We believe in minimally vaccinating, a great site for Vaccine information and more is www.hemopet.org there are many articles written by Dr. Jean Dodd. We also do not recommend the lepto vaccine for Great Dane puppies, giving this vaccine is often linked to HOD cases. Also all vaccinations should be given from the veterinarian, do not order online or get from a feed store. no 5 way or 7 way combo vaccines, also wait until a minimum of 6 months to give rabies and not with other vaccines, many like to wait until a year old.
Gem Danes
Carrie & Grant Michaelson
gemdanes@gmail.com Esparto, CA 530-650-1898
Pictures below of some of our raw feeding fun for our adults.
Proper nutrition is so important, growing a Dane Puppy (Giant breed) is not like any other. We mostly feed our Danes a raw diet "Prey Model Raw", we are always happy to help anyone with questions about this and have helped many transition their dogs. The benefits of a raw diet are vast. www.preymodelraw.com But we understand raw feeding isn't for everyone. Its so Important to feed a quality diet appropriate for a growing puppy. We start our puppies off on Honest Kitchen, a human grade dehydrated raw, we mix with goats milk. We then start to add ground raw, as they get older will add whole raw pieces, chicken wings, thighs, drumsticks, chicken/Turkey necks etc. They typically can't crunch many of the bones so we remove what isn't eaten. We are fine with our families that don't want to continue raw feeding but want to agree on the diet they will be feeding to make sure it is a quality balanced diet for a growing Giant breed puppy. Never puppy food or poor quality diets with plant based proteins.
When it comes to feeding Dane puppies the major things to watch for is Calcium/Phosphorus levels, we want these low, don't feed to many calories. It used to be thought that low protein was good, but its not the percentage of the protein but the quality of those proteins, you don't want plant based, you want meat based.
Please enjoy the charts we have posted, Coconut oil is a wonderful addition to any diet, we also use coconut oil with essential oils for everything from coat conditioning to repelling fleas and flies.
Vitamin C and fish oil are also great supplements. (you can get these for dogs but we feed human supplements)
We pretty much recommend staying away from brands sold at big box stores like Walmart. Grain free is best, no corn, no treats made in China.
Other Raw feeding links
www.primalpooch.com/finding-raw-dog-food/
www.rawfeedingmiami.com (exotic meat choices and safe hide chews, long lasting Bully sticks etc)
www.sfraw.com
some great dog food forums, read reviews from the consumers
www.dogfoodanalysis.com
www.dogfoodadvisor.com
www.dogfoodchat.com
some good forums/sites with feeding advice as well as growth issues that can come from improper nutrition/vaccinating
www.greatdanelady.com