We were recommended by our vet to put Bruce on to eukanuba puppy large breed or science diet puppy large breed, as he was growing too fast and we needed to slow his growth rate down, i decided to put him on science diet, cost didnt matter as i normally feed James Wellbeloved, since he has been on the food his growth rate has slowed down considerably (from 8 kilos every 2 weeks to 5 kilos in a month), as well since he has been on the food i have noticed that he is drinking a lot more water and urinating a lot more too, his house training is going backwards so much so that he will wet in his crate at night but also ask to go out early hours of morning (he is let out at 11pm before being put in crate), water is taken up half hour before hand, obviously with the warmer weather coming and the other two dogs to think about i dont want to take the water up as theyt do need to get a drink as they can get very hot.
for these reasons im looking for a dry dog food (puppy or junior) with a protein level of 26% there abouts as this is the protein level he is having at the mo, the levels cant drop too quick as this could cause problems,
so any ideas?

No idea on which complete feeds to use as I don't feed them any more, but as has been frequently mentioned :) , it is not the amount of protein that is really important but the source and whether it is readily available for the dog.

Why not look into a more natural diet ?

i have fed a BARF diet before to our previous springer, the main problem i had with it was storage space, as you can imagine food for 3 large dogs takes up a lot of room in the freezer.
Also ive just looked on the bag of science diet and the protein is 29.5% not 26% as it says on their website
tanya

Have you tried using one of those big water bottles for rabbits in the kennel. Just put a little bit of butter or peanut butter on the end so the dog learns to drink from it. This way they are not able to lab up a great deal but still get enough to quench their thirst. I heard it works wonders and am planning on doing it with Dozer cause he will drink alot. Nothing wrong with him either.

Also have you had your dog urin checked? Sometimes they will drink alot more water which will cause them to pee more, the water dilutes the urin so it doesn't sting when they have to go, which also makes it harder to tell if they have an infection.

The protien on Nutro natural choice puppy is 26%
Large breed puppy is 28%
Ultra puppy is 30%

The adult nutro lamb n' rice is 21%

Guess the protien is pretty high then.

Chicken(>20%), maize, wheat, fish meal, barley, sorghum, animal fat, dried beet pulp, dried whole egg, chicken digest, brewer's dried yeast, linseed, salt, DL-methionine, potassium chloride, glucosaminehydrochloride, chondroitinsulphate, marigold extract

The above is the ingredient list for large breed puppy eukanuba, 26% CRUDE protein.

The Crude protein percentage is basically worthless as it does not say how much of this protein is actually AVAILABLE to your dog eg if some of it is made up of feathers, beaks etc then it will be worthless.  Also it does not quantify how much of this protein is complete and how much is incomplete.  Animal protein is complete ie it contains all essential amino acids, incomplete proteins such as those found in the grains included do not.

The only way to know what the bio-available protein percentage is for this food is to contact the firm's nutritionist.

It is not protein itself that causes problems but too many calories overall!  Do you feed yourself or your children according to protein percentage?  I certainly did not/do not and I have had not problems with "growth".  I don't think you would find any animals in the wild worrying about protein percentages either :D

Dry food will increase your dog's need for water, this is a natural and logical "side effect" of feeding complete dry.  If you want to reduce your dog's water intake I suggest you feed either something like Naturediet (vacuum packed meat, rice and carrots), homemade cooked or raw.

What problems are caused by reducing the protein levels "too quickly"?