# Am I under-feeding my dog?



## missk4012 (Aug 28, 2011)

Okay. So I think I am feeding my younger dog, Jasper, plenty. But I am not 100% certain, so here's the situation.

Firstly, I don't know how old he's supposed to be when he stops growing. Most people say around a year, or that it slows down after a year. He's 1 year, 2 months and some days. But he really has a HUGE amount of skin around his neck, much more than the normal amount of scruff I am used to seeing, so I think he may be quite a bit larger when he's all done. Maybe he just has a lot of extra neck skin. I'm not sure.

In addition to the smaller issue of neck flab, he is ALWAYS hungry. If not actually hungry, he at least makes it seem like a desperate need for more food. I don't give into him - I feed what the bag tells me to, plus occasional treats for either good behavior or when we're training, and a little extra when we've done more strenuous exercise (i.e. he eats normally if we go on a walk or play at the beach, I give him a little extra food if we go on a half day hike followed by swimming at the beach and then followed by an hour of playing fetch in the meadow). No matter what though, he is always after our other dog's food, the trash, random inanimate objects, any food I happen to be preparing and cooking (and no, we don't reward begging, so he's never gotten something from the counter when I'm cooking or my plate when I'm eating) and any time he's unattended he's checking out the counter for anything we've left out (which has happened before but we're much better about that now that we know he gets up there). 

Jasper eats his food in about 3 seconds - if I filled the bowl up in the morning he would have no self control so we definitely do not free feed. To prevent him from over-eating, I split his food into 3 meals daily.

So what do you think? Is he really hungry? Or just a glutton? We had a family dog growing up that was like this - she looked fine (as does Jasper) but when my parents took her to the vet (not as often as she should have gone) after a few years of this pig behavior, they did some tests and actually accused them of starving her - but she ate everything, in an amount that was probably about 10-12 times the amount our other dog ate. I am worried I am accidentally doing this to my dog too.

Any advice is appreciated! And as a disclaimer, yes I am also going to seek a professional opinion.


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## Pawzk9 (Jan 3, 2011)

Your vet can do a body condition check just by physical examination. It might make you feel better to know. Here's a chart that might help as well. http://vet.osu.edu/vmc/body-condition-scoring-chart Some dogs have a high metabolism and may appear thin even on as much or more food than is recommended (the opposite is more likely - the dog is fat on the amount recommended on the bag).


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## Sibe (Nov 21, 2010)

What are you feeding? The quality of food can make a difference. Like with people, if you eat a Big Mac you'll be full for a couple hours but then you're starving again. Empty calories.

Some dogs just have more skin. My girl has quite a bit of neck scruff at a year and a half. It just varies by dog.

You can teach him to eat slower. There are many ways to do it, what I did was to hold the bowl in my hands and lower it down. As soon as she started to gulp, I'd lift the bowl up. She quickly learned that the only way she got to eat was if it was slowly.

General guidelines are that you should be able to feel but not see the ribs (maybe only see the last couple, unless you have a sighthound in which case all may be visible). Obviously very fluffy dogs you won't be able to see rib anyway. Viewing from the side, their belly should tuck up after their rib cage. When looking from the top, their sides should go in between their last rib and their hips.
Here are a couple charts that may help.


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## Kathyy (Jun 15, 2008)

I kept Sassy at 'ideal' and the vet thought she was underweight. She looked like an adolescent lab but we called her a Vizsla mix. If you think your dog is a sight hound then it is okay to keep them slimmer than if you think your dog is a mastiff! Really both breeds should have easily felt ribs and a nice waist but most people don't realize that.

She had been a stray at least twice in her young life before she came home with us and was always a food seeker. She could rip into a new bag of kibble or rice and turn into a sausage or eat 24 ounces of bread plus a pound of margarine and be hungry for dinner. She would eat the whole cup o noodles package and even ate dirty shards of ceramic. 

Take advantage of that and give food in food puzzles, train with food, toss the kibble down the room or patio to hunt down and eat up. Give lots of chews, a bread crust in the bottom of a kong is impossible to get out.

Sassy's food seeking was at least partly stress but some was because food in a bowl is boring. Much more fun opening drawers and doors and getting on the counter to find your own goodies.


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## iheartmarcus (Jul 27, 2011)

Ahhhhh, I am constantly struggling with this too! I have a very food-motivated dog as well, so any time there is food, he will eat even if he's not hungry. I'm not too concerned about this since I don't give into his begging either. Buuut, I am confused about other things.

When I look at the body condition charts, I can't decide whether he's thin or ideal. I've had some people tell me he might have some kind of sighthound mixed into him with the husky, like a whippet, but that's just a guess. His waist is preeeetty pinched in, but I don't see ribs. But there's also definitely "minimal fat" as in the underweight dog listed above. Is there some key factor to look for when deciding between these two? And also, the bad recommends 3-4 cups for his weight range, but I'm only feeding 2.5 cups, and that's an incraese from 2 cups a week or so ago.

But I also feel like I'm overfeeding at times, since his stool gets pretty loose. He used to be on Natural Balance, and when I did 2.25 cups for recommended 2-3, he would poop 4-6 times a day, with it getting looser and looser as the day goes on, until it's like picking up pudding. Someone recommended I decrased feeding amount, so I did to 1.75 cups and that helped. But that's really not a lot of food for a 4 month old puppy that's around 20 pounds! Since switching completely to Taste of the Wild a week or so ago, his stool has firmed up significantly and decreased in amount as well. So I've upped his food to 2.5 cups per day. His stool is doing pretty well, but some days they come out really loose at night as well. 

Ahhhh, to feed more or less????


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## Averyismypei (May 24, 2010)

Ypou may want to have your vet to a stool sample to be sure he doesn't have any worms. What breed of doggy is he? Some breeds have extra skin. My shar-pei sure does 
Also, what food is he currently eating? The higher grade kibble, the longer it will last.


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## missk4012 (Aug 28, 2011)

I think I'll out the food puzzles/games idea and see if that helps. I am still taking him to the vet anyway, so I'll get the vet's opinion then, but I think he's probably fine, just greedy 

Also definitely going to try the trick to slow him down, thanks Sibe. Maybe he wouldn't go straight to trying to eat the other dogs' food if he spent more than 3 seconds on his own bowl. Oh, and in answer to your question: He's been fed Chicken Soup for the Puppy Lover's Soul (during which time he was actually a bit overweight so we decreased the amount we fed him), then he transitioned himself (by stealing the other dogs' food) to Natural Balance Sweet Potato and Fish. I didn't know much about dog food when we got that one, it was just what the guy at the pet store recommended - we're not 100% happy with the ingredients in it so we're switching it up. Currently he's been eating EVO Red Meat Formula but that one hasn't worked out well for the other dog so we're changing it AGAIN (I feel bad changing it up so much, but at least he's never had a bad reaction to anything). They will be on a rotation diet using the 4 TOTW formulas, assuming that works out for them.


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## The_Monstors (Oct 1, 2010)

If he doesn't slow down with Sibe's technique, at the very least you can make it harder to gulp down large amounts with a slow feeder bowl.


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