Hades food question

[BritnyLe]

    Ok so I'm begining to think that I should start regulating Hades food more. He's now eating almost two whole ice-cream buckets of food a day! I originally started him off with his food being out all day because at my second vet appointment my vet was telling me that he was underweight and he "weighed less that what a saint his age should weigh," which frusterates me because he's a mix andwhen I had my great dane, Blue, he was even lighter at this age.

    I've looked at growth charts and so far Hades is the height of a GD puppy at 5 months and he's actually about 10 pounds more then a GD would be at this age. He has the long GD legs and the deep chest so I'm thinking that he'll just be closer to a GD when it comes to weight but I didn't feel like arguing with the vet again. I began free feeding him then because I wanted to get his weight up.

   For the last few months it seems that he only eats at certain times and when he does eat, he eats so much that it looks like he's pregnant and his stomach is going to explode. I didn't worry about it when he was younger because most puppies have that puppy belly and then it goes away. Well his went away, until he eats, then its like a dramatic difference. I think he only eats at certain times because of Roxi. She'll sniff his food and then he'll run to his bowl and eat the whole thing. So I'm not sure if he's eating all of it because he's hungry or because he's competeing with Roxi.

     So do you think I should start giving him a certain amount a day and limiting what he gets? Or is this normal for some puppies his age? If I do start limiting it, how much should I give him daily?

    I know some giant breeds like mastiffs and saints, which is 2 of the 3 breeds he has in him, are prone to becoming overweight and I don't want him to be eating to much if he doesn't need it.

[patrick]

You have to be careful in following the growth charts - they are a guide only  The ideal weight for your dog is determined by his condition and the amount of food is adjusted to maintain a healthy condition  You do want to be able to easily feel ribs but spine and hip bones should not be prominent.  One thing in determining food is also the quality of food - a brand with a lot of fillers in it the dog will eat more to get adequate nutrition.  Often switching to a food with little or no grain in it will result in the dog consuming drastically less. 

I free feed all my dogs and find that no one gulps their food nor is anyone overweight.  However it is more the accepted practice to feed at specific times only. 

[Apreston]

Personal Experiance; We feed Titan 2 times a day. When he was younger 3 times a day untill he was about a year old. We measured the same amount of food at each meal and then it was seperated into 2 batches to ensure slow eating. He would gobble down the the 1st bowl and 5mins later we gave the 2nd bowl and he was more relaxed about eating it. And full at the end. They dont know when to stop; so if you make the feeding process a little longer you might find that he does not eat as much and bloat up like that. The other thing is to wet his food that sometimes helps the digestive process.
As for the amount of food it depends on what the condidtion of that the dog is in and the type of food you are feeding. High quility kibble you will need less. A kibble filled with "extras" and fillers you will need more.
Also as Tina mentioned; it aids in training if you feed on a schedual. I used it for potty training and for the alpha position as well. Potty training...he eats and drinks 5 mins later (if that) he was outside doing his duties we treat and reward and everything is successfull!
Good luck and just to add Hades is the cutest ball of fluff I have ever seen!!! 

[London_Pyr_Lover]

I don't know if this will help, but when Naja was a baby, I would feed her 3 times a day, like many others here, and also similar to Tina, I used feeding time as an important training time .  She would have to sit and wait for me to place the food on the floor, and could only start to eat after she looked at me and I told her "Okay" (releasing her from the sit/stay).  Sometimes I would hand feed her the kibble, sometimes I would make her eat her food around my hand in the bowl .  As a puppy she would eat approx. 6 cups/day, 2 for each meal; as she got older, I reduced the amount of food, and adjust it to her activity levels as well .  Now she eats twice a day 3-4 cups in total according to how active she's been.  Naja is farely good at self regulating her intake as well, but she's a Pyr, and most Pyrs are .  I've also always fed high quality food.  Canadae until they changed their formula, then I switched to grain free Origen, the higher quality the food, the less your dog/pup will eat, that's very true .  IMHO I think you should look into getting a bowl similar to this one http://www.shopping.com/xPC-Brake-Fast-Anti-Bloat-Bowl to stop Hades from gulping down his food so quickly, as that (some say) can be a cause of Bloat. 

Good luck, and please give that adorable puppy a big kiss on his nose for me! 

[BritnyLe]

He's currently eating Innova Large Breed Puppy food because I did alot of research and felt that it was the best I could find for him in the area. I'm starting to think that maybe he has worms again? Because his stomach is always huge after he eats but he can never seem to put weight on and his upper body always seems underweight.

I've had him wormed 3 times already by the vet and am getting frusterated because each time he goes they keep having to worm him. With Roxi she was wormed once and it cleared everything up. I set up another appointment for him tomorrow again to get checked out and they are gonna test for an overactive thyroid and see if that might be the problem.

I have two vets at my clinic, a male and a female. I really like the guy he's really friendly and gets to the point but I only have him for the first appointment, I've had the girl for the last two and I don't really like her. She keeps trying to get me to switch to Science Diet and she like has Hades do things that we train him not to do. Everytime we've went in she makes him jump up on her because she thinks its cute, but it wont be cute when he's an adult and jumps on a little kid. She does alot of stuff like that. We're are gonna see if we can request to only get the male vet and if we can't do that then maybe it's time for a new vet.