Hi all,  I know that it has previously been stated on here that raw fed dogs grow more slowly than those fed on processed food, so can anyone who raw feeds advise me how much older than the norm their dog reached its ultimate height, if indeed this was the case?  Thanks.

Anyone?

I have fed my Golden Retriever on a raw diet since he was about 7 months old and he is 11 months now. He stands 23" at the moment but as he was a rescue I don't know his parentage. Although he is within the tolerances for  breed standard height I don't know if he has finished growing yet or if his parents were smaller or larger than breed height.
Probably not a lot of use to you but I didn't want you to think you were being ignored :)

Hi Annie ns :)

I think that Q is probably a bit like "how long is a piece of string" ;)  I've not fed raw to a puppy, although I intend to from now on, so can't give you personal experience on it but I should think that not only breed to breed but line to line within breeds will differ a lot re growth patterns and wont necessarily equate entirely to diet.

Probably not mind blowingly informative - sorry :D

Teri

Hi, will try and give my best assessment from my own experiences.... 5 years ago, I was feeding chudleys, which my dogs thrived and did very well on... I raised two pups (Tia and Bailey) on this and grew very quickly, Tia at full height by 5 months and bordeline top end breed standard by 8months...Bailey (no relation) the same... however, I began to feed raw again when they were around the 6months mark... at this point I had a litter and raised these pups completely on raw after 8weeks.  the pup I kept (Ellie) and Summer grew markedly slower, but more evenly, no growth spurts, no lanky rangieness, and did not reach expected height until around 12months....Summer never reached expected height, now at 2.5yrs is borderline under breed standard, Ellie I lost at 14months to Cancer.

Litter no. 2 raised on raw... (Kept Xanthe & Ollie)  both dogs reached full height evenly & steadily...again no growth spurts, and at 10months old now, just reached full height, now filling out nicely...

Wallace has had a mix of raw and chudleys....teething gave him problems...so reverted to mushed food for a couple of months...is 5.5months and gained weight rapidly, with occassional uneven growth spurts....

Pheobe, fed raw now at 20 weeks is the skinniest, scrawniest looking specimen I have ever seen BUT, she is now just coming into her own and filling out nicely...she is going to take much longer, possibly 18months or more....

I prefer slowly but surely...

The transfer of the older dogs from kibble to raw, showed a marked difference is coat and skin.. (never had problems) but shedding and regrowth seems more even, coat texture is better.

I cant say I have noticed any difference in nature or temperaments...all were excellent before and after...and Xanthe is wired to the moon, regardless of what I feed her...

I Now have a 5 week old litter, who are just beginning to appreciate the novelty of sucking/tossing/killing chicken wings :P

Edited to add: just remembered...before swapping Tai and Bailey to raw, I moved them onto Autarky for a while...although I dont think this would have any great effect :)

Just like buses, nothing then three at once!  Thanks guys for all your info, I was beginning to feel invisible. :D :D

My dog's relatively short height at 14 (nearly 15) months may not be related to the raw feeding at all, I agree.  His breeder feels they normally reach their ultimate height at around 14-16 months.  I have no concerns about his general health at all.   The reason for asking the question is that as people had previously said their dogs grew much more slowly on raw, it seemed possible that the age of reaching ultimate height could also be extended.  I'm just going to have to wait and see! :)

LOL - typical :P

One of my males (medium sized breed) didn't seem to grow much at all and just made minimum standard height at 15 months or so - I was sure he'd be a midget but he continued growing until 2 years so was taking the "slow maturing breed" to the extremes :rolleyes:   He wasn't fed raw either (they do like to keep us guessing :D )

:D  Maybe mine is just taking the very laid back route as well Teri!  I reckon it is because he is forever dashing around so as soon as he gains a bit of height, he rubs it off again!! :P :P

Wallace has had a mix of raw and chudleys....teething gave him problems...so reverted to mushed food for a couple of months...is 5.5months and gained weight rapidly, with occassional uneven growth spurts....

Wallace was just a sturdy boy when I saw him He was a bundle of puppy fur , loose skin and chubbiness :D 

Pheobe, fed raw now at 20 weeks is the skinniest, scrawniest looking specimen I have ever seen  BUT, she is now just coming into her own and filling out nicely...she is going to take much longer, possibly 18months or more....

Pheobe was a ickle sweetie but boy what a live wire she is.Compared to Wallace even though he is a boy and a few weeks older the difference was so amazing !  :D

The transfer of the older dogs from kibble to raw, showed a marked difference is coat and skin.. (never had problems) but shedding and regrowth seems more even, coat texture is better.

Since we stayed at Kays home we were at first a bit taken back by Barf feeding I remember Kay the first days asking if it was ok to give Moose and Duds a Lamb rib I politely said no I will stick to JWB :D

I soon got used to all the raw bones when I opened fridges and freezers and even fed on my own 7 dogs a meal of tripe

SInce we have been back we have gradually gone to Barf including two new freezers and we are now fully fledged Barfers thanks to Kay and we can see such a difference in the girls as a whole as Kay says above !

All I will say is thanks Kay ;)

Lucy
xx

hi,
my youngest was totally raw fed from the age of 10 weeks when i brought him home till about the age of 8 months (we had a health scare that can be caused by a calcium imbalance which was unfounded the vet scared me half to death and i had my confidence shaken and took off him purely raw and went to mix of complete and raw)  anyway he always grew very steadily, slowly and evenly and never went through any strange spurts and fits and starts of growing and never looked gangly or thin and ropey!  he always ate well and carried good weight and think he reached his maximum height at around the age we switched, never really seemed to grow much taller between 9-12 months.  i always worried he looked small but at 2 years old he is within the breed standard, in fact he is at top end of it but looks small as we have a lot of oversized dogs around at the moment!  he does seem a fraction smaller than his litter mates who i think they were fed complete supplemented with meat.  2 of my other dogs were fed on complete as a pups and both grew very very quickly shot up to full adult height at about 6 months and both have gone over standard height for males!

I reared my most recent litter (Ridgebacks, now age 4) on barf alone from 8 weeks.  I kept two, dog and bitch and they grew very slowly.  I really thought they were going to be midgets when they were 5/6 months, but they just kept growing slowly.  My male finally stopped at about 3, but obviously was just creeping up towards the end.  He is now near the top of breed standard (his mum is medium and his dad is top size).  His sister is medium size.

Thanks ridgielover - that's also encouraging :)  Wow, grew until till 3 - my boy has lots of scope yet then!

Thanks scratchy.  Well, sounds like my boy still has time to get taller then!  I must admit I do prefer the slow and steady growth rate rather than these huge spurts they sometimes seem to get with processed food, much better for their joints I think.  I also agree with what you said about some normal sized dogs looking very small against over-tall dogs, appearances can be deceptive! :D

>that raw fed dogs grow more slowly<

I think it's worth noting that a  'balanced' raw diet encourages slow and steady growth.Feeding too many bones compared to muscle meat,supplementing with calcium   or just getting the proportions waaay out of whack can do far more damage than good,and these things can also cause erratic growth.

I wish more people recognised the merits of slow and steady growth with large breeds.It makes me so mad when i hear of some show people who stuff their large breed dogs full of high calcium,high protein and fat diets,not for health reasons but so they can reach their expected heights/sizes quicker(6mths seems to be the goal) for the show ring

I saw this calcium type supplement in the pet store the other day,but didnt have time to have a look,it was called fast grow or bone grow,or something like that,that suggested fast growth,it had a pic of a great dane or mastiff on the front.I'll have a proper look next time i'm in there,but it just filled me with dread about why people would be using this :(