When you become the pet parent of a new puppy, you want to be the best pet parent there is and you spend hours on Google looking at different puppy products, food, supplements, tips and tricks, training, etc. and it can become really overwhelming right?! Take a breath new puppy parent, let's take some of the stress out of the supplement side of things.
I recommend you give your puppy NO supplements unless you have a reason to and just because someone else gives a supplement to their puppy doesn't mean you need to.
Reasons for supplementation:
Filling perceived or known nutritional gaps
Trying to prevent an illness such as arthritis in later years
Trying to give your puppy the best chance at life as possible
Perceived or known nutritional gaps As a pet parent, you'll be looking to feed your puppy a nutritionally complete diet, if you're purchasing food from a company you'll be looking for the term "complete and balanced" for either puppies or all life stages on the packaging - this means your puppy's most basic nutritional needs are being met, but that doesn't mean you can't add additional yummy healthy foods or supplements to help your puppy thrive vs just survive.
If you have decided to prepare a homemade diet for your dog, you're going to need to do a bit of research to make sure you are providing a nutritionally complete diet to your puppy, if you're not already in our fresh food feeding group, we recommend you head there now.
Your puppy is going to be doing some rapid growth and depending on their end size, they are likely to complete their critical growth phase at around 10-12 months of age, after this age, you can take a breath, most of their growing is done.
You may like to learn more about balancing supplements that can provide a safety net to your home prepared diet, your Vet is likely going to be more comfortable if you do this, especially if they're not very familiar with fresh food diets.
Wellbeing Essentials Complete 22 $33.00 for 250g 1 gram per 1 kilo of body weight up to 15 kilos and then 1g per 2 kilos thereafter. This is a whole mix recommended by many holistic and integrative vets for those new to homemade diets, it will make sure your puppy is getting enough calcium and lots of other health-giving nutrients. Large breed families may find this formula outside of their budget.
Bestie Kitchen $54.95 for 350g 12g per 88g of meat Bestie Kitchen formula is based on the same principles as Wellbeing Essentials being a whole food formula to balance your puppy's meals. Bestie Kitchen, however, balances to AAFCO guidelines and has a web calculator to help you design your dog's meals.
Predamax $14.95 for 200g 2 grams per 4kg body weight This synthetic formula is going to be better for those on less flexible budgets. When you add this supplement to your puppies food at a double dose, it supplies approximately 50% of the NRC nutritional requirements for your puppy - I suggest because it only covers around 50%, that you use the B.A.R.F ratios and feed a variety of ingredients on rotation as promoted in our fresh food group whilst using this formula. If you were to only give meat with this supplement, then it would not provide sufficient nutrients. Multi-Vite for Animals
$36.00 for 750g 1g per 5kg body weight Another synthetic formula and is intended for when dietary intake is inadequate i.e. what most Vets would think of a home made diet.
Feramo D
$36.95 for 450g
2g per 5kg of body weight
Feramo D's intended use is to aid in the prevention and treatment of vitamin/mineral deficiencies i.e. what most Vets would think of a home made diet.
Trying to prevent an illness such as arthritis in later years Using supplements to try and prevent future illness is a great reason to consider using a supplement. To give you an example, a joint preventative formula will work hard in the background from puppyhood to old age to prevent your dog from getting arthritis and the likes, who doesn't want that?! Antinol Rapid is what we use, an Australian product that can be started the very day your puppy comes home. Due to its awesome bio-available omega-3 content, it can help improve the trainability in puppies and support healthy skin. If you would like a discount code, head to our fresh food feeding group and then grab the discount code file from the files section.
My Doggie Support is a supportive formula for fast-growing puppies especially large+ breeds. Made with the highest quality MSM in the world (OptiMSM) and super boosted with vitamin C, this formula is often used by breeders and large breed puppy pet parents for a condition called knuckling over where a puppy struggles to stand as its wrists fall forward. Learn more about the benefits of My Doggie Support in healthy puppies.
Trying to give your puppy the best chance at life as possible We acknowledge you want to be an awesome pet parent but it is important you do not overfill your puppy's meal bowl with supplements as that is not a very enriching experience plus many different supplements interacting with each could cause nutritional excesses or negatively impact your puppies health. Choose one or 2 supplements that match your dogs needs and stay there until you really believe you need to add something else and even then, please don't get obsessive and manic about it, it happens to so many pet parents and it's not a healthy way to live with your puppy - no matter how many supplements you throw at your puppy, they are not a meat robot, they are a living creature with imperfect genes and from time to time they will get sick just like human children and their genetics will predispose them to different illness either now, soon or in their later years.
Here are some supplements that you may like to consider for your puppy's individual needs:
Puppy Gold by K9 Power An all-around puppy supplement intended to be fed until 6 months of age. Use BALANCED at checkout for a 10% discount.
My Doggie Prevent & Repair Supporting bones, muscles, tendons & ligaments.
My Doggie Chill Out Dude A "when needed" booster for emotional health and wellbeing.'
My Doggie Settle Gretel A daily booster for emotional health and wellbeing + supportive measures for brachycephalic breeds such as French Bulldogs, Bulldogs, Boston Terriers, Pugs, etc.
My Doggie Dump Dust For every now and then upset tummies.
My Doggie Gut Dust A daily gut health booster.
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