Hello
I own a 19 mth old Newfie bitch whom we show.She is the older type Newf(more heavy set) and when we bought her, she was being fed Redmills puppy food.Then we moved her up to the next level at 6 mths as instructed to by the breeders.
At 10 mths she came into season for the 1st time and was quite sick with it.She was vomiting yellow bile, had diahorea and refused to eat.We were very worried and we took her to our vets and a stand in vet proceeded to tell us she was sick(nothing to do with her being in season) and took blood and stool samples and sent them to the UK.We live in Ireland.The tests finally came back negative as I knew they would.By then even we had figured it was to do with her being in season as the day after she was over her season she was back to normal.

During the season on the advice of the vet we fed her chicken and rice for two weeks and then we changed her dog food totally to James Wellbeloved's as it is easier to get than Redmills.

However she has been eating the new food for 9 mths and she would get approx 600 g per day (the recomended for a dog her size is bet 600 - 1100).We also give her a half can of tuna or an egg or milk in it as she will not eat it on it's own.
She gets two meals a day, few treats in betwen and she currently weighs 62 kilos.
I think the food is making her bloated (does that sound crazy)?
I am strongly considering trying Redmills again but I don't wanna keep changing her diet either.I can't cut her food any more as she is only getting the bare minimum.

We were at a show the other day and two people said to us, "oh she is getting very fat", but you can still feel her ribs and I asked someone else who also has Newfies an he said she was fine that same day.
I wonder is it because the Newfs the two people have are the more streamlined ones and thinner than my girl?She has a really heavy coat and looks healthy and happy.

Any suggestions please?.

I can't register as I am using work's pc and it won't accept my registration details,
Thanx
Brenda

Hi being a giant breed i would take her off the complet foods and put her on to raw foods green tripe/raw minced chicken and terrier meal all of which you buy from any good pet shop this way you will not need to give her so much and she will not look bloated, an i think she will be happier on this, i have large breeds and mine are fed this and they look well and i show them.

I have 2 newfoundlands and have found that mine get the runs if given milk, I cannot see that at her age should need milk in her diet, I have a male that is from old breeding and is about 12 stone and is very large compared to the dogs in the show ring at the moment, They seem to be getting smaller but I only do water work and carting with mine, as corso girl say I would start her on a basic diet of green tripe and a wholemeal  meal, I find mine can look very bulky but when you feel down that quite a lot of it can be thick coat that is deceptive.