Best Nutrition for my Puppy?

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Hilary

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I have my 6 month old 60lb APBT/Catahoula Leopard Dog puppy pulling a small wagon 2-3 times daily for about 15 minutes each time, 6 days a week. He does have proper setup harness, wagon etc. I am concerned about his food though. I have him on Blue Buffalo Wilderness (Turkey, Duck, Salmon) wet food cans (Which I love and have researched). He gets two cans per day one in the morning and one at night along with dry dog food which is whatever my mom feeds her dogs (varies month by month but not high quality: whatever is cheapest). I also have him on a multivitamin and a hip and joint "stage one" supplement. Should I be concerned with him eating the dry dog food and buck up and buy him his own? Blue Buffalo and Innova Puppy dry food is just so expensive but with him working daily I want him to have the best. Will it really be that detrimental to his health if he continued to eat the dry dog food?

Attached are some pictures of him right now so you can see his body type.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/62220200@N04/6455873963/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/62220200@N04/6455873945/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/62220200@N04/6455873893/in/photostream/
 
Stop the supplements and never pay any attention to the source that suggested them. They are totally ignorant of of a large breed puppy's needs. I would cut back to one dry food. They all contain all the nutrition a puppy needs, often too rich leading to fast growth and excessive strain on joints. Keep him lean for the same reason. Your dog definitely should be narrower at the waist than the hips and chest. You should be able to easily feel the ribs, but not see them. Each dog is different. Standard recommendations are a good place to start, but each dog must have its food and exercise adjusted to its individual needs. Here is a link to a good illustrated guide, http://www.longliveyourdog.com/twoplus/RateYourDog.aspx

Make sure the food you settle on has less than 1.5% actual calcium in it, not the minimum in the bag.

I would put off the cart pulling for another year. the larger the dog, the longer it takes to mature and if you want a long, active life, you must be very careful its first year, avoid fast growth from a rich diet, excess calcium before 7 months, and joint straining exercise. I hope he will be OK despite the supplements, cart pulling, rich diet, and maybe overweight.
 
What you put into your dog during the first few months of rapid growth is vital.
Consider feeding raw, its much cheaper and personally I think its best thing you can do for your dog.
 
If your dog is doing fine on the food your giving him now, i see nothing wrong with keeping him on the same food. Feed your dog what it does best on and what you can actually afford, of course it's better to feed higher quality but some dogs do just fine on normal dog food. Another great option to feed your dog is the Raw diet ( like the person above said), but before feeding it this, you must do some research to understand what it actually is, etc.
If you are interested in raw here are some links
http://www.rawlearning.com/
http://www.dogster.com/forums/Raw_Food_Diet/thread/431875
Google it if you want.
 
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