[Ginny01OT]

Originally Posted by Mike M

Completely agree - I hate it when these large corporations think the consumer is stupid. Thanks for your input - a dishonest manufacturer or even having a prior history of dishonesty automatically eliminates Canidae from my list. I'll likely buy a small bag and begin to mix Canidae with the new food (whatever that may be - haven't decided yet) to ease the dog into a new diet.

I'm thinking NV - Prairie rotating with NV- Raw may be the way to go. Any thoughts? Now I've heard comments that you shouldn't mix kibble with raw - any truth to that???? This shouldn't be this hard!!!

I do just that NV raw and kibble (except when they are puppies, I do two bags of Innova Large Breed Puppy with the NV raw and then transition to the prairie and then instinct). I have to say that although in general you are not to mix the kibble and raw, I have with both my dogs and I have never had a problem--my older poodle has had complete blood work ups and urinalyses at his annual check up and there has never been a problem (thank goodness)--my now fourth month old puppy is doing great too (thank goodness again) so I have to say I am very pleased with the results. As far as the calcium content you do not want a "large breed" dog (which your dog is considered a large breed) to grow too quickly as that can stress ligaments and joints and create problems (which is why I wait until the dog is close to full grown before I switch to the Instinct). Good luck.

[Mike M]

Originally Posted by Ginny01OT

I do just that NV raw and kibble (except when they are puppies, I do two bags of Innova Large Breed Puppy with the NV raw and then transition to the prairie and then instinct). I have to say that although in general you are not to mix the kibble and raw, I have with both my dogs and I have never had a problem--my older poodle has had complete blood work ups and urinalyses at his annual check up and there has never been a problem (thank goodness)--my now fourth month old puppy is doing great too (thank goodness again) so I have to say I am very pleased with the results. As far as the calcium content you do not want a "large breed" dog (which your dog is considered a large breed) to grow too quickly as that can stress ligaments and joints and create problems (which is why I wait until the dog is close to full grown before I switch to the Instinct). Good luck.

Thanks so much for your response. So I have a question for you Ginny010T - why do you start your dogs off with Innova and then switch to NV Prairie? Why not just start out with the NV? Also, how long are your dogs on Innova before you switch them to NV? Finally, doesn't it seem like NV promotes feeding Raw and kibble together through its rotation philosophy? (and what I mean here is not at the same time - but feeding raw one day, week or month and then feeding kibble or canned the following day, week or month)

[Ginny01OT]

Hi Mike--
I agree that NV promotes the rotation and I also think they may also mean rotating between proteins. When I got my first standard poodle a little over two years ago Nature's Variety was not an easy dog food to find in my area. I had read an article about large breed puppy food having some merit--just large breed puppy--not large breed adult food, etc. If I can find a link to the article I will post it here ((have to go out soon). So I started Riley on the Innova Large Breed Puppy--I bought two large bags, once they were gone, that was it--conveniently it lasted until he was spayed (which is when I would switch to an all-life stage food anyway). It worked very well with my first guy so I am doing it for the puppy---Either way--starting with Prairie or the puppy food is great--NV is a great food and now I can find it almost anywhere in town which is a great thing!!!

[melgrj7]

When we got Lloyd we gave him Innova large breed puppy and he did really well on it.

[cshellenberger]

Large Breed is over 50 lbs, the issue with calcium content is growth rate, if the calcium is too high the bones grow too fast for the tendons and can cause Knuckling over and other growth problems, it's the same with Protein.