I have a 9 week old dobe pup and am feeding her on nutro large puppy and nuturediet ( half and half ). The breeder recommended adding SA37 to any feed to help with growth ect as well as the owner of my local pet shop who breeds great danes so i have been adding the minumum amount to the food each day. But i have just read in the nutro leaflet that the large puppy feed has reduced calcium due to its studies on the larger dogs and the effect calcium has on the bone and joints.
Do I add the SA37 which has a lot of calcium in or leave it out.?

In my opinion i'd leave out, your all ready feeding a complete food so your disturbing the balance and if you over feed to much calcium you can cause all kinds of problems to your Dobermanns bones.  I'm not sure but calcium is one of those vitamins which can't be dispelled through waste.

Warm regards Susan

Hi Dan

I would leave it out - think of it this way which is a bit exaggerated but should give you the idea

Imagine a runner bean growing - it grows very fast and has no strength whatsoever in its stem
An oak tree grows very slowly gaining strength as well as size

It is better for your pup to grow slowly than to grow fast and probably have bone problems as it grows such as panostitis (?sp?)

Oh really you should'nt need to add anything to a pups diet as the food is ready prepared with all the necassery things in it i cant understand why a breeder would mention it to you maybe the breeder has always done it herself to get the pups growing faster than their bones and muscels can cope with pups grow in their own time but its down to you what you do its your dog