My gsd is 17 months old and has been fed on Arden Grange since I had him as a puppy and this is also what his breeder fed him as well. Since adolescence began he got more and more hyperactive and could be quite aggressive with both people and dogs. He would also not settle at home and was constantly on the go - I never saw him sleep during the day and he wouldn't settle for more than 10 minutes at a time. I put all this behaviour down to his age. But thinking back he was always hyper even as a young pup. We were advised to try a food lower in protein to see if that helped calm him down by our dog trainer. So 4 months ago I switched him over to burns chicken and rice and changed him over very gradually - I think about a month! as I had read that changing them too quickly can cause them to lose weight.

He is now a different dog - the aggression has gone, he is so much calmer and seems a lot more peaceful in himself and he even sleeps during the day now but he has lost so much weight!! I have been adding a block of tripe per day to his meals to try and keep some weight on him but you can still see all his ribs when he moves.
I tried putting him back on arden grange but he began to get hyper again so i put him back on burns.

So now i dont know what to do. A high protein food doesn't seem to suit him but he can't keep weight on on a low protein food. I would love to feed him a raw diet but we only have a little freezer and we don't have any room for another one so it would cost me too much at the moment to do this.

How about something like Naturediet or Forthglade (packaged, cooked meat, basically)  I think Naturediet is designed to be fed alone, Forthglade with biscuit. 

By adding meat to a complete you are unbalancing it and basically you are beating the object. I would keep him on the lb blocks of tripe and buy a basic terrier meal biscuit to mix it with. If he needs more weight, give more tripe but over two meals. If he needs less weight, just give the lb of tripe and the normal amount of biscuit. I have a small freezer but can get 30 blocks of tripe in the very bottom compartment. You need to pick a food and settle on it. Have you wormed him recently?

Fat is higher in calories than is protein. Try adding a little corn oil to his food to help him gain weight.

>By adding meat to a complete you are unbalancing it and basically you are beating the object

Can you please explain this further? It's never made sense to me,and to date no one has been able to explain the why's and how's of it that actually make nutritional sense,other than this [mis]conception has been floating around for a long time.... I have always added meat to nearly every bowl of complete my dogs get,as most commercial foods sorely lack in the meat department,not to mention the nutritional benefits of doing so.. Never had any problems.

>Try adding a little corn oil to his food

I would not add corn oil,there are many other more digestable,healthier,less potentially allergenic oils to choose from,such as fish oil,EPO,olive oil etc etc .

>Can you please explain this further? It's never made sense to me,and to date no one has been able to explain the why's and how's of it that actually make nutritional sense,other than this [mis]conception has been floating around for a long time....

If you think of all the individual nutrients in terms of percentages it might make sense to you.  If a food has been designed to be complete then it will have percentages of each essential nutrient per gram of food.  By adding anything at all to the complete food whether it be meat or biscuit you are upsetting the percentages.  If adding meat you will in effect be increasing the percentage of nutrients found in meat but by doing so you will be reducing the percentage of nutrients in the rest of the food.

Exactly. Thank you Cheryl :)

I think you would have to add a ton of meat to produce an unbalanced meal,if there even is such a thing as a perfectly balanced food.There are too many variances of vits/mins in commercial foods,most containing the bare minimums,and the bioavailabilty of these can be questioned too,especially in the cheap foods.
This subject came up on another board when someone questioned adding extra's and unbalancing a "balanced" commercial food,a few canine nutritionists stepped in and completely blew the theory out of the water!

And lets not forget that the "dont add anything to commercial food" thing was started by the pet food manufactures themselves,who didnt want customers cutting down and feeding less of their food because they were adding extra's.

There will also be a hell of alot of "unbalanced" dogs walking around the US,as i dont know anyone now who is feeding canned food as kibble toppers anymore,due to the recall,they have all swapped over to homecooked or raw additions.

Dogs do not need a balanced diet every day, aiming for balance over a period of 2-3 weeks is best according to Ian Billinghurst.

I imagine if you are feeding a complete diet and don't want to add meat etc to that, then it would be ok to give these extras as a seperate meal! 

I think Ktee is right when she says that it was the pet food manufacturers that started 'don't add anything to commercial food'!

You believe what you want to believe.  Personally, I add scraps to my dogs food and she obviously enjoys them very much.  The point is though that if you feed a complete food you are giving a food that has been scientifically formulated to include all the necessary nutrients that the average dog requires without having to add anything.  If the likes of you and I are going to add bits and pieces then I don't think it will do any great harm.  However, you have to accept that if you greatly increase the percentage of some nutrients you are going to greatly reduce the percentage of some other nutrients.  Short term I wouldn't expect this to do any long term harm but if doing this regularly you need to know exactly what you are doing.

>I have always added meat to nearly every bowl of complete

I can't see the point in feeding complete if you are doing this

I do this - but it's not for nutritional reasons, it's to make the food more appetising to the dogs.  Even the most tasty kibble can be boring!

In Rem's case I also do it to bulk up his meal - he's in no way a veggie lover, but because he's on less than normal exercise (and is very prone to weight gain) he's on a very restricted amount of kibble.  So not only does adding the meat make him feel a little more full, but it also makes him take longer so the girls finish before he starts stealing! :D

I would think it would take a fair bit of meat to unbalance a meal though; in terms of the tinned meats, they're usually around 3/4 moisture anyway so you're adding a lot less actual nutrition than you appear to be.

Burns produce a wide range of feeds; not sure which your dog is on but could be worth switching him to one produced for active working dogs.  I would phone their helpline as they have been great in the past coming up with useful suggestions for my dogs.

Cadbury,
Dont forget... you have a breed that (whilst there are alot of variances structure wise) alot tend to be quite 'Tin Ribs' and gangly during adolescents, after 2 years you will (Im sure) start to see him fill out naturally :) Its very common and very normal.
  I'd say "My GSD is too thin" is a very common question put on forums.
So I wouldnt chop and change too much ;)
(I use Melted Goose fat drizzled over dinner when ever Ive needed to give a dog a bit of a boost up, and my breed can get very lean when working)

Yes Malinois are like this as well. My 12 month old, who weighs about 20 kilos I'd say, gets THREE TIMES as much food as her mother who weighs 24, and still we can see every rib. I know it will improve with age.  Mum now has to be watched or she gets too fat, the she was the same as a youngster. :)

Autarky has beneficial herbs added, and also ithe adult s 22% protein, so not too high.

Hi Cadbury, Your lad will now be reaching his teenage gangly leg stage, many GSD look like him at this age he will start to do his filling out and bodying up over the next six or twelve months , he,s still got all the world to grow in try not to worry yourself too much.
There can be so much variance between types of Shepherds and I find especially if your lad is of the international type breeding he may take longer to look fully developed, the english bloodlines tend to look more chunky and substantial at this age . I,d keep him on whatever food he,s on now if he,s happy and you are happy with it yourself just give him a al ittle more and feed him at least twice a day if not three times he,ll soon sort himself out , it may be a good idea to worm him though if you haven,t done it already.
My oldest girl was like a washboard until she was well turned two now at ten I struggle to keep weight of her.
Hope this reassures you a bit
Sharon

He is wormed every three months with Drontal so I'm sure he hasn't got worms and was last wormed last month.

Pavlova he is from german bloodlines so hopefully he will fill out as he gets older.

I am going to keep him on burns and will ring them tomorrow to enquire about the one for active dogs, I am also going to try adding some olive oil to his dinners to increase the fat content.

Thank you for all your replies!

I would just be patience with him, German lines can be very slow to mature unlike the heavier"English" type, all my GSDs have been from pure German bloodlines & none looked like a"finished"dog until they were over two, they can tend to be leaner & "harder" too

I agree with Moonmaiden, my dog is two years old male entire and looks like a greyhound!

Be very careful about jumping to conclusions re your dogs diet.  You have assumed that the change in protein levels is behind your dogs changed behaviour, I would be sceptical.  There are no studies to show that high protein levels per se cause or trigger hyperactivity.  Your dog may have been intolerant to one or more of the ingredients in Arden Grange.  Are the ingredients of both foods identical?

In some dogs cereals and/or dairy products can produce opiate like responses in dogs.  There are other issues too.

Have you thought about BARF ?

I agree with Moonmaiden re the German lines.  I've had probs like this with both mine- Kassie, now 5 1/2 seemed to right herself when she hit the over 2yr mark- until this I was constantly battling trying to get weight on her when she was in the ring, she always looked worse though case the bitch has no coat :-)  My other GSD is now 14 month old and I always considered myself lucky that I didn't have the trouble with her weight- I spoke too soon- she's got loads of coat and now that she's losing it she looks too thin - she looks like a dog that's been roaming the streets for a good few month fending for itself :-D  Too thin and big tufty bits of fur waiting to come away.........lovely :-)

Stacey x