I have a female G - Page 2

She just recenlty went to 6 1/2 cups, she was at 5 1/2 but started wolfing it down then looking for more. She eats her 6 1/2 cups and usually is looking for more, especially here lately. Now that she has gone into heat I assume that is why the increased need for food and it will go back down once she is out of heat, I do not keep her overweight. I was advised that BilJak was a good food? I had her on CHicken Soup, the puppy until she was 3 1/2 months and put her to the adult. When I switched her to Biljac I was told to keep her at the puppy, I didnt think the small amount of catfood would cause any problems, its barely 2 tbls.

I asked him about doing xrays on her leg right off but he didnt seem to feel that was needed.

Wow, I have never fed that much food to any dog, ever...It would just seem to me that if a dog needed that much of a particular food maybe they need a different food..... that's gotta get expensive. Because of a dogs individual nutritional requirements and the lack thereof of anything in a bag, not all foods will be handled the same way....

Raw feeding is based on the idea that variety is required to give a dog balance in its diet, so we have a lot of flexibility and completeness of dietary requirements is achieved over time.....anyway, I digress... my point is not all dry foods work the same for each dog. Sorry, I can ramble

Shandra, you have to be proactive in your dogs health care like your own.. just heard of a story for you..... friend (who is a vet tech) had a dog who really smashed its leg hard when she tried to scale a fence.. the guy with 20+ years experience did an xray and then some acupuncture and sent them along.. after a couple days the dog was still limping, she took the films to our old boss who immediately saw the fracture in her leg!! The fixed it and she is doing so much better now!!

Vets are still just people and they all have different levels of competency.....

 more of side photo would be nice to see.  I too think that 6 1/2 cups is ALOT of food. 

Good suggestion switching her to an adult food.  I've always switched my guys to an adult food well under a year of age.  If she needs the cat food to entice her to eat it.  Maybe she is getting fed too much.  A healthy dog will not starve themselves. If it is pano, "growing pains" one of the best things for her is get her to a lower protein/fat food.   

My male didn't show your typical pain from his pano, ie:  press on the long bone, get a reaction. 

Found a link that says this:

Currently, a common rumor is that low protein, low calcium diets may prevent this condition. It should be noted that the energy level of low protein/calcium diets is often lower as well. If this is the case, a puppy will eat much more of the diet in order to meet its energy needs, resulting in higher total calcium consumption. It may be preferable to feed a puppy diet and restrict total quantity to keep the dog lean than to use a low protein/low calcium adult dog food.

http://www.vetinfo.com/dencyclopedia/depano.html

I wanted to change my bitch to adult food at 1 year of age, but she was still gobbling down at least 6 cups a day, and the adult food was lower in calories, so changing just did NOT make sense. I waited until her metabolism slowed down, folliwing the end of her first heat.  If you know your dog, you can easily judge by feeling its ribs if it is getting enough food.

I think Bil-Jac is a pretty good food. Star's breeder was feeding her Bil-Jac frozen, which, unfortunately isn't available here in Canada, so I had to switch her to a dry kibble. She seems to do fine on it (Performatrin Super-Premium Large Breed Puppy, and now that her metabolism has slowed down, she's on the Large Breed Adult). Both my dogs have really nice, shiny coats, in spite of it being the start of shedding season.