C is part of the enzyme that links and strengthens collagen - a vital component of tendons, ligaments, and joints. So even though Vitamin C supplementation may be controversial in some circles, its use poses little potential for harm.

[Clogs]

Interesting article - thanks Peggy.

[Chip's Mom]

Do you know if there has been any clinical trials to substantiate this or if it is solely by observation?

[glencorgi]

Bonnie,

I'd suggest checking out Pat Hasting's book, Tricks of the Trade. As for clinical trials, well given the number of Breeders who seek her out for evaluations (I can think of one source where there are 2,000 members or so) and Breeders who are following her protocols with great success in healthy sound puppies growing into healthy sound adults, the "clinical" trials have been done and each new litter evaluation only adds to her data.

Debbie

[Chip's Mom]

Thanks Deb for your reply. I do know that Chip was fed puppy food until he was about 8 or 9 months old and Dale was only fed puppy food for the first couple of months and they are both doing fine. I did give Dale extra vitamins though and that was where my concern was - I gave him those every day for two or three months and still do every once in awhile for a treat type thing. I work in clinical trials and like to read the findings. It would also be interesting to know which brand of dog food they fed.

[Peggy]

Originally Posted by Chip's Mom

Do you know if there has been any clinical trials to substantiate this or if it is solely by observation?

I don't know if they were clinical trials but they did do some trials and she had pictures of dogs with horrible fronts due to things like pano from feeding puppy food. Now these were large breed dogs, but there have been cases of corgis with pano. Nearly every list I'm on there's been a few corgi puppies diaganosed with Pano.

I've not yet been able to get ahold of Pat for details or info on the trials. I'll keep trying.

Peggy

[Peggy]

Originally Posted by Chip's Mom

Thanks Deb for your reply. I do know that Chip was fed puppy food until he was about 8 or 9 months old and Dale was only fed puppy food for the first couple of months and they are both doing fine. I did give Dale extra vitamins though and that was where my concern was - I gave him those every day for two or three months and still do every once in awhile for a treat type thing. I work in clinical trials and like to read the findings. It would also be interesting to know which brand of dog food they fed.

Bonnie,

When I got my first corgi back in 1980, that breeder who had one of the top Pembroke kennels in the US (she's passed on now) told me then to switch my puppy to an adult food at 4 mos. So even back then I was taught that puppy food was not needed for the entire first year of puppyhood.

And this breeder had more experience in dogs (not just corgis she'd also had GSDs, and collies before corgis) than I will ever had. Her years and numbers of dogs probably rivals several of us put together.

And we are talking feeding a *preimum* adult food, not the run of the mill grocery store brand or generic stuff.

Peggy

[Chip's Mom]

Do you know if Pat recommends giving your corgi Glucosimine Chondroitin every day? I believe that everyone should feed their dogs only premium brand dog food with all the problems we have had recently. Pet Partners and Petsmart in this area now stock a larger variety of the premium brands so there must be more of a demand for it - it's not cheap though and their lies the problem especially if you have several dogs. I don't even blink any more when I write the check for dog food.

[Peggy]

Originally Posted by Chip's Mom

Do you know if Pat recommends giving your corgi Glucosimine Chondroitin every day? I believe that everyone should feed their dogs only premium brand dog food with all the problems we have had recently. Pet Partners and Petsmart in this area now stock a larger variety of the premium brands so there must be more of a demand for it - it's not cheap though and their lies the problem especially if you have several dogs. I don't even blink any more when I write the check for dog food.

Pat didn't discuss glucosamine, but one of the vets I use, who practices holistic medicine, says that any dog in agility should be on it and any dog over the age of 7. This vet did study beyond vet college on dog nutrition. (Dr. Kim Hennemen)

And yes, I totally understand the cost of preimum foods for multiple dogs. You don't want to know what we spend on dog food in a month's time!

Peggy

[KJohnson]

Ijust thought I'd share an article that a friend sent me about switching dog foods every couple months. I thought it was helpful, maybe someone else will too!
Dog Food Analysis - Changing foods

[Michael Romanos]

I can't agree with quite a number of points in that article.

Here are the desirable features of dog food I support:

xxx Formulated for the proper life stages of your dog - as puppies, adults or seniors.
xxx Food formulated and designed for the size of your puppy or dog.
xxx AAFCO-approved (conforming to minimal standards).

Meals can include recommmended supplements for added taste and benefits so long as the supplements don't constitute more than 10-20 percent of the approved food.