Feeding

[thugulike]

My English Mastiff is now 19 months old and he weighs 15st 10lbs (100 kilos). I stopped buying puppy food a few months ago and now use Fromm Gold Adult. He also gets 2 kilos of dried pasta (cooked), 2 roast chickens and a whole pig liver (cooked) as well as fruit and veg. Should I still be giving him 3 meals a day? I thought he had stopped growing but recently he has been hungry and has sqeaked for more food after his intial meal. Mastiffs are not greedy dogs and he wouldn't normally ask for more, in fact he may not even eat all his food. He has recently been checked over by our vet and he is very healthy and he walked up Hellvellyn last week so he is fit.

I don't want him to be a fat mastiff though. Are 3 meals per day still required if he is still growing? And should I carry on with the carbs? Tried to contact the breeder but no response as yet.

[terambulan]

Overfed and will suffer heart & arthritis problems.

Leave out the carbs, pasta & fruit and feed only meat, preferably on the bone - for his teeth. Once per day - 1 rabbit or similar sized meal. Scale feeds down over 2weeks.

[lankeela]

Most 'normal' (lol) dogs would drop to two meals a day at a year old. Giant breeds however do keep growing until they are at least two years old, so I would continue the three meals at least until then. Gradually make the morning and evening meals a bit bigger and lessen the lunchtime one, but check with Glyn to see how they feed theirs.

Glad I only have four littlies to feed.........

Don't have him overfat for Crufts!

[thugulike]

Thanks lankeela. that's what I'm worried about. He is moving nicely for all the weight he's carrying. His Dad weighs 16 stone and Glynn said George would make a bigger dog. I think I may replace some carbs with fish as well. I have cut down the size of his lunch. I forgot to mention, he also has 2 marrow bones each week supplied by our local butcher. These have helped, not only with his teeth, but also have developed the muscles on his neck. I managed to get a collar to fit him yesterday which is difficult with a neck measuring 32". LOL

[kita1]

He sounds very healthy to me!!!!

You must be doing something right if he can walk up Hellvellyn!! Don't think he is going to be carrying much fat if he can do that.

Don't know if you are into forums, but this is quite a good one for molosser breeds (they do alot of rescue work too):

http://z11.invisionfree.com/molosserbreedspart 2/index.php?act=idx

You do have to post an intro. before you can see the full forum (due to idiots and spam etc), but they are friendly and there are lots of mastiff owners on there.

[Rosetta]

Thugulike, I can't answer your question but had to say what a whopper of a dog. I bet he is as daft as a brush as well.

I hope he doesn't sit on your sofa, you would have no chance nudging him out of the way LOL

I love bib dogs. If I had the money and the space I would love a ST Bernard.

Rosy xxx

[jules77]

Crumbs, that is one humungous fella.

Look forward to meeting him........at Crufts?

[lankeela]

I contacted Kim Dodd (Heffalump Mastiffs) and this is the reply:

hi Jacky, by all means pass on our email address, he should be on just 2 meals a day by now, we always find it best to avoid high protein foods especially complete, and feed tripe and plain biscuit twice daily, if tripe is not desireable then minced chicken etc can be fed instead. Glyn is quite a hard person to get in contact with !
hope you are well
regards
Kim and the heffalumps.

Her email is [email protected]

They got Best of Breed at Crufts last year.

[thugulike]

Hi Rosetta
Yes is is soft. He is a pleasure to take out. We used to have rotties but found that many people crossed the road rather than walk past you and that took a lot of the pleasure out of owning them. George walks towards people with his tail gently wagging and people walk towards him smiling. He has small children and little old ladies hanging off his neck and he loves it. He loves to be the centre of attention. He doesn't know he get on the sofa/bed as he's never tried. He has to be the best behaved pup ever, we have no problems at all with him at all.

Hi Jules
Yes, we have entered Crufts, see you there.

Hi Lankeela
I have met Kim and know her dog. He is a very showy dog and I can understand why he's done so well. We met her at the OEMC show in August where I broke my ribs and Easter Parade was robbed of BOB. I will now go to 2 meals a day and start to wean him off the pasta. Aldi will have to issue a profits warning! I did try him with plain biscuit but he wasn't at all keen as a pup. I may try him with a small bag and see if he'll take it now. Many thanks for all your efforts. Glynn will reply eventually but he is manically busy.

[ytrewq]

Chester our st bernard has 2ib of tripe a day and 4 large cups of complete food. He as just turned three. The worsed thing about tripe is a) trying to defrost it in the freezing temperature - it is not coming into the house b) getting a good , cheap supplier

[thugulike]

The beautiful one has been outside in his kennel all day as I have a painter in. He has had no lunch (George, not the painter). The new regime starts here. I'm going to cut down the pasta and chicken slowly. He should do just fine on Fromm and a few little treats occasionally. My its been lonely and quiet today. I do miss the snoring.

ytrewq - do you feed the tripe which includes the lungs/ lights we used to call them? I'm a butchers daughter but that stuff turns even my stomach. Haven't seen real honeycomb tripe around here, ever. I buy chicken from Aldi which is cheap and British and get the liver free from the butcher.

[ytrewq]

I'm not to sure whats in the tripe - don't tend to get that close- but theres some very strange looking bits in there. It comes in small bags containing 1lb so we just get two out very day to defrost. Chester loves the stuff, really good for keeping weight on.

[lankeela]

AMP Prize Choice do bags of freeflow tripe, as well as other meats, available from bigger pet shops, but with the amount you would use they would deliver if you ordered direct. It is in chunks the size of pony cubes, and defrosts easily. I use one of the enamel casserole pots with a lid on and you can take out as much as you like. It does not smell like the whole tripes you used to be able to get from slaughterhouses.

http://www.prizechoice.co.uk/

[thugulike]

George was reared on the whole tripe. My Dad used to bring it home and Mum used to boil it up in an old washing boiler. Euck I can smell it now. I get all my meat from local sources and am suspicious of anything when I don't know the origin. I am a firm believer that dogs can get mad cow disease if they are fed on infected beef over 30 months old. Mind you I never believed the Americans landed on the moon in 1967. Maybe I'm just a bit odd? I'll have a word with my butcher as he wouldn't charge for the tripe anyway. I wonder if it would cook in the microwave?
George isn't exactly wasting away on 2 meals a day so I think the time was right. He's inside with me today. Do you think I could start a trend for dark mahogany paintwork with camel coloured fur stuck on? Could be trendy?

[lankeela]

Feed the tripe raw - pefectly ok and no smell. One greyhound trainer I worked for used to just throw the dogs a big section of tripe and let them rip it up themselves instead of feeding it minced or chopped up.

[thugulike]

Thanks lankeela. He's never had raw meat and I'm not sure how he'll react. I get free minced venison from the local farm and they feed their dogs with raw meat but I've always cooked it first. Worth a try though. George wouldn't rip into anything I'm afraid, he's just not that sort of dog. This is the dog who would dribble more for an apple, or it was strawberries last night, than he would for meat. It was the first full day of the new regime yesterday. My he tucked into breakfast this morning!