# He is eating WAY too much!



## jewels04 (Jul 20, 2012)

I am possibly hinting with the idea of trying Jerry on a new food. Currently he is on the costco grain free salmon and sweet potato dog food. The only problem is while he does good on it he eats a TON! I thought the point of buying better quality food was to feed less. The bag says he should be eating roughly 7 cups of food a day, even as an adult he will still be eating the same amount of food a day as well. I checked some of the lesser foods and they say on their bags a dog his size would need 3-3 and a 1/2. Even our little mini schnauzer(14 lbs)is eating 1 and a 1/2 cups just to maintain her weight. It seems on the chicken and veggie costco food they were eating less than what they are eating on this particular variety.

I am contemplating switching to something else but with Jerry's stomach i'm not sure what. He does well on the salmon based food and I just gave him a treat of lamb and rice evangers canned dog food (1/4 cup last night) which led to frequent trips outside this morning to potty and it was very soft. So no more of the canned dog food(not sure if it's the lamb that did his stomach in or the fact that he got canned food at all).

I thought about trying one of the sensitive stomach formulas lots of people seem to have luck with the purina pro plan version but he's only 7 months old so he can't eat an adult dog food yet can he? I feel so bad he can't have any treats or he gets an upset stomach, even a little milk bone, our schnauzer gets treats and he just gets a few pieces of his kibble even though I know he feels like he's getting the short stick.

He is growing well, is almost 8 months and weighs about 65 lbs now. At what age could I switch him over to one of the adult sensitive stomach versions? Because frankly he is doing well on the costco food but I'm guessing it's from the massive amounts of food he eats that he poops A LOT, even on one of his good stomach days. I'm talking one poop for every cup of food he eats...so 6-7 poops a day:shocked:!


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## Mary Beth (Apr 17, 2010)

That does seem like a lot of food. If Jerry isn't too thin, and you like that food, try reducing the amount. Sometimes the package measurements are on the high side and you need to adjust it depending how your dog looks and feels. From what you are saying, maybe his tummy problems are due to overeating in some part. If you want to keep him on puppy food until he is a year or year and a half, you could try Solid Gold Wolfcub - it does have salmon and bison and is grain free and is for large breed puppies. Then if he does well on that, you can use the adult Wolfking. My Sting only eats 4 1/2 cups a day - but he is an adult and big (32 inches high 130 lbs). He was on Wolfking but is now on Solid Gold Barking at the Moon which he loves and I do have to carefully measure it out or he would eat the whole bag and look it. On the package of Barking at The Moon, for a 180 lb. dog it is recommended to feed 6 1/4 cups - so it does seem like the recommended feeding on the costo food is way too high.


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## msvette2u (Mar 20, 2006)

Don't look at the bag, look at the dog


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## AngieW (Nov 13, 2012)

Have you looked at Nulo Balance? That's what I'm feeding Kylie right now. It's salmon and turkey.

Kylie is 6 months old and weighs 42 pounds. I feed her 3.5 cups and that seems to be about perfect for her. I also mix in either pumpkin or sweet potato when I fill her Kongs to make them more of a challenge, especially when frozen. She doesn't get much of the pumpkin or sweet potato. It takes me a full week to go through a can of pumpkin or a pureed sweet potato.


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## jewels04 (Jul 20, 2012)

we have tried that because he does have some tummy issues still we feed less he drops weight, same with our schnauzer we fed her less and she drops weight too and it's so hard to keep weight on that little dog as it is.

Nature's Domain Pet Food | Nature's Domain Salmon Meal & Sweet Potato Formula for Dogs

this is the formula that he is currently eating. He eats 6 and a 1/2 cups a day now and as an adult at his estimated weight the bag states 5 cups( but I think he may be a little over his estimated 80 lbs as an adult when he's all grown up) so it's a little less than what I originally stated. I usually like to start at what the bag suggests and than go from there as far as adjusting. I will have to look at my feeding diary I have kept for him but I believe at 6 cups he just maintained his weight but didn't gain. But he hasn't been weighed for a few weeks and was 65 last check up a few weeks ago. And both my hubby and vet said he is a tad on the skinny side, but skinny is good. He looks fatter than he really is because he's got a poofy coat but when you put your hands on him he is a tad on the thin side which I would like to keep him at. It's not a bad thin though atleast I don't think, and my vet hasn't seemed alarmed either.

I like the food because it's a great price $32 for a 35 lb bag but they eat SO much I think even buying an $80 bag of orijen would be more cost effective than running out to costco every 2 and a 1/2-3 weeks for another bag of natures domain. The dogs love it and eat it with no problems. Just they eat SOOOO much that is my only gripe about the food! And if I so much as whisper about changing foods boy does my husband raise a fuss because we got the membership strictly for the dog food to begin with.


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## jewels04 (Jul 20, 2012)

Thank you everyone for the suggestions I will probably try adjusting his amounts again and seeing if he drops weight on us or not. His trainer is trying to get us to try raw for him but honestly I don't have enough experience with feeding it and I really don't want to mess him up while he is growing. Maybe when he gets a little older it would be something to consider but not while he's a puppy I don't have enough knowledge of it yet.


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## sjackson310 (Dec 29, 2012)

Try ProZyme. Your first order if you go on the website, is free (just $6 for S&H but they reimburse you with a $6 off coupon for your next order.

I've only been using it about a week and my dog went from always diarrhea, to very firm, nice poops. His appetite has gone WAY up and he seems to love it now. Prozyme is a digestive enzyme that helps them get the most out of their food. It helps put on weight, get a better coat, etc (essentially, all the things that absorbing the nutrients properly from the food would do). He already had a nice coat, he is just anorexic-ly skinny, and I was feeding 6-9 cups of Innova Red Meat a day to maintain his weight. He is almost 2 and he weighs just 66 lbs. I am going to weigh him after 2 months on Prozyme but I can already see a bit of a difference after a week. 

It's cheap stuff, definitely worth it.


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## sjackson310 (Dec 29, 2012)

okay, apparently in the last week, they stopped doing that sale and they actually do not sell directly from their website anymore. However, Walmart sells the stuff for only $5, Petco sells it but way more expensive.. Amazon, and all those other places also sell it.


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## jewels04 (Jul 20, 2012)

sjackson310 said:


> okay, apparently in the last week, they stopped doing that sale and they actually do not sell directly from their website anymore. However, Walmart sells the stuff for only $5, Petco sells it but way more expensive.. Amazon, and all those other places also sell it.


thanks! I'll take a look for it I have to go to Walmart tonight.


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## sjackson310 (Dec 29, 2012)

I don't know if they sell it in store, but you can do site-to-store and not pay shipping and handling if you order it online. Or maybe just ship it to your home lol idk. Here is the website:

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Prozyme-Original-Enzyme-Supplement-For-Dogs-Cats-85g-Cats-Dogs/16563028


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## jewels04 (Jul 20, 2012)

sjackson310 said:


> I don't know if they sell it in store, but you can do site-to-store and not pay shipping and handling if you order it online. Or maybe just ship it to your home lol idk. Here is the website:
> 
> Prozyme Original Enzyme Supplement For Dogs & Cats, 85g: Dogs : Walmart.com


thanks I just ordered it from Amazon for the same price. I signed up for the free trial of amazon prime because I just bought Jerry his hopefully FINAL crate (hopefully a 48" will do it) and got free shipping to my house for the prozyme too.


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## sjackson310 (Dec 29, 2012)

Awesome, I hope you like it as much as myself and everyone else who has tried it


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## jewels04 (Jul 20, 2012)

well I ended up buying a different brand of grain free/fish based food.

I ended up buying a small 6 lb bag of this food to try:Coastal Catch - Ingredients : Earthborn Holistic Pet Food

Hopefully it'll work as good as the costco grain free because I factored in buying two bag of the costco food or paying gas for 2 trips to costco a month and it'll be cheaper to just run down the street once a month for this food than to keep feeding the costco food. Just hoping my boy's tummy agrees with it.


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