should i cut out the wet food???

[TheRookie]

we recently started feeding our 3 month GSD some wet food because i figured a growing large breed dog could use the extra calories.

i feed twice a day. one bowl of dry pedigree large breed puppy dry food in the morning. and one bowl of the dry food (like in the morning) with the addition of a half can of wet food mixed in.

Now our GSD has been having some loose stools.

she is current on all shots and is in otherwise great health. plays a lot with our 6 month GSD/weimaraner, and gets lots of working/exercise time with me and my wife.

should i remove the wet food from her diet?

Thanks,
Jeremy

[ChrisNJudy]

Hello Jeremy,
Welcome aboard!

To answer your question, yes you can take him off of the wet food, dry food is enough.
Don't feel you have to over feed them while they are younger, with the right amount of food, they will naturally grow.

If you want to make sure they get the right nutrition and a healthy meal, you may want to consider switching food.
I know marketing has made us believe that Pedigree is a healthy diet for our little buddies, but unfortunately that is not always the case.
I looked up the Pedigree nutritional facts for you and this is what I saw for the first four items listed. (Ground whole corn, Chicken by-product Meal, Rice, Corn Gluten Meal)
In case you didn't know corn is the number one allergen for dogs and it has absolutely no nutritional value to the dog. Actually the dogs stomach has to work extra trying to break it down and get a protein source out of this. So for it to be listed twice in the top four things that consume the foods weight is not good. Think of it like this, you never hear of wolves raiding a farmers corn field, that's because they know that is more harmful to them than beneficial.
The second problem is "Chicken by-product meal" that could be the feet, beaks, etc..probably not too much meat. You want to look for just chicken meal and not By-product.
One more thing that you want to look out for that this label has is animal fat, this is to vague. This can be rat fat, or even dog fat for all you know. You want to look far something specific like chicken fat.

You can just shop around for a good food, typically you will not find one in the supermarket. When you are looking, just try to stay away from corn, wheat and soy.

Let us know if you have any other questions.

I hope this Helps!
Chris

[TheRookie]

Thanks Chris. what do you feed? and what kinda dogs?

thanks,
Jeremy

[ChrisNJudy]

Hey Jeremy,

I have 2 pitbulls and I feed them Life's Abundance.
TrilogyOnline.com
But there are lots of good foods out there. Evo is another one that is good.
Shop around and see what you find..if you are unsure about something give us a name and we can check it out for you.
Remember when looking at good food, the price will be higher, but look at the quantity required. You will probably have to give your dog half the amount because there are no fillers. It tends to equal about the same..so don't get scared by the price.

Good Luck!
Chris

[TheRookie]

thanks chris. ive got some time to shop around because i just started a new back of the pedigree. so i wont be running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to find the right stuff.

and by the way. i just wanted to say that im extremely excited about being a member of this site. its already been a great help and im sure its only going to become more valuable to me.

your videos of the trained dogs on youtube.com are a great motivator for me and im sure a lot of other people who are wanting to learn how to properly train their dogs. its so much fun learning my dogs, building their trust and i know that its going to just get more and more rewarding for me and my little girls.







Jeremy

[ChrisNJudy]

That's Great Jeremy, I am glad to see the videos interested you. You will find this site to be very helpful.
However, I can't take credit for those videos, they were mad by Mike D'Abruzzo, the founder/creator of this website and the "Foundation Dod Training System". He is also the trainer you will see in the training videos that you will be watching as you move along. He really is an amazing dog trainer, you will see this as you move along.

well keep us updated and always feel free to ask us questions!!
Chris

[Mike D'Abruzzo]

Hi Jeremy,

Welcome aboard and thanks for the compliments. Just wanted to add can't stress how bad pedigree is for a growing German Shepherd puppy. In all honesty I wouldnt feed it if someone gave it to me for free. Now is the time that mostly will determine the health of your dogs hips and even if the ears will stand properly. The last time I heard I believe at least 40% of german Shepherds end up with hip dysplasia. This is mostly determined by the early development.

Some key factors:

1. Overweight puppies will be much more prone to later joint problems (this is a big one!) keep your puppy as tone as possible - tucked tummy!!

2. Correct calcium/phosphorus ratio (be sure the label of any food you choose says approved for ALL LIFE STAGES (just not puppy, maintanance, etc..)

3. Throw away the bad food! I am not bending the truth - when I say it isnt far off from poisoning your puppy at such an important stage. there are lots of good websites out there that will educate you on good dog food - but pedigree is BOTTOM of the barrel and you will see long term developmental problems I assure you.

I am telling you this out od honest concern - and you will see the difference when you interview people with older german shepherds that have fed their dog bad food compared to good food. You will see the difference in the health, coat, joints, and even temperamant (bad food not good for brain either). Compare to someone eating McDonalds everyday to someone eating healthy. It is criminal what junk the highly marketed profit driven dog food companies are putting in their bags. It is decietful and unfair to the customers that trust their commercials etc..

[ddpowell]

Not claiming that i know what i'm doing, but i thought i'd share my short experience with our GSD's diet. We started our 5 month old GSD Manny on a bit of a mixed, but mostly raw diet the day we got her after doing a lot of research.

Of her daily meals (which totals just over 2.2lb - split over 3 meals) 50% raw meaty bones (chicken or turkey necks, about 45% muscle meat (like pig or lamb hearts) and then a little bit of organ meat like liver. Then we toss in an egg every meal, with a fish oil cap & a cup or 2 of Hills Science large breed puppy.

We figure if there's some crucial ingredients she's missing from the raw diet she can get from the kibble as our local vet insists she needs this large breed kibble for her development. But vice versa the kibble's first ingredient is Corn Meal so we don't want to feed that as the main portion of her meals.

We've been really impressed with how it's going so far, at 5 months old she weighs 27kg (59lb), she appears quite toned - has a fantastic coat and endless energy. She's going to be a big girl judging by her parents so we want to give the best chance we can at a long healthy life

tried to attach a file of her.. not sure if it's going to work

Dan

[TheRookie]

Hi Jeremy,

Welcome aboard and thanks for the compliments. Just wanted to add can't stress how bad pedigree is for a growing German Shepherd puppy. In all honesty I wouldnt feed it if someone gave it to me for free. Now is the time that mostly will determine the health of your dogs hips and even if the ears will stand properly. The last time I heard I believe at least 40% of german Shepherds end up with hip dysplasia. This is mostly determined by the early development.

Some key factors:

1. Overweight puppies will be much more prone to later joint problems (this is a big one!) keep your puppy as tone as possible - tucked tummy!!

2. Correct calcium/phosphorus ratio (be sure the label of any food you choose says approved for ALL LIFE STAGES (just not puppy, maintanance, etc..)

3. Throw away the bad food! I am not bending the truth - when I say it isnt far off from poisoning your puppy at such an important stage. there are lots of good websites out there that will educate you on good dog food - but pedigree is BOTTOM of the barrel and you will see long term developmental problems I assure you.

I am telling you this out od honest concern - and you will see the difference when you interview people with older german shepherds that have fed their dog bad food compared to good food. You will see the difference in the health, coat, joints, and even temperamant (bad food not good for brain either). Compare to someone eating McDonalds everyday to someone eating healthy. It is criminal what junk the highly marketed profit driven dog food companies are putting in their bags. It is decietful and unfair to the customers that trust their commercials etc..

thanks mike. my wife and i have already gotten our money's worth from your site, and ive only been on for less than a week.

anyway, i searched at Petco for about an hour reading and comparing dog foods. they dont carry either one of the foods that chris mentioned. i ended up choosing Natural Choice large breed puppy. ingredients are lamb meal, ground rice, rice flour, rice bran, pea protein, lamb, poultry fat, dried plain beet pulp, soybean oil, sunflower oil, egg product, fish oil, dry kelp and then a bunch of vitamins.

sound good?

the dogs seem to like the Natural Choice more than they did the Pedigree. They ate it much quicker.

i was also looking at Royal Canin large breed puppy, and Royal Canin german shepherd food. i chose the Natural Choice over Royal Canin because i figured the lamb would be better than the chicken that Royal Canin has.

Thanks,
Jeremy


OH, and this is off topic, but did you make a video where you had a GSD in a van with the door open and you went to take a leak in the woods and had someone attack you, then the dog was in pursuit and hit the attacker HARD! i found the vid on youtube but i cant find it again. it was an awesome video because the dog was amazing. he got a whole mouthful when he chomped down. If that's your vid, lemme know how to find it again. Thanks.....

[TheRookie]

Not claiming that i know what i'm doing, but i thought i'd share my short experience with our GSD's diet. We started our 5 month old GSD Manny on a bit of a mixed, but mostly raw diet the day we got her after doing a lot of research.

Of her daily meals (which totals just over 2.2lb - split over 3 meals) 50% raw meaty bones (chicken or turkey necks, about 45% muscle meat (like pig or lamb hearts) and then a little bit of organ meat like liver. Then we toss in an egg every meal, with a fish oil cap & a cup or 2 of Hills Science large breed puppy.

We figure if there's some crucial ingredients she's missing from the raw diet she can get from the kibble as our local vet insists she needs this large breed kibble for her development. But vice versa the kibble's first ingredient is Corn Meal so we don't want to feed that as the main portion of her meals.

We've been really impressed with how it's going so far, at 5 months old she weighs 27kg (59lb), she appears quite toned - has a fantastic coat and endless energy. She's going to be a big girl judging by her parents so we want to give the best chance we can at a long healthy life

tried to attach a file of her.. not sure if it's going to work

Dan

BTW Dan...Manny is a black beauty!!!

Im gonna try and attach some pics of my girls, Lacie (6 month weim-GSD mix) and Bella (3 month GSD). PA171182.JPG
PA171189.JPG PA281292.JPG PA281293.JPG