We had a similar issue with Huds... I was feeding him double the amount reccommended. I've switched him over to the Burns Active. And... you know what... whether it is coincidence or not... he seems to have gotten taller! Still hasn't put any weight on..... coat looks lovely and shiney he is as bouncy as ever.
Now the disclaimer... he is not quite 14 months.... so he could well just still be growing. He still is a wee toot... and... his height growth could be an apparant growth.... as there is now an eight week old yellow ankle biter in the house! What is also worth noting with the Burns Active.... you get 3 kgs free - 18kgs for the price of 15 and it is VAT free!!!
My OH seems to think that his potential would be reached regardless of us still feeding burns or not- just at a much slower rate with a low protein diet.
My experience is in farm animal growth and development, and its been a while since university however.... (and if anyone knows to the contrary please tell me lol)
*The animal may have a genetic potential for growth, but if the growth is not achieved by the time the growth plates close then you will not get bone growth after this. That is not to say the animal won't then start developing more muscle and 'filling out' into the frame which has formed.
*Closure of growth plates is, I believe, linked to hormone levels - hence spaying dogs is not recommended before a certain age. And since individuals reach sexual maturity at different times then this would suggest some 'flexibility' in when these plates close. If you think about the variation in when a bitch will first come into season, then we could presumably have similar levels of variation in the time a dog has to attain optimal bone growth.
*There is a phenomenon, which I do know about in cattle extensively, known as compensatory growth . This means that a growing animal can catch up after a period of sub-optimal nutrition. However this will only happen during the growing phase.
So your husband may be correct - but only if the animal has got sufficient time to catch up, which may not always be the case.
I guess what we're after is to feed the animal a level of protein, and thus achieve a level of growth, which is as close as we can to getting 100% of genetic potential at the precise time of growth plate closure. I suspect with labradors that 29-30% is a bit excessive for this, but equally i'm not convinced that 18% is ideal either. I am looking to move a new puppy of mine onto something at about 24%.
Gracie has been on Burns for the last 15 months or so (she is 2 and a half now) and she weighs only 20.5kg
She has recently been diagnosed with mild arthritis in her front left leg and the vet reckons that this 'could' be down to Burns not being the ideal diet for an active lab.
The vet further stated that in her opinion Burns is a very good basic food for your medium sized average exercise type of dog but anything more than that then supplements would be required accordingly.
She did stress that this was only her opinion but with what has happened to Gracie and after reading some of the other comments on here maybe there's some truth in it?
I guess what we're after is to feed the animal a level of protein, and thus achieve a level of growth, which is as close as we can to getting 100% of genetic potential at the precise time of growth plate closure. I suspect with labradors that 29-30% is a bit excessive for this, but equally i'm not convinced that 18% is ideal either. I am looking to move a new puppy of mine onto something at about 24%.
I do find nutrition fascinating, as dogs have been around since the dawn of time, yet only in the last couple of decades have we started to feed them on dried complete food.
I'm sure if we worked out the protein levels that most dogs of a bygone era were raise on, it would be far less than is in most feeds today, yet still they grew slowly to reach their full potential (unless the foods given were particularly poor I suppose).
I was trying to workout the protein levels in a BARF diet (but failed miserably ) and found that Nature Menu do a feed which claims to be the equivalent of BARF, just already made up and frozen for you. The protein level is 10%, which I assume would be much the same if you were to feed a real BARF diet.
So assuming that most past diets and present day BARF diets contain only about 10% protein, how did we get to the stage where some dried feeds are as high as 32% protein? Surely there must be some effects from feeding too much protein, especially in young growing dogs.
I am growing Cleo on Nature Diet, which is 10% protein. Ok Cleo is a smaller breed dog, but she is still growing at a healthy rate and she is well covered. I doubt I would ever raise one of my own pups on a purely kibble diet (even though I have raised 2 Guide Dog pups this way). I'm not convinced that the "Scientists" have actually got it right, they all seem to have such differing opinions as to what should be fed and when.....who should we believe?
Anyway that is my take on it....Whether we feed 32%, 18%, 24% protein, it all sounds too high to me compared to more "natural" diets.
why do you all take your pups off puppy food at such an early age
if you read ANY puppy food instructions it tels you at what age to change your pups onto and adult
all my pups are feed on puppy till they are approx 14 months old,
I have reared pups on Burns, Beta, Pedigree, JWB to name but a few over the years and in MHO I have pups which have bone and substance all throught their lifes
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) and found that Nature Menu do a feed which claims to be the equivalent of BARF, just already made up and frozen for you. The protein level is 10%, which I assume would be much the same if you were to feed a real BARF diet.
