I am due to receive my first great dane this summer and have been searching like mad on what's best to feed him. I know the raw food diet is best for all dogs but considering great danes are a large breed and should be fed diets that induce slow growth, should my dane be on the raw food diet through his puppy years?

The vast majority of dogs from Great Dane to Maltese do best on a diet based on 75 percent human-grade animal muscle meat, organs and bones, and 25 percent veggies and fruits. This is a far cry from what is offered in most commercial pet food formulas. http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2011/12/22/breed-specific-diet-for-dogs.aspx

Hi, I breed Bull terriers, for over 10 years and have always fed RAW meat and bone with pulped vegies. A RAW diet will make your puppy grow slow, commercial foods make your puppy grow fast and too tall. Growing a dog fast, makes the bones long and 'hollow' the dog does not grow slow enough to build good bone density to carry an adult weight. Growing your puppy slow on a RAW diet, will ensure the bones are dense, and at the right time the body will grow solid muscle. If the bones aren't dense enough to carry muscle they will bow and the pasterns will bend. On a RAW diet your dane should not stop growing until he is around 5 years of age. He will stop his height at about 7/8 months but will continue to build dense bone and muscle. If your puppy is fat, he will not grow dense bone nor will he grow good muscle to hold his joints. A RAW diet has natural calcium with phosphorus and magnesium in just the exact amounts nature packaged to ensure good bone growth. Keep him very lean, you should feel ribs easily, keep him o leaner than you think, feed less than you think. People keep puppies too fat and feed too much. Adding Kelp Powder/Seaweed meal is a great source of copper//iodine. A puppies' ears should not flop down when teething either, this is a commercial dog food myth.If he has enough natural calcium his ears will come up and stay up he should also not drop his pasterns either. This is the bodies' sign he is not getting enough naturally. Dogs are dogs are dogs, the outside may differ, but the insides don't. Good luck with your puppy!

thank you for this thorough answer!!! :)

Looking back at my original post and the first reply I realize that I was too tired at the time to have been posting at all. I didn't mean to ask (though I did) "should large breeds be fed the raw diet" but intended to ask "is the combination of the raw diet (70% meat,organs and bone and 30% fruits and veggies) appropriate for large breeds" I wanted to know if large breeds should have a more tailored mix of food that encourage slow growth but are still based on the raw diets healthy ingredients. Should they be fed less meat and more of something else? Sorry about the mix up. I hope this better helps you understand what I originally meant. :)

I have a series of videos coming out about giant breed dogs and growth problems shortly!! It's CRITICAL your Ca:P ratio be spot on, as well as trace minerals. This is the most important issue, regardless if you feed dry, canned, raw, homemade cooked or raw. That being said, if you know your minerals are in balance to an appropriate amount of protein and fat, raw is the best way to go.

Thank you for this Dr. Becker. I look forward to watching those videos. :-)