1happyemma
Member
I have a 1 1/2 year old female mastiff that has been through two heat cycles, she's AKC registered and I was waiting to see how she turned out before I did anything with her or got her fixed. (That's a different post though!)
My other female mastiff gets chubby easier, but she's a year older, and my mastiff mix (fixed) male gets chubby quite easily too.
She's the first dog i've ever had that no matter how much I try to feed her, she's lean.
She runs all day, digs all day, plays and romps around all day. She's very sensitive to the texas heat, and she got spoiled, in the summer to get her to eat, i'd put yogurt on her food, or mix in broth to make it taste better so she'd eat it. to *me* she's way to skinny but my husband said she looks fine to him, just lean.
She's the first skinny mastiff i've had, and not for lack of effort on trying to bulk her up a little bit. She's perfectly healthy chemically, no thyroid issues or vet-trip worthy problems, and very active. I know they can continue to bulk up until age 3, but I guess I just want to hear from other mastiff owners that she's "fine" and to stop stressing about it.
To me, she looks more like a great dane then a mastiff right now- she's tall and skinny! From the side she doesn't look so bad, but from the top, I can see 3 ribs instead of two, which to me seems to skinny - Any tips on helping her bulk up a little bit? she's solid muscle under her wrinkles, so it's not a mass issue. She can run circles around our other mastiffs who drop after walking around the block. She's that athletic.
(as you can tell, she's really bright, she knows how to open gates.)
She definitely is picky about eating when it's hot which in texas is hard, she hates when it's too hot, or too cold, but she gets bored sitting in the house all day and wants to go outside and dig and play with the toys and the kids, which is great when it's not 110.... I've had to work hard to keep weight on her, if she chooses not to eat for a few days, she drops weight really fast.
She's a picky eater and she's not a pushy eater. (all three of our dogs are fed separately so there's no stress while eating, but half the time she leaves her food completely untouched.)
We feed 3x a day in smaller amounts since she won't eat a larger amount in one sitting. (that was one way to get her to eat a little more.)
I dewormed her too, to make sure that wasn't the issue... but so far, this just seems to be her norm.
My other female mastiff gets chubby easier, but she's a year older, and my mastiff mix (fixed) male gets chubby quite easily too.
She's the first dog i've ever had that no matter how much I try to feed her, she's lean.
She runs all day, digs all day, plays and romps around all day. She's very sensitive to the texas heat, and she got spoiled, in the summer to get her to eat, i'd put yogurt on her food, or mix in broth to make it taste better so she'd eat it. to *me* she's way to skinny but my husband said she looks fine to him, just lean.
She's the first skinny mastiff i've had, and not for lack of effort on trying to bulk her up a little bit. She's perfectly healthy chemically, no thyroid issues or vet-trip worthy problems, and very active. I know they can continue to bulk up until age 3, but I guess I just want to hear from other mastiff owners that she's "fine" and to stop stressing about it.
To me, she looks more like a great dane then a mastiff right now- she's tall and skinny! From the side she doesn't look so bad, but from the top, I can see 3 ribs instead of two, which to me seems to skinny - Any tips on helping her bulk up a little bit? she's solid muscle under her wrinkles, so it's not a mass issue. She can run circles around our other mastiffs who drop after walking around the block. She's that athletic.
(as you can tell, she's really bright, she knows how to open gates.)
She definitely is picky about eating when it's hot which in texas is hard, she hates when it's too hot, or too cold, but she gets bored sitting in the house all day and wants to go outside and dig and play with the toys and the kids, which is great when it's not 110.... I've had to work hard to keep weight on her, if she chooses not to eat for a few days, she drops weight really fast.
She's a picky eater and she's not a pushy eater. (all three of our dogs are fed separately so there's no stress while eating, but half the time she leaves her food completely untouched.)
We feed 3x a day in smaller amounts since she won't eat a larger amount in one sitting. (that was one way to get her to eat a little more.)
I dewormed her too, to make sure that wasn't the issue... but so far, this just seems to be her norm.