Satin ball failure - ideas?

[gritsar]

We struggle to keep weight on our older GSD, Jax. Jax is 17 1/2 months old. He's been checked by our vet many times, as well as checked for parasites. There's nothing physically wrong with him, he's just super active and a picky eater. We have our 4 y.o. GS staying with us, he's in motion non-stop so Jax is as well. The child likes to run in circles just 'cuz he knows Jax will follow him in that circle. Get the picture?

Jax gets 4 cups of TOTW a day and since he's a picky eater, it's a struggle to get him to eat that much. It requires lots of encouragement on the part of my DH. Jax won't eat anything unless DH tells him it's okay.

So, we started adding satin balls to Jax's food about a month ago. He gets rougly 3 cups of satin balls a day. I was very hopeful, hearing all the praise of satin balls, but they really haven't helped. If anything Jax has put on maybe three pounds. We were hoping for 10.

We've about used up the last of the latest batch I made and are thinking about going to straight hamburger instead of the SBs. Any other ideas? Jax weighs about 85 lbs. now and looking at him you can clearly see that he needs about 10 more pounds.

 

[ChickFarmer]

I used to breed German Shepherds and they are slow to fill in their lanky frames. 85 dosn't sound bad for a dog that age.
Edited to ask is he 17 1/2 months or years old?

 

[RiverOtter]

We had the same problem with our Golden retriever from about 10 to 14 months. It was terrible. He had a growth spurt and grew right out of his fur, you could see the pink of his skin. He was so skinny, it was embarrassing to be seen with him - he looked abused. In the meantime, our beagle was growing obese eating the food that the Golden left in his dish. We could get about 5 cups of food into him on a good day he just didn't want it and once it was in him it seemed like it disappeared - he was sooo skinny. Yes, religiously wormed, vetted, etc.

What finally worked was 2 pounds of raw chicken a day. Organ meats when we could get them and about 3 cups (1 1/2 twice a day) of high quality kibble with whole milk, raw egg or yogurt to encourage him to eat it. LOL, and we stopped feeding the beagle until after it was clear Marley wouldn't eat anymore. If there were leftovers he got that, only on the rare days Marley finished did he get a meal in his own dish. He was starting to look like a stuffed sausage!

It took about a month of that for him to start showing decent weight gain. (lol, and for the beagle to begin to loose a little) Eventually he grew into himself and was beautiful. But until then, it was awful. It really looked like we fed the beagle and made the Golden sit there and watch!

 

[gritsar]

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He's 17 1/2 months old.

 

[gritsar]

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Oh my gosh, same thing here. Kane is huge and okay I'll admit it, a bit on the fat side. He gets Jax's leftovers, as long as there isn't too much left over. I just can't help myself where Kane is concerned. He eats with relish, then sits there looking pitiful, licking the bowl and sniffing around on the floor for more. He's not a fast eater. He takes the time to enjoy every morsel.
Okay, we'll try the chicken with yogurt on his kibble. He doesn't like eggs. Strange.

 

[PotterWatch]

We have a dog that is a picky eater as well. He often chooses not to eat his food at all at a feeding. He is definitely lean, but not unhealthy. He's a working dog (mushing), so I try to make sure he is getting enough calories to sustain his output. Luckily he likes eggs so he will eat a fair amount of his food if we put an egg on it. Other things he likes and will encourage him to clean his plate are oil and milk (raw). He is done growing at almost 3yrs old so we are just sustaining at this point.

 

[Crazyland]

If you remember I was feeding TOTW to my GSD's. I had to switch to Diamond naturals extreme athlete to get more calories.
I was having to feed 6 cups each a day to maintain 75lbs. I am down to 3.5 cups and they are at 80lbs.
The only thing I can suggest is use milk replacer for Jax. It has a super amount of calories.
Mace still has a thin frame compared to his brother Rex.

 

[Brindlebtch]

We have a friend who has a white GSD that does agility. This dog was like a black hole, it would eat everything and still was THIN - you could see all his ribs and hip bones. Really looked thin even though he had excellent care and the owner tried to put weight on. People at shows would ask if the dog was sick! At about 3 years the dog started filling out and now is very impressive looking and fully muscled and at a good weight. He was kinda of like a teenage boy - busily developing but looking thin until he hit maturity.

I really wouldn't worry. We also had a male who was a picky eater and Bill is also a picky eater. Suddenly at maturity they start filling out. Give him a couple of more years to fill out - and put little brother on a diet!

 

[cutechick2010]

I was reading this thread, and I am really curious right now-what is a satin ball??

 

[Rusty Hills Farm]

You ain't gonna like me!

Jax is healthy. He is a sensible eater who carries the amount of weight HE needs to carry. Period. Kane, otoh, sounds like he is the victim of the "food=pleasure" hangup and it will do him dirt in the end. Feed him what he needs and NO more. Do NOT allow him to clean up for Jax. That is more food than he needs and he WILL pay a penalty for it. Too much weight on too young bones is a formula for late-life problems. Dogs, just like people, can become gluttons if we let them.

I would SERIOUSLY work on allowing Jax to be the size he is predetermined to be and not try to "beef him up" to match Kane. It's not healthy for him. Some of us are genetically predetermined to be lean and lank and some of us fight the "battle of the bulge" every day of our lives. Jax is firmly in the first camp and it does sound like Kane is in the second one. IMO Kane is the one you should be worrying about. Ultimately obesity is far harder on the body and carries more nasty consequences than being underweight does.

JMO


Rusty