May 23, 2011

My 9 month old GSD won't eat and is very skinny. Can you help?

Full Question:
Mr. Frawley, first let me start off with I am a big fan of your training videos I have 2 right now and plan on getting more soon.

My question to you is this I have a 9 month old German Shepherd purebred who is in great health except he is very skinny so much so that i can see his ribs through his coat pretty easily. The vet doesn't know why he wont eat. I have him on a strict eating schedule. 9am 3pm and 7pm. I don't leave his food out for any more than twenty minutes tops. As of two weeks ago he would chow down all of his food. I feed him Royal Canine German Shepherd as well as I give him raw beef with his food and also alpo. He takes a daily vitamin and doesn't get many treats at all maybe a chew stick every few days. Please if you can help me I would greatly appreciate it. Also I want to thank you and your sons for making this world a little bit better place to live in.
Cindy
Cindy Cindy's Answer:
My first suggestion would be to have the vet do blood work to rule out pancreatic enzyme deficiency. It’s (unfortunately) a common disorder with German Shepherd Dogs.

At 9 months old he doesn’t need 3 feedings a day, I would reduce the meals to once or twice a day so he has a chance to become more hungry between feedings. I would also switch this dog from kibble (which has lots of fillers and is not appropriate food for a carnivore.) to a raw diet or the dehydrated food we use here. I would definitely quit feeding him Alpo!

Here is a link to information on a raw diet and here is a link to the dehydrated food we use.

We don’t use commercial kibble for any of our dogs here at Leerburg, switching your dog to a natural diet is one of the best things you can do for him.

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Expert Dog Trainer Cindy Rhodes
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