Gypsy eats 3x's a day at nearly 3 years old.

I know her dry food isn't heavy on meat proteins but she gets other foods too.

So here is what she eats:

Breakfast: 1 cup dry. It is Victor Professional with 26% crude protein.

Lunch: 1 cup Dehydrated food from the Honest Kitchen. (She gets the Beef formula)
Plus 1 cup of dry mixed in, for a total of 2 cups for lunch.

Dinner: 1 cup dry with an additional 5.5oz of either chicken or beef stew from the Honest Kitchen.

Treats every now and then, but not daily.

If she doesn't have 3 meals a day she dry heaves in the morning. I tried to adjust and feed 2 larger meals spaced out but she dry heaves without a 3rd meal either way. So I think she just has a high metabolism.

We went to the vet for a nail trim last week and she weighed 73 lbs.

We take walks when it isn't too hot and play a lot of fetch in the yard for exercise. To work her mind we do training and OB, so her exercise level is low to medium. This will improve as the weather cools so we can get out and about better.

Thoughts?

What does her tuck look like? If I'm remembering recent pics she looks pretty good. Did the vet say anything about her weight?

We started feeding the boys 4x/day (just changed how much per meal) as Neb was also puking bile. We've since changed that to 3x/day - morning, 1pm, 7pm.

It sounds like she is in line on how much she gets based on her weight and suggested feeding (at least for the Victor dry food).And she is still young. If she were mine, I'd start watching her weight when she gets to 5 or 6. I remember not doing that with Aodhán and she shot up to 95 pounds because I didn't think to start reducing what she ate. Took me most of a year to get her back down to a good weight, which I think for her was around 75 pounds.

Now if it were Ciara, I try to keep her between 65-70 or she starts looking chunky in the chest, even though she still has a nice tuck. Ciara is the smallest GSD I've had and sometimes she still looks a bit like a puppy compared to Caleb. She's significantly shorter at the shoulder than he is.

Gypsy's tuck is really nice. I just took these pics (2 while she was eating) but it is hard to get good pics of her. She is really just starting to fill out a little.

I figure within the next 6 months I will try to wean her down to two meals a day. I have never had a dog that seemed to need so much food. It isn't a problem financially, but I don't want her to turn into a lazy sausage either.

The vet- I didn't get to talk to him this trip. The techs did her nails. But the last time I talked to him a few months ago (late April, early March) he said she looks great. At that time she was 71lbs.

She does look good. I bet she's still burning all those young dog calories!

Thanks!

Yoshi is 9 months old and 72 pounds. Perfect athletic body. He gets fed 4x a day due to bile pukes jf I wait too long, 1.25 cups each time plus fish oil, treats, and a raw beef knuckle. He's been on Victor but is almost too thin so I am switching him to a higher calorie kibble. I coukd rewite this whole paragraph just subbing Saber's name and it would be accurate from about 1.5 years to 7 years old.

She looks really good. If she's not getting skinnier then the food is just right. If she's filling out... maybe either work her out more or just lower the food intake during those hot days where she'll not be exercising as much.

I'm definitely no expert but G looks good to me also. I always feel you know best when it comes to appetite, activity level, weight, etc. Like the old saying, "if it's not broke, don't fix it." I'm sure if you notice any changes you would adjust whatever is best for Gypsy.

Her weight looks good from here.

Thank you all for the input.

My little whack-a-do is happy to know she is not really a piggy LOL

This morning, her breakfast was down, but she didn't eat it right away. Then she snuck off to the bedroom where I heard her bile puke. Not sure we will ever beat that. Oh well!!

It is nice to hear that she looks good. Lord knows I have plenty of other things to worry about!

But right this minute, Gypsy wants to go out and play.

Update on Gypsy's food intake:

A month or two ago, her GI got out of whack and I ended up getting a script from the vet of the Metronidazole to settle her down. It proved to be extremely difficult to get the pills down here and she still has like 3 of them....BUT

Now she eats far less than before.

Her breakfast is a cup of dry with about 2oz of chicken stew on it; is either the same or just a cup of dry; dinner is a cup of dry with the rest of the stew she didn't finish off earlier in the day. She still needs 3 meals a day to avoid the bile vomit but she is not longer getting any dehydrated stuff from The Honest Kitchen or beef stew.

I do have plenty of the dehydrated Beef flavor food- like about 15lbs of that so I am probably going to donate it to our local rescue, along with a dozen boxes of beef stew.

Not only does this help Gypsy's GI stay healthy, but it will also save my pocketbook now that I am on a fixed income! Win win!

Today Gypsy has an appt to get her nails trimmed and I truly hate the trip because she is not an easy girl, but she needs it badly.

Bev, this is great news! I'm so glad to hear she's doing better. Neb has bile issues too that we feed 3x/day for, it helps.

It's interesting that she eats less than before.

I hope she keeps improving. And good luck with the nail trim.

Good to see you Bev and with a great update on Gypsy. Glad you're working out the food issues and she is doing so well.

Thank you Ladies!

The nail trim didn't go well...EPIC FAIL to be honest.
She gets wound up as soon as I touch the leash- excited.
She doesn't ride well.
She is so nervous at the vet.

1st vet tech asked 2nd tech- 'do you want to put her up on the table?'
I interject that this is a bad idea.
1st tech then leans over, arm outstretched to greet Gypsy, who in turn rears up and barks. Expresses her anal glands.
Gypsy is not people savvy.
Tech 1 then comments that basically we need to find a work around cause she doesn't feel like getting a bite. She had a muzzle on, borrowed from the vet office.
Not someone I want working on my dog.

I attempted to sedate her with Ace a few days ago. 50mg! Pills were old. 3/2020. Didn't work AT ALL.

Gypsy is due for her rabies shot so now we have an appt for Jan 4th at 3pm. I will not accompany her inside. They will come get her after I muzzle her. Dr Matt will listen to her heart, do a basic wellness check, give me a new script for Ace, they 'might' try to do her nails. If they aren't comfortable doing her nails, I will sedate her at home and do them myself. Depends on how she behaves.

Meanwhile, her GI has proven to be all better. Solid stools.

I have 26 boxes of chicken stew, 12 boxes of beef stew, and about 15 lbs of dehydrated food, all from The Honest Kitchen that I can no longer feed her. Roughly $150. worth of food that is no longer used here. She eats 1 cup dry food 3x's a day and is perfectly happy with it.

I did get a weight on her at the vet last week. 76 1/2 lbs. Big girl.

I missed the last two weeks or more of this thread. I'm not sure just how that happened but...


Ah Bev, what a cluster she offers you!

Maybe it would help if you and the vet's people took the ACE before bringing Ms. GB in? -that's only half way a joke. I've got one here whose joyful enthusiasm (GBs "wound up enthusiasm") includes expressing it verbally = me getting tense if not flat out short tempered = not helping at all.

Then there's the "do it until she accepts it calmly" --- frankly, BTYI2 can have just been let in from outside when I approach the door for some other reason & it is again boiled over verbal enthusiasm - loud and piercing.

I can see how everything builds in this chain.

With my dogs, the vet staff inclination to coo or sweet talk = dogs "what the hell's wrong????" & dogs get nervous.

Recent decision at the club was if BTY2 is just going to screw around and blow me off, the session's over and she goes back to the truck. Last time, she blew the dumbbell once. I told her she had one more chance and bingo - pretty decent session. (which is contradictory to always ending on a good note but...)

I'm not sure any of this post is at all helpful -- but you have my sympathy trying to work this through. (as in I guess GB's off the charts everyithing)

I

Middle, You have hit the nail on the head....

While GB gets excited when we prepare for a walk, she gets insanely wound up when it is a car trip to the vet, because I have already been fretting over it for hours longer and she feeds off my tension/nervous vibes. I DREAD taking her in. So if I could take a valium and still drive prior to the appointment, it would be of great help! Funny thing is, I told them this Ace script seems to be ineffective, having lost it potency, but I was still told to give it to her for our appointment next week. Now watch, I will give it to her and it will knock her on her a$$ and I won't be able to load her up! LOL