Calcium and pregnancy - Page 1

With the expectation of my girl being pregnant I am trying to settle for a more appropriate food. Until now she is on Wellness Core which has 2%Ca and 1.4%Ph max.

A bulldog breeder friend recommended ProPlan performance, which has lower Ca levels but I dont like all that corn in it. Did look at the Wellness large breed puppy which has min1% to max 1.4% Ca and 0.9% Ph per cup. Are those values still to high? Any other recomondations, preferably grain free? We are at day 39.

 Elkoor, I beg your pardon to insert a mini question which came to my mind from your own, why is corn not liked in dog food, is it only due to allergy? because at my place we have no grain free food but dogs are doing okay on these foods. Please after taking care of the main topic maybe someone can give a short explanation, without hijacking the original topic.
Ibrahim

Corn is a junk food filler.

So it is of no use or benefit to the dog, thanks Nans.

Ibrahim, many dog owners feed kibble that contains corn without having any problems. But then again many dog owners as well learnt the hart way that corn can be causing allergies and other digestive upset. And with that, yeasty smelling skin, dull coats and infections. For the food industry corn is plenty and cheap, therfore it provides cheap protein and cheap energy, and more profit. The values sound good on a bag label, however it is not as digestible for the dog itself. The dog has to eat 3x the amount to get the nutritional value out of it then it would with a high quality food. My dogs are very active and feeding a large amount of food is out of question, can you run with a full belly? Now I am not saying corn is absolutely bad, just remember that there are different kinds grown throughout the world. A small white soft corn may easier digested than a large yellow one, and then there are subspecies of each of course. My girl never has seen corn in her food, so I dont know how she woud react to it. My older boy is highly allergic to corn/grain. My little rescue schnoodle could probably live of corn alone and do well. So at the end it depends on the dog too. Where do you live?

 Elkoor,

I live in Jordan (Middle East), best dog food we have here is Royal Canin then comes Pro Pac but they are not grain free, thank you so much for the complete thorough explanation, I appreciate it and thanks for letting me take you away from your main topic. By the way I feed RC plus boiled chicken, sometimes beef and chicken feet.
Ibrahim

 I found a pet nutrition expert's web site and emailed her with some questions I had about nutrition.  She would be a good one to ask about your pregnant dog's nutritional needs.  Her name is Dr. Susan Lauten and her web site is www.petnutritionconsulting.com.  She has a PhD in Biomedical Science and a master's degree in animal nutrition from Auburn University.  If you go to her "contact" page, you can email her and she will respond free of charge.  

Pharaoh loves chicken feet.  I keep them in the freezer and defrost as needed.  I cut the toenails because they are so sharp and then feed them raw. 

I think there is lots of good stuff in the feet.

Michele

You are welcome. The Germans swear by RC, but I tried it on my older boy many years ago and he had the foulest smelling poops you can imagine....LOL And now its almost the same price then a higher quality food here in the US. Coming from former East Germany we didnt have kibble to feed. The dogs got a lot of potatoes, left overs and none human worthy meat from the slaughter house.

Ibrahim,

Do a lot of reading and educating yourself. Unfortunately, there is a lot of poor and downright incorrect information about canine diets that is spread over and over on the web, including here. One decent web site, with less bias than most, is at this link. Here you can read that corn, for example, often is talked about in a negative manner that is not true. The same is true of many other ingredients. 

http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=betterproducts

There are many, many foods that use corn or other grains in one way or another, and many of these foods are fine. The proof is always in the way the dog looks, and behaves and how much energy it has etc. There is a general attitude among some that the only way to feed is raw. Most people who do feed raw probably, if the truth were known, know little about nutrition and simply jump on alternatives. Again, the proof is in the actual dog. There is also a document that is prepared by scientists that specifies what is and is not an essential nutrient for a dog. Very few people even bother to read it.

As for a pregnant female, a high quality food, and switching to a high quality puppy food about half way through her pregnancy and after she delivers is the general recommendation. By the way, I have fed Royal Canin and a lot of other foods over three decades to many, many GSDs and rarely I had to switch to a food for a special reason such as a given dog having EPI. The problem with RC now is that like most higher quality kibbles, the price has gone through the roof. I simply cannot afford to feed it now and have switched to other kibble and the many dogs I have here are doing just fine.....Those who have EPI get a different food because RC is not a good formula for them.