Kobe’s Dad: have you considered an intolerance to one of the ingredients in his food? That would certainly cause diarrhea. If there is a kibble he tolerates, even the prescription diet, compare ingredient lists to look for differences. If he hasn’t yet done well on anything, maybe you could try a couple of the limited ingredient kibbles (one at a time!) to look for improvement with the elimination of things like different grains, potatoes, or protein sources. I would give each a couple weeks to look for improvement. Have you tried adding probiotics and enzymes, as I plan to do for my guy with diarrhea per Patty’s suggestion? As far as kibble amounts go, I would take your breeder’s advice as a general guideline only if feeding the same food the breeder was, as calorie counts vary so greatly. If switching brands, the manufacturer’s recommendation based on your puppy’s weight is more useful. And the 6 month cut off seems arbitrary. Consider how much growth happens between 2 months and 6 months – I’m sure he wasn’t close to 80 lbs when you got him! They need to get more food slowly and continuously as they grow, based on their weight and activity level. And 3 cups a day seems very low for an 80 pound puppy. My guy gets 3 cups/day and he is only 20 lbs! If your food is around 400 kcal/cup, I’d expect Kobe to need something around 7 cups a day. I think the 6 month mark is a good time to switch from feeding 3 times per day to 2 times, though; just divide the total amount of food daily by however many meals you are giving. Maybe the breeder feared people would keep the meal size the same and start feeding 1 cup a meal twice a day rather than increasing meal size with the decreased frequency? But remember that they’re general guidelines, and individual needs will vary. You wouldn’t expect 2 of your patients to eat the exact same number of calories, fat, and protein just because both were 55 year old males. And about the vomiting after brown rice: I would strongly advise against getting your dog anything from a Chinese restaurant, no matter how good a restaurant. There is a lot of cross-contamination in restaurants, so you never know what you are actually exposing him to, even in tiny amounts, that could cause problems. A bag of rice is cheap and readily available, and it cooks up easily. For diarrhea I would stick to white rice, though, as it is more easily digestible. I hope some part of this ramble helps.
