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  • Welcome back!

    We decided to spruce things up and fix some things under the hood. If you notice any issues, feel free to contact us as we're sure there are a few things here or there that we might have missed in our upgrade.

Meet Moose the mid-puppy mastiff!

Detroitbassist

New Member
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He's 18 weeks old as of yesterday, loves everyone, and he just joined our pack 3 days ago from a home that put little work in with him. But hey, no bad habits to speak of, potty training and "sit" are a great start!

Fortunately he's bonding very well with me, and is praise & (highly) treat motivated, which is making basic obedience training go more smoothly than I had any right to expect.

Knowing that the obstinate phase is around the corner, we're focusing on the basic commands and heeling with a loose leash, while maximizing socialization.

His prior family gave us his vet record and unfiled registration, which we'll file once he's microchipped next week. Per the vet record, he's healthy, wormed, and had the full course of shots and boosters, and was 65 lbs a week ago.

Now that you've heard his life story, I need some advice. Last week, his former family asked the vet for a food recommendation, and switched him cold turkey to Diamond large breed puppy food. Likely due to the lack of transition, he's not had a solid bowel movement since.

I've been researching the food question to death, including some hours on this forum, but would love some breed-specific advice from you folks. Switching him GRADUALLY to an adult or all-stage kibble seems like the right move, but should I give him time to acclimate to the current food first or start the transition now while he's still in flux? I'm thinking of adding some rice to the current food for now, and/or pumpkin (which I'd never heard of using prior to this forum).

And of course, which food to switch to?

Moose thanks you in advance with a slobbery kiss!
 

Mike - Syris

Active Member
View attachment 63339
He's 18 weeks old as of yesterday, loves everyone, and he just joined our pack 3 days ago from a home that put little work in with him. But hey, no bad habits to speak of, potty training and "sit" are a great start!

Fortunately he's bonding very well with me, and is praise & (highly) treat motivated, which is making basic obedience training go more smoothly than I had any right to expect.

Knowing that the obstinate phase is around the corner, we're focusing on the basic commands and heeling with a loose leash, while maximizing socialization.

His prior family gave us his vet record and unfiled registration, which we'll file once he's microchipped next week. Per the vet record, he's healthy, wormed, and had the full course of shots and boosters, and was 65 lbs a week ago.

Now that you've heard his life story, I need some advice. Last week, his former family asked the vet for a food recommendation, and switched him cold turkey to Diamond large breed puppy food. Likely due to the lack of transition, he's not had a solid bowel movement since.

I've been researching the food question to death, including some hours on this forum, but would love some breed-specific advice from you folks. Switching him GRADUALLY to an adult or all-stage kibble seems like the right move, but should I give him time to acclimate to the current food first or start the transition now while he's still in flux? I'm thinking of adding some rice to the current food for now, and/or pumpkin (which I'd never heard of using prior to this forum).

And of course, which food to switch to?

Moose thanks you in advance with a slobbery kiss!

I feed my Boerboel pup Diamond Naturals Large Breed Puppy, he has a very sensitive stomach and we found no matter how we tried to transition him he would always have loose stools. We ended up fasting him for 24 hours and then gradually feed him small meals over 5 days till he got to his recommended feeding amount. That worked well for us!
 

Detroitbassist

New Member
We ended up fasting him for 24 hours and then gradually feed him small meals over 5 days till he got to his recommended feeding amount. That worked well for us!

Thanks, I'll look into that. The food question seems to be pretty common, we've just never had issues with it before.

On the positive side, he's progressing very quickly on basic commands and socialization. We've taken him to a great local dog park daily (with his west coast packmate), and the interactions have been great! He loves everyone and everything, and was 100% non-reactive the few times he was snarked at or puppy rolled.

Mouse is definitely a sweet, mellow pup, and we can't wait to know the dog he becomes!
 

Jeff Hines

New Member
I have a 16 week old EM and feed him the Diamond Large Breed puppy food. He seems to like it. We had stool issues and teh vet suggested increasing his fiber intake. That cleared things up for us. We also had to transition him off of chicken based food.