Raw feeding a Rottweiler puppy for hip health

Raw feeding done well can be genuinely excellent for dogs — but done badly it creates nutritional gaps that cause real harm over time, and that difference matters especially for large-breed puppies. The right balance of calcium, phosphorus and vitamin D during growth is critical, and getting it wrong is one of the few things that can actually increase hip dysplasia risk rather than reduce it. To point you in the right direction: what breed and size is your dog, have you fed raw before, and are you looking for a complete ready-made option or planning to prepare meals yourself?

Good instinct on going ready-made — and honestly the right call for a large-breed puppy at this stage. At 8 months a Rottweiler is still very much growing, his hips and joints won't be fully formed until around 18 months, so the nutritional balance over the next six to ten months really does matter. The main risks with raw and hip dysplasia aren't the raw feeding itself — it's calcium and phosphorus imbalance, either too much bone content or supplementing on top of a complete food. A properly formulated complete raw removes that variable entirely. Can I ask: is he neutered, and has your vet flagged any early signs of joint issues, or is this purely preventive?

That's exactly the right time to think about it — proactive rather than reactive. For a healthy, intact Rottweiler puppy at 32kg who needs a nutritionally complete raw with correct calcium-to-phosphorus ratios, I'd recommend Natural Instinct Natural Puppy raw food. It's a properly balanced complete raw — not a complementary mix you'd need to add to — formulated specifically with growing dogs in mind. The calcium and phosphorus levels are appropriate for large breeds, which is the critical thing here. It uses human-grade chicken and turkey, no fillers, and it comes in 1kg frozen blocks that are easy to portion for a dog his size. You'd be feeding roughly 500–600g per day at his current weight, split across two meals. Transition slowly over 7–10 days to avoid digestive upset from the kibble switch — that part matters more than people expect.

Fish oil is worth adding — the omega-3s in natural raw food do degrade in freezing, and for a large-breed puppy with joint health as a priority, a good source of EPA and DHA is genuinely useful. A pure sardine or salmon oil added to his meals a few times a week is fine and well-evidenced for supporting joint tissue. Glucosamine is a different question — the evidence for supplementing it preventively in a young, healthy dog is fairly weak, and if you're already feeding a balanced complete raw you don't want to start adding things without reason. Get him settled on the Natural Instinct first, add the fish oil, and if your vet sees anything worth monitoring as he matures, revisit supplements then. Keep his weight lean as he grows — that's actually the single biggest modifiable factor in hip dysplasia outcomes, more than any supplement.

Perfect plan. Transition slowly, keep his meals consistent in timing, and don't be alarmed if his stools change for the first week or two — that's normal and settles down. At his next vet check it's worth mentioning you've switched to raw so they can note it, and ask them to do a basic hip assessment at around 12 months if it's not already scheduled. You're doing the right things at the right time.