Gun Dog Forum

I have a 13 wk old GSP puppy and I am feeding him Pro Plan Performance All Age food. Instructions say feed as much as he will eat, 3 times a day. Is that healthy for a pup that size? I want to feed him a lot but all he can eat seems like too much? What if he eats 8 cups a day?

Lol. I wouldn't listen to that advice, same with feeding pro plan.

There are better foods at the same price range. I would feed a reasonable amount 3x a day.

I know there are better foods...the feed store owner died last week so they were closed and I needed food. Had to drive into town and it was the best I found.

Just curious.... what better foods are their at the feed store or in town.

MikeB wrote:Just curious.... what better foods are their at the feed store or in town.

Kind of curious about this also and would like to know how you can tell.

Ezzy

You are feeding a 30/20 ALS formula with PPP. The closest approximation to a definite feeding guideline I could find is ProPlan Chicken and Rice Puppy, a 28/18 formula. For a 4 - 6 month old dog expected to weigh 51 - 75 lbs at maturity, the recommendation is 2 - 3-1/3 cups per day. Personally, I would break that amount into two feedings for that age dog, so, around 1-1/2 cups at each meal since you are feeding a little higher calorie food.

ezzy333 wrote:

MikeB wrote:Just curious.... what better foods are their at the feed store or in town.

Kind of curious about this also and would like to know how you can tell.

Ezzy

Corn.

I wouldn't feed a feed without corn to a performance dog. Of course they will work great for the little lap dogs. Look and see what the trial dogs and hard hunted dogs are fed and you will see my point, it works and has for years and years.

Ezzy

ezzy333 wrote:I wouldn't feed a feed without corn to a performance dog. Of course they will work great for the little lap dogs. Look and see what the trial dogs and hard hunted dogs are fed and you will see my point, it works and has for years and years.

Ezzy

Exactly.

ezzy333 wrote:I wouldn't feed a feed without corn to a performance dog. Of course they will work great for the little lap dogs. Look and see what the trial dogs and hard hunted dogs are fed and you will see my point, it works and has for years and years.

Ezzy

Care to elaborate? I have read about it and I cant see any reason to feed it to my dog. Glycemic index?

wberry85 wrote:

ezzy333 wrote:I wouldn't feed a feed without corn to a performance dog. Of course they will work great for the little lap dogs. Look and see what the trial dogs and hard hunted dogs are fed and you will see my point, it works and has for years and years.

Ezzy

Care to elaborate? I have read about it and I cant see any reason to feed it to my dog. Glycemic index?[/quote

Well ground corn is a good food source. GI will average about 54, which is a bit high if the dog's sugar bounces up and down. However, the corn is only a small amount of bag.

I think there are alot of good foods out there. They labels read pretty close to the same. I personally feel that it depends on what your dog performs the best on. I have tried several brands and saw no good results and couldn't get Kona to gain any. Now not looking for her to be fat but put on a little. She was looking a little boney. I started using anemaat, spelling?? She really seems to like it and she now looks much better than she did. I tried pro plan, Kona wouldn't eat it unless I supplemented it with gravy. Even then she wouldn't finish the bowl. Fed it to my boxer and she loved it. Every dog is different.

My advice to any new puppy owner is find a good food that your pup will eat and seems to perform well on. Then you have the best dog food out there.

Joe

I started using anemaat, spelling??

It's Annamaet. Which formula are you feeding and how much are you feeding/day? I have heard good things about that company and the food.

wberry85 wrote:

ezzy333 wrote:I wouldn't feed a feed without corn to a performance dog. Of course they will work great for the little lap dogs. Look and see what the trial dogs and hard hunted dogs are fed and you will see my point, it works and has for years and years.

Ezzy

Care to elaborate? I have read about it and I cant see any reason to feed it to my dog. Glycemic index?

Anyone?

wberry85 wrote:

wberry85 wrote:

ezzy333 wrote:I wouldn't feed a feed without corn to a performance dog. Of course they will work great for the little lap dogs. Look and see what the trial dogs and hard hunted dogs are fed and you will see my point, it works and has for years and years.

Ezzy

Care to elaborate? I have read about it and I cant see any reason to feed it to my dog. Glycemic index?

Anyone?

Did you not read my previous post, or are you just looking for someone to agree with your misinformation? :roll:

All you said was corn is a good food source. What makes it a better or worse food source than any other ingredient? The GI for corn is high, but that doesnt necessarily equate to energy.

I am not looking to start an argument, but if yall know something I dont then please share. :roll:

We have fed our GSP's Pro Plan Performance from the time we got them and have never had any problems. With our work hours we could only feed twice a day when they were pups. We feed once a day in the evenings once the dogs are older (9 months or so). It's been awhile but for a 13 wk old pup I would start with 1 1/2 cups in the morning and the same at night, if it is an active pup. Our dogs have always finished theier food within a few minutes of it being put down, we have never had to add anything to it. If the pup can not/does not finish the food in 15 min I would pick it up. Our dogs are now 9 1/2, 7 & 4. We did lose one of our GSP's almost 2 years ago but it had nothing to do with the food!!!! We also had a lab that was fed PPP for most of her life, probably why she lived as long as she did, RIP.
Of course as the dog gets older you can adjust the amount of food to fit it's needs.

wberry85 wrote:All you said was corn is a good food source. What makes it a better or worse food source than any other ingredient? The GI for corn is high, but that doesnt necessarily equate to energy.

I am not looking to start an argument, but if yall know something I dont then please share. :roll:

I was just giving you info on the GI, and was not sure of what you were asking there.

Corn is mostly carbohydrate that if of good quality and ground well provides an excellent source of calories and energy. Why not corn? There are likely cases where a dog could be sensitive to a chemical in or on corn, but that probably doesn't happen often.

I believe dogs have evolved into essentially an Omnivore, so some grains etc serve as a foodsource quite well.

jlp8cornell wrote:

I started using anemaat, spelling??

It's Annamaet. Which formula are you feeding and how much are you feeding/day? I have heard good things about that company and the food.

I use the Ultra which is 32%. It comes in a blue bag. I feed a cup in the morning and a cup at night. I run Kona three times a week for at least an hour at a time and this is the only food I have found that she seems to perform better and look better on.

Some would say that it is very expensive and the price tag does run high, but what I have noticed is it lasts much longer than any other food I have purchased at half the price. I feed less and she still looks good. I agree it is more than most but not by as much as you would think.

Joe

Thanks bigsteve.

I also found this article here: http://www.royalcanin.us/library/ingred ... -food.aspx

I have seen a lot of conflicting information but that article seems to be the most scientific I have found. My mothers dogs as well as my pitbull always seem to have issues with corn. My mothers dog has bad diarrhea with corn and my pitbull has bad skin allergies supposedly caused by corn. Switching them to a food without corn has helped them tremendously but it could have been a coincidence and caused by a different ingredient. I have fed my older shorthair Diamond Extreme Athlete which doesnt have corn as a main ingredient and he has always done great on that food with plenty of energy. Puppy seems to be doing fine on ProPlan.

use the Ultra which is 32%. It comes in a blue bag. I feed a cup in the morning and a cup at night. I run Kona three times a week for at least an hour at a time and this is the only food I have found that she seems to perform better and look better on.

2c/day. That makes up for it being pricy and then some. McBosco's Spinone eats only 3c/day of the Ultra. Not bad for a 95# dog. I am switching to Annamaet as well on my next purchase.