Food and Houstraining questions merged...

[NewGSDPUPOwner]

So, I am back. We have had 'Shadow' for 6 days now. Poor thing - so many changes to adjust to for her. Sorry in adavnce for this email is looooooooong. Thanks for your patience in reading this. :blink:

The breeder had her on Eukanuba Large Breed Puppy. We tried mixing Innova Large Breed in her food in small quantities. The first meal she gobbled up. The breeder used to give her 3 cups in a day and she ate well. I know change is difficult for her and therefore I was surprised that she ate the mix very well. I soaked the kibble in some water and then gave it to her. The following morning she ate only 1 cup in the day. This contiued. Infact one day she did not eat anything for one of her meals.

We have been caoxing her to eat by picking up kibble in our hand and my wife is very encouraging with here. Everything else has been great - her poops are solid and she is active and mischievous. We got concerned and called our vet who recommended going back to Eukanuba for sometime and see how she is doing as there have been many changes in her life.

I checked her stool and there were no concerns. After getting her back on Eukanuba (moist) she has been eating 2 cups a day with some coaxing.

I really want her to get off the Eukanuba. I intend to go with it till next friday and hopefully she eats more. Then try just switiching some Eukanuba kibble for Innova. If she does not eat - that means compeletly stops, I think I could safetly say she does not like s0omething about Innova.

Is it also normal for her to poop three times in a day. She did that on day 5. She spends all her day in the crate except for when she has to pee. As soon as we get home we get her out to be with us and play. My parents take her out and we are hoping she is house trained quick. Her scedule usually has been

5:30am Out to pee and then she stays till 6 am out for her meal and water.
6 am she eats and then waits
6:30am she goes out for 30 mins for walks - running around etc. She poops and pees at this time.

7am she gets back and gets into the crate
9:30 she gets out to pee for 15 mins and gets into crate.
12pm she goes out to pee for 15 mins with water and gets into crate.
2:30pm she oes out to pee again for 15 mins and gets into the crate.
5pm she goes out to pee for 15 mins and gets into crate.
Around 5:30-5:45pm we get home and she stays out in the house the rest of the evening. She gets her meal with water and stays out for 30 minutes for poop and pee.
The interval we work with and we hope to increase in the future is 2.5 hrs. She actually stayed 4 hrs without an accident in the night when I did not hear the alarm.

The day she pooped three times was yesterday when I took her out to poop and pee at 5:30 and then gave her her meal at 6am instead of waiting for her to poop after her meal. Could that have affected it????

Long winded???????? Hope I hear some ideas for experts. :help:

[List]

As long as your pup is acting normal, etc... going off of food is not something to worry about. Going to a new home, with new people and learning a new schedule can be a lot.

Innova is a great food, so I would recommend getting her on it sooner rather than later. Plus, try to resist the urge to hand feed your pup. It can create picky dogs down the line. Most people use the 15 min. rule. You put their food out for 15 min and if they don't eat, you take up their food until the next meal time.

Pooping 3 times a day sounds normal for a kibble fed pup. But as she adjusts to her schedule, or even eating less that day, she may not poop as much one day, etc..

The main thing to watch is that shes playful, not lethargic, and being a regular puppy. Everything else will fall into place.

[Jim Hall]

have you tried mixing the kibbles and then slowly pahsing out the one you dont want is a trick we use with cats all the time

lol i never had a picky dog mine used to eat anyhing and everything

[BMDLuver]

Bear in mind that she is getting way more value out of the innova than she would be out of the eukanuba which could be why she is feeling more full. High end always feeds less.

Puppies like babies, eat drink, pee poop a revolving door after each feeding so this is normal.

She's adorable by the way.

[kandy]

IMO the daily feeding recommendations on premium kibble are often overstated. I believe that my kibble says to feed something like 5-6 cups a day for my newfie girl, when in reality she only eats about 3, maybe a bit less. Of course if the kibble were nothing but fillers, then I would expect her to eat much, much more.

I would look more at the other indicators - if she's active, has good solid stools, etc - than the actual amount of food she is eating.

And she is a doll!

[NewGSDPUPOwner]

Thanks for the replies. I intend starting and mixing the foods tomorrow. I agree that there could be a possibility that companies overstate the quantities to be fed.

We are going to start reintroducing Innova tomorrow. If she is hungry she would eat.

[NewGSDPUPOwner]

We mixed very little of Innova this morning and she dropped from 1 cup in the morning of Eukanuba to less than 1/4 of a cup. She did not want to eat at all.
I was speaking to my vet who recommended mixing a little of chicken broth in the kibble to attract her to the food.
Will try and do that this evening if we have any. Hope she starts eating. I really want her to switch to Innova compared to Eukanuba.

[Masha]

When our guy was little he didnt like kibble. we had to hand feed him in the begining and to convince him to eat each piece, then we tried putting a table spoon of canned food in the dry and mixing it all in and he started eating his food with enthusiasm. Later we switched to raw and he gets so excited at each meal time its amazing...

[lUvMyLaB<3]

3 cups is a lot in a day for a little one, If she eats more of the good quality food she is going to eat, and need less, that is not a bad thing. It will also depend on her energy use. When she was with her litter mates she probably used a lot more energy every day playing and running around. Now she is spending most of her day in the kennel, so she doesn't have the requirement for the calories.

The better quality food the less poop also, so I wouldn't worry about a little less poop, that doesn't sound worriesome whatsoever.. Good luck!