I have a 8 and a half month bullmastiff cross ddb and have had trouble with his poo since we got him. i started him off with royal canin he just had runs so i tried james wellbeloved he had runs with that so someone told me to try a standard working dog which i have and no runs but dont think its doing much for his coat or him putting much weight on, so i try adding dog meat to it so he will eat it cos he fed up with it and he gets runs i cant win lol. just wondered what weight , height etc he should be for his age and breed. thanks andrea...

Have you had his poo tested for parasites, worms etc, he could be allergic to something in the foods which is causing the looseness.
What is he fed with his dry food??

I went through something similar with one of my Malinois, also 8 months old now. NO food worked (you name it, we tried it), no medication -until I switched him to 100 % raw. Then his poo turned perfect and his coat is fantastic. His litter sister is doing fine on complete so why her brother had problems I don't know!

As for size etc, with a crossbreed there is simply no way of knowing what would be normal as you don't know which parent he takes after or indeed both, it's all guesswork. I have two crossbred littermates and there is a huge difference in their sizes. One is much smaller than both parents, the other bigger than both.

thanks for replying. he is fed on a 22% protein complete mix which i add plain broken mixer as he would get runs with just the complete and just recently adding a little tinned meat as he was fed up and leaving it but with a little meat he wolves it down. i have spoke to the vet and they mentioned doing a stool sample so i might be aswell doing that just to see. cant seem to put a photo on of cain it wont upload for some reson.. andrea

first off, how often are you changing the food and how quickly? you can cause poo problems with quick changes to

i've found with our bullies that they don't do well on foods i'd consider high quality (JWB, Royal Canin and various others) and thats from a few different lines. raw works great, my lad loved it and looked terrific when i was using it, but i'm not sure how confident i would be at the important age your boys at now, he's got a lot of growing to do and bone to gain, but a good amount of research should make it fine.

if the food he's on suits in other ways you might try adding tinned fish or fish oil to it to help his coat.

as to the cross, it can cause issues with finding the right diet but at least he's a cross of two breeds not a million miles appart. there are a few ddb people on the forum so you should hopefully get their opinions to if there are any breed specific tips.

hth :)

kim

We have 2 Bullmastiffs and a Cane Corsa, we just feed a cans of meat and complete mixed dried food and change to fish running up to shows, we found that the cane corsa is very tempremental with her food as she has the same problem all we did was experiment with a couple of differnt brands, we had her checked out before though by the vet to see if she had a tummy bug.

Unfortunatly its down to what your dog is good with as all dogs are differnt, all the advice I can give is never feed the cheapest brand as they are a large breed dog and always feed with a large breed mix, as large breeds take in different amounts of protein, calcium etc.. to smaller breeds. Our bitch weighed about 40kg (I think) at 9 months old, but yours may weigh a bit more as he is a male, however its very easy to over feed this sort of breed.  

I'm sure you know this allready but, slim is good, don't be tempted to feed extra with the notion of bulking your dog up, he will only grow to be as big as his genetics dictate and the slower the better, weight gain too quickly should be avoided due to the stress it puts on the growing bones and joints.

As for brands of food, whatever suits you & your dog best. Personally, on recomendation from breeder & other Mastiff owners, I feed Beta (not large breed, just standard adult) & tripe @ a 50:50 ratio and  have fed this since pup was 5 months old (he's a Mastiff).

>so i try adding dog meat to it so he will eat it cos he fed up with it and he gets runs i cant win lol.

Tripe really helps firm up poop, it's defnately worth trying some added to the food you use instead of the canned food, he will love the smell & taste (I doubt you will love the smell though!).

>just wondered what weight , height etc he should be for his age and breed.

There is a lot of variation in growth rates in the mastiff breeds as well as variation in finished sizes, so it really is not worth comparing to other dogs, I know it's very temping as you just want to make sure he's growing OK, but it doesn't tell you much. The best thing is to have the vet check him and make sure he is the right weight for his frame, ie not too thin and not too fat :)

> Tripe really helps firm up poop, it's defnately worth trying some added to the food you use instead of the canned food

totally agree, much better for them and much more enjoyed. labour of love though as its yuck!

hi, i might go with adding tinned fish sounds like a good idea and good source of protein. where would you recommend getting it from and what sort of fish? thanks for all responces i am new on here and think everyone great its nice talking dogs as i love cain, wish i could post photos as i think he full bull mastiff not right sure as the mum was full pedigree bully and a big tall girl at that and the dad they sed was ddb but he was the rare black masked sort ... andrea

oops forgot to mention i gave him at least 6 wks on new food before changing to give him chance to get used to it. also wanted information about getting another dog. is cain too young? is it better waiting till he is older? andrea

well Tio (my bullmastiff) is very partial to pilchards or sardines in tomato sauce but any oily fish might be good. a salmon based kibble might be good to. i just buy cheap tinned fish from the supermarket. cause its tinned its easy to have on hand as well, no freezing etc. don't get in brine, its to salty. if you put that in a couple of meals a week it should help with the coat. bear in mind also he's a baby yet so his coat will still change, he should be starting to get a little harsher feeling.

> not right sure as the mum was full pedigree bully and a big tall girl at that and the dad they sed was ddb but he was the rare black masked sort

did they do the cross deliberately? :(

you can post a tiny pic- you should just be able to make out my families youngest bitch Keeper climbing into a baby carry cot in mine lol- you add it under your avatar in your options.

even if the sire wasn't a masked ddb i would think your likely to get a mask anyway as i would assume the black mask would be dominant to the red (any ddb guys know the genetics for this?)

> also wanted information about getting another dog. is cain too young? is it better waiting till he is older?

Yes, cain is a bit too young yet, I'm sure he'd love a playmate but it's much better to wait until he's older and past his 'kevin' stage. Personally I would wait untill he was at least 2 & half before getting another dog.

>> also wanted information about getting another dog. is cain too young? is it better waiting till he is older?

> Yes, cain is a bit too young yet, I'm sure he'd love a playmate but it's much better to wait until he's older and past his 'kevin' stage

i that bit and i must say i'm with mastifflover. the kevins is a nightmare age for all owners, bear in mind being a molosser type your boys will be accompanied with being very large and so far harder to control. as such you'll need a lot of focus and work and another pup being around would make it harder.

op, out of interest is cain your first dog?

no we lost our german shephard a few years ago and my husband sed he wud neva get another one but i really wanted one always liked bullies and ddb so i looked deliberatly for the cross of the 2. think it was a unplanned mating they were only a young couple so dont think they intended on having pups and so couldnt ask any questions about the breed etc cos i dont think they knew that much, so ive just played it by ere really. been on here really helps tho as i didnt av a clue what to expect from this breed, must say tho he is the most placid dog just like our german shephard and he is a star with my 3 boys. andrea

> been on here really helps tho as i didnt av a clue what to expect from this breed

in honesty you won't ever really know what to expect because he's a cross, you can't know which parent is dominant in him. your not as out there as many cross owners because you know the cross and they are not a million miles appart as breeds but it makes things very unpredictable for you. out of interest if you liked bullies and ddb's why not get one of each over time instead of choosing a cross? i'm not critisising i just am interested in the thinking as this way you may end up with a dog that differs from either parent.

Hi AMDWHITE

Your dog sounds lovely. I'm glad you're pleased with him. We feed our Dogues raw now and they all have nice firm poos. There's lots of info on here about raw feeding, just do a search. To start with, as others have said, you could just add some tripe. It really does firm up their poo and it seems to encourage them to eat well. You can buy tripe at any pet shop with a freezer.

I expect your boy should make a good size as Bullies and Dogues are quite similar in size. Good luck with Cain.