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Hi!! I was doing some research on dog food and stumbled upon this site. There are some GORGEOUS mastiffs on here! You should all be SO proud!

I adopted my girl Annabella, or Bella for short, a few months ago. She is an 8 month old English Mastiff. I have added a picture of her. It is a few months old but I am at work and it is all I have right now. I will have to add some more later.

She has been really slow to grow but is in excellent health....with one exception. OMG does she have gas! I have lived with English Mastiffs before but never smelled anything like this!!

Can anyone recommend a better brand of food I can switch to? I am desperate! LOL

With two English Mastiff puppies- they are on raw. I know a lot of people who oppose raw- but I believe that it's the best for my babies. There isn't major poop or farting issues. I switched when Theophilus, my boy, wouldn't eat. It's something worth looking into. There are many raw food sources out there. It's not the BARF diet- it's pure raw- bone and everything. My dogs eat: veal heart, everything chicken, cow liver and most cow parts, lamb liver, whole lamb parts, goat parts (I buy whole goats), pork, whole raw eggs, whole fish (herring is their favorite).
There is virtually no gas- maybe once every few days one lets out a poof...

Bella is beautiful, good luck with finding a food that works for her. That raw food diet sounds like alot of protein, can I assume you are also giving Theophilus vegatables ?

Personlly, I would never feed a raw diet. Think parasites, bacteria, spoilage and other problems. The quality of life, health and lifespans of dogs have been ever increasing as more awareness has been brought to bear on animal care and feeding. Why go back to the stone age to feed our pets?

Here's an excellent resource at a Mastiff forum for finding a quality food:Click You may have to register here to view this page but it's well worth it, it's Mastiff.org, a good forum to have access to.

Also check this out: Another good resource Click

We always add freshly cooked chicken, chicken broth, mashed yams and or chopped boiled eggs to keep our dogs' diets interesting, tasty and varied. They love it and are thriving on this diet.

Kahless was started on Innova Large Breed Puppy and then switched to Innova Large Breed Adult at about 8 months. He's now on Kirkland (Costco) Premium Lamb and Rice.

Regarding gas, it is a natural byproduct of digestion but more noxious and prevalent and foul when they eat beef. So we avoid beef and it's not quite as bad. We all get gas, the average person passes about a liter of gas a day usually in 15-25 ventings. These are big dogs, they eat, digest and pass gas. I've never heard of anyone successfully training a dog to go outside to pass gas but I guess there's a first time for everything.

I think Kahless turned out well on this diet, here he is at 16 months and 225 lbs:


I hope this helps, good luck with your Bella she looks like a sweetie.

Robin your boy just amazes me...he's lovely and you've inspired me to go to Innova LB Puppy food for Marvelous Marley .... as she seems a little skinny although my vet likes her that way !

I know this thread is older but thought I'd ad a few suggestions for other who may be having similar problems. Adding a tablespoon of plain live bacteria culture yogurt to their food can help with gas(not calorie reduced yougurt as artificial sweetners are not good for pooches). Also the black dog busquits, are made up of a bit of activated charcoal and can also help with gas.