royol canin

Question
QUESTION: hey hows it going...i just have a quick question for you. I have a pitbull and i had him since he was 8 weeks old and he is now 6 1/2 months old. Ever since then he has been in and out of the vet. He has mange and gets these bumps here and there from time to time. Then he started to get this red pimple like bump on his eyelash...and so i took him to the vet. The vet did a skin biopsy and found everything was ok and they said that he just got really bad allergys and his immune system is week.  And so wht i wanted to ask you is that my dog is right know 6 1/2 months and weighs about 62lbs...he is going about 5 to 10 pounds a month. My dogs been on evo red meat. My vet told me that he wants to change his diet and put him on royal canin ( i guess the want that needs a perscribtion to buy it).  and so i wanted to know if i switch him to royol canin will the food stunt his size( growth and weight)or will he be ok and keep growing like he is now. because i want him to go up and be big...the reason i ask is because i was told that poor nutriuent will stunt their growth and they wont grow to their potential...everybody told me that evo is a good brand food and that it will make my dog grow...and so far he has been growing...i look at some website listing and rating dog food and evo got like 6 stars and royal canin only got 1 star. please get back to me as soon as possible thank you
         max

ANSWER: No matter what you feed your dog, its growth will start leveling off soon.  Don't worry about the rating.  The ratings are all speculation based on the ingredients.  I think many of them are skewed to favor the manufacturer that is funding the site.  They are largely marketing hype.  Many set great store in them, but there is no proof that dogs eating highly rated chows do any better.  Worse yet, dogs eating the common brands of chow, that score poorly, do very well.  

If your vet thinks your dog will be better off on a Royal Canin prescription diet, go ahead and try it.  

Fast growth isn't the route to a sturdy dog.  Larger breeds need to grow slowly.  Too much and too rich food leads to too fast of growth placing stress on the joints before they have developed completely.  Better to reach their full size later with sturdy joints.

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QUESTION: i also want to put more muscle and mass on him...thats y i picked evo cause it had 43% protien in it and royol canin only has about 23%...i heard that food with higher protien will make him have more mass and muscle...is this true...or is any dog food will do that for them as long as you just work them out?

Answer
There is more to it than just the percent protein.   Proteins are made up of different amino acids.  Dogs need a certain mixture of them.  A chow can meet the dogs' need for protein different ways.  The Royal Canin with 23% would need to have nearly the ideal balance.  The EVO with 43% may have an excess of certain ones.  The dog's body uses what it needs to build muscle and burns the rest.  

Exercise, along with adequate protein in the diet, helps build muscle mass.  The more the dog exercises, the more it needs to eat to maintain a healthy, lean body.  The more it eats, the more protein available for building muscle.  You do need to avoid running and jumping or other high impact exercise to protect the developing joints.