Large breed puppy food ????

oakbales · #1 02-09-2009, 03:20 PM

Do Boxer's need a large breed formula or not. We will be picking up out puppy (Ty) on the last day of the month. I will be slowly changing his food to a better quality food. Most manufactors say if your dog will wiegh more than 50 pounds full grown then you need to feed large breed. Ty's dad weighs in around 75 pounds.

ehayes21 · #2 02-09-2009, 04:07 PM

Nope. You don't need a large breed formula, boxers are a medium breed.
Have you taken a look at this site?

http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/

**gmacleod** · #3 02-09-2009, 04:19 PM

Boxers are a medium sized breed, rather than large. You're right that some food manufacturers suggest "large" breed formulas for any animal that will grow to over 50lb. Some others don't suggest that until 75lb. And some don't make any distinction at all (on this last point - it is worth bearing in mind that any benefit to, or need for, special formulations for large animals is entirely unproven, its just a theory... and not everyone has jumped on that marketing bandwagon just yet

).

In any case - even if you do buy into the small/medium/large/giant requiring different foods concept... would you really lump a medium sized breed like the boxer in with giants like danes or mastiffs, against which it is a midget? LOL

And just to make things more complex - there is no standard difference between foods labelled for large breeds and standard formulas. With some brands, there is NO difference, except in the packaging (i.e. it is purely a marketing gimmick) - and possibly in the size of the kibble bits. Some other formulas reduce the protein or fat content (and yet some other increase it).

Thus, I think the answer is simply not to get caught up in the whole large/small/medium thing. Instead, take a look at what is inside the bag - it's a whole lot more relevant than the marketing material on the outside

Many large breed formulas are perfectly well suited to a boxer puppy, whilst some others I'd avoid. And the same goes for standard (or even small breed) formulas. So choose on content, and just ignore the packaging.

oakbales · #4 02-09-2009, 04:38 PM

Thanks for the advice. I have checked out the dog food review site.

MypupShooter · #5 02-11-2009, 06:51 AM

When Shooter was on EVO RM, they have the samll bites and the large bites formula. Knowing that she wasn't considered a 'large' breed, I picked up the small bites. They were very small and would get very crummy - and Shooter appeared to have a hard time digesting it. So next bag I went to the large bites, and she loved them! They were nice and big so she can really chew them and work her teeth, and she never had any digestion problems after that.

caruse · #6 02-11-2009, 07:02 AM

I use an all life stages kibble...I use Fromm because It's appropriate for my 6month old that has been eating it since we got him and for my almost 2 year old...you can research the lists on the dog food analysis page but I would stick to a 5 or 6 star food...I use the kibble and mix in a little 5 or 6 star wet for variety...good luck
Barbara