Changed diet and dog lost weight

paddlepop

I have a rescue German Shepherd about 1.5 yrs now. When I first got her she was lean but in good condition, ie not overweight. I put her on tinned food and dried food. She got a half jumbo can in the morning and again at night. She put on heaps of weight and had a lovely shiny coat. After a good few months i decided to change her onto only dried food as people were telling me the canned stuff isnt great. So i put her on a full dried diet of Greyhound 28 by GAIN. I knew she would lose weight initially but its been 4 months now and she still looks too lean to me. I also feed her bones from the butcher every week and any meat scraps. I called gain and they told me the shiny coat went beacuse shes not getting the oil from the canned stuff but should I be giving her something else? I am tempted to go back to the tinned stuff!
Any suggestions appreciated.

PS. I cant afford the likes of the vet dog food, like Royal Canin etc ...need a cheaper alternative.

convert

Friends of mine put some olive oil or sunflower oil in the dry food they give their dogs in order to keep a shine on their coats and it seems to work ok. I've never done it, so I can't give you advice on quantity, etc.

Our old vet always gives his horses and dogs the odd fistful of dry flaked maize every now and again as he maintains it helps their coats. But if you do decide to give them maize, make sure you only give them a small quantity as if you feed them too much it can make them itchy.

Some dry foods may not contain the same quantity of fat as canned feed, so maybe if you fed the two concurrently it may help. For example, canned food in the morning and dry food at night, or something similar. Just make sure that you adjust the quantities fed in order to ensure that the two types of food complement each other and that you're not over-feeding.

Just a thought: does the dry food contain all the vitamins/minerals/supplements that the canned food had? If not, your dog could have lost weight due to her not getting all the supplements that she needs?

andreac

Sorry but greyhound food wouldnt suit a german shepherd. Greyhounds are very lean and dont carry much weight so you wont get weight on with this food.

Try switching to a better quality food like Redmills Supreme, Royal Canin, Burns, Jameswellbeloved etc and you should notice a big difference.
Tinned food really isnt any benefit for them as they are made up of mostly water so it wont help to put on weight on a thin dog.

You should try stuff like mince, esp lambs mince, fish, tripe and so on.
There is no oil is tinned food, its all crap bits of meat etc. If you want oil then feed your dog, tuna or sarndines in sunflower oil, not brine. Or get a bottle of cod liver oil.

The tinned food is pure crap, no nutrition in them at all really so that wouldnt be any good for your dog.
You need to get the dog off the Gain greyhound one, they do a large breed food, not a greyhound one, i would try that and see if it helps. I would try feeding more feeds to get the weight on and up the recommended amount too until she puts the weight on.

Zapperzy

andreac wrote: »

The tinned food is pure crap, no nutrition in them at all really so that wouldnt be any good for your dog.

Not all tinned food is bad, the likes of naturediet and applaws, (although it isin't complete), are good foods and don't contain all the crap that the likes of pedigree or pal do.

I know you said you cannot afford the more expensive foods, but generally the more expensive foods work out at much the same price because you feed less of them. I doubt greyhound food is very suitable for a gsd, I think the protein level in it is different? You could try feeding raw (BARF), could work out cheaper if you find a butcher willing to give you cheap scraps.
Sardines in sunflower oil are good for adding a shine to the coat, as is salmon oil.

andreac

Zapperzy wrote: »

Not all tinned food is bad, the likes of naturediet and applaws, (although it isin't complete), are good foods and don't contain all the crap that the likes of pedigree or pal do.

I know you said you cannot afford the more expensive foods, but generally the more expensive foods work out at much the same price because you feed less of them. I doubt greyhound food is very suitable for a gsd, I think the protein level in it is different? You could try feeding raw (BARF), could work out cheaper if you find a butcher willing to give you cheap scraps.
Sardines in sunflower oil are good for adding a shine to the coat, as is salmon oil.

Sorry you are right, nature diet is really good actually and i have used it to mix in with dry food before. I suppose i just meant the tinned stuff you get in the supermarket like Pal, pedigree, etc. They are mainly made up of water with no goodness in them.

kylith

I also reckon that a greyhound food wouldn't be any good for a GSD. If you're worried about price Brendaspets.ie do a budget food that my dogs have been doing very well on (maintaining weight, better digestion than some of the big name brands), but I can't say how the coats would be since mine are rough coated.

When all's said and done, if your dog was doing well on wet food then I can't see any problem with continuing with it. My old dog had Pal and mixer every day and lived to a ripe old age.