# Did I over feed him?



## Sharon Cabral (Sep 30, 2008)

Hello ..
I have a 3 month old GSD, I started giving him 1/3rd can of wet Nutro Lg breed pup and 2 cups of Nutro Lg Breed pup and he now has very loose ( as my sister calls it, soft serve ice cream bowels) and I think I may have over feed him yesterday because I gave him the whole can last night with 3 cups of dry, although he did not eat all the kibble, he ate the whole can and since then he is going like crazy. I also gave him his monthly heartworm pill on the 1st, this is the first one I gave him as I just purchased him on the 16th of September. I was not sure if that had anything to do with it?

If I scale his food to 1/3rd of wet and 2 cups of dry which I did this morning, should his bowels be better soon?

Thanks


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## Nikkoli110 (Sep 9, 2008)

The way our breeder told us to feed our pup was 3 times a day, put the dry food in his bowl, and give him 10-15 minutes to eat. Once he walks away after the 10 minutes is up, take the food away. We feed all dry food though, not sure if maybe the wet food has to do with it? Was it the same food the breeder was giving him? And does the heartworm packaging say anything about loose stool/diareah?


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## Sharon Cabral (Sep 30, 2008)

Yes the heartworm did mention a side affect of loose stool, I think I just over feed him and I should have just stuck to dry but now that I have spoiled him with the wet, he won't eat the dry alone.. I am going to see how he is doing in the next 24-48 hrs with the correct amount as 1/3rd and 2 cups and see how he is doing..
Thanks for the reply


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## littledmc17 (Apr 9, 2008)

> Originally Posted By: Nikkoli110The way our breeder told us to feed our pup was 3 times a day, put the dry food in his bowl, and give him 10-15 minutes to eat. Once he walks away after the 10 minutes is up, take the food away. We feed all dry food though, not sure if maybe the wet food has to do with it? Was it the same food the breeder was giving him? And does the heartworm packaging say anything about loose stool/diareah?


That is what you are suppose to do 3 x's a day 
heartworm can give loose stool


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## BlackGSD (Jan 4, 2005)

How many times a day do you feed him?


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## 3K9Mom (Jun 12, 2006)

The packaging on the bag and can will tell you approximately how much the manufacturer recommends your pup should eat. The website does as well, for example: http://www.nutroproducts.com/nccan-lbpup.shtml

I assume your pup is somewhere around 25-30 lbs? According the Nutro website (assuming you're feeding lamb and rice), he should be eating 2.5 to 3.3 cups of food PER DAY of kibble. Adding canned food to that would decrease the amount of kibble you feed. 

Feeding canned alone, you'd be feeding 3.3 to 4.3 cans of food per day. 

When I look at what the manufacturer recommends, I have to take into account how much my dog NEEDS to eat, which often isn't as much as we think. An active puppy in the normal household will likely eat somewhere in the middle of the recommended amount. The high end is reserved normally for EXTREMELY active puppies. 

If you recently added in canned food, that could be adding to his gastric distress as well. 

I assume you're feeding him more than once a day? Smaller meals are easier to tolerate (although pups poop more often the more often they eat)

So, let's assume that your pup should eat the middle of the guidelines. That puts him at about 2.75-3 cups of food a day. That's total food per day.

If I were you, since the canned food might be part of the issue, but he likes it (and he's become somewhat finicky), what I would do is take about 1 smallish spoonful of food (NOT a heaping spoonful). Mix in some lukewarm water to make is soupy, then stir in the kibble so that it's coated with the canned food. So basically, he's going to be just eating kibble, but we'll let him have just a bit of his delicious canned for extra flavor. 

If you're feeding twice a day, feed just under 1.5 cup morning and the same in the evening. If you're feeding 3x/day, feed 1 cup in the morning, 3/4 cup midday and 1 cup in the evening. Do that for about two days. Do not feed more treats than usual. If your pup is starving, you'll see it, and you can increase the amount of kibble a bit, up to about 3.0 cups. That should give you a good baseline amount of kibble. You can watch for a couple days then adjust again, as necessary. 

Then, depending on whether you want to continue feeding canned as actual diet, or just as a topper, you can either discontinue it, keep adding water and leave it as a flavoring, or add in a tiny bit more when you notice your pup is hitting a growth spurt. 

As your pup grows, you'll find yourself messing around with how much he's eating now and then. As weather changes, food intake is affected as well. As exercise demands change (for example if he takes up herding) food intake might change. 

My preference is to start conservatively. It's easier to drop a bit more food in her bowl at the end of a meal when my puppy is still obviously hungry than to deal with a puppy that has runny poop for days because I overfed. 

You'll get there. I promise!


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## Keegan62 (Aug 17, 2008)

I am not as savy as most of the members
but
Jack was on Nutro and he had those looser poops he was getting 1.5 and 1/4 wet like you said sometimes like soft serve LOL

I switched to canidae all stages kibble and Canidae wet dog food
he is getting 1.75 and 1/4 can wet 2 x a day and his poops are so much better... formed and so much less of them LOL
Also looking at the Canidae bag you use less,,,, but I feed what he needs not what they say becasue they want to sell food LOL....

Good luck to you

Kathy


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## 3K9Mom (Jun 12, 2006)

Kathy, of course, raises an excellent point. It may very well be the food and not how much you're feeding him. There are many excellent foods available. (I'm not a fan of Nutro, nor do I believe in any puppy food at all, even large breed puppy foods). 

So, if adjusting quantity doesn't work, switching food is your next option. And with better food, you'll feed less because it's more nutrient-dense. So once you get over the shock of the price on the bag, you'll actually spend about the same amount to feed your dog (because the bag lasts longer), or sometimes even less.


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