Dry Dog Food - Kibble

Maxximum Nutrition chicken base, only sold at Wal-Mart. This is 30 % protein and 20 % fat. At first grinding the kibble in a blender and later just soaking it in hot water. To this I add non-fat powdered dry milk (and plenty of it) then adds raw ground beef up to 20 % fat content.

I suggest that puppy buyers keep their dogs on this until they are 1 year old. Then with our warm climate we put them on dry food only unless it is a female getting ready to come in season, then she gets kibble and plenty of raw beef and stays on it until a month after her puppies leave.

Dry Milk / Powdered Milk

The powdered milk is used as a calcium source. If you are using calcium tablets and your dog is not getting enough vitamin D they will not assimilate it and will pass the calcium off through the kidneys.

The powdered milk will not cause loose stools. If you are getting loose stools it is because you are either feeding them too much food or you are not adding enough raw beef. The beef will actually help to tighten stools and they should have a dark color. If you have ever had a puppy throw up his food after a couple hours you will notice that all you see is kibble because the meat has already been digested.

Raw Beef

By giving high protein food and raw beef I am giving maximum nutrition with less bulk therefore the puppies will inhale their food and always keep a very high food drive. This is perfect for people wanting to do tracking and competitive type obedience.

The down side is that when people take their pups to the Vet. Unless it is an old time Vet., they will tell them that this is not a good diet and they should switch them to Science diet or one of the Purina foods. I make it clear to them that I have been using this diet for more than 35 years to feed high level working dogs and especially when breeding large boned dogs, this will allow them to reach their full development.

Since I have only had a web site up for 1 year, I have just recently started communicating with other breeders of DDR, Czech and West German working line dogs and have found that they are having problems with Panosteitis. I thought this was only a problem with American and west German Show lines dogs. I have found out that some are having these problems also and they are getting some dogs that are bloating.

It seems now that the cure for this is encouraging slow growth and they are feeding low protein and low fat foods. Some are restricting a lot of activity with their pups and keeping them from drinking a lot of water after meals, yet they are still having problems.

I am not a scientist or claiming to know all the answers but I feed high protein and fat and I encourage fast growth and I always have. My dogs eat and have access to a bucket of water and are in a large compound where they will eat, gulp water and run the pen and I do not have problems with Panosteitis or bloat. I'm not saying that I never had it but I've had a few people in all those years that have had a problem with it and maybe there are a few those had it and they never called me about it.

I have measured the diameter of the front legs on 4 1/2 to 5 month old puppies and they are almost the size that they will be at maturity. As for stomach torsion, I have always believed that it was both genetic and multi-factorial i.e. GSD's that are overly long in the body and stretched in the loin area, I believe is one cause and the genetic cause, I believe that dogs that have weaker muscles and ligaments that attach the stomach to the abdominal wall will also have a higher incidence of bloating.

I think that most of you have seen 7 1/2 week old puppies that I have posted with most of the ears up or 1 up and the other 1/2 up. In some cases of very heavy ears they take longer to come up but most are up to stay before teething takes place. I know that genetics are partly responsible for this but I also believe that the powdered milk has helped in a big way. If you have some ears that are not coming up as quickly as they should then double up on the powdered milk as you cannot overdose them with it.

I know that some are feeding the RAW diet and if this works for you that's fine but please spare me the praises of it because it is far too low in protein for what I like to feed.

Steve Lino - German Shepherds vom Linmarc