Large Breed Puppy Food???

[Jenny & Henry]

A member had suggested I might not need large breed puppy food due to weight prediction of 40 to 45 pounds.  Thanks for the help Jodi!

 

My puppy is a standard but on the smaller size.  It was to an English Retriever (dad) and a Standard Poodle (mom), the poodle is a smaller standard. 

 

I was going to start a auto ship of the Orijen and now am not sure what to do, the regular puppy or the large breed puppy.  Breeder originally said large breed puppy food.  I have been reading about it and it's supposed to help keep larger breeds from growing too fast, helping the hips grow right etc?  I also read though that this was a lot of consumer marketing and there really is not a big difference anyway.

 

Any thoughts?

 

Thanks,

Jenny

 

 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Jenny, we have lot of discussions here in The Food Group about this subject. To do a search, click "Back to Food Group Discussions" at the top right under your name, and then type your search term into the search box. Here's the results of a search i just did for "Large Breed":

http://www.doodlekisses.com/group/thefoodgroup/forum/topic/search?g...

You can read through all of the info in the discussions shown. Practically any question you may have about feeding is here in past discussions.

The short answer to your question is that your puppy does not need large breed food, even if he ends up being 70 lbs. (And it doesn't matter what the parents weighed, genetics don't work that way. If they did, every human would be midway in size between his mother and his father. Don't be surprised if your puppy ends up being bigger than either parent.)

There are some nutritional differences between large breed formulas and regular formulas, but not enough to make much difference for most dogs. Large breed formulas are really intended for the giant breeds like Wolfhounds and Great Danes.

However, you want to keep your puppy on whatever the breeder was feeding for at least two weeks before you change foods. I wouldn't do an autoship on a new food until you see how your puppy's digestive system handles it.

[Jenny & Henry]

Thank you, I am gonna hold off on the autoship till the puppy is here settled and then we can transition him.  Thanks so much for your help.  Gonna go read up on that thread you pasted!  :)

[Jenny & Henry]

Thanks Nancy!  I am gonna hold off on the autoship.  Can you tell I am anxious?  ha ha

[Sandy]

My dog was from the same mix of parents - English Retriever dad, Standard poodle mom - and was estimated to be about 50 pounds.  On their recommendation we put him on large breed puppy food, and it's a good thing we did, because at 2 1/2 he is 80 pounds.  :)  I guess no estimate can be bang on, and the vet said there is something called hybrid vigor, which means the dog's genes can harken back to a much larger ancestor.