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I am new to Doberman myself. I was told by my vet that Ash’s ears are standing fine…
How much does your pup weigh?
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Many times, the dog's ears tend to droop during teething, even if they were standing well earlier. That is why we recommend you post ears until they are 6-7 months old (depending on the dog, of course, sometimes you have to post significantly longer). Once you stop posting, if you find that you need to start posting again, it's a lot harder to get the pup to accept posts again.
The "Large Breed" part of the Pro Plan line is relatively new--and I feed the same thing I've always fed the regular ProPlan line (used to be called "Focus"--now labed something like "Special..." I prefer the Sensitive Skin & Stomach (Salmon and rice formula) to any of the chicken formulas--but I've fed both.
And I've been switching puppies to adult food at around 5 months (unless, like one of my pups, they had been weaned on to the an adult formula as soon as they were past eating gruel.)
As far as I can tell (based on the fact than when I started feeding ProPlan there wasn't an ALS --only puppy or adult--and I went from a puppy formula directly to adult and fed it throughout the life of the dog so I asked a vet who kind of specialized in nutrition about that and he said that most of the ALS formulas were virtually identical in the base formulation and differed mostly in the recommendations for how much to feed the dog. So I stopped worrying about it.
dobebug
And I've been switching puppies to adult food at around 5 months (unless, like one of my pups, they had been weaned on to the an adult formula as soon as they were past eating gruel.)
As far as I can tell (based on the fact than when I started feeding ProPlan there wasn't an ALS --only puppy or adult--and I went from a puppy formula directly to adult and fed it throughout the life of the dog so I asked a vet who kind of specialized in nutrition about that and he said that most of the ALS formulas were virtually identical in the base formulation and differed mostly in the recommendations for how much to feed the dog. So I stopped worrying about it.
dobebug
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Do you find that you have to feed more adult food than puppy food? Or less? (in terms of cups). Since our pup is kind of thin I'm wondering if switching to adult will require him to eat more or less of it
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You would need to look at the individual formula you are considering, but many (most?) of the Purina adult foods are "all life stages", which includes puppies.
For example, if you look at what I feed, Proplan Sport 30/20, it is an all life stages food: https://www.purina.com/pro-plan/dogs/dry-dog-food/sport-performance-30-20-high-protein. It is formulated to be safe for puppies. As far as how much you'd feed, you would need to compare calorie content from what you are feeding now, to what you are considering feeding. For example, it looks like your formula (large breed chicken and rice puppy), is 419 calories/cup. My formula, Sport 30/20 chicken, is 484 calories/cup. So you would feed LESS of the Sport 30/20 if you wanted to feed the same amount of calories.
That's something that often trips people up when they switch foods...they are surprised when dogs gain or lose weight, but a cup is not necessarily the same across the board. Calorie contents vary widely from formula to formula.
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Is this the sensitive stomach food that was talked about - which may be what I would switch to when he's 6 mo old (if it works out):
![Felidae Carnivore Lion Liver Big cats]()
He's currently on a 50/50 mix of the Pro Plan Large Breed Puppy and the Purina Gastroenteric food because his stools weren't great recently. We want to switch to a steady food that will work well for him. He eats 3x per day and gets about 1600 calories daily, and is still somewhat thin. Not overly, but I see his ribs sometimes when he sleeps.
![Dog Comfort Dog breed Carnivore Couch]()
He's currently on a 50/50 mix of the Pro Plan Large Breed Puppy and the Purina Gastroenteric food because his stools weren't great recently. We want to switch to a steady food that will work well for him. He eats 3x per day and gets about 1600 calories daily, and is still somewhat thin. Not overly, but I see his ribs sometimes when he sleeps.
I now have a 15 yr old Yorkie, yes I know a big difference from a Dobie.
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He looks terrific, perhaps a tad thin but would definitely not over feed him. Perhaps just 1/4 cup more/feeding and see how he does. I fed my girl 3X/day until 1yr then 2X and 2 cups per. Remember Dobies grow tall for about the first yr and then fill out plus exercise has to be included in the equation.
I now have a 15 yr old Yorkie, yes I know a big difference from a Dobie.
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Totally agree with other response weight looks but bridge too tight. I would remove it entirely and see how they stand. If even closer to 11 and 1 o'clock s/b fine.
I got my puppy at 4.5 to 5 months. She was kind of petite. I fed her 4 cups of food s day through mid January. She had a pretty large growth spurt in Dec, but mid Jan/ 7 months, she weighed about 45 pounds. Now her growth rate has slowed and vet also thinks I can drop to 3.5 cups a day. She might just be a petite doberman.
She was spayed at 3 months so I really have no clue what her growth projectory is. She looks good, just a little small. She’s about 75% Doberman (just looks pure blue doberman), and trace amounts medium and large breeds. She looks good, she’s healthy, she’s just a little petite in spite of eating quite a bit. I will try gradually switching her to this Purina food recommended by lots of folks here
![Dog Dog breed Carnivore Grey Fawn]()
She was spayed at 3 months so I really have no clue what her growth projectory is. She looks good, just a little small. She’s about 75% Doberman (just looks pure blue doberman), and trace amounts medium and large breeds. She looks good, she’s healthy, she’s just a little petite in spite of eating quite a bit. I will try gradually switching her to this Purina food recommended by lots of folks here
Yes, at least that's the one I feed. And have fed through it's many name changes--it has basically remained the same food.
dobebug
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Yeah I took it off and the ears stand fine almost straight up. I am leaving them as is for now to let the hair grow back. The ears are almost white without hair…
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I used to get a lot of hair loss too but I started using powder on the outer ear fur and it made taking the tape off easier
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That’s a good idea. I will try it if I post again. What powder did you use?
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I use Gold Bond medicated powder regular strength, but you could even just use an unscented baby powder
How old did you say your puppy was? If he's under 6 months (because of what the teething does to ears) I wouldn't be leaving the ears unposted to grow hair back.
The hair will grow back under tape (and if you use Uni-Solve to remove the posting and taping you won't pull any hair out and using a lot of powder to make removing tape easier but also may affect how well tape stays in place when the ear is posted.
And over a lot of years of posting puppy ears I've found that it's much more effective to keep posting at least through six months (that's the point where most of the very active changes go on when teeth are being formed and baby teeth are being shed)--earlier than that you often find ears doing odd thing and/or drooping and it's really hard to get puppies who have been out of posts for even short periods of time to accept being posted again.
dobebug
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^^ Yes oops forgot to say - if the powder affects your taping then don’t use it! Unisolve is probably better - just personally don’t have a whole lot of it in my area
Ask at a pharmacy--it's the release product used in human medicine to remove "appliances" from skin. And I'm pretty sure it's one of the things that you can get via ordering from Amazon even in Canada.
It or something like it may go under a different name in Canada but for removing tape and any kind of skin glue it's the best way to get them off.
dobebug
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My Euro Doberman male is 61 lbs at just under 19 weeks. I'm hoping his growth slows growth. I feed him a mixture of Iams Large Breed Puppy and homemade food with vitamins - about 2 cups of Iams, 3-4 cups of homemade (ground turkey, carrots, broccoli, brown rice with Turmeric, coconut oil, flax seed, vitamin powder added). He was the largest male in his litter but very active. I plan to remove kibble once he's over a year and get vet approval.
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When you said "accept being posted again", do you mean allowing the ears to stand straighter again or they're going to become more unruly and irritated when trying to post/ have something wrapped around their ears again?
The reason I asked is because I have my 6-month-old pup back to full posting yesterday after noticing his left ear not standing as straight as the right. He was out of post for 3 days and had half-rod postings 5 days after (before going back to full postings). That is more than a week not having something pinned inside his ear. I noticed he was shaking his head more than usual yesterday and also this morning. Do you think he is just getting used to his full post again and not an early indication of ears infection?
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