hi ive got a 5 month old boxer who im quite worried about, she has 2 meals a day of quality tinned food with mixer, i use one big tin and a couple of big scoops of mixer a day...the problem is i just cant keep her weight up....i did have her on three meals but it seemed to much for her as she was just pooing ALL the time and it was quite runny..how much do other people feed thier dogs? as i said i have tried to feed her more food but it just goes straight through her thanks for any thoughts
emma

  id use  more  of a quality biscuit and cut out the tinned meat, except maybe for a slither of it just to get  the dog interested. -the better quality food has low output,

My 4 and a half month old boxer has just put herself down to two meals a day (she wasnt eating her morning feed) and i'm giving her 250g burns and one tin of sardines split between the two meals and this seems to be keeping her at a steady weight gain.
HTH :-)

What brands of food are you feeding?

christine

If she was still eating the 3 meals a day I think I would put her back and may be slowly change the mixer to a complete food and cut the tinned food down to just a taste, but do it slowly over at least 10 days. Use one of the complete food based on rice or vegatables rather that corn or other type of grain.

What is "quality tinned food"?

Too much food will cause the runs.  I would advise you to try her on Burns or Naturediet; if you are feeding a well known brand tinned dog food you may find that it does not agree with her digestion no matter how you adjust the quantities.

Trouble is they are not going to put weight on with Burns unless they feed way over the suggested amount and I found the puppy one far too small for a dog like mine and I would think one the size of a boxer and the puppy food for large breeds is not recomended. Can't speak for ND, only tried it once, that may be OK along with any number of other foods. The main problem with tinned is the fact that it is 70% water.

Well I know plenty of Weimaraners and other gundogs, Dobes, GSDs etc who manage to put weight on with Burns and I would not have thought Boxers are vastly different in their energy levels, growing patterns or metabolic rates?

It is not usually the water in the food that is a problem.......... :D

The advantage with using a product like Burns or Naturediet is you know EXACTLY what it contains unlike many tinned foods which just state meat and cereal derivatives which is no help at all if you have a dog that may be sensitive to one of the ingredients..............

You are right to point out that my experience of Burns may not be that of everyone, I had to feed much more than the suggested amount and that produced loose stools, and also had a problem with dust and the fact that the puppy food kibble is so small. No matter how good a food is if it is not presented in a usable form it is difficult to use. Don't think I am alone in my findings, but I am sure that a lot of people have no trouble, I did try for 18 months so my finding are not an immediate reaction. But as I said I only tried ND once and the hounds were not amused so I did not bother again not believing it worth forcing my idea of what they should eat on them, just not worth the effort with animals that will eat almost anything they can get into their mouths.

animals that will eat almost anything they can get into their mouths.

:D :D

How true; kinda puts those people who claim their dogs are fussy eaters back in their pram :D :D

If only we could capture and market all the crap they eat; what a money spinner that would be.......... :D

*dashes out to collect bags of sheep and horse poo*
:D :D

As far as my lot are concerned that is the definition of food, and includes everything, they are not concerned if I consider it edible, if it will go down, then it does. :(  Have to say they were not interested in ND, they did eat it but with no joy, it did not make a crunch, scrunch or splinter as does the TV clicker, coal or fence. Neither come to think of it, does toilet paper but that high on their list of consumables. :) no pleasing them really.

it did not make a crunch, scrunch or splinter

sigh, you are obviously making a serious omission Jackie H,

by NOT feeding them the packet as well. :D

Some Boxers are finicky eaters...
I have a 6 month old Boxer puppy (I also have 2 adults, 6yo and 3yo, plus have had a veteran of 10yo, sadly departed nearly 3 yrs now)
She is finicky eater, she is down to two meals a day, she eats well some days and then others
she doesn't want to eat both meals etc. Her eating isn't being helped by the hot weather either.
I am determined not to make her fussy, which is so easy to do.
She gets complete food with a little tinned butchers tripe (plus the different varieties of bt).
She's on Nutro (varies between performance and the puppy as she likes the larger kibble sizes).
If she doesn't want to eat fine, it just gets picked up and thrown away or fed to the other two 'hungary' pigs.

My 3yo and also the 6 yo went through finicky phases when puppies too, now they are a healthy 28kgs!!
They were quite skinny as young pups, used to drive me crazy with the I don't want that phase.
Now they are adult Boxers of substance without being too fat for their height and bone structure.
The other things to make the Boxers finicky (& perhaps other breeds) is when they are teething and when they heads
are on the move (changing) or having a growth spurt.

With runny poos I should imagine that she is having just too much. It may be that she is not suited to the
mixer biscuit that you are feeding her.
I've found that Boxers are better on a 'gluten-free' diet, you can get gluten-free mixer biscuit.
Mine seem to scratch less when fed gluten free complete foods as my other Boxer owning friends have discovered too.

If you do change her over to a different food, do it slowly over 5 days, slowly decreasing the old food and increasing the portion size of the new food until you are just feeding the new food.
It also helps to give them a little live natural yoghurt, a teaspoon on each meal as you are changing over.
Another thing has she been regularly wormed as a puppy? As that may also be something which needs to be considered.
Did she come with a worming certificate/record?

Best Of Luck

hi, im feeding her on pedigree chum(wasnt sure if i was allowed to say brand) but shes definatly not finicky, she would and does eat anything put in front of her! i assume shes wormed up to date and everything but dont have anything in writing so shes off to the vet on thurs just for a general check up and to pick up some panacur just in case that is the problem........and i picked up some bakers complete food today apparently thats what she was fed before i got her so fingers crossed it works........ shes fine in herself though just the slight runs and not putting on as much as id like.cant believe how many repys i got!! so hope i not forgot anything
emma :)

Remember it is not really a question of whether the dog likes the food more a question of whether the food likes the dog................. :D

All tinned foods are made from a high proportion of 'moisture' ie water. (about 70% I beleive.) .I would suggest you exchange mixer for complete(a good quality one) and maybe mix a little tinned food in as a 'appetiser' if it makes you feel better...I used to use butchers tripe which is one of the better brands IMO.My dogs did very well on Autarky and Butchers tripe and I had problems with preventing weight gain on it .I now feed Raw but if I were to go back to pre-prepared foods I would go back to it again
Archer

arghhhhhhh

ok, i was trying REALLLLLLLY hard (honest, i WAS)...........

Pedigree, and Bakers are CACK, blargh, urgh narsty ........ (in My opinion)

If you ate mcDonalds everyday, would YOU have the runs?

Hmmmmmmmmm

Ill go, i will, im off, but go read the back of packets and ask yourself a few questions about the ingredients.......

Em

P/Chum is often too rich for Boxer puppies, in the early days with my first
Boxer I was told to try her on Chum...it gave her the runs.
So I avoided it and fed butchers tripe or the winalot prime as it was called then.
The only other thing with my earlier bitch is she didn't do well on James Wellbeloved (JWB)
that used to give her the runs too.
It's finding the right food for your dog - I'm happy with the mix of Nutro and Butchers tripe.
My dogs love the food and more importantly it suits them.
Vets often try to sell Hills Science Diet (HSD or Hills) I wouldn't be taken in by that.

With Bakers complete is full of colourants and preservative's which CAN make a Boxer
more hyperactive.
Try your local pet shop & ask for gluten free complete foods some pet shops will have samples
that you can try your dog on.
Most pet shops stock JWB, Purina, Burns, Wafcol, some will stock Nutro etc.
As Em says just look at the ingredients on the back of the bag.

Anybody got any advice.  My dog has the runs late in the day, after her Burns food.  I gave her a small amount of Burns in the morning, no runs, then took her to the beach at 4 pm.  Small poo - just fine.  Fed her slightly less than normal at 5 pm.  7.30 - yellow runs.

I'm running out of ideas.