(A Veterinarian's Perspective)

In this section, I am going to cover some general information on foods but, in the interest of time, I am going to specifically focus on German Shepherds.  I would be glad to answer any questions on any other breed, however, if you would like to contact me. 

What do I feed my German Shepherd?

General Information:

Puppies have different dietary requirements than adult dogs.  Also, large breed puppies have different requirements than some of your smaller breeds.  German Shepherds are large breed dogs and therefore, have special needs for bone growth, muscle development, and calcium levels.  It has been proven that several orthopedic diseases of dogs can be precipitated by improper feeding practices during growth.  German Shepherds can be predisposed to these problems because they have the genetic potential for rapid growth.  Maximal growth, (resulting in the greatest increased in body weight), in rapidly growing, large breed puppies can cause stress on the immature developing skeleton. 

Protein (+/-), excessive calories, and inappropriate amounts of calcium have all been shown to negatively influence optimal skeletal development in large breed puppies.  Large Breed foods address this problem by regulating both calcium and calories.  We want controlled growth in these dogs -- maximal growth is not optimal growth.  Many people argue that they want a "big" dog.  That is all fine and good, but it would be better for these dogs to reach their adult weight at 2-3 years instead of 12 months.  (Size is pre-determined by genetics, not food!)

Calories:

Your goal, if you are feeding a large breed puppy, is to keep him at a body condition score of 4 on a scale of 1-9.  You should be able to easily feel his ribs (and maybe even see a couple of ribs).  You must continually assess his body score while he is growing to make sure the you are not over-feeding.

Calcium:

Excessive calcium can result in skeletal malformation.  Too little calcium can be a problem too.  (Very seldom do you have a problem with too little calcium though, unless owners have opted to create their own "diets".)  Many people like to supplement their pups with Calcium -- this can be a very serious problem.  Puppies can not regulate how much calcium they absorb from their food.  Excessive calcium is known to cause deficiencies in other nutrients such as Zinc.  Also, the excess calcium prevents puppies from pulling the calcium out of their bones properly to allow for growth and remodeling of these bones.

 

Below is a video on feeding puppies that I agree with entirely......
 

 

Keep in Mind:

	A large breed growth diet OR a diet that says "For all Life Stages" should be fed until the puppy.
	Avoid additional supplements -- when feeding a good diet, vitamin and mineral supplements are unnecessary and potentially harmful.
	There are several companies with really good Large Breed Puppy formulas -- there may be others I forgot to mention.

 

So What About the Adult Food?

There are several really good adult foods on the market, as well.  As a whole, with the eyes of the consumer and the FDA being drawn more closely to the practices and imports of the dog food companies, dog foods as a whole have been forced to improve.  Though there are still many foods that I WOULD NOT feed my dogs, I am not AS particular as I used to be.  I would be more than happy to discuss certain brands of foods if you would like but I will not attempt to discuss them here.

What about Raw Diets? 

Feeding raw meat diets to high performance dogs such as greyhounds, coon dogs, and sled dogs has been a common practice for some time.  Recently, (the last 4 years), I have been bombarded with questions from owners who want to feed raw meat diets.  The proponents of these diets believe the dogs feel better, have more energy and less disease.  However, I have been unable to find ANY scientific evidence whatsoever to support these claims.  I have 2 main concerns about these diets:

	The large amount of bacterial contamination
	The idea that you must also feed bones.

First, as a veterinarian, I have a hard time with the concept that "bacterial contamination is not important".  While I do believe that it is true that most large breed dogs can go out and eat a carcass of a long-dead deer and not have any problems, I know many Chihuahuas that look at raw meat and get sick!  In addition, constantly feeding raw meat diets can increase the risk of sickness to the owner that is constantly preparing raw meat in their kitchens. 

To determine the actual contamination of these raw meat diets, the staff at Colorado State University in conjunction with the USDA evaluated 21 commercially available raw meat diets from three different retail stores.  All diets were stored frozen until evaluated.  The study revealed 53% of the diets contained e. coli, which can cause severe intestinal problems in dogs and humans.  This is the same bacteria that usually cause illness in humans who eat undercooked hamburgers.  Salmonella, another bacteria that causes intestinal disease, was also found in 5.9% of the samples.  Although the federal government regulates processing of meat for human consumption, these laws do not apply to pet foods.  Ninety-nine percent of the samples had some form of bacterial contamination in this study.  Because there is no regulatory agency responsible for monitoring bacterial contamination in raw meat, milk, or eggs for pet foods, owners feeding their pets these diets should be concerned about their pets’ health as well as their own health.

Second, I have seen, and personally removed, many bones from the G.I tract of several dogs of varying breeds.  Just 2 weeks ago, we had a Dachshund in the clinic that the owners had been feeding bones.  He was extremely painful and had been for 2 days.  This normally gentle dog had bitten the owner several times in the last 2 days.  Upon further inspection, we found a 2 inch long sliver of bone extending across the back of his oral cavity from one side to the other.  It had caused enough swelling that the bone had become embedded in the tissues.

Last month, we removed a ham bone from a Rottweiler's intestinal tract.  He had swallowed it but it was not small enough to pass all the way through the G.I. tract.  We had to remove part of the intestines because of the damage done by the lodged piece of bone.  THESE BONES DO NOT DISSOLVE AND HAVE NO SIGNIFICANT NUTRIENT QUALITY.  By the time the owners finished paying for the Exploratory Surgery and Intestinal Anastomosis, they could have afforded a good quality dog food! 

I do realize that not all raw diets require feeding bone and I also realize that raw proponents argue that uncooked bone is much different than cooked bone. 

Conclusion:  It is true that many GSD's do well on raw diet.  I have to ask myself "why?".  Here is what I think.  I think that a properly balance raw diet is fine to feed for SOME people.  But, as a whole, most people that are feeding "raw" are not really "FEEDING RAW".  They are either throwing out "scraps" and justifying it by calling it raw or they are feeding an assortment of "raw" things with no regards as to "balance".  When most people hear the term "raw" they think only of meat.  But, balance raw diets include much more.  Many people that feed raw simply go to the store and get chicken scraps (necks, wings, etc.) and feed that in the morning and then maybe a little cheap kibble in the evening and call it balanced.  It isn't.  Dogs will do fairly well on this method however for a while and people conclude that their dog is "healthier" because his stools are better or because there is less of them.......Those reasons do NOT make the dog healthier.  If anyone has been on the Adkins diet, they too know that HIGH protein makes for less and more firm stools.....but it can also make for kidney issues.  Firms stools do not equal health. 

Feeding raw can be a healthy diet IF fed properly.  But, I generally will not recommend it simply because I don't think that most people care or have the time to feeding it properly.  And, I simply can't agree with the raw diets that require feeding bone.