My female GSD is very thin.







I own a female gsd of 2yrs age, i give her PEDIGREE (dog food available in INDIA) 400 grms per day in two servings, but even then she's thin, i am very disappointed by her size.

As i am a vegetarian, I cant give her meat in direct form. Please help me out.

And one more problem, my gsd had been on heat 3 times, and i got her mated but even then she did not conceived any pups, is there any thing i can do for this problem. I think she will be again on heat in future after 20- 25 days.

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Jun 02, 2011
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starstarstar 		Diet
by: Denise

We have had 4 gsds over the last 15 years, 3 of which were adopted as adults from breeders who retired them and one raised from a puppy. Our present gsd is a 3 year old GSD female who is also naturally thin and hyper. She does not keep still at all!

I understand the Hindu culture of vegetarianism. I have friends who love their cats but are also vegetarians. They have learned to feed their cats commercial cat food or they die (these cat food has processed meat). Their previous cats have been very malnourished when they tried substitute meats, soybeans, and other legumes. It just does not work.

Pedigree does still contain meat and left over parts, ground up and processed into dry food. Google "pedigree dog food analysis". So you are still feeding your gsd meat protein. If you girl has a good appetite, feeding her more should be enough. I agree with earlier post not to follow the recommended servings on the package, dogs are too different from each other. And your girl is obviously not the 'average'. But I do not agree letting the food out 24/7. The food gets contaminated. Birds come in and shit on the plate. Food spoils. And does not encourage structure and routine that gsds crave so much.

Just feed then take away the extra when they give up.

GSDs are also large breeds and should not be fed higher ratios of meat protein because it shortens their life makes them grow faster, which makes for poor bone density. A large breed dog food would only have 20% meat protein.

With our gsd, she even just stops eating when the food is too rich. For instance, if we add chicken meat, she'll eat that for a day or two but will not keep eating meat for a week. We then just feed her kibble and rice with vegetables for a few more days then feed her meat just once a week.

She has a lean body with very little fat. Her bones do not stick out but it will if she gets even slightly sick or losses appetite for more than a day. But she is generally healthy and very strong, we have a large yard, 2 hectares which she patrols regularly.

If your gsd has a similar body type, even if you do not consider it "big" enough it should be okay if it what is normal for her. Dogs should not be forced to grow too big or too small just because it is what their breed is "supposed" to be.
Dec 06, 2010
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starstarstarstarstar 		Starving
by: Marie

While you may be a vegetarian, your dog isn't! Your starving your dog! It's not the dogs fault, you want her bigger, she needs protien to build her muscles,I'm sure she's not getting enough! You really need to get over the vegetarian stuff for the sake of your dog, whether you like it or not, dogs and cats eat meat, along with many other animals, if you aren't able to deal with that, then I would suggest you get rabbits instead! Also I don't go by how much food they say to give on the packages, all of our dogs have been free fed, which means they can eat their food when they want, we keep out their dry dog food 24/7. They don not eat just dry dog food, we also supplement that with regular people food, leftovers from supper, as long as it's not poisinous to them, as some food we eat aren't good for them, such as onions, chocolate, too much corn, no grapes ever!, theres alot of foods we eat that are good for us but not for them. We also give them some meat, eggs, etc. Your dog NEEDS MORE FOOD, and I'm pretty sure she needs more meat than what she's getting, it depends on the quality of food your feeding your dog-that will make a huge difference! There's a type thats called WILD FEEDS (I thinkthat's what it's called), anyway, it's pretty much just meat, fruit and veges, hardly any if any grains, that may help your dog.
The dog I have right now, was 35 lbs at 7 months of age when I got her, they said she weighed 50 lbs, but there was NO WAY, when I got her spayed 1 1/2-2 months later, she weighed 50 lbs. She also had NOTHING between her bones and skin, NO FAT of any kind, she was skin and bones, when she'd bump against anything she'd yip, so sorry about getting so hard on you, but the dog REALLY does need meat-NOT MEAT SUBSTITUTE, in order for her to be healthy and happy, you're really going to have to work on yourself over this meat thing as you're not doing any dog or cat justice trying to alter their natural meal selections like that!

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