Dog Has Stopped Eating!

[sanders84]

We have a 9 month old male great dane, who over the last couple weeks has lost his appetite. He is very large, and comes from a line of danes who regularly top out over 200 pounds. He was eating around 12 cups of food a day, but now we are lucky if he eats 2 cups. I tried adding water, and that helped for one meal but then he wasn't interested in that the next day either. I added canned dog food, and that only helped for a day. He has always been a slow eater, but not eating is definitely something new. Taking him to the vet this afternoon to make sure it is nothing serious....any other suggestions???

[Hiraeth]

My puppy slowed down around 9 months old as well. Definitely get him checked by a vet, but if he's not in poor body condition and continues to not have an appetite, just put his food down for 15 minutes and then pick it back up.

As a side note - overfeeding won't cause him to grow any faster or larger than he's naturally meant to. It will just make him fat. I know ONE Dane who is over 200 lbs and isn't overweight, and he's somewhere around 40" at the shoulder. Anyone who says that their lines regularly top out over 200 lbs is either breeding hyper types, is exaggerating, or has some very overweight Danes running around. Danes aren't meant to be that size. They're supposed to be lean and fast giant athletes.

Bigger ≠ better.

[kahluadanes]

We have a 9 month old male great dane, who over the last couple weeks has lost his appetite. He is very large, and comes from a line of danes who regularly top out over 200 pounds. He was eating around 12 cups of food a day, but now we are lucky if he eats 2 cups. I tried adding water, and that helped for one meal but then he wasn't interested in that the next day either. I added canned dog food, and that only helped for a day. He has always been a slow eater, but not eating is definitely something new. Taking him to the vet this afternoon to make sure it is nothing serious....any other suggestions???

First it is not typical for Danes to "top out over 200 pounds" Secondly what are you feeding? Glad you are taking to the vet.. a sudden loss of appetite often signals a medical issue.

[21softballstar]

I agree. Danes don't really top over 200 lbs frequently. I, too, know of only one dane from a reputable breeder who is 211 lbs, but he is 39 inches at the shoulder. Other than that, most males Danes are between 130-180, and that's when they are full grown.

What are you feeding? Have you kept this food his entire 9 months (or 7 months, since you brought him home and if you switched foods then)? If the vet says there is nothing wrong with him, I would just put his food down for 15 mins, twice a day, and if he doesn't eat it, pick it back up. Soon he will get hungry enough that he will decide to eat. Willow became picky at 9 months as well. Went from 6 cups to barely 2. It helped that I didn't make such a big deal out of it and that I went from feeding three times a day to feed two times a day. Now she eats her entire 2 meals, about 4/5 cups.

[sanders84]

To answer the questions about the danes "topping out at 200", the breeder we go him from is very reputable, and we visited her farm and saw the other danes. They weren't "fat", they were tall lean and huge. I don't want anybody to take this thread the wrong way. I am not worried about my dane eating so that he can be HUGE, I am worried because he went from eating regularly to not interested at all.

We have fed him the same line of kibble since we brought him home. Its Holistic Select, large/giant breed formula.