feeding a puppy

Question
i have a male labrador puppy two months old. i have been  feeding him a cup of royal canin dog food four times a day sometimes mixed with curd. i am now feeding him maxy junior i need to know can i mix this food with home cooked food as royal canin is very expensive.also what can i mix it with??? i am mixing his food in warm water, do i continue doing this?


Answer
Suppose you knew a breeder that bred hundreds of dogs a year, mostly Labs, Shepherds, and Goldens.  They provided all the medical care for most of them the first year.  At the end of it, they did a complete physical including hip X-rays on all of them.  They then spent $35,000 training them before giving them away.  They have a large data base of breeding records.  Dogs with any physical or temperamental problems are unfit for the program and are a waste.  Their well equipped clinic and vet staff are available for serious problems as long as the dog is working.  When the dog is no longer able to work, it is replaced at again the $35,000 plus a large emotional upheaval for the person depending on the dog. They have experimented with different diets and exchanged data with other such breeders.  

I have been raising puppies since 1991 for a large dog guide school that does exactly that.  What do they feed?  They instruct us to feed Pro Plan chicken and rice puppy chow until 4 months and then switch to adult Pro Plan chicken and rice.  I know enough of the people with the trained dogs to know they continue the Pro Plan.  The group I meet with monthly for training includes people that have raised puppies for 6 different service dog schools.  Some of them are feeding other premium commercial chows including Iams and Eukanuba.  Any dog owner wanting a healthy, long lived dog can make this regimen work, leaving more time to spend on the dog.  It is also relatively economical.

I agree that much of what goes into Pro Plan and other common brands is less appealing than the ingredients in Royal Canin and other premium brands.  If you can't afford to feed a chow that appeals to you, the safest way to assure your growing dog the complete and balanced diet it needs is to feed it one of the common brands and nothing else.  The stomach turning byproducts actually are highly nutricous allowing the manfacturers to provide exactly what the dog needs.  Adding the curds to the Royal Canin was a bad idea.  They are high in calcium, and most puppy chows are already on the high side on calcium.  Adding more can lead to an excess which interfers with the body using what it needs.

So, you should choose one of the common brands of dog chow and feed it and nothing else, not adding water to it either.  I would stick to the same protein source as the Royal Canin.  There isn't that much difference in the usualy chicken, lamb, beef, or even corn, but by sticking to one, it makes it easier to work around it if the dog eventually develops an allergy.