best4koda

Looks fine to me, so many dogs are over feed. I watch friends over feed and try to tell them about it but they seem to be locked into that "love them so much with food" pattern that they ignore the advice. At GSD Obedience the instructors have to regularly explain that the dogs should have a waist to newcomers. I keep an eye on ours and if need be make changes if they are stacking on the weight. Unfortunately the public don't really now what fit dogs look like. I'd ignore comments or politely correct them.

Hi, well Koda seems to be happy on Supercoat! Yay! back to solid poos and she seems to be tolerating other meat in her diet too now. She even had sardines last night....yay!

I just moved to SuperCoat Sensative from Proplan and it seems to agree with my dog. Supercoat works out at about $62 for 15kg if you want to compare. Bonnie usually sells for about $45-49 here. Chicken frames you can get for $1.50 - $1.90 at any good chicken shop. We also buy the chicken frame mince from Lenards $1.50/kg. You can also buy fish off cuts for about $3.50/kilo, I got sardines this week for $3.50/kilo to add to food. Check out the pinned topic "where to buy raw" for some tips as well. Unfortunately at the moment we have to feed what we can afford as well. Perhaps if you add some other things to your current kibble (sardines, oils, eggs and other fresh) it may help with the dryness of coats etc without having to change.

Thanks, yeah I'd put her out on the grass as well. Mine is stabilising from suspected IBD/food sensativity so I am slowly, slowly trying her on fresh food to get variety back into her diet. Thanks.

Do you just give as is and let them have a lovely messy time with it?

If only it could be that simple, it's been a learning curve, trial and error, and lots of reading and comparing. So far we seem to have improvement with this kibble (if so simply luck) but it's very early days as her past has taught me. I will check out your link, I generally check everything that people put up. Lab Rat, I hope you find some relief for your one too.

Tomas, sounds like your guys are living pretty good and doing very well indeed.

Hi all, just want to ask those folk that feed raw if they feed salmon heads to their big dogs, and if so is there anything to be mindful of and how much/often to give to a large dog. I found the local fish market sells them fairly cheap and thought my pooch would just be loving to tuck into one of those when we get her tolerating fresh food.

Well we have better improvement. It seems the cheap SuperCoat Sensative is agreeing with my Koda (touch wood). Lab Rat, the more you read the more interesting the whole issue of food is. No not just GSD's suffer with this, apparently they are known for such as EPI but all kinds of breeds get these stomach issues and you only have to look at the special formulas out there catering for all sorts of conditions makes you wonder what is going on with our pooches these day. Our child hood dog didn't have commercial dog food at all, just scraps from the table and lots of raw off cuts etc and live to 15 which is a good age for a large dog. I believe just like us humans, the less processed stuff the better and dogs can't cook but we insist on cooking for them. Once Koda is stable I will slowly introduce raw back into her diet. This week she has been fine on minced chicken frame and Human grade gourmet kangaroo mince from coles (it's only $6-7 a kilo at the moment) I've bought some sardines from the market to try her on as well to get some good oils for her. She will always have some kibble in her diet but hopefully it will tip towards the fresh/raw in the long term. As they say, it seems the best kibble is the one that works for each dog and I will be trying to find a balance that suits Koda. Good luck with yours and keep reading and asking people and you might find something that works better too.

hi, none of mine have suffered with it but I have known a breeder who's Favourite GSD passed due to it. After hearing how bad it was I have always headed her advice not to exercise after feeding. I believe hers was accidental exercise after feeding as guests arrived and GSD got excited before they realised. You just never know with such things. And yes, we always soak our kibble at least for a few minutes, never given dry except hand treats during training.

Thanks Kynan, will have a look for the plain one. PetSitters, thanks for the info. Coincidentally I have moved her back to feeding morning and night like you to spread the load for her stomach, seems to be working better. Yep, all treats are gone at the moment. I train her just with her kibble. Really she loves food so much she's happy with that. In the morning she's just kibble and at night she has started to get chicken frame mince (which have firmed her up further, very small amount) and since that has gone well, last night I added human grade Kanga mince to it. Slowly I will add more fresh less kibble at night if she continues as is. It's hard to sort thru all the info to try to hit on the right thing for your own dog. I have found breeders to be a wealth of info. I checked with mine for suggestions as well and she was betting a sensative tummy rather then EPI. So far it seems to be panning out that way.

Can I ask where is the best place for price to buy flaxseed oil and kelp powder? I'm having trouble locating it at the moment. Note: If you are in the liverpool area of Sydney, chicken shop at casuala mall had chicken carcasses for $1.90/kg and they appeared to have quite a bit of chicken left on them really.

Kynan, yes was thinking similar as well since we are heading in one direction. I only know psyllium as in metamucil, is there a standard one ( another brand) at the supermarket as well or is that what you use but the unflavoured of course? Thanks for the suggestion.

My sister is a huge fan of colloidal silver, uses it on her horses and dogs over the years. She has cleared up some nasty infected cuts in horses legs with it.

Did you order the test from http://www.hemopet.org/? Love to know more about this, cost, effectiveness....will be interesting to see how you go and your view.

Hi, not quite sure really. Perhaps she is getting a little tired due to reduction in food and upped exercise but does sound odd. Is she just cat napping? Or full on sleeping, is she easily encouraged to get up and about or doesn't want too? My shepherds have always cat napped thru the day if not much was happening. Have you thought about going to a weight loss kibble instead of a light one that you are feeding less of. Our previous GSD boy got fat and we were advised to go to the weight loss one as it allowed the dog to feel full but less calories to stop the hunger attack so you feed the same amount. I would ask a bit more detail from the babysitting person (which you probably have) and then perhaps ring your vet or visit to have her checked. Being that you have just been checked by the vet they probably will quite happily advise over fone. I would be watching for any other illness signs as well as being listless is a concern....they are up to date with vaccines?

Hi, just spoke at length with the vet. He is happy for us to proceed how we are. He is leaning towards irritable bowl type of issue since we have had such an improvement with her. So we are continuing with a bland diet and slowly introducing things to see what works for her. But in saying that she will be off to get the TLI test if things go downward. Fingers crossed that we continue as we are. She may need some meds to help her along the way as we go along as well. Thanks for everyone's help and comments.

Well this kibble snob went and bought Super coat sensative to give it a go due to the budget. I'm hoping my Koda is a cheap kibble dog as she has been having probs ever since going onto the dear stuff. Will let you know how she gets on. I don't like all the grains in the kibbles either....after looking at the ingredients wasn't that far from what she was on in proplan sensative except proplan had more fancy named additives and the brewers yeast so I thought it was worth a try. Watch this space.

Yes, tested out the chicken frame mince from Lennards here in sydney and was happily surprised by price $1.50/kilo and that it seemed pretty fresh unlike alot of pet mince I've tried. A couple of recipes were put up last week if you take a look thru this forum further down if you want some ratios of ingredients.

Thanks, yep agree on getting to it early. By the way how do you PM? Is it the message area if you view someones profile?

This made me laugh. Mine was on Bonnie and I (snob)wanted her on a better one...went to artemis, slowly surely headed in the soft direction (poo)...changed to Natural Balance, did the same and got worse for vet trip...on proplan chicken and rice and proplan sensative atm. Now we are not sure if it's food related or Something more serious like EPI. Perhaps I should revert to cheaper brand again!

Hi, Carluke, no need for shock tactics. I am waiting for my vet to get back on Thursday to speak to him about Koda. I rang today. I will be contacting him on thursday but do not want to change vets as we have had the run around from others and this one seems to know what he's talking about and goes thru eliminating things very logically.Very sorry to hear you lost one to EPI. Frufru, I was removing the rice from her diet tonight. I had only been adding it as it seem to settle things down initially, just chicken n rice. I am doing alot of reading etc so I am in the learning stage about dog diets. Regarding the marrow bone. In hindsight I wouldn't have given it. Previously she had merely chewed on the outside for a day then I would pick it up and bin it. She had never consumed such a large bone in the fashion she did, neither did our 2 previous GSDs. I am very appreciative of everyones suggestions and please don't think I haven't taken them on board.

Hi, will note on the SIBO issue as well. If it doesn't resolve we will test for EPI. It's just so expensive the test so we are trying to see if it's food intolerance first, if we can't narrow it down we will head off for the test. We usually would just go ahead with a test as we care for our pets greatly and expense isn't a prob but unfortunately we have hit a very bad patch of bills. Also spoke to breeder and they haven't had an EPI dog that they are aware of so far....but in saying that this girl's father is a recent german import. If it is a mild EPI case what is the usual procedure to control, diet only, or supplements/meds. I do know from vet the meds are limited at the moment and quite efty in price. Have also taken a look at www.epidogs.com

Yes, I would be warying of any rep giving advice as you have to realise their job is to sell the product. That is their job in a nutshell. But I think you need to be mindful when feeding (whatever it is) to try to balance the meal within reason. We sometimes don't eat balance meals day in day out and for the most part it's ok. It only becomes a problem if it's constantly out of wack. Dogs in the wild would not get an exact balance each day on their food hunt. I usually feed a combination. Some meals just kibble, others with some mince, rice, splash of kibble and vege. I'd get bored if someone kept feeding me the same cereal every day... Just a note: our GSD pups have always come home on a diet of kibble, mince, and yoghurt and the breeders dogs look great. You just need to be mindful and feed what you think works best for your dog and you are happy with it.

Hi Lab Rat, did you find the probiotic took poos from soft to solid? Was that the issue you were having? Also, it seems she is tolerating chicken frames minced, if you feed this each day can it make them constipated being it's got bone in it as well? Just wondering as I know bones can harden them up. Has anyone else had success on Thrive D too?