3 month French Mastiff eating an awful lot!

[cpedreschi]

Hi There!
I am new to this forum and was hoping you all could help me out. We have a 3.5 month old French Mastiff that weighs 37 lbs. I visited the vet the other day and she told me she is a bit too thin and that we needed to feed her more. We were already feeding her nearly 5 cups per day over three feedings. So now we are up to 6 cups. This seems like an awful lot! I have a 1.5 yr old french/bull mastiff mix and I don't remember him eating that much at this age. The vet did say that it may have to do with the fact that she runs around like crazy with my other mastiff and she is just burning her calories and when he was a pup he was a lot lazier. We feed her Nutro Natural Choice Large Breed puppy food, so I am worried that she is going to get too much protein and other nutrients if I feed her more. Has anyone else had this problem where your puppy is just eating and eating?

 

[Smart_Family]

Alot of puppies will eat and eat and eat and eat, especially ones who come from a litter in which they had to fight for food. 6 cups is a lot of food for a three month old puppy. My almost four month old puppy is 35lbs and according to the bag should only get 1.75 cups and I usually give her more (2-3 cups at max) on days we are super active. Has the puppy been dewormed? I personally wouldn't worry about him being too thin unless you can see his ribs. If you want to you can feed him green beans and cooked sweet potato either with his meals or between his meals. They are low cal and filing. Mastiffs aren't large breed dogs but rather giant breed dogs and ideally should be on a quality adult or all life stages food with the appropriate amounts of protein,calcium and phosphorus. Generally the better the food, the less you have to feed. He is a gorgeous boy and going off that picture looks perfectly healthy. Good luck!

---------- Post added at 11:01 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:09 PM ----------

Oops sorry just realize you said it was a she so my apologies.

 

[Smart_Family]

Oops sorry just realize you said it was a she so my apologies.

 

[Cody]

It depends on the dog.
Cribs has been on 5-6 cups of food a day since she was 4 months old give or take, and she is lean.
As long as your dog is healthy and not over weight I wouldn't worry about the amount, some just need more then others.

 

[shelby2535]

Aw what a cute picture. I had the same issue. My french mastiff as a puppy would eat so much but looked sooo skinny, I got asked once if I was feeding him enough lol I was like he eats more then me! He eventually filled out.

 

[northernmastiff]

How often are you feeding her in a day? If you make her meals smaller and more frequent, you may find that she isn't eating as much or eating the same amount but looks filled out. Our old dog, Zodian would look like he was being starved if we missed a meal by even an hour. He was just that lean of a dog. When we went back to feeding him three times a day (same amount that we always fed him just split into three) we found that he didn't look like he was being starved to death. Not sure about the food amount but my 13 week old EM is eating 5 cups a day right now (over and above training treats and other treats). She'll actually stop if she has too much in her bowl.

 

[Honor Pup]

Nice looking pup. She looks well, at her age if she is active she just seems to want to eat all the time is a good sign.She's to young to fill out yet,she's just growing up.Givering her vegtables and sweet potatoes as treets is good, won't hert her a bit. Just watch her grow up into a great dog. You'll only love her more.

 

[jillbenn]

I agree with the others- she looks nice and healthy! Asl ong as she is playful and acting normally, I wouldn;t worry too much.
I think every dog os different. Our 9 week DDB only eats 2 cups a day if I am lucky.

 

[cpedreschi]

Thank you everyone! We think she is awesome and we aren't too worried about her, but just wanted to make sure we shouldn't worry more. She eats 3 times a day, 7:00 am, 12:00 pm and 5:00 pm and we split up the food evenly over those meals. She seems very healthy, just a little too skinny, but as many of you have said, hopefully she will just fill out with age. She has an amazing personality and we are so happy we got another mastiff!

 

[dpenning]

How often are you feeding her in a day? If you make her meals smaller and more frequent, you may find that she isn't eating as much or eating the same amount but looks filled out. Our old dog, Zodian would look like he was being starved if we missed a meal by even an hour. He was just that lean of a dog. When we went back to feeding him three times a day (same amount that we always fed him just split into three) we found that he didn't look like he was being starved to death. Not sure about the food amount but my 13 week old EM is eating 5 cups a day right now (over and above training treats and other treats). She'll actually stop if she has too much in her bowl.

What are you feeding? When I go over what the bag recommends she gets runny stool.

 

[Smart_Family]

What are you feeding? When I go over what the bag recommends she gets runny stool.

And you will find with most dogs that are overfed that they will have diarrhea. I learned that lesson the hard way with my lab way back when we were trying to find a food that worked for him.

 

[dpenning]

Yep, it was news to me. It has gotten better but not what it should be. I'm going to work through my current bag then try something else. I've never had a dog who had a delicate stomach before. Trough feeding of Iams and they all had normal poops. Now I feel like the poop patrol. LOL