Mal- and overnutrition in puppies with or without clinical disorders of skeletal development

To quantify the impact on skeletal development of mistakes in the feeding r egime of puppies, 90 cases from the last 3.5 years of the authors' nutritio n consultation practice were reviewed. Symptoms oi disorders of skeletal de velopment were found in 79% of the puppies. The complete nutritional histor y was established to check and evaluate the food rations. A possible overfe eding with energy was proved by comparing the actual growth rate with the r ecommendation for each breed and age. The results demonstrate that an exces sive growth rate is the most common problem in afflicted puppies (66%), fol lowed by a distinct oversupplementation with calcium (61%). a calcium suppl y below the recommendations was observed in 20% of the cases.