Currently we feed our dogs one of 2 feeds. We use Canidae Grain Free on anyone who has goopy eyes, repeated ear infections, repeated hot spots etc. The results have been nothing short of amazing!!! I havent had a goopy eye, irritated ears etc since we started feeling this. It took about 2 weeks to see the difference, and since we haent seen any more sigs of these problems. Our other dogs are fed California Naturals Chicken and Rice. We are seriously looking into switching everyone over to Canidae Grain Free as we have been so impressed with the results.
If you are getting a Cedar Valley pup, our contract specifies which brands of food our puppies should be fed.
Currently, we are feeding California Naturals Chicken Meal and Rice Puppy Food to our pups. I am in the process of doing research on the Grain Free diets for pups. The protein levels are considerably higher than what would normally be good for a giant breed pup, but that all depends on what the calcium and phosphorus levels are in the food. Orijen makes a Grain Free Large Breed Puppy that looks pretty promising. Calcium levels for a Newf pup should be between 1.3 and 1.5%. The ratio of calcium to phosphorus should be 1.2-1.5 to 1. The calcium to phosphorus levels should NEVER be higher than 2 to 1. Anything higher than that and you run a significant chance of causing bone and joint problems for your puppy. YOUR PUPPY WILL ONLY GROW AS LARGE AS HE IS GENETICALLY PRE-PROGRAMMED TO GROW. He can either get to that size slowly, or he can get there quickly. If he gets their quickly, he runs a higher chance of having joint problems. Slow growth allows the pups skeleton to mature before additional weight is added to stress it.
It is YOUR responsibility to your pup to make sure he has the correct calcium levels and grows at a healthy rate.
Choosing a super premium quality food specifically for large breed pups, or an Adult food for All Life Stages is very important.
If you have come to this page looking for info on high quality dog foods here are some tools to help you decide if a certain food is high quality or not:
A single meat source or meat meal should be the first ingredient.
(You want to see chicken or chicken meal, beef or beef meal, lamb or lamb meal etc...you dont want to see a "family" of meat such as poultry or poultry meal, just the word meat or meat meal, chicken by products or beef by products...etc)
"Meals" contain more nutrients than meats.
For example, it is better to see chicken MEAL as the first ingredient VS Chicken.
This is because "meals" are meats that have the water removed, so they are more nutritious.
You definitely dont want to see corn, wheat or soy in the foods. These 3 grains cause allergic reactions to some degree in many dogs.If the food has a grain in it, you want to see oatmeal, rice or barley, millet, etc.
You dont want to see by-products on the label. By products are the beaks, hooves, fur, feet etc. They are poor sources of nutrition and tend to be harder on the digestive system.
You want to see BOTH Omega 3 and 6 Fatty Acids
For large breed dogs you want to see glucosomine and or chondroitan
(Even if the food provides Gluco/Chondro, you will still want to use a seperate supplemet. None of the major foods contain enough Gluco/Chondro to help much with jopint health. SO...if the food is good in all other areas, but doesnt have Gluco/Chondro it would probably still be acceptable)
If possible, look for fresh fruits and veggies such as apples, celery etc listed.
You want to see serving sizes in the range of 3 to 5 1/2 cups for a 100 pound dog.
If you see 7 or 9 cups a day for a 100 pound dog, then there are a lot of fillers in that food.
The following are some foods that we recommend and feel are good choices for Adult Newfies:
(If you know of others, please email me so i can check it out....I am always on the lookout for great quality food for our Newfs!!!)
Canidae, California Naturals, Solid Gold, Timberwolf Organics (Timberwolf just had a CRAZY price jump and is now extremely expensive) Blue Buffalo, Innova, EVO, Instinct, Wellness, Orijen, Nature's Variety, Oma's Pride, Natural Balance, Honest Kitchen, Sojuner Farms, Eagle Pack. These are all "top tier" foods. Extremely good quality. Even though they are more expensive than some, the amount fed is less. As an example, many less expensive foods are in the 350-370 calorie per cup range, while California Naturals Chicken and Rice has 511 calories a cup. Most of the Grain Free foods are in the 500 calorie range. In fact, if a Grain Free food is NOT in the 500 calorie a cup range, I probably wouldnt purchase it, since it probably has more fillers etc and you will need to feed more
If you are looking for a "cheaper" food, be very careful. A lot of times, you are paying less per bag, but it actually costs more to feed your dog due to less quality and lower calories in the food. Some of the foods below are cheaper and are decent quality if you want to take a look at them.
Purina Pro Plan, Kirkland (only sold at Costco stores-made by Diamond-similar to Diamond Premium edge or Diamond Naturals, but MUCH less expensive.......probably one of the best mid-grade foods out there for the money) Diamond Naturals (ONLY the Naturals selections from Diamond) , Organix,
Authority, Exceed (only sold at Sams Club, I believe it is made by Purina, but I'm not sure), Eukanuba, Nature's Recipe. My PERSONAL feeling (and this is my opinion ONLY!!) is that if you are going to pay for Eukanuba, ProPlan or some of the other higher dollar mid grade foods, you are MUCH MUCH better off going to one of the top tier foods above. Most of the top tier food are very comparable to Eukanuba and Pro Plan, in fact some are the same or even cheaper. As an example, where I shop, a 30 pound bag of Canidae Grain Free runs $45-50 depending on the type, and it is 500 calories per cup. A 36 pound bag of California Naturals Chicken and Rice runs $42, and is 511 calories a cup. So just REALLY look at the calories per cup, the bag size and also (where it is given) the weight per cup.
How I do it is to figure how many calories I want to feed my dog. An adult male that needs to put on a little weight is fed 3000 calories a day. So, I take the calories per cup ( my food is 500) and they get 3 cups morning and night. Using a food that only has 350 calories per cup, I would need to feed that came dog
approx 4 1/4 cups morning and night. as a side note, the more that goes in, the more that comes out the other end!!!!!!! One of the HUGE advantages to the grain free is that the dog utilizes so much of the food that there is very little to pick up in the yard compared to some of the other foods.
Our contract also allows for Science Diet, since so many vets recommend it to their customers. HOWEVER, we dont feel it is the best choice for your Newfie.
There WAS a time when Science Diet was the ONLY super premium food available, and it was only available from vets. Over the years many other foods have been developed that we feel are a much better choice, and a better value, than Science Diet.
Another option is a raw diet. HOWEVER, if you are going to do a raw diet, we URGE you to get some of the classic books on raw diets (Tom Lonsdale and Ian Billinghurst have wrote seeral good ones), find a vet who will work with you on a raw diet (many vets dont like them) and join one of the raw diet boards online such as the raw feeding forums on YAHOO groups. Raw diets can be awesome for dogs IF they are fed right. They take a fair amount of research and time to learn how to feed properly, can be expensive, and can be time consuming and are definitely not for everyone!
