Feeding & Growth February 8, 2008

 Dane Litter, day one

Great Danes are born at roughly 2 pounds. By 12 months, they are 30 inches tall or more, bigger than most adult dogs. That super fast growth has lots of potential problems. (See the HOD, Dysplasia pages under this heading).

Typically, American bred Danes will grow up before filling out: they will be all legs and ribs, looking lanky and thin for a solid year. You want to be able to see the ribs when they stand and move around. They put on an average of 5 pounds and 1″ a week during growth spurts  the first six months. Some more, some less depending on their genetics. They grow FAST!

Keeping Dane puppies on the lean side is much easier on their fragile, growing joints, so resist the urge to feed them until they’re round and soft! Your Dane pup will be a bony looking thing! That’s okay, they grow out of it. At 12-18 months old they will fill out in the muscle department if left unneutered.

If a male is neutered before sexual maturity, a male will not really fill out at all. A male neutered young will often grow very tall and weedy looking from the lack of testosterone. Sometimes it’s hard to tell a male from a female. I’m downright ideological about neutering and spaying, but I do wait until at least 12 months old to neuter.

That means I have to correct my boys for trying to mark, hump, or other unwanted male behavoir. But if a male is giving me ridiculous amounts of behavioral trouble, I will neuter him before a year. Sometimes you’ll bring home a really hard headed and dominant male, and neutering is a good option if you aren’t willing or prepared to deal with such stubborness. Spaying young doesn’t seem to make any real difference in growth.

Whenever your spay or neuter is up to you, but please, please do it! Walk through the pound or look at the overwhelming numbers of rescued dogs, and realize that there are way too many puppies out there already. And most of them will be put to sleep. Don’t add to the problem!

I think of Great Danes, Irish Wolfhounds, Scottish Deerhounds, and other very tall dogs as “super giants”. There is a substantial difference in height between a Dane and a St. Bernard. The “super giants” have a terrifically fast rate of bone growth, which is why they are so vulnerable to bone and joint problems.

 One of the best sites I’ve found for these orthopedic problems (that doesn’t glaze your eyes over from the medical terminology) is www.greatdanelady.com, so I highly recommend checking out that site.

Nutritionally, Danes are very delicate. So finding a puppy food that has a relatively low protien level of 23% or less, and a safe ratio of calcium and phosphorous is a serious business. I need to bust a big fat myth here: The orthopedic growth problems are not caused by protien!! This has been documented by vet studies since the 1970’s.

Protien builds muscle, not bone. Studies have proven that protien levels do not affect bone growth, or the bone and joint deformities we worry about,  in Great Danes. http://intl-jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/abstract/121/11_Suppl/S107 This doesn’t mean you should think the high protien, grain free diets becoming popular are neccessarily safe for a growing Dane pup though. Many of them have dangerously high mineral contents.

Excess protien can affect a Dane by causing diarrhea, and packing on more weight than their growing bones can bear up under. This can obviously cause joint problems both as a pup and later in life, so limit the protien levels to around 24%. Some dogs handle up to 28% just fine.

It is the amount of calcium  that causes bone and joint problems. A study by the Department of Clinical Sciences of Companion Animals in the Netherlands specifically tested the calcium absorption of Great Dane puppies, and found that pups fed a diet high in calcium absorbed excessive amounts of calcium, even after the dietary calcium was restricted later.

http://intl-jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/abstract/121/11_Suppl/S99

That makes calcium a deciding factor in the health of your Dane pup. If the puppy begins to absorb too much calcium, they will continue to absorb too the rest of their lives, no matter how low a new food is. That is the term “malabsorbtion”, and it is strongly related to HOD, Panosteitis, and other growth problems.

A  1.1% calcium thought to be ideal, which can change. I don’t feed pups a food with more than 1.2% calcium because it is getting high enough above that to increase the risks. I’ve had a dog that developed nutritional HOD from a food supposedly designed for Danes, and it was horrible, so I don’t follow claims–I look at the nutritional analysis!! Especially if your pup is knuckled over, has splayed feet, or has family members with orthopedic problems already.

NEVER EVER SUPPLEMENT WITH VITAMINS OR MINERALS. That includes vitamin C. You’re asking for trouble, because growth disorders are vitamin and mineral based 9 times out of 10. Things like probiotics after antibiotics do not provide minerals or vitamims, so they are not a problem. The same with digestive enzymes, or colostrum when needed.

AND NEVER EVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES TRY TO FORCE GROWTH IN A GREAT DANE. You will not get a bigger dog than the genes say he or she will become, but you do greatly increase the risk of deformity and even death. Don’t worry, you’ll still have the biggest dog on the block, that’s for sure.

When looking at a food bag, if you see grains, or meat by-products near the top of the list, realize the protien will most likely be from indigestible parts, making the protien listing inaccurate as far as the protien your puppy absorbs. Never feed a Dane a grocery store puppy food. Exceptions to the puppy food rule are natural/holistic foods like Eagle Pack,  or Innova that have an acceptable ratio of minerals. 

The first year of life is the most important for their life long health. Some skeletal problems won’t show up until they are older, like Wobbler’s disease or early onset arthritis, but they are often created in the puppy’s first year by too much or too little nutrients.

Many people use the Blackwatch Puppy Feeding program, www.greatdanelady.com She is a veterinary nutritionist and an expert in the issues that giant dog breeds have. My two pups didn’t do so well on the program, with all the supplements given when not needed. But there are dogs all over the world who thrive on it. My personal recommendation is to feed just kibble, saving the probiotics for after antibiotics, or immune system supporting colostrum for if the pup has an infection.

Lots of Danes have done well on both commercial and holistic/natural foods. I can’t list them all of course, but here are a few to consider if you’re shopping for a Dane food. My Kenai’s breeder uses Purina Pro Plan, as do lots of show breeders. Eagle Pack premium or holistic (good for allergy prone dogs), Innova (the EVO food is far too high in protien for a normal puppy though good for dogs with pancreatic insufficiency), Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover’s Soul, Canidae, and Blue are some good natural foods.

Sensitive tummies I am told, to better with fish based foods or lamb and rice foods.The natural foods do cost more, but use less per serving, so it balances out fairly average. And the stools are smaller since more of the food is absorbed instead of passed through.

NOTE: if you wish to feed raw to your danes, than please please please, find a mentor who has successfully fed raw to Danes. I’m not ‘dissing the raw feeding trend, but you shouldn’t just give it try on your own since you’ve inadvertantly increased your beloved puppy’s risks of problems if you don’t get the nutrition right. The nutritional balance for giants is a tricky thing and they are not dogs to “experiment” on. Their growth and development is different than smaller breeds–no room for trial and error. So have an expert to rely upon!