I have practical knowledge, formerly called been there, done that.  Years ago I was feeding my puppies and they were fat, dumb and happy or wait!  Maybe that was me.  Anyway, I noticed that they were plump little balls of fur and that the dog food commercials told me I was depriving my puppies of absolutely essential nutrition levels.  I figured that was possible and that they were the ones that had all the money to do the necessary nutritional tests, so they must be right. 

Now so far my deprived puppies had no problems growth, bone or coat.  So I switched over to the new "puppy food."  All went well until between the 7th and 8th week.  All of a sudden I had these poor babies that were knuckling over or a couple that were past the knuckling stage and the feet were flat.  The coats were dull and standoffish.  I went screaming to the vet who said they needed calcium and oil and proceeded to give me the tabs to correct this.  I was to add corn oil or a specially prepared oil for the coats.  

I went home and dutifully gave the calcium tabs like a good girl.  Okay, that should start them back on the track and I figured to see an improvement within one week.  Instead they got worse.  The flat footed ones went to an alligator like front with the legs out to outside of the body, bent slightly, pasterns flat out and feet like platters.  The ones that were knuckled went to the next phase of flat pasterns and feet.

I may have been gullible enough to believe and follow the dog food companies and the vets directives but I am not dumb enough to continue in the face of disaster.  So I sat down and said to myself,  "Self, what did you do different to get this?"  There was but one answer and it was sitting in the expensive bag on the floor in front of me.

Those pups came off that puppy food that fast and in my frustrated state of mind, I put them on the old adult food that I had been feeding previously.  It took the better part of a week to see the difference, but slowly the pups came around and grew out of the deformities that they were displaying.  

I was very lucky to have caught it that fast because had I continued to feed the puppy food with the calcium tabs and the oil, I would have ruined those pups for the rest of their lives.  Their lives would have been shortened considerably also as I have seen whole litters affected that had to be put down. 

What was this "new" malady one might ask?  Nothing more than Rickets.  It was a nutritionally engineered form of rickets that threw the balance between calcium and phosphorus so far off that it encouraged rickets to set in.  There is a long technical name that goes with it and when I questioned my vet, he just laughed and said "Rickets."  If I remember right it was Skeletal Osteodystrophy with another word thrown in the middle that I don't remember.  

Since then, I have come across articles written by Great Dane, Irish Wolfhound, Mastiff, and essentially most of the giant to large breeders.  I have seen this in several breeds that one would not expect to see it.  Chessies, Brittanys and in each case, the owners fed "puppy food."

Since then I have fed all my litters the exact same food that the rest of the dogs get.  The brood bitches are given meat and veggies boiled together as an added treat and so are the pups, the exact food that their dam gets through her pregnancy and nursing.  This is the food that they have been getting, 23% protein, 9% fat somewhat filtered through their dam (milk).  I watch carefully and if there are any signs of dry coats, flattened feet or even a hint of knuckling over, they go to a cheap, 18% protein and snap right out of it.  

This seems to hit them not during a growth period but in-between when they are not growing.  If left on that hot feed, the pups do not "grow" out of it as it seems to depress the growth spurt needed to utilize the overload.  They just get worse and worse.  If you break the cycle and force the pup's body to utilize the overload, they seem to grow out in a spurt within a week.  Actually within days.

Lesson learned, no "hot" feeds over the 23% protein level.  I watched this same syndrome in the sheep and pigs.  There are some extremely interesting studies done on pigs which have a digestive system more similar to dogs and people.  They basically fed themselves into a corner by trying for the biggest, the fastest from a market standpoint but then selected the replacement gilts from the fastest of the fast growing.  All kinds of bone and growth problems that traced right back to the elevated growth levels and the high protein levels in a concentrated feed to get that growth.  

I would not blame the protein levels completely as it is the concentrated level of digestibility that throws the whole digestive system off.  Not enough bulk to cut down on the good stuff and people are mostly responsible for this.  They want a slick dog with as little leftovers as possible to clean up afterwards.

 So that is my theory.  It works for me so I use it.

Diane Jacobsen
Calico Ridge Rhodesian Ridgebacks
website: www.sulawesirr.com/About_Sulawesi_Kennels/General_Information/Puppy_food.htm