Help for skinny shephard

No, but I can't help being concerned.[]
 
I know he will hit the fill in the blanks stage, and I know that food intake in the summer slows, and this boy puts the energizer bunny to shame, what can I say I am a worry wart.

the photo from above looked really good to me - for an 11 month old active lg breed pup.  Bugsy was eating enormous amounts of food a year ago and couldn't keep weight on.  He was 92 lbs and the vet kept saying he needs to get some rib coverage, he wanted him to maintain at least 95-96 and we could not do it.  We couldn't get past 92lbs.
Then when he was about 18 months old he was 96 and now as he nears 2 he is 101 ( or more that was in May).  He is still thin but has gained muscle.  He is also finally eating less, but still more than most.  He has a nice waist and tuck, you can still see some ribs (he has a very short tight coat) and you can see his back end of his backbone.
The average person would still say he's thin but he is just right
So be patient Kord is still a pup even if his frame is essentially grown, his musculature has to catch up.

Also count me in the skeptics re a gsd at 34", if so that is extraordinary

Truley one of the things that struck with your pics,is in the first one how far he has to bend down to eat.It just look uncomfortable.

Truley, Kord is normal.  Strauss was the same way.  Looked Godawful until he was almost two.  Putting on weight?  Basically impossible, he just wouldn't gain, no matter what I fed (it didn't help that he refused to eat more than two cups of food a day).
 
These guys take forever and a day to fill out....

Kpwlee, Edie and Xeph,
 
I thank each of you for your posts. First, as far as how far down he has to go to get his food, I have thought of getting him a higher bowl stand, guess I will.
 
As for feeding and feeding and feeding and seeing no gain I am with you on that as well. Kord has gone from 6 cups of puppy food down to 3 in the past month or so, I know this is part of maturing. I guess I just need to suck it up and stop seeing issues where none really are, my head knows all this stuff, it really does, but it does not stop me from being worried.
 
Missikiwi I did not mean to hijack your thread, just let you know your not alone with a skinny shepherd.
 
Tru
 
 
 

Kord looks fine to me, but I would ask 3 cups of what?
 
The only thing that has worked for me when my dogs get skinny...and by skinny I mean that the darned hip bones are sticking up and clearly visable....is to add a mid day meal of raw.  Extra kibble just goes out the other end, but raw does pack a couple pounds on my crew.

He is getting 3 cups of Nutro Max Adult Beef and Rice and a can of Nutro Adult High Energy daily now. I split the meals into 2 feedings Glenda. This is not to mention treat and stuff that he gets since we have been working on some things, for those I am using hot dogs, cheese and liver.
 
I am open to raw feeding if you want to give me some guide lines to follow. I really just could never figure out exactly how much to feed at a time. There is a shop near by that has decent cuts of meat at a good price, and I have limited freezer space.
 
Thanks!

But how many kcals in the commerical foods?  Just as a reference point, at 11 months my shepherds were getting three cups of Innova (556? kcals per cup)for breakfast and 2-3 cups of homecooked for dinner.  And then we hit the winter months and I started having to add in that raw meal....usually a couple chicken leg quarters or a few pork hocks...to put a bit of weight back on them.
 
I absolutely don't have the knowledge to feed raw more than as PART of the diet.

The dry is:
 
†353 kcals/per cup. Use a standard 8 oz. measuring cup. Serve dry or lightly moistened.
 
The canned its:
 
Nutro Natural Choice High Energy contains 1,230 kcal/kg of metabolizable energy (ME) on as-fed basis (calculated)
 
That is his new diet as of this past week, I just did the change over from puppy to adult for the past few weeks and I was adding the can in by 1/3 can every meal till we got to this point. And the only reason I did do the change is because he was leaving food, lots of food from the puppy version.
 
And raw as a suppliment is fine, if you want to PM or email suggestions that's fine too. I did make a batch of satin balls and he goes nuts over them.
 
Tru

I guess I am lucky when it comes to Tanner, he could eat all day long if I let him.

I haven't changed his food to adult, yet, at this point he is still eating puppy food, he is almost 11  months.
 
I wanted to add, have you tried Canidae? It is a calorie rich food and will put some weight on him for sure......when I switched to it all my dogs experienced some weight gain........and had to work some of it off, I might add[]

Nope, I have kept him on nutro since that is what his breeder had him on, and to be honest he has had good growth and looks great on it. For a shepherd he has easy hair care.
 
And don't get me wrong, he can and will eat, just try eating some crackers and cream cheese without a pair of laser eyes staring you down!
 
Tru
 

And don't get me wrong, he can and will eat, just try eating some crackers and cream cheese without a pair of laser eyes staring you down!

 
 
Tell me about it[]
 
Here is Rumour and Tanner investigating the yard or on patrol.....Tanner is the smaller one.
 
 

Truley, Your guy looks like a typical gawky teen ager. He`ll fill out over the next 18 months.

Glenda will have more detailed info but adding raw meat or cooked fish to Bugsy's diet helped tremendously. He's allergic to chicken, turkey, and egg so we use beef and whatever oily fish is reasonable. He definitely does better on higher protein intake than even good kibble provides. Jessie's mom has the exact numbers for how much calcium to add per a certain oz. of meat and that is essential with most kibbles. I was using TWO Ocean Blue which allows you to add up to 1/4 of their intake in meat/fish before adding calcium.
Good luck and be patient!

the Nutro High Energy canned is a good product. It's unbelievably dense nutrition for something you can find fairly easily (like at Pet Smart). And highly palatable. I wouldn't use it as a maintenance diet (it's expensive to feed a big dog and the ingreidents aren't some of my favorite) but it's great for weight gain and keeping condition through stressful periods. Sort of like Satin Balls in a can.

Skinny is one thing but I do hate to see the sucked in loin look. I like to see at least a little condition there. I just get scared in case of illness. Ben wouldn't be half as bad as he is right now if he weren't so thin all the time.

I know that it's just a teenaged thing in many dogs, however.