Great Dane Gold Coast Queensland
Feeding Danes
Welcome to one of the worlds' most contested issues! At least in the Great Dane world...
Ask 20 Great Dane people what they feed and you will likely get 20 different answers. I can only preach what I practise, and what I know to have worked for me. I am not here to start a world war. Also, my feeding regimen is purely from a health perspective. I have found the showring to call for some coverage, especially in puppies, which I don't subscribe to. I will only ever raise puppies with their current and future health in mind. Many aspects of nutrition are well researched and documented when it comes to raising Great Danes. There are also areas that remain a little grey.
Puppies
Rule number 1: Keep Them Lean
You don't want a fat puppy Great Dane. You want to see their ribs. The recommendation is a Body Score of 2.5 on a 5 point scale, where 1=emaciated, 3=ideal, and 5=obese. 2.5 falls between normal and lean, and this is where you want a growing Great Dane puppy to be.
Energy in (food/body fuel) determines the speed of growth. Rapid growth can cause devestating developmental orthopeadic diseases (often referred to as DOD), so we want to temper this rate of growth a little bit, to ensure that the whole body develops at a steady and coordinated rate. The final size of any Great Dane is genetically determined, meaning that a puppy will grow to the same size adult regardless of how quickly it grows. It will have far more chance of having lifelong health issues if it grew too quickly though. So you want to see lean!
Rule number 2 : Calcuim and Phosphorous Ratio
Calcuim and Phosphorous are literally the "bricks and mortar" of building the skeleton of the fastest growing puppy in the world. This is the one thing that HAS to be right. If not, you wil be researching "Developmental Orthopeadic Disease" before you know it.
Whatever diet you choose should contain 0.80%-1.10% Calcium. Period. No more. No less. Now it gets a bit trickier, because the Phosphorous needs to be within a particular ratio to the Calcium. Bricks and mortar. This Calcium:Phosphorous ratio is recommended to be within the range of 1.2-1.3 : 1
Confused yet?! If you are reseaching foods, simply divide the percentage of Calcuim (providing it is in the reccomended range) by the percentage of Phosphorous. If your result lies between 1.2 and 1.3 it is fine.
Rule number 3 : Protein
Great Dane puppies are one of the fastest growing dogs in the world. Protein is a big deal. The dog's body is made up from 50% protein (dry weight), and amino acids are crucial in maintenance, health and growth of the body's tissues. Proteins are broken down to amino acids, which are used to produce muscles, enzymes, hormones and blood proteins. Amino acids are crucial to bodily functions such as digestion and absorption of nutrients, metabolism, regulation of glucose, and the immune system.
Amino acids are also crucial in the synthesis of tissue protein, especially in relation to growth and healing, and are also a primary fuel for producing energy. The body also continuously breaks down and manufactures new body proteins, a process known as "protein turnover", which obviously can only be done if there are sufficient available amino acids. Dietary protein deficiency reduces the protein turnover, and may thus affect any or all of the functions of the body that are dependant on amino acids, dictating the overall health of the animal.
On this issue, I recommend a diet consisting of approximately 26-30% Protein.
How much is enough and how much is too much (or too little)?
The Excel spreadsheet below is a handy tool to determine roughly what your dogs needs (from an ENERGY point of view ONLY). It will also help you figure out how much it will cost to feed your dog, and how long a bag of food should last. Please feel free to use and share.