What I feed my dog

[chuss]

I currently feed my dog an assortment of food. she's 10 months old and I feed her twice a day. She is 116 pounds (a big bitch I tell you!).

I cook up a meal for her and store it in the fridge and give her a portion twice a day. I cook up 1 pound of pasta, 2 pounds of beef mince, 2 large carrots, 1 potatoe, 1 cup of rice and a dash of olive oil.
I wack this in a pot with water and boil it up, she loves it. I also give her 2 cups of dry food morning and night along with her meal (This meal lasts her for 2-3 days.) I will also chuck her a few bones over the week and her treats and occassionally, the leftovers from tea.

Now, is this food I'm giving her good enough? Ie, too much protein, not enough of something else? Does she need supplements?

She looks healthy to me, has an extremely shiny coat and is psychotically full of energy most of the day. But I'm worried that I could be feeding her the wrong stuff and she could get fat once she gets older.

any comments or help would be greatly appreciated.

thanks

[Judi W]

I'm not sure about the wrong stuff, but I'd say the amount you are feeding explains why she is 116 pounds. That is much too heavy for any 10 mo old regardless of bone. I'll let some of the nutrition savvy people comment on the ingredients, but do consider that she is much too heavy.

[LORHEL]

Just to compare, my female who is 3.5, is a tad overweight also. She is at 100 pounds, but when I got her, was 80...

I think you are definitely over feeding, what you may need to do, is choose to either feed good quality kibble, or a raw diet, like you are doing... you're doing both now, but that is too much.

You don't want her bones to have to support too much weight, as in the end that will only add to her health problems (joint problems, etc.)

Good luck and I hope you find a diet that works for her, and you both. :)

[chuss]

The thing is, she doesn't look fat! When you look at her, she looks muscular, solid and lean. Her front paws are as big as my hand nearly. She can run quite fast and is very fit. She gets walked and runs daily.

How much food should I be giving her?
I'm always worried that i'll either under or overfeed her. How often should a pup her age be fed?

Sorry about all the questions, but it's the first dog i've owned and I need to know how to bring her up correctly.

[Rott-Wiley]

I agree, she is too heavy for that age. What you're giving her doesn't sound balanced at all to me. The pasta is very high in carbs but spreading a pound over 4 to 6 meals should not be a problem. I would suggest you juice up the carrots and potatos (if you have to feed that) or lightly steam them. If you're feeding 2 pounds of beef mince, I would not cook it and I would definately ad bone meal to it.

Finally, supplements -- yes definately. Start with vitamin B complex, C, and Fish Oil. The B & C are both water soluable so give them at both meals because they can't be stored in the dogs system.

You didn't say what dry food you're feeding but the above would be an improvement to what you're currently giving.

[Judi W]

The thing is a dog at that age has not fully developed its structure and should not be carrying that amount of weight. Her weight is what decent sized 4 year old male would weigh. Not appropriate for a puppy bitch regardless of the size of her paws.

You should be able to see an indentation where her ribcage ends and her loin begins. Looking down from the top, it should be noticable. The error often occurs when a person wants their young Rottweiler to look "finished" in its build long before it should. That tends to lead to over feeding and (really) a fat dog. It is not good for the skeletal structure to pack too much weight on the dog before it is ready.

[LORHEL]

Don't apologize for asking questions, that's why were all here! :D :D

Let me use myself for an example. I am overweight. For years, I was able to get by without problems, I have low blood pressure, overall "good health"... but now that I am getting past 30... my knees are bad, and my ankles worse, from supporting all that extra weight...

And then for my dog example, my girl is probably 10 pounds overweight. For a dog that might not seem like alot, however, when her friend came over to play tonite, who is the same age, but the correct weight... he left mildly panting, and it took her about an hour, to settle down and stop huffing and puffing... (I am working on slimming her down, as I don't want her to have any more problems than necessary) ;)

Hope this helps a little...:D

[Carina43]

Hi there - that is HUGE for a ten month old puppy! But I suppose it's possible that she's an abnormally large Rottie - if that is the case, she must be kept as lean as possible. You cannot hurt her by keeping her at a lower - even slightly under-weight. You can (and probably will) be doing lasting damage by keeping her at an even very slightly higher than suitable weight. I have a 2 year old male with elbow dysplasia; I keep him positively skinny to be easy on his joints.

Anyhow - There are many ways to feed a dog - it definitely seems like you are feeding really a lot, and probably way too many carbohydrates (pasta, potatoes, kibble, rice...) Dogs don't need a lot of carbs. If you're feeding a good quality kibble, I would be adding (if you're going to add anything) proteins like canned fish, meat (raw or cooked), tripe, etc.

There are people on this forums who feed quality kibble, all raw diets, cooked diets, or some sort of fusion of these. I do think you should do a little research - some authors to consider (check bookstores, library, eBay) are: Volhard, Strombeck, Pitcairn, Billinghurst, Schultze, Segal...these are some knowlegable people who have written books (check the web for articles & web info too) on dog nutrition - raw, cooked, etc.

Here's an excellent website:
http://home.attbi.com/~mstraus/dogfeeding.html

You should be able to feel every rib quite easily, and she shouldn't have a roll of fat around her haunches when she sits. Run her by your vet for an evaluation of her weight & size - neither of my adult males are even close to that weight & they are not small Rottweilers!

[chuss]

thanks for that info, only one problem i'm in Australia!

In regards to her weight, she got checked by the vet 3 months ago and he commented on how she is one of the best rotties he has dealt with in his times, he was speaking also about the parents of her. When you look at her, she's very attractive and very well structured, she's proportional and doesn't look fat at all. But I can't understand why she's so damn heavy!

I think i'll take some photos and post them up here. Are you allowed to do that on these forums? If so, then people can tell me if she looks overweight.

[alexav]

Start a new thread in Chit Chat. That is where pics are allowed. (and encouraged!:D )

I, for one, would be very interested to see your girl.

[chuss]

Cool. I'll borrow a dig camera and post them up.

[Rott-Wiley]

Yes, I'd love to see her. My girl is imported from Australia, she's 21 months old now. She had an elbow problem that had to operated on so I keep her very lean. She is in excellent physical condition and weights 85 pounds.

[chuss]

The parents of my pup are imports from Belgium and Germany. Her father was an extremely large male and so was the mother. I've seen one of her brothers at 6 months and she was bigger than she was, maybe they are just a giant breed.

Everyone that sees her always asks how old she is. When I tell her 10 months they freak out.

I've got the digital camera now, i'll take photos tonight and post up tomorrow.

[Carina43]

Originally posted by chuss
[b]thanks for that info, only one problem i'm in Australia!

B]

:) I figured you were in Australia or the UK - at least one of the authors I listed is Australian - and those books are all available where you are, & the info on the website isn't pertinent only in the US.

I'd love to see pics! Most photos I've ever seen of extremely oversized Rottweilers, they've been quite awful looking dogs - I did meet a male Rottweiler once who weighed about 150lbs, and he was a nice and healthy looking dog - although I'm not sure how structurally sound that is in the long run!

[legalbeagle]

Yes, I'd like to see pictures too of that big girl.

My girl is "big" if you ask me and breeders who've seen her agree, but none claim she's 'fat'. She's 25-3/4" [or so] at the withers and weighs in at 103 lbs.. At 97 lbs. she had a visible spine! Is she fat? Nope, she's sleek and fast and stands upright on her rear legs, bounces like a cat and can spin on a dime. It often freaked me out how much she could do agility wise. I feed her 2 cups of Innova/Canidae mix, with 1 cup of cooked meat or canned fish, each day. Along with supplements like glucosamine/chondrotin, vit. a, vit. e, and a multi vitamin. She's probably healthier than everyone in the family except my other dog, a male who's 27" at withers, 113 lbs. and just right. Both have good tuck up, no fat rolls and lots of muscle. He's 19 months now and might fill out width wise. I want to keep him under 120# at maturity.

Recently, I saw a dog in a dog park who was far too fat, and the owners, a young couple in their early 30's, insisted that his lack of energy and inability to run [!] was due to his placid nature. Not so. He was so rotund, he looked like the Goodyear blimp from the top. These two insisted their "vet" said the dog was just "big". Again, they were delusional. He was the size of my bitch, and giant by comparison in girth. He was wheezing, had dropped pasterns and looked far older than 2.5 yrs of age. This poor rottie also had very long toe nails indicating a lack of exercise and basic grooming. The idiot owners were beaming with pride while the poor dog was ready to drop.

I think many owners lack the ability to judge how fat or slim their dogs might be if they're inexperienced. Hopefully, chuss can review other pictures and his own and gain a comparison.

Cathi M.