3 Picky Dogs - Akita, Rottie/Lab, Rottie/GSD

Slutmonkey57b

We've got 3 dogs, all crosses from rescue centres, but feeding them is quite the balancing act, and we're looking for some advice.

Honey: Small Rottie/Lab cross female, puts on weight very easily. 6+ years old.
Fudge: Average sized Rottie/GSD cross female, naturally skinny, does not put on weight, 2 years old.
Oberon: Akita, or Akita/GSD cross male. 2-3 years old. Was 48kg when we got him a month or so ago.

Fudge is a picky eater but doesn't have any problems with any particular type of food. Here's what we've tried them on so far:

Honey & Fudge:
James Wellbeloved: Not liked, not good for Honey's tummy either
Royal Canin Adult Large Breed: No tummy problems, but they'd always leave quite a bit in the bowl. Far too expensive to have picky eaters scoff it one day and leave it another.
Gain Large Puppy: OK on tummies, Honey not very keen on it.
Gain Large Adult: Very very bad on tummies, but they'd eat it.

All 3:
Gain Large Adult: as above.
I read on Akita sites that you shouldn't feed them dry kibble due to the risk of bloat, but people on here seem to be feeding kibble ok? Anyway, I switched them to

BARF Diet: Long Grain/Basmati rice with either:
Beef hearts (half a heart between them)
Tripe (about half a kilo between them)
Calves' Liver (one liver each)
Tuna and Egg (one standard 85g can tuna and 1-2 eggs).
Table leftovers (excluding pasta)

Switching them to the BARF diet has cleared up all the tummy problems, but Fudge and Oberon are definitely losing too much weight. They're full of energy, eyes are bright, coats are fantastic, but they need something to bulk them up again. The immensely frustrating thing I've found about the BARF diet is that nobody seems to be able to give guidelines for quantites! How much Rice / vegetables, what weight of meat, etc. I know "it all depends on age/breed/exercise level" but there must be some sort of ballpark figures, even vague ones?

E.g. dogfooddirect are selling a 40lb Raw Food box. Is that a lot? I've no idea. How long should it last? What's the feed level: 1lb per dog per day (scale it up a bit for Oberon and down for Honey)?

Any advice appreciated.

Rommie

Hi OP, we have three akitas here and though my housemate tried raw, it had the same result, a lot of weight loss and was ending up too expensive to keep it up. Now they are on Skinners salmon and rice because of allergies, they seem to be doing great on it so far, might be an option in the kibble department. If you can afford to feed raw, I would feed it. The biggest guy here would be on 1kg of raw a day, the smallest on 900g so it looks like you weren't feeding enough. They were on half a kg of meat each with veggies and carbs (rice/pasta/potato) every day. Best way to do it is feed 2-3% of their bodyweight, so a 48kg akita would be on 960g if 2%, 1.4kg if 3% (depending on activity/exercise level)

tk123

The ballpark ratio is 75% meat/bone, 15 veg and 10 carb..but it depends on the dog as you've found out Have you had a look on dogsfirst.ie - if you have freezer space you can buy the wholesale blocks/bags and cut down on costs. EG I get 20kgs of duck necks for €20 and that would last me a month for my retriever mixed with veg. I found my guy put weight on with chicken backs so switched to duck necks as they're leaner/easier to trim the fat off.

Slutmonkey57b

Hadn't seen dogsfirst.ie, that looks good. I was hoping the BARF diet would work out cheaper in the long run, but it doesn't look like it!

juniord

the ballpark figures for feeding raw are 2 / 4% of ideal weight, if they are losing weight add a bit if they are putting on weight give a bit less, where are you based , raw can be very cheap when you make contacts but you need a freezer to stock up when stuff is going cheap

Slutmonkey57b

We have a small freezer but nothing big enough to do bulk buying. I'm going to try Redwitch as it's wheat free, and do half-and-half.

Plan is:
Breakfast: Kibble & Egg for Fudge & Oberon. (fat dog doesn't need breakfast)
Dinner: Rice, Kibble and Tuna/raw meat.

http://www.dogfooddirect.ie/modules/shop/products/redwitch-salmon-and-rice-14kg/

20kg of rice has lasted ages, so at €30 it's a good bargain and they love it.

muddypaws

Why are you feeding rice? That means its not BARF.

Slutmonkey57b

Lots of Akita sites suggest feeding rice and fish. When I was young we used to feed rice and kidney/heart to my GSD but he didn't have problems with weight loss like these two do.

muddypaws

Slutmonkey57b wrote: »

Lots of Akita sites suggest feeding rice and fish. When I was young we used to feed rice and kidney/heart to my GSD but he didn't have problems with weight loss like these two do.

Do they suggest cooked fish along with the rice, or raw?

juniord

its not a good idea to feed raw and kibble in the same meal , as they are digested at different rates feed kibble in the evening as it takes longer to digest

Slutmonkey57b

muddypaws wrote: »

Do they suggest cooked fish along with the rice, or raw?

Depends. Most just state "Fish".

This site says you should cook meat:
http://www.japaneseakitadogs.org/feeding-your-akita/

This one says raw everything:
http://www.natural-akita.com/NaturalCanine/faq/faq.html

This one says rice, and cooked eggs only:
http://www.akita-dog.com/Akita_Food.html

So, a simple consensus then!

ferretone

Depending where you are located, or how far you can collect, I'd search the usual websites for a free or cheap freezer. We keep one out in the shed for our our dog's food, and the neighbour does the same. With multiple dogs, you are in a difficult place trying to feed raw out of only a small freezer, which presumably is shared with your own food?

I wonder is it as different feeding Akitas as your initial research suggests. My neighbour was boiling rice to feed along with the raw food for ages for her grey and lurcher, but they did much better after she cut that out. The raw fish, without any rice, seems to do great things for most dogs, and I'd say the same about the duck necks, in my limited observations. Bearing in mind that the dogs concerned had serious problems before these were fed, which have largely resolved.

I'd really recommend trying to pick up a freezer for your doggies tho. Both my neighbour and I got them for free, so I'm sure you should be able to find one without paying much.