# Sleep dog sleep?



## bridget246 (Oct 26, 2011)

My dog's behavior suddenly became much better after I posted about it on this forum. Almost too good so I became a little concerned. She wasn't getting into much and didn't bite or nibble on us much. But maybe she just learned to stop?

Monday we had a very exciting day trick or treating. Tuesday comes around and the dog sleeps most of the day. I thought.. well.. maybe she's tired. Today she is sleeping even more. I can get her up and she will get up and play with me. Just not with as much energy as normal. Then after playing she will go back to sleep. She is eating and drinking fine. 

Bathroom isn't fine... but this is starting to become almost normal and is driving me insane. People on here gave me some pretty good suggestions on foods based off my experience so I brought a big bag of Acana fish. She's only been eating it for 5 days and her old dog food was all out so I couldn't go half and half. Her bathroom has been inconstant from solid to liquid like. I cut back her food intake from 4 1/2 cups to 3 cups when I started the bag and she hasn't complained about being hungry. She used the potty 3 times this morning and hasn't done it since. 

My entire house is sick and thinking maybe that the dog got something from us? I'm not sure. She isn't complaining at all or whimpering. Right now she is laying down staring at me outside the door. She isn't allowed in the computer room until I clean up all the expensive equipment I have all over the place... But I allowed her to open the door and watch me in here and she is happy with that. Trying to keep her out of her crate as much as possible today.


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## whiteleo (Sep 7, 2008)

I believe you are feeding her way too much food..... Don't go by the recommendations on the bag as those are to high. I would cut the amount down to half of what your feeding and see how that is. How big a dog is she?


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## bridget246 (Oct 26, 2011)

whiteleo said:


> I believe you are feeding her way too much food..... Don't go by the recommendations on the bag as those are to high. I would cut the amount down to half of what your feeding and see how that is. How big a dog is she?


A little over 50 pounds. Very active, minus today and yesterday because she didn't sleep much and didn't feel like running too much outside. I tried 2 cups a day and she complained loudly about that and tried to eat everything in the house. Kept her on 2 cups for 4 days in a row and she lost a lot of weight and her ribs could be seen clearly so I up'd it back to 3 cups a day. She has slowly gained her weight back and seems to be stabilized size wise. 

My dogs diet is a big experiment for me. I hate to have her go through it because there is a lot I don't know. I read a lot online and in books and asked tons of questions to my previous vet and it didn't really give me much to go on. Only thing reading up helped with me is how to phase questions to vets and what problem signs I should be looking for. At one time 3 cups didn't seem like it was nearly enough so we up'd it to 4 cups and then 4 1/2 a few weeks later and my previous vet recommend this(growth spurt I think). Then we lowered thinking that could be a problem and slowly broke it down to 2 cups which didn't seem to work and that is when I saw a ton of weight lost and a lack of focus from her. I had her back up to 3 1/2-4 cups and after reading this site I have sense moved back down to 3 and haven't seen any weight gain or lost in terms of the dogs ribs and energy level and figured I could keep it there. Of course she is still growing. Should I really risk moving her back down to 2 cups? 

But I feel weird talking about cups because I tried so many different foods and they all have different kcal's per a cup. I like real measurements. It also feels out of place to talk about this in the health. However, it is my understanding that most health problems are food related. Maybe I should have made this thread in food and diet instead. Still, should I be worried about her sleeping so much? I suspect I found the cause of her recent poop problem. I'm thinking it is the new treats, I don't know for sure so I'll keep it off of them and I'll know by Saturday if that is what caused it. I didn't give her a lot of the treats so I'm even sure if it could have affected her that much. 

My bag says I'm feeding her under the recommended amount for 1 hour a day of activity and she normally gets about 2 to 3 with me directly playing with her and walking her, this doesn't count anything she does alone. My vet tells me it could be a allergic reaction to something, aka chicken, however we have her on fish diet now. Unless it happened to be the duck treats. 

Sorry for all the spam. Over worried dog owner. Judging from Whitelo's response I'm assuming I don't have to be as worried as I was. I'm going to give it till Saturday and see how things are going. If the problems are still happening then I will make changes in her diet, aka lowering her food amount and or a trip to the vet. I have insurance so the vet trips aren't as painful.


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## cprcheetah (Jul 14, 2010)

When my golden retriever was on kibble she ate 1 & 1/2 cups PER DAY and she weighs 70#, the guidelines on the bag are just that 'guidelines'. How old is your dog? What breed? Every dog is different as to what they require, Ziva my min pin required about a cup a day of kibble, Zoey my chihuahua who weighs the EXACT same only required 1 tablespoon per day. Every metabolism is different. I base it off their BCS Body Condition Score and adjust from there. 
Body Condition Scoring Chart | College of Veterinary Medicine


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## bridget246 (Oct 26, 2011)

cprcheetah said:


> When my golden retriever was on kibble she ate 1 & 1/2 cups PER DAY and she weighs 70#, the guidelines on the bag are just that 'guidelines'. How old is your dog? What breed? Every dog is different as to what they require, Ziva my min pin required about a cup a day of kibble, Zoey my chihuahua who weighs the EXACT same only required 1 tablespoon per day. Every metabolism is different. I base it off their BCS Body Condition Score and adjust from there.
> Body Condition Scoring Chart | College of Veterinary Medicine


I think she is going to eat less when she isn't a puppy anymore. My German Shepard is 7 months old and a little over 50 pounds. At 2 cups a day she was way closer 2. At 3 cups a day she has been at a 3 on that scale. A month ago.. my timeline is all off. A little more than a month after she was getting 4 1/2 cups a day and she was still a 3. I have to ask why we are talking cups instead of calories? I seen foods that were over 500 calories a cup and foods that were lower than 300. They were all kibble. I don't understand how so many sites and people can blatantly state how much a dog should eat in cups when the actually amount of calories per a cup can vary so greatly.


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## Dude and Bucks Mamma (May 14, 2011)

Foods like Acana are very rich and dogs don't need to eat as much of it. I always rush to correct people when they think they need to follow the guidelines on the bag of any dog food.

My smooth collie is 78 lbs. He grew up on Pedigree... poor guy. The bag says that for his weight he should be eating 5 1/2 to 9 cups per day... He got 1 1/2 -2 cups per day. He even had a few extra lbs. On kibble he was 81 lbs and I still feel like he could lose another 1-3 lbs. If I had followed the bag's instructions he would be obese.

I would guess that the poop problem was the cold turkey switch to Acana along with too much food.


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