Dutch Shepherd Forum

I just got Harvey a couple days ago. He had been abandoned when he was younger and is still a little underweight (his ribs are still visible). I took him in and was given a clean bill of health from the base vet so right now it's just an issue of tweaking his diet a bit. The couple I got him from that nursed him back to health was feeding him Purina puppy food and he seems to love it (no issue with runny stool, but he does gas me out though). His feeding schedule is three meals of a cup each. I've been looking at transitioning him to blue buffalo large breed puppy food after he gets completely settled in to his new home.
I've seen some people here have experience with rescue dogs so I was wanting to know how some of y'all fed your dutchies to put some more meat on their bones. I've researched satin balls and such but I don't think he needs something that extreme. Also, one of his ears (same side as his bad eye, hence his nickname of two-face) doesn't seem to stand by itself. Would an improved diet help that or would that be too little too late?

I feed raw, so I can't help you with the weight issue, as far as the kibble goes.

His ear still may go up. If I missed a post about him elsewhere, I'm sorry, but I don't know what's up with his eye. Is there any chance that whatever injured his eye has effected some nerves going up to his ear, since the other one stands up so well?

My GSD breeder recommends adding some gelatin to their food if their ears need help. It won't hurt, so it may be worth a try. However, if he has some kind of muscle or nerve damage, it won't make a difference.

Good luck!

Keep in mind that they are naturally thin dogs.

I stressed over Cino's weight early on and the fact that he isn't food motivated. After being told many many times to quit worrying about it I finally did. Still have people ask me if I feed my dog... The vet is very happy with his weight so...so am I now.

leih merigian wrote:I feed raw, so I can't help you with the weight issue, as far as the kibble goes.

His ear still may go up. If I missed a post about him elsewhere, I'm sorry, but I don't know what's up with his eye. Is there any chance that whatever injured his eye has effected some nerves going up to his ear, since the other one stands up so well?

My GSD breeder recommends adding some gelatin to their food if their ears need help. It won't hurt, so it may be worth a try. However, if he has some kind of muscle or nerve damage, it won't make a difference.

Good luck!

Hmm, I'll have to research the gelatin for the ear. On the rare occasion it acts like it wants to go up.

As for his eye, when he was found he had an infection in his eye that left it cloudy.

Maybe the infection affected the nerve? When I got sadie at about 14 weeks she was so bony and lanky, I worried about her weight for a long time, she was so hard to keep weight on. I had my girls on Purina beniful. Sadie was so active she ran any weight right off, she was healthy so I stopped worrying, but it was embarrassing when I brought her out. I switched to raw and that did help fill her out a bit but it wasnt until she was 2 she really started filling out and didnt look like a lanky bony dog any more.

I'm starting to chock it up to my mindset I had with my ridgeback puppies. They're the opposite, usually little porkers then they thin out as they grow. Just weighted him today and he's 29lbs at 8 months.

i had very good experience with curd chees. I.Q. has a very athletic body, but i had to go to one show with him (we need a show result for the "breeding permission") and i feed him 200gr curd chees for round about 3 weeks.
other people had good experience with dark bread...

when he had an infection, you can give him a little bit "propolis". it´s very good for the immunsystem!

We've fed Zane a pretty wide variety of kibbles because he has colitis (and therefore a super-sensitive stomach, so it took forever to find a food that worked for him, and we did a lot of homemade food too). It's ironic that he actually does much better on the cheaper kibbles than on the higher quality, richer kibbles. He lives to eat though, so he'd be a fat guy if we didn't keep a close eye on him.

I'd recommend CA Naturals as an alternative to blue buffalo, it has pretty similar formulas and costs less at most of the pet stores I've been to. I also thought Canidae was a good value for a high-quality kibble. (Can you tell I'm trying to steer you away from blue buffalo? I hate their advertising - it just preys on people's ignorance and fear!)

Hi there,

don't know how you've got on with little man now, we have a rescue ds and he's very underweight. If he has a big enough bite already you can try a transitional to something like Arden Grange Large Breed Chicken and rice (this is a very good food for their coat and nutritional values.)

We had our boy on 4 meals a day at set times so he had 3/4 of a cup of food 4 times a day and plenty of treats. If you feel this is not enough for him perhaps try bulking it out with a bit of puppy food as they contain more fat for building young dogs up.

Don't try to bulk him up too quickly this should be done controlled and over a period of time. Little and often is the key with weight gain for both our dogs and as they build you can reduce to 3 meals a day and so on amounts can depend on amount of exercise etc.

A kong with a teaspoon of peanut butter with no added salt or anything else will keep our ds amused for hours!

I wish you all the best and if you want any of our knowledge which we've learnt along the way with our dogs drop us a message!!!

Geremy wrote: when he had an infection, you can give him a little bit "propolis". it´s very good for the immunsystem!

Geremy, I am curious, how much propolis do you give? I have a bunch and have wondered about taking it myself during illness, but didn't know how and didn't know it worked on dogs too!

Do you just feed it in their food?

Thanks!

Hi Manstrom,

I used to run sled dogs. They require a high fat, high protein food. I used a brand called National. Many long distance, professional mushers use it along with cooked meat. I had a 4-dog sprint team and only raced in amature classes so i was able to get by without much extra meat.

My dogs were all adopted. One was likely a Kelpie and another looked very much like a solid black DS. Both of them ran at around 40 pounds and I fed one to one and a half cups of National 2x daily . If I was running them very hard, I might double that. But they would put weight on really fast if I wasn't running them a lot. National's the kind of food you have to adjust by exercise level or your dog will get fat.

Your pup is very thin and might not reach his genetic potential without a change in diet (from what he got before you adopted him). As Lexmark said, you don't want to bulk him up too fast. You can get bone disorders from sudden growth spurts or over feeding. You probably won't but it is worth watching.

Most dogs are too fat. You should be able to feel their ribs. It's okay for you to feel and even see their hip bones but you don't want these bones to be too sharp. Even through their fur, a fit sled dog shows about three ribs. That is you can actually see the last three ribs through the fur. This is on a well muscled, very fit dog, not a dog who has been starved. All fit dogs have a tucked up abdomen...with the possible exception of breeding bitches.

There are other brands of high fat, high protein foods. Google sled dogs and research what they eat. Since they have the highest calorie needs of any working dogs, there's been a lot of research on their dietary needs. I think if you get a sled dog food, like National, you'll get your pup caught up nutritionally. Give him plenty of exercise to balance the better diet and I think you'll do fine.

Boofies