The Vitamin E was as recommended by the breeder. She didn't actually recommend the fish oil, that is just the only one I've ever given to my other dog. Is the Vitamin E too high period, too high in conjunction with the amount of fish oil (i.e. adding fish oil means less vit E), or it's important that the ratios are the same? And are these more true because of her puppy status, or do these doses hold true throughout life?
Interesting--generally there is enough Vitamin E (which is used as a preservative in many kibbles) in the kibble to take care of any normal nutritional need. I don't add it unless I am giving fish oil. The Vitamin E, in my opinion is too high period--I don't even know where you'd go to find the MDR for Vitamin E for a dog--there are some vet nutritionists around and I expect they would know. Sometimes in breeding animals (I know about it from horses primariy) it is added because d-alpha tocopherol (one of the E Vitamin components is related to repoductive health--and that's been known clear back into the 1950's at least.
Vitamin E is used up in the processing of fish oil and the ratio is supposed to be 200 iu's for every 1,000mg of fish oil. AND if you are giving fish oil you should also be giving Vitamin E--I've read a couple ugly case histories of dogs with mysterious ailments which turned out to be the result of giving theraputic doses of fish oil without Vitamin E.
And you kind of want to pay attention to the balance of the two because the body will accumulate Vitamin E (because it's fat soluable and stored in body fat) and that can cause other problems. The ratio's stay the same throughout life.
So for Vitamin E--IF you are giving fish oil make sure you are adding Vitamin E in the recommended proportions. But if I am not giving fish oil I don't give it at all--ask your breeder why she recommends it--now I'm curious.
Here's the deal on fish oil--I know people give it often because they've heard it's good for the heart. It's also good for the skin but for heart health--there have been some very good studies done in human cardiology. Fish oil will not prevent cardiac issues like those of the Doberman--DCM. But what it will do is help the dog (or human) who has DCM to maintain the best heart health possible once heart disease is present.
Why not the fish oil till 6 months?
Because fish oil also acts as a blood thinner. For scheduled surgeries I stop giving the dog fish oil and Vitamin E for 10 days to two weeks before the surgery. Puppies who have not yet gone through the teething process should probably not be given fish oil until the permanent teeth are in--and it doesn't make any difference what their vWD factor is--vWD is a platelet problem--platelets help blood coagulate. Fish oil thins the blood so it just tends to take longer for it to coagulate. Some puppies do a fair amount of bleeding as they lose the baby teeth--it's a problem that is common enough that it gets asked on these forums fairly often--it fact it came up again recently about teething, bleeding and fish oil. Most puppies are done teething by six months.
And with the vitamin C - it is currently as ascorbic acid because ester C has some calcium and I've been well versed on the importance of no added calcium. Which, on a similar note, should I be worried about the added calcium in the bone broth? Do I always need to be worried about calcium, or just when they are a puppy? (And if just during puppyhood, when can I stop worrying about it?)
Ugh! I don't give Vitamin C--dogs make their own so unless the dog, for some reason is not making his own there really isn't a reason to give it. And I have yet to be convinced that Vitamin C has any particular value in getting cropped ears to stand. But it's water soluable and within reason the puppy will excrete (via urine) any excess Vitamin C.
And about calcium--I don't think you have to worry about the amount of extra calcium the puppy is getting from the bone broth--even though there will be some in the broth the calcium in most bones is held if a pretty solid matrix. The thing that was given in the past was calcium in the form of tablet--often with no phosphorus or too much phosphorus so that the proper balance was wrong and had a potential to do quite a lot of damage to growing puppies. The doses given were often huge. Kibble got better and the manufacturers figured out a lot the things that should be added to kibble to make it nutritional and most of even really poor quality kibble has enough calcium and phosporus that you shouldn't be adding extra.
There probably isn't enough extra calcum in the Ester C to make any difference.
Some of the things that we give dogs these days in the name of improving their health probably aren't necessary--there is still a lot of disagreement between various cardiologists as to whether fish oil actually does what the pro group says it does. But with that at least there are some well designed studies to look at. And some of the stuff that gets labeled "poison" really isn't.
Vitamin C? Unless you are a guinea pig, a fruit bat or human and can't make your own you should be on a diet which povides it--or take it as a suppliment.
It's still rather crunchy but I figure the surrounding liquid makes it more palatable. 
