For anyone who hasn't already seen my posts about Drum, I've spent the past five years since we got him trying desperately to find a food that both agrees with him (doesn't give him soft poops and make him lick his legs raw) and one he will actually eat. Usually once he turns away from a food it's hopeless. "Just leaving it" until he eats it never worked for him, he'd go 3 or 4 days without eating and it's a constant battle to keep meat on his bones (greyhounds are skinny anyway but he's a skinny greyhound).

Anyway, after our recent bout with the mystery stomach flu, I'm seeing something absolutely BIZARRE. Drum's appetite has not only returned, he's CRAZY about his food. This is the Duck & Potato we started a little while back. I'm now sprinkling slippery elm on his food, and he and Grip are getting 1 & 3/4 cups of dry plus half a can each of the D&P canned. He now starts begging for breakfast when I get up (unheard of!) and for dinner an hour before they are due to eat.

Drum's even started poking his skinny nose under the table where I keep the dog food bin and started prying the bin out, opening it up and trying to snack! Last weekend we heard a strange noise and found him in his crate with several empty dog food cans he pilfered from the recycling bin (which has a brick on top!!).

Needless to say i am THRILLED :D

Yea for him and you. Looks loke you finally found something that would work.:clap: :clap: :clap:

Awesome, awesome, awesome!!!! Fingers crossed it becomes normal for Drum!!!!

Thanks everyone. Don't know why the big change... perhaps the slippery elm coating his sensitive stomach?

Whatever it is I'm not about to look this particular gift horse in the mouth (so to speak ;) )! For as long as it lasts I can get some meat on his skinny bones to tide him through.

Congrats, ZenCat!

Have you heard about the greyhound that was at a rescue that was letting all of the other dogs out of their kennels after all of the employees left for the day? He would let himself out, go eat, and then open up each kennel one by one for each of the other dogs to get a snack. Needless to say, all of the publicity hype made this one wanted greyhound!!! (It was in this month's Family Dog-put out by the AKC...) Sounds like Drum's pulling the same!!

I have Nelson on the NB Duck & Potato as well but am still really unsure as to how much he should be getting. He's up to 65 lbs now at eight months. I've been giving him about 1 1/2 cups twice a day but after reading what you give the boys, I'm feeling this is too much. I may mix it up with some Merrill's from time to time or he gets some of the NB food roll in a kong when I leave in the mornings. In your opinion, too much? His spine pokes out but his ribs are a teensy buried.

Again, glad Drum's doing well!

That story doesn't surprize me a bit but it certainly is amusing. I was told that greyhounds aren't too bright, but Drum's breeder agrees with us that Drum got all the brains in his litter. His brother is apparently VERY big and VERY dumb (and very sweet). His mother and grandmother were quite bright I'm told. I'm not sure high intelligence is a good thing in a dog. He's very... clever about some things you wouldn't expect a dog to think about at all (like faking us out barking at the door and then jumping into our seats when we get up to check it out).

Do you have a picture of Nelson? So hard to say how much is enough/too much for an individual dog... they're so different with their own unique metabolisms! It also depends on how much exercise they get. My boys are getting half the exercise they do when there's not snow/ice on the ground :( My boys are actually getting about twice the calories (the canned food has the same calorie content as a cup of the dry) Nelson's getting, so it doesn't sound like too much to me.

At this point I can feel but not see Grip's ribs and spine. It seems like a good weight to me. I can see most of Drum's ribs and I should really only be able to see half of them. He's certainly not emaciated but he could use a couple of pounds.

And we certainly want them leaner rather than heavier.

Let's see a picture of him! :D

I am completely inept at posting pictures. Once I figured out Shutterfly, they said we couldn't use them anymore. If only I could figure out how to post directly from my digital camera?!?!?

Anyhow-I said "Merrill's" before when I should have said "Merrick's"-he gets a little here and there. Like your boys, he's not getting as much exercise as he was before-it's -5 with the windchill here. Doggy daycare begins next Monday which should offer some relief but we'll see.

I thought about switching him to Innova Evo but seeing as we switched not too long ago to NB, we'll wait and see. I'll get some pictures posted. Thanks.

Good work Drum! Plump up! ;)

Way to go Lisa! That's great news for you and Drum!!! :).

I hope you finally found your answer to keeping Drum's tummy happy :D.