Feeding a great dane puppy?

Question

I have a great dane puppy that is 8 weeks old. What is the best thing to feed her? puppy food in a tin? cooked meat? puppie biscuts?

Answer 1

Find a good premium brand puppy food made specifically for large or giant breed puppies.

There is a huge difference between premium and grocery brand dog foods. Premium brands, while more expensive, are typically more bang for the buck, so to speak. A good premium food will have much more nutrients per ounce and less filler (yellow ground corn and others) than a grocery brand. Because of this, your dog has to eat less of the premium brand for his daily dose of nutrients than he would a grocery brand. For example, a puppy that is about 10 weeks old and weighs approximately 10 pounds will need to eat 3/4-1 1/4 cup a day of Nutro. On the flip side, that same puppy would need to eat 1 1/4-2 cups of food per day of Kibbles and Bits.

Here's an added bonus: when your dog takes less in, he sends less out! A good premium brand food means less poop to scoop!

Examples of premium brand foods: Nutro, Blue Buffalo, Wellness, Eukanuba, Science Diet, ProPlan, Royal Canin, Authority--Premium brands are found at specialty stores only.

Examples of grocery brand foods: Purina One, Beneful, Dog/Puppy Chow (not good!), Ol'Roy (even worse!), Pedigree, Iams, Kibbles n Bits and anything else you can purchase at a grocery store.

The reason you want a Large or Giant breed formula is because of the amount of glucosamine and chondroitin they contain. These are the two main nutrients that help strengthen your dog's joints and growth plates. The larger the dog, the stronger you want his joints to be! Nutro has a large breed puppy formula that contains 325 mg/kg glucosamine and 250 mg/kg condroitin. Alternately, ProPlan has a Giant Breed formula with 500 ppm glucosamine and no condroitin. Either would work, and you could ask your vet as well what he recommends as a daily dose of glucosamine/condroitin. With a giant breed dog, he may recommend supplements.

Hopefully this helps you out some. Congrats on your new pup.

Answer 2

Scoring Your Dog Food
*Please note that the following is for entertainment purposes only and has not been researched by DAN and may not be a "true" grading of food. If you have any questions regarding the food you are feeding your dog consult your veternarian.
This is a very interesting way to check out the quality of the dog food that you are feeding. It's interesting, because sometimes paying more, does not get you more and vice versa.
The scores are rather interesting.
How to grade your dog's food: (Some brand reviews already calculated here)
Start with a grade of 100:
1.For every listing of "by-product", subtract 10 points
2.For every non-specific animal source ("meat" or "poultry", meat, meal
or fat) reference, subtract 10 points
3.If the food contains BHA, BHT, or ethoxyquin, subtract 10 points
4.For every grain "mill run" or non-specific grain source, subtract 5
points
5.If the same grain ingredient is used 2 or more times in the first five
ingredients (i.e. "ground brown rice", "brewer rice", "rice flour" are all
the same grain), subtract 5 points
6.If the protein sources are not meat meal and there are less than 2
meats in the top 3 ingredients, subtract 3 points
7.If it contains any artificial colorants, subtract 3 points
8.If it contains ground corn or whole grain corn, subtract 3 points
9.If corn is listed in the top 5 ingredients, subtract 2 more points
10.If the food contains any animal fat other than fish oil, subtract 2
points
11.If lamb is the only animal protein source (unless your dog is allergic
to other protein sources), subtract 2 points
12.If it contains soy or soybeans, subtract 2 points
13.If it contains wheat (unless you know that your dog isn't allergic to
wheat), subtract 2 points
14.If it contains beef (unless you know that your dog isn't allergic to
beef), subtract 1 point
15.If it contains salt, subtract 1 point
Extra Credit:
1.If any of the meat sources are organic, add 5 points
2.If the food is endorsed by any major breed group or
nutritionist, add 5 points
3.If the food is baked not extruded, add 5 points
4.If the food contains probiotics, add 3 points
5.If the food contains fruit, add 3 points
6.If the food contains vegetables (NOT corn or other grains), add 3
points
7.If the animal sources are hormone-free and antibiotic-free, add 2
points
8.If the food contains barley, add 2 points
9.If the food contains flax seed oil (not just the seeds), add 2 points
10.If the food contains oats or oatmeal, add 1 point
11.If the food contains sunflower oil, add 1 point
12.For every different specific animal protein source (other than
the first one; count "chicken" and "chicken meal" as only one protein
source, but "chicken" and "" as 2 different sources), add 1 point
13.If it contains glucosamine and chondroitin, add 1 point
14.If the vegetables have been tested for pesticides and are
pesticide-free, add 1 point
94-100+ = A 86-93 = B 78-85 = C 70-77 = D 69 = F
Here are some foods that have already been scored. If you don't see your dog's food here, ask and someone will score it for you.
Brand Dog Food scores:
•Authority Harvest Baked: 116 A+
•Bil-Jac Select: 68 F
•Canidae: 112 A+
•Chicken Soup Senior: 115 A+
•Diamond Maintenance: 64 F
•Diamond Lamb Meal & Rice: 92 B
•Diamond Large Breed 60+ Formula: 99 A
•Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance Ultra Premium: 122 A+
•Dick Van Patten's Duck and Potato: 106 A+
•Foundations: 106 A+
•Hund-n-Flocken Adult Dog (lamb) by Solid Gold: 93 D
•Iams Lamb Meal & Rice Formula Premium: 73 D
•Innova Dog: 114 A+
•Innova Evo: 114 A+
•Kirkland Signature Chicken, Rice, and Vegetables: 110 A+
•Nutrisource Lamb and Rice: 87 B
•Nutro Natural Choice Large Breed Puppy: 87 B
•Pet Gold Adult with Lamb & Rice: 23 F
•ProPlan Natural Turkey & Barley: 103 A+
•Purina Beneful: 17 F
•Purina Dog: 62 F
•Purina Come-n-Get It: 16 F
•Royal Canin Bulldog: 100 A+
•Royal Canin Natural Blend Adult: 106 A+
•Sensible Choice Chicken and Rice: 97 A
•Science Diet Advanced Protein Senior 7+: 63 F
•Science Diet for Large Breed Puppies: 69 F
•Wellness Super5 Mix Chicken: 110 A+
•Wolfking Adult Dog (bison) by Solid Gold: 97 A

Answer 3

Nutro(it's the best) large breed puupy food, lamb and rice or regular kind, treats any kind works, but get a small kibble style for training, I recommend a stainless steel dish, but you need to put it in a elevated feeder, or he will bloat and also feed him two-three times a day, to keep this from happening bloat is a deadly condition stoamch twists and cuts off blood supply) and kills many danes, and other large breed dogs, try to keep the activity level at aminimum for about a half hour, I know puppies are easy to keep still. Good luck

Answer 4

Large breed puppy chow dry stuff not canned.
Being for large breed will limit her protein intake and her bones will grow slower and be more dense and sturdier. She will have less orthapedic and muscle problems when feed with a food specificly for large breed puppys.

Answer 5

a good brand of puppy food...i would get the kind for large breeds..

Answer 6

well wheni first got my dog we fed her like eukanuba puppy food with some of that ceaser soft puppy food in the hard food. and mix it together. keep feeding him/her that until she turns 1 yr old. but then try to ween her off of it because it gives them tarter on their teeth.

Answer 7

hhe is still a pup, feed him puppy food and toss in a neighbor's cat every so often for dessert

Answer 8

Puppy chow.

Answer 9

puppy food-- he's a puppy regardless of what breed he is.

Answer 10

cats