Earthborn holistic ok for 5 month?

[Ken Clean-Air System]

The Coastal Catch, Great Plains Feast, or Meadow Feast would all be better choices than the Primitive Natural formula for a GSD puppy.

I put together a pretty extensive spreadaheet of quite a few different foods with lots of nutritional info. If you're interested in taking a look you can find it here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...VE&output=html

It may help in selecting a food for your pup.

[kiya]

I've been using Earthborne Holistic for about 6 months, I think I've tried several different "flavors". Kiya is the only one who seems to keep having bouts of soft stools since the change. My finicky 10 yr old really seems to like the food. Lakota seems to like it and I've had no issues with her on it.

[RedR327]

Originally Posted by Ken Clean-Air System

Protein level is largely unimportant, especially if it comes from meat sources. High protein from legumes like peas is questionable as a dog's digestive system is less equipped to utilize it than protein from meat. Some dogs don't do well on higher protein foods though and will have digestive issues which can manifest in chronic loose stools and diarrhea. Our pup has done exceptionally well on a food with 38% protein, so it really depends on the puppy.

The most important thing to look at when choosing a food for a GSD, or any large breed, puppy is calcium (and to a lesser extent the ratio of calcium to phosphorus) as has been stated already. A food that is high in ash will almost always be high in calcium as well as much of that ash content is a high concentration of bone in the meat meals used ... bone contains lots of calcium.

I certainly wouldn't consider 8% ash high, but I think anything over 10% ash is getting pretty close to being too high, especially for a large breed puppy. Earthborn Holistic does have a few grain-free formulas that would be appropriate for a GSD puppy, but Primitive Natural is not one of them.

I would consider 8% - 10% ash high when peas and pea protein contribute so much to the total protein of the diet like they do in Earthborn. It tells you the grade of animal protein is very low. Those Earthborn diets could have as much as 50% protein from legumes and legume concetrates.

Even Eukanuba's 30% protein food is way less than 7% and there are no vegetable concentrates in that food. Dr. Tim's has a 35% protein food with about 95% protein from animal sources, no vegetable concentrates, which is a max 6% ash.

When you account for Pea Protein, the animal sources look pretty bad in a lot of foods. Might as well use corn gluten.