I think that the too high protein thing is a myth. But, you're the one with the Great Danes and probably have more information on the subject then I do.

My dogs do great on Wellness. My airedale came to me on Beneful and now she's doing, and looking, ten times better. They poop less and their poop disappears quickly.

The high protien stuff generally applies to giant breeds. They're meant to grow slowly. Most of them take until three years old to fully mature and stop developing. When they get too much protein, they sprout up too quickly and it causes pano. It causes major swelling in the legs (think of it as growing pains from heck) and the joints. It's just easier to avoid it by feeding them adult kibble or controlled growth food.

Gatsby, my oldest Dane, had pano. I was dumb and couldn't get to the pet store to get my normal food, so I bought puppy chow, and the couple weeks that he was on that took months to correct. I spoke to many other giant breed owners (show families and pet families) and they said that it's common. Before I was on limited internet, I had done quite a bit of research on it.

I know what you are talking about, with the giant dogs. They do have special needs. My biggest was our German Shepherd (he live to the ripe old age of 14) but they don't have the same issues as Danes, and now the only picky one I have is the Maltese (they get hypoglycemic)..anywho...I think you are doing the right thing by asking and looking into it.
I know a few people that have Danes, and I will ask them their thoughts and what they feed their dogs. It would cost a small...no...a large fortune to feed them Solid Gold....I can't even imaging!! When I here back from them, I will let you know what they say. Hope you don't mind my checking it out for you....

I'm working on switching mine to either part kibble and part raw... to totally raw.

I am saying, though... whatever you feed pups should be either controlled growth or just large breed adult.

Right now we're feeding Nutro, but it causes insane gas issues and we're probably going to switch to Blue Buffalo, but I'm not sure yet.

My aunt fosters rotties, puppies, and larger breed dogs. She gives them Wellness puppy chow, or, just Wellness. But she's never had that problem before. Of course, she doesn't have Great Danes, but still fairly large dogs. I've always heard about the protein thing, but I'm just a little skeptical about it because I've never had this problem before.

I've seen it in Danes, Mastiffs (various types), Irish Wolfhounds, and Newfies, myself.

These are all dogs that are an average height of 30 something inches at the shoulder. I've seen it affect large breeds (Rotties, GSDs, Dobies, etc) a few times, but not nearly as often as the giants.

i never suggest puppy food and most dog nutritionists will tell you if the adult food is good, then just go ahead and feed the adult food. Once a puppy is old enough to be on solid food it is truly past the need for any special formula.

Think about it, wolf puppies get mother's milk then the same food as adults, there is no special puppies diet and in most cases it's simply a gimmick.

http://www.dogfoodproject.com/

That is a very good point, badkitty. I never thought about it that way. My boss has English mastiffs. I think I'll ask her what I see her again. I believe she fed her pups puppy formula for about a week or two, then switched it to adult. I don't know what the thought was behind that.

I put my pups straight on adult food when they're weaning. Sometimes I have to soften it up for smaller mouths, but by 5-6 weeks, they should be large enough to chomp on even the largest kibble. (My Danes usually weigh in around 20 pounds when they get their six week shots.) I keep my babies until 12 weeks, so they're plenty big to be on adult food when they go to their homes.

badkittyamy- I'm going to try and check my myspace Tuesday or Wednesday. I think for right now, until I have space to get a chest freezer... we're going to do partial kibble, partial raw... if that helps at all..?

it will, and waiting until fully prepared is a good idea, fortunately i only use 2 10 lb bags a week or so

LoL. Lucky you! Is there any information you need from me outright, through the board? Meg said that I could send you our phone # via e-mail or myspace messaging if that'd be easier for you to communicate with us. It's a public number, anyway.