Welcome! What are you feeding and how much per day?

 

Blue Buffalo 1.5 cups 2 feeding times a day

 

I don't know how much you are trying to feed him per meal--at 9 weeks most of my male puppies are eating about 3 cups of kibble (divided into two meal) plus some extra's--like yogurt (a spoonful with one meal) and an egg (with a different meal (occasionally meat of some sort--if canned food only about a spoonful because not all dogs do well on canned food--even a small amount) by 12 to 16 weeks I've increased the kibble to about 4 cups per day (again divided into 2 meals).

If he is looking very underweight you might want to feed him three meals a day for a few weeks until you can only see the shadow of his ribs and his spine and hips bones are well covered.

What kibble are you trying to feed. I generally feed whatever the breeder was feeding a least for the first few weeks I have a puppy and then will slowly change it (if I don't thin the kibble is right for this puppy) to the kibble I want to feed.

dobebug

 

I’m feeding blue Buffalo at the moment with 2 feedings per day at 1.5 cups

 

Welcome to DT little buddy

He looks good to me

 

Is Blue Buffalo what he was eating when you got him from the breeder? If not he may not think the "new" food tastes as good as his "old" food what ever it was. If he's only a little thin and the Blue Buffalo is a new food for him I might find out what the breeder was feeding the puppies and buy a small bag of that to mix with the Blue Buffalo. Incidently--I didn't look at all of the possible puppy foods that Blue Buffalo produces but some of them really have protein levels that are too high for most larger breeds like Dobermans. The one I looked at was 31% raw protein--this is really too high for Dobe puppies and can affect bone growth.

Ideally a puppy formula for a Doberman would be under 26% and many breeders feed exclusively adult food as soon as the puppies have learned how to eat on a baby puppy formula.

I was kind of put off by Blue Buffalo's recent ads touting the addition of much more protein to their foods. But then I'm probably predjudiced because I've been feeding a different food for going on thirty years with great success for the puppies and dogs. But for large breed puppies more protein is not recommended for them.

dobebug

 

Is Blue Buffalo what he was eating when you got him from the breeder? If not he may not think the "new" food tastes as good as his "old" food what ever it was. If he's only a little thin and the Blue Buffalo is a new food for him I might find out what the breeder was feeding the puppies and buy a small bag of that to mix with the Blue Buffalo. Incidently--I didn't look at all of the possible puppy foods that Blue Buffalo produces but some of them really have protein levels that are too high for most larger breeds like Dobermans. The one I looked at was 31% raw protein--this is really too high for Dobe puppies and can affect bone growth. Ideally a puppy formula for a Doberman would be under 26% and many breeders feed exclusively adult food as soon as the puppies have learned how to eat on a baby puppy formula. I was kind of put off by Blue Buffalo's recent ads touting the addition of much more protein to their foods. But then I'm probably predjudiced because I've been feeding a different food for going on thirty years with great success for the puppies and dogs. But for large breed puppies more protein is not recommended for them. dobebug

What food do you recommend for dobb pups and what other supplements do you feed them to solidify their poo?

 

Since you just got your puppy, you should be seeing the vet this week. Ask them about it.

 

Our vet isn’t open til after the 4th so we are going after Tuesday 👍🏽

 

Find out what he was being fed at his breeder's and stick to that. I like to feed puppies 3x a day until 4 months old personally. Their stomachs are just not big enough to eat a lot of food in one sitting.

 

I would not be feeding Blue Buffalo--the dry protein levels in the puppy formulas all look too high. Talk to your vet about what to feed.

dobebug

 

What did the breeder say? What was the breeder feeding him? How did his vet exam go? I usually feed 1 cup 3x a day at that age.

 

it would appear they're going to the vet on Wednesday.

 

Ask your vet what is best to feed your puppy. My vet (and vet friends, and vet tech friends…) all steer clear of Blue Buffalo. The percentages aren’t good to start with and apparently they can vary greatly bag to bag.

I feed my Dobe pup Purina Pro Plan Large Breed Puppy. We started on the sensitive skin and stomach formula that he was on at the breeder’s when we got him at 11 weeks. She had me add water to one meal per day to soften it for him. He always ate all his food, but seemed to like the softened meal the most. If I remember correctly he was eating about 3 cups at that point. We increased by about 1/4 cup weekly, or whenever I thought he looked a little lean.

We switched to the chicken formula (still the Large Breed Puppy) two bags ago because the sensitive formula was on back order. Luckily I had enough to make the switch slowly. He’s actually doing better on the chicken formula than the sensitive skin and stomach one. He was super gassy on the sensitive stuff and we’ve noticed a huge difference since switching him.

He’s almost 6 months old now, 57lbs, and eats about 6.5 cups per day (3 cups per meal plus about a half cup that goes in my training pouch each morning). Sometimes we add some goodies like bone broth, yogurt, or eggs.

 

His weight looks pretty good in the pictures you showed, but it's hard to say when he is lying down. Do you have any pics of him standing? Puppies will go through chubby phases and then get lanky when they are actively growing, only to go back to chubby again until the next growth spurt.

You mention he has diarrhea? If he's not eating everything at every meal and has loose stools, that may mean you are over-feeding---BUT it doesn't sound like the amount you are feeding is out of line.

Since you just got him, he has had some major changes in his life, so the diarrhea could be him just settling down to his new place. A vet visit should help you catch the major things like worms or other obvious health conditions, so that's a good start.

I would definitely put him on a lower protein food--the higher protein food might not be what is causing his current problem (though richer foods have more chance of causing diarrhea than others do), but too high a protein in pups can lead you to some leg conformation issues and other developmental problems.