glucosamine for large breed adults

[dljj]

Is it necessary to continuing feeding a large breed food (or supplementing with glucosamine) once the pup is an adult? I notice that many of the premium foods have a large breed pup formula, but not one for adults. Our boxer mix is definitely a big boy, weighing in at just under 100 pounds.

 

[tanya22]

I think the reason for special formula puppy is because there is a risk of the large breeds growing too fast. Once they are full grown they no longer have special needs. This is my understanding. I could be wrong but that is how my vet explained it..

 

[Nek'sMom]

Boxer's are medium sized dogs, they shouldn't be fed Large breed food. My pup is 5 mons and we feed Canidae which is an all life stage food. Puppy's really don't need "puppy food" they can eat adult food just as well. If they were out in the wild they wouldn't have a choice of puppy/adult food, they would eat what their mom's brought them! It's kinda a gimmic to get you to buy their food,which is just palin wrong. We don't supplement him with any vitamins, he gets all his stuff from his food and other foods we add to it. I am no expert, but the reson he is so big could be cuz you feed him large breed puppy food. That could cause him to have problems later on in life like hip dsyplasia, and such because he has grown too big, too fast. How old is he? You can try doing a search on here to find more info on this subject, it's one of the blue buttons in the top right corner! By the way, where in Abingdon are you, I live about 5 mins from there?!:D

 

[dljj]

No, the reason he is so big is not because we fed him large breed. He IS large breed. As my original post states, he is a boxer mix. His mother was a boxer and his father possibly great dane, or more likely also some sort of large mix breed. We're in Box Hill North. We have one boxer girl, three and our big boy is 18 months. Both came from rescue.

 

[Nek'sMom]

I missed that last nite! I'm sorry! I think most people stop feeding puppy food at around one year or so. I just know from a friend who fed his pup large breed when he wasn't, had huge problems with his dog growing too fast for his bones. Someone else may know something about glucosamine!

 

[BooBoo & Riley]

My understanding of Glucosmine for both humans and dogs is that it doesn't necessarily do any good in preventing arthritis and joint pains, but once you have it, it helps reduce swelling and lessen the pain. A lot of people sell it telling you that it'll prevent those pains, but it doesn't... the size of the dog (large dogs especially prone), heriteity and injuries cause the joint pains.

As for puppy food, you should stop at around 5 months or so, or you'll feed even more protein than necessary and add pounds to his frame causeing more possible joint problems.

 

[dljj]

Thanks. We stopped the puppy formula long ago, and we moved him onto Nutro's large breed adult formula, but he doesn't want to eat that anymore, and tries to eat our boxer's food. We wanted to switch brands, but were wondering if the glucosoamine was really necessary any more.

 

[Snork]

Glucosamine never hurts, though, as stated above, it might not be particularly helpful if your pup has no issues to start with. However, if you want to, you can always supplement whatever food you feed with glucosamine "just in case." I give Geoffrey Syn-Flex for that exact reason.

-snork

 

[sirpoopsalot]

"I just know from a friend who fed his pup large breed when he wasn't, had huge problems with his dog growing too fast for his bones."

just as a point of clarification, large breed foods actually have lower fat and protein amounts than regular pup food. The point is that you don't want a large dog putting on that much weight when it is still young because that can result in joint problems