# Food for 3 month GSD



## Luna0331 (Nov 11, 2012)

How's it goin? New to this forum. I recently got a GSD puppy from a breeder last week. The breeder had the puppies eating the same food as the mom, this grain free food from costco. So the day I got her, I bought the same kind and fed it to her for the last week, but it's for full grown dog and I wanted to get her on a puppy food. I did my research and found that a lot of websites recommended blue buffalo wilderness line for puppies(which is also grain free), so I bought a bag tonight and will mix it in with the costco food for a few days then eventually only give her the puppy food.

My questions:

Has anyone else used either of these foods? Are they okay as far as the BB wilderness as a puppy food and the costco grain free when she's full grown?

How long should I mix the two together before only giving her the puppy food?

What are good amount portions to feed her each day? So far I'm doing about 1.5 cups 2x/daily.

How long should I keep her on the puppy food for? One year or until full grown?

Last question is, she eats really fast, to the point where she won't even chew her food since she's used to fighting for it with the other siblings, any suggestions how to make her drop that habit so she doesn't choke anymore and sometimes throw it up?

Thanks for any input. Pictures will be posted soon.


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## Grizzpup (Aug 4, 2012)

I'd say you should put 25% of the new food mixed with the old food for about a week, then 50%, 75%,100%, so that should probably take a month to switch her over to the new food. I would feed her three times a day until she is 6 months then switch to two times. Depending on her weight is how much you should feed her. My pup at three months was between 30-40 pounds, so i fed him 2 cups in the morning, 1 cup at noon, and another 2 cups for supper. It all depends on her weight. I am only keeping my dog on puppy food till he is 80-90% of his anticipated adult weight, because you don't want them to big. Hope this helps!


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## Luna0331 (Nov 11, 2012)

Okay sounds good, Shes only about 23lbs at 13 weeks now so I'll start feeding her 3x daily now. I didn't know about that transition ratio on the foods, I just went 50/50 so I'll change that as well. Thanks for your advice.


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## Jager_the_GSD (Sep 30, 2012)

Does it matter if I just put the food I'm the bowl filled... and he eats as he wants? I never measuree. Just fill it up when the bottom is near


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## doggiedad (Dec 2, 2007)

i've never fed puppy food to my dogs. i fed my pup 3 cups a day,
1 cup in the am, 1 cup noonish and 1 cup in the pm. he had a snack
throughout the day. the amount of food to feed probably depends
on the dog.


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## Jag (Jul 27, 2012)

There are bowls to slow them down on eating. You can also do this by using a pan and putting a bowl upside down in the middle. Look on Petsmart's website for slow feed bowls so you know what they look like. You can also put a ball or something in there, but if they get distracted by the ball... not so good. With my Pug, I just kept covering the bowl with my hand every few seconds each time she ate. She eventually got it and stopped scarfing like that. You want to watch protein content as well as calcium and phosphorus. You don't want your pup growing too fast. Check the nutrition section here for what to look for. I don't like BB foods only because some pups have issues with the 'richness' of it. Does the pup have a grain allergy or something? I don't get all these grain free foods. There's nothing inherently bad about grains...


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## AngieW (Nov 13, 2012)

Our vet recommended Royal Canin large breed puppy.


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## Luna0331 (Nov 11, 2012)

Update:
I have completely transitioned her to the BB and it seemed like she was doing fine throughout the month, but now that she's completely on the BB she has had constant diarrhea for about a week now, sometimes even waking me up in the middle of the night to go, which never happened during the month I was transitioning her. I'm thinking its not agreeing with her now. Either that, or she is sick from a cooked bone knuckle I got from the feed store, I gave her last week, but I took that away from her after the first day. So what so you guys recommend, transition her back to the old food before looking for another brand to give her or just get another puppy food and slowly start mixing it in with the BB and see how she reacts to it?

As far as the grain allergy.. She doesn't have one that I know of, she was just raised on grain-free food from the breeder so I figured I would keep her on it. 

She still does eat too fast, so I will look into getting one of those bowls or try putting a big rock or something in with the food.


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## AngieW (Nov 13, 2012)

You can slow her way down by mixing her kibble with canned pumpkin, putting it in a Kong, and then freezing it. It's impossible to eat that too quickly if it's frozen solid. You have to work up to the solid freeze though. Start with the kibble/pumpkin mix without freezing at all and then try leaving it in the freezer for various lengths of time until she is able to handle it completely frozen.


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## WVGSD (Nov 28, 2006)

When my GSD puppy just had a week of diarrhea, I gave her nothing but chicken breasts and rice (both boiled) and then run through the blender with a little bit of warm water until it resembles a very thick porridge. I gave her this for about 24-36 hours until her stool firmed up again and then gradually added new venison kibble a little bit at a time. She had been on a grain free fish based kibble and it was not agreeing with her after several months. 

As of today, she has solid stool again and the transition took about four days. I did a faster transition than mentioned earlier since I had already been fighting liquid stool and, once the chicken breasts and rice porridge got her firmed back up, I added a little bit more venison kibble with each meal until she is now getting a full portion of the new kibble.


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## Luna0331 (Nov 11, 2012)

WVGSD said:


> When my GSD puppy just had a week of diarrhea, I gave her nothing but chicken breasts and rice (both boiled) and then run through the blender with a little bit of warm water until it resembles a very thick porridge. I gave her this for about 24-36 hours until her stool firmed up again and then gradually added new venison kibble a little bit at a time. She had been on a grain free fish based kibble and it was not agreeing with her after several months.
> 
> As of today, she has solid stool again and the transition took about four days. I did a faster transition than mentioned earlier since I had already been fighting liquid stool and, once the chicken breasts and rice porridge got her firmed back up, I added a little bit more venison kibble with each meal until she is now getting a full portion of the new kibble.


What kind of rice? Is organic brown rice good?


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## Fynn&Vandy (Dec 10, 2012)

Im a little shell shocked right now. I've always had dobermans. Super lean dogs! At 3 months they are still eating two cups a day. Now I have a full grown GSD (rescue) and, an 2.5 month GSD and, I'm not sure Im feeding either enough right now. I initially switched my full grown Fynn, to a decent dog food (Nothing crazy expensive but something high in meat, no bonemeal no byproduct) He got to a much healthier weight quickly but, still was too lean so once he was adjusted to that, I started adding a 1/2 cup of boiled chicken and, rice to every meal. I just now cut that out of his diet and, he is getting a nice huge steak once a week. His coat, teeth, weight all look great! I'm worried with out the chicken and, rice he'll lose weight. He gets a three and a half cups of food a day. This is what we always fed (depending on the dog) our full grown male dobermans but, I know they are different. I can't imagine He needs 5 cups a day? Does he? 
Our puppy Vandy is getting two cups a day (through three feedings) and, her weekly steak. She's a puppy so she's always hungry and we are ready to up her food but, to how much? She has a nice soft round belly, no boating or anything but, she is a big girl. 
HELP! Haha Any thoughts?


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## Luna0331 (Nov 11, 2012)

Fynn&Vandy said:


> Im a little shell shocked right now. I've always had dobermans. Super lean dogs! At 3 months they are still eating two cups a day. Now I have a full grown GSD (rescue) and, an 2.5 month GSD and, I'm not sure Im feeding either enough right now. I initially switched my full grown Fynn, to a decent dog food (Nothing crazy expensive but something high in meat, no bonemeal no byproduct) He got to a much healthier weight quickly but, still was too lean so once he was adjusted to that, I started adding a 1/2 cup of boiled chicken and, rice to every meal. I just now cut that out of his diet and, he is getting a nice huge steak once a week. His coat, teeth, weight all look great! I'm worried with out the chicken and, rice he'll lose weight. He gets a three and a half cups of food a day. This is what we always fed (depending on the dog) our full grown male dobermans but, I know they are different. I can't imagine He needs 5 cups a day? Does he?
> Our puppy Vandy is getting two cups a day (through three feedings) and, her weekly steak. She's a puppy so she's always hungry and we are ready to up her food but, to how much? She has a nice soft round belly, no boating or anything but, she is a big girl.
> HELP! Haha Any thoughts?


I recently asked my vet questions regarding this subject, they said to just look what the main ingredients and as long as there is a good amount of protein in it, there are formulas for calculating how many calories your dog needs based on age and size, activity levels etc. I'm sure these formulas are available online.


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## GSD13 (Dec 11, 2012)

Blue Wilderness is very high in protein & could be too much for your dog to handle, this is one of its major complaints.


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## Tim Connell (Nov 19, 2010)

We feed adult food, right from the beginning. If you feed a good quality kibble, you will find you don't need to feed as much as a lesser quality food.

We feed Holistic Select Lamb, and although we have experimented with other foods, we always come back to the Holistic Select. This seems to be a good quality kibble, that keeps weight on well (GSD's and Malinois) and has given us very good, consistent results.


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## Grizzpup (Aug 4, 2012)

I agree with GSD13. German shepherds are prone to digestive issues, and BB is a very high quality food, probably to hard for her to handle. My GSD also had this problem when he was on diamond naturals. When we switched him to natural choice, he never had diarrhea again.


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