Bored or growing plateau or.....

[Amy Clayman]

Hi brain trust! My pup, Roxie, turned 1 on 2/2. We have had her on blue life protection large breed puppy since we got her at 9 weeks and recently switched to the adult large breed version. When she was younger, she scarfed up her food and had 3 cups per day. She now weighs 43 lbs. at about 10 months, when she was still on puppy food, she just 'stopped being into' her food. The vet suggested we decrease to 2 cups which we did and she still wasn't crazy about it. It's important to mention that generally she is a food motivated dogs. Enjoys and will do anything for treats, etc. She gets at least two mile long walks a day along with backyard play so she ought to work up an appetite. By day's end, she ends up eating about 1.5 cups. We used to take it up, but now leave it there all day per the vet. Her poops are fine and she is thriving and growing as expected.

My question is: should we switch over to a different brand? Or different flavor? Or go to the wilderness line? Take up the food and introduce again later in the day? Any help you can provide would be great. Thanks in advance!! Doodles rock.

[F, Calla & Luca]

I am wondering why Roxie is on a large breed formula since she is only 43 pounds. Roxie may need less food as she is probably not growing as fast. Luca is about the same weight and he gets about one and a half cups of Acana, grain free, a day.

[Amy Clayman]

I also questioned the large breed but the vet said keep her on that so we did. And perhaps we are just giving her too much food? Should we switch back to 'regular sized dog' food? I hate to go against the vet but then again, they push purine food which I know is garbage. Hehe.

[F, Calla & Luca]

I'd use up what you have and transition her to regular food. She I'd definitely not a large dog.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Amy, when it comes to brands and types of dog food, ignore your vet's advice. This may be shocking to some people, but they really receive little to no nutritional education in vet school and I find that they are less aware of dog food options and manufacturing than any other animal professional.

F is right that your dog doesn't need a large breed formula. Use what you have, it won't hurt her, but next time get a "regular sized" formula.

If you would like to try switching foods, I recommend that you go with a formula that allows you to rotate "flavors" from one bag to the next, like Fromm's Four Star line. There are lots of choices. Within any brand, there are lines: Wellness has their Core line which are grain-free formulas, their Super 5 mix line, which are regular healthy grain formulas, and their Simple Soluitons line, which is limited ingredient formulas. As long as you stasy within the "line" you can rotate the various "flavors", i.e. protein sources, with each new bag. You can probably even do that with some of the BB lines. It looks like their Wilderness line has three adult formulas, Chicken, Salmon, and Duck, so if you went with that, you could try a different 'flavor" each time. This might help keep your dog's interest. You could even just stay with the BB regular adult formulas, they have Lamb and Fish options as well as the chicken. (Another reason its preferable not to feed "arge breed" or "small breed" formulas, you rarely have a vareity with those.)

I do think that a grain-free formula might be a better choice for Roxie if she tends not to want to eat much at one time or at mealtimes. Grain free foods are usually more nutrient dense and higher in calories than foods that contain grains, so a dog can eat less and still get what she needs. Some dogs are just naturally grazers, who like to have a mouthful of food here and there rather than eating a bowlful twice a day, and those kinds of dogs often do like treats, too. I find that life is easier when you put down the food twice a day and take it up again after a certain time period, say 20 or 30 minutes, than if you free feed. it's easy to free feed with one dog in the house, but you never know what may happen down the line. You might get a second dog. You might watch a friend's dog for a weekend. Roxie might need to stay at another dog's house where access to food is limited to specific times. So it's just easier all around to teach her that she needs to eat when the food is offered or wait until the next meal.

[Christine & Camus]

I also do not think she needs a large breed formula.  If she is doing well I would not worry about her food intake, 1 ½ cups sounds like an adequate amount. Camus weighed 86 lbs and was only eating 2 cups of Acana a day.  I am sure if Camus could talk he would say he was soooo jealous that Roxie does not have a weight problem, he needed to lose weight so I have switched him to a lower fat kibble.  He still gets a grain free kibble from the recommended food list, but not Acana, which IMO was a better food. 

[Amy Clayman]

Thanks so much for your replies. They make a lot of sense in many ways. I think I will switch next to grain free. I would love to stay with blue as it has been agreeable digestion wise. How can I tell if the three formulae are switchable? Trial and error? Could blue tell me? Must I do a slow 3 week transition between flavors? Good point about the feeding schedule as there are several doodles in our 'hood and we all watch the others when put of town. The grazing is a drag then.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

You don't need a three week transition ever. One week at most. The idea of rotating foods within one line is that you don't have to transition at all, because they are similar except for the animal protein source. If Roxie has a healthy digestive system there shouldn't be any problems. I used to feed two different formulas of the same line in a single day, i.e. the poultry formula at breakfast and the fish formula at dinner. But I'm not suggesting you do that, lol.

Next bag you buy, try the BB Wilderness Chicken Recipe. Next bag you could try the BB Wilderness Duck Recipe or the BB Wilderness Salmon. Just buy it and feed it, you shouldn't need to transition.

[F, Calla & Luca]

I don't transition at at all in the Acana line.

[Cathy, Fozzie & Shaggy]

Amy, a few weeks ago I asked about food for my "Very Picky Eater" and got great advice. The recommendation to change the flavors of kibble within the brand of food I use was great!!! Fozzie has eaten more regular meals in the last few weeks than ever before! I stayed with Blue Buffalo for it's cost and ease of availability. But now, some days they get chicken and some days lamb. I'll add fish when I pick up another bag next week.
My next food question will be how to help a "picky eater" lose weight ;-)

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

LOL!

And Amy could do that too with the regular Adult formulas instead of the Wildreness formulas; there are Chicken and Brown Rice, Lamb and Brown Rice, and Fish with Sweet Potatoes formulas to rotate in that line.

[Amy Clayman]

Excellent!! I will certainly try this. I suppose my next question is "how do you keep both flavors fresh?' Do you keep an airtight container for each flavor? Holy space hog!! Hehe. Thanks for the great advice. Maybe I will pick up a small bag of the life protection lamb and see how she does.....:)

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I debag the food into 2.5 gallon zip lock bags and then keep those in an airtight storage container.