From: "Mary-Ann Bowman" "bad orthopedics are not caused by food -- it is in the genes I am afraid."
Mary-Ann and all, I have to totally disagree that bad orthopedics are not/can not be caused by food. While heredity is a major factor you can *cause* orthopedic problems in a sound puppy, from sound parents. In my opinion, hip and elbow problems can be caused by a combination of factors including: heredity, nutrition, and environment. 1. Feeding a high protein/fat diet, one example would be the old Eukanuba puppy which had like 32% protein and 20% fat caused rapid growth (including bones) which can cause many problems including malformation of hip sockets, femur heads etc. 2. Allowing a puppy to jump off decks, run down stairs, and play roughly can cause FCP and other injuries. 3. It goes back to the fact that even if you have 4 generations of hip/elbow certified stock behind a puppy, that puppy could still develop problems if the nutrition and environment of the puppy is not properly controled by the owner. I try very hard to make sure that the owners of our babies are made aware of this, and how to try to avoid "caused" problems. Bernerly, Mary Jeff & Mary Chapdelaine SnoBear Berners [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://snobear.freeyellow.com
