# Jak's weight has 'stalled'



## Kristen Cabe (Mar 27, 2006)

I've been fighting with Jak's weight all summer, because apparently he woke up one day and decided he didn't like to eat anymore. :roll: He was 65 pounds when he turned 2 in June. By July he'd gained just a pound. He stayed at around 66-67 pounds until mid-August, when I had to board him for a few weeks. By the end of August, when I picked him up, he was down to 59 pounds. By September 30th, he was up to 69.8 pounds, where he has remained until now. Seriously, he hasn't gained or lost an _ounce_; I've been weighing him weekly since the first of September. 

The thing is, if he would just _eat_, I'm sure he would put on weight, but I could leave the container of dog food with the lid off, in the middle of the living room and he'd still only eat _maybe_ 2 cups a day.

Over the course of the summer I've tried every premium commercial kibble known to man, :lol: added all kinds of crap to his food to entice him to eat, and even tried feeding strictly raw. I've also tried feeding him next to the others, hoping that the feeling of competition might encourage him to eat. Nothing I've done seems to make any difference at all. Sometimes he'll eat, taking his own sweet time to chew every piece, sometimes he'll sniff it and walk away, and sometimes he'll eat just a few bites before walking away. Even if I leave the bowl available to him all day, he might eat and he might not. They said that while he was boarded, they were offering him 8 cups of food a day, and often force-feeding him because he wasn't eating well there either. When I brought him home, I started offering him 6 cups a day, but if he doesn't eat it, it doesn't matter _how_ much is offered; you know?! 

For the past 3 weeks, I've been offering him 6 cups a day of EVO/Canidae mixed, hoping that even if he didn't eat it all, the higher protein content would help him gain some. Nope. ](*,) 

Tuesday night I made satin balls. I made them a little bigger than the recipe calls for - they're 2-2.5 inches in diameter. I gave him three that night. Wednesday he ate 6 satin balls and 2 cups of kibble. This morning he ate 3 satin balls, but wouldn't touch kibble. I put the bowl of kibble in his crate with him. Sometimes when I do that he'll eat it. Sometimes he won't. He _does_ seem to like the satin balls, though. I'm just not sure if I'm feeding him enough of them.










He shows no symptoms of EPI, and when I had him tested for IgA deficiency, everything came back normal. His coat is still shiny and as soft as a GSD with a stock coat's fur _can_ be. His energy level has not decreased at all, and he will still eat treats no problem. He still chews on the Nylabones and other hard chew items I give to them, and there's no change in his bitework, so I don't think his teeth are the problem, but I guess I _could_ be wrong.










When you look at him from the side, he looks fine, but when you look down on him from above, or see him from the front or rear, you can see that he's pretty skinny. Sometimes you can see his backbone, depending on what position he's in, and all his ribs are visible, but his hip bones don't really 'jut' out. I think his coloring hides a lot; pictures don't really do a good job of showing how thin he is, but here are a few that I took last night. If you saw him in person, you'd have to laugh because he looks like one of those bobblehead things; his head looks too big for his body.

These are all clickable:

    


I guess, if he hasn't gained any weight after he's done with the satin balls, I'll have to have bloodwork done on him. I can't really afford it right now, but at this point I don't know what else to do. If he'd just gain _five_ more pounds, I'd be happy!


----------



## Ted White (May 2, 2006)

Geez, he looks pretty fit to me.


----------



## Lynn Cheffins (Jul 11, 2006)

Some dogs are voracious eaters and some dogs are self regulators and trying to put more food in them than their appetite and body tells them they need is pretty well impossible. I have one dog that has been on the skinny-looking side of lean all his life - he would eat a certain amount and then that was it. He has always been a very healthy dog and a hard worker in harness. He would eat more when working very hard in the fall/winter but as soon as the activity level went down - back to smaller portions--wasn't a picky dog just would only eat what he needed. As long as the dog isn't losing weight and has good vitality and energy and good coat I wouldn't get too excited. Age of 2 is still a young dog and that could be some of it also.
Try exercising the dog more (and do some resistance work), only leave his meals down for 15 mins - don't worry if he turns his nose up a couple times and misses a few meals. Also try feeding him only once a day. 
My lanky dog is 14 and still works a bit in harness and is still a healthy dog and still only eats as much as he needs despite all the racket he makes a feeding time :lol: .
I clicked on all the pictures and Jak looks fine to me - like his weight matches his build.


----------



## Lynn Cheffins (Jul 11, 2006)

also I should have added that most of the "premium" kibbles have good levels of protein but some seem to be pretty low in fat from what I read of the labels. The "satin balls" add fat to the diet but if he is turning his nose up from the kibble and only eating the satin balls you might consider just adding a good quality fat to his kibble ration. Most fats have about 100 cals per Tbsp and adding fat to it will increase the energy density and increase the palatability without adding volume. You could try going on http://www.nutritiondata.com/ and entering your satin ball recipe under the Pantry feature and get a better idea of what extra calories you are feeding.


----------



## Lacey Vessell (Nov 18, 2006)

I personally think Jak look's good - good working weight. Zane's about the same weight and looks just as lean. I'm of the mindset, barring any possible medical problems/symptoms, if a dog is hungry....they will eat. Maybe as the weather cools he'll get more of an appetite? All of my dogs having different eating habits - got two that will eat until they explodes if I allow them, one that takes all of her alloted 20 minutes to eat and then Zane who likes to "kill" his food all over the yard (much to the dismay of my neighbors) before he settles to eat - someday's he wants more...someday's he does not finish his portions. I don't sweat it....as long as they are healthy and active.


----------



## Kristen Cabe (Mar 27, 2006)

Jak is most definitely a self regulator now, but he didn't used to be. This started about the beginning of June of this year. Before that, he was a voracious eater - he used to literally inhale his food.

Before the pickiness, I did only feed one meal a day, and I left the bowl down for about 15-20 minutes, like you said. Sometimes they do go through short periods where they don't want to eat much, but mine have never gone more than 2-3 days. Jak went a whole week and ate _maybe_ 1 or 2 cups of food during that time. Even then, though, I figured it was the heat or whatever, and I continued the same routine for another week or two, but his appetite never returned, so I started worrying. I thought maybe it was the food, even though the other dogs were still eating fine, so I bought a small bag of something else just for Jak. He still didn't show much interest, so I finished that bag and the bag of Canidae (that the other dogs were continuing to eat), and tried again with a new bag of Canidae. Still no change. At that point, he had actually dropped a few pounds, so that's when I started leaving the food available to him all day and adding stuff to the kibble, etc. 

Neither of Jak's parents have a skinny, lanky frame like he does, so I'm not sure where he gets that from. Jak does seem to be in good shape, as far as muscletone and all. I'd just like to see him at least 5 pounds heavier so he doesn't look like he's being starved. I've about had it with people's comments whenever I take him out.


----------



## Kristen Cabe (Mar 27, 2006)

I don't know if I did it right, but according to that website, there's only about 360 calories per ball. It said that there were 12,873 calories in the whole recipe, and when I made it, I had 36 balls, so I divided 12,873 by 36 and got 357.583. Is that right?


----------



## Jeff Oehlsen (Apr 7, 2006)

If his energy level went down, then I would be concerned. My GSD was so skinny that I used to get people bitching at me on the street about it. He would run with me to work and back, around 30 35 miles a day and would only eat about 2-3 mouthfuls of food. Something to consider is that dogs are scavengers and most of the food we feed is pretty hot stuff.


----------



## Lyn Chen (Jun 19, 2006)

How long did you have him on raw? I have a couple of dogs who weren't very keen on food and after having them on raw for a few months, would now absolutely wolf down anything. And they were on pretty high-quality food before.


----------



## ann schnerre (Aug 24, 2006)

i wouldn't worry too much as long as he stays in good condition/energy level. and it's a GOOD thing he no longer "inhales" his food as that may contribute to bloat.

he looks fine kristen. son't so what i do and "overthink" every little thing


----------



## Kristen Cabe (Mar 27, 2006)

I tried raw for probably 3-4 days, but went back to kibble when his behavior didn't change, because I got tired of wasting raw meat. :lol: 



> don't do what i do and "overthink" every little thing


Guilty.


----------



## Lyn Chen (Jun 19, 2006)

Yeah, it should take a while before you start to see any changes on a new diet. Heck with that one dog, I had to drizzle crappy Iams gravy all over his raw chicken (cut up into little bits) to entice him to eat. Thought I would have to do it forever but after a few months he started eating entire chicken frames frozen.


----------



## Ted White (May 2, 2006)

I was also going to ask how long he was on raw diet


----------



## Daniel Cox (Apr 17, 2006)

Looks good to me. I like my dogs very lean.


----------



## Kristen Cabe (Mar 27, 2006)

You know what? If Jak were a Malinois, I wouldn't be concerned about the way he looks at all, but because he's a shepherd, I think he ought to have more 'substance.' I wasn't kidding when I said he looks like a bobblehead.  He's also leggy and carries his tail like a Husky; he's really a pretty ugly German shepherd. :lol:


----------



## Lacey Vessell (Nov 18, 2006)

Maybe he has a little Malinois and Husky in him somewhere down the line  :lol: :lol: **paybacks**

Seriously though....a dog is what a dog is - thick boned, etc., I can put muscle on a dog with exercise and feeding but I can't change the fact that he is "leggy" when he is full grown - genetics is what genetics is......Maybe Jak is still maturing and it'll all come together


----------



## Kristen Cabe (Mar 27, 2006)

:lol: Being that his mom lives in Alaska, and that's where he was born, it wouldn't surprise me if he had Husky in him, Lacey! :lol:


----------

