I have a two year old pointer who is very active to say the least, he is constantly on the go (either on walks or at home) He also goes running with my husband and they have started to compete in some races (canicross) - the problem is that I am having trouble keeping weight on him.

He eats nutro performance food (two meals a day - a little more than the recommended amount) but generally you can still see his ribs, sometimes he looks better and seems to have put on a bit of weight but I can never get him to keep in on...i dont really want to change his food from nutro as I am quite happy with it but do you think that I could add something to his food to try and put a little bit of weight on him?

I realise that it is a complete food but someone recommended that puting oil (sunflower?) on the food might help...

I know a few pointers, and being very lean while young (anythingunder 4) seems to be very common.  As long as he is fit and in good condition don't worry about him being a bit lean.

pointers are supposed to be lean, they are not supposed to carry any excess weight and I would be quite comfortable if I could see his ribs if he were mine. if he is fit, active and full of go relax; wish I was the same :D

I would much rather that he stays lean but some people (ok not very knowledgable people) have said 'oh isnt he skinny', he is not really to skinny but you can see his ribs and some of his back bone - sometimes more than others - I suppose I worry too much...perhaps I should worry about myself and aim to have a body like his - lots of muscle and very little fat!

A lot of people think my dogs are thin; they are not, they are fit; there is a difference; unfortunately as many dogs, like people, are carrying more weight than they should the podgier examples are considered correct :D

Seeing no-one has bothered to answer your question,i will try to :) I do beleive you when you say you think your dog is too skinny.

it is very difficult to put weight on a dog feeding JUST a commercial food,you will need to add some fresh stuff to go along with it,such as; green tripe,lamb flaps,suit(from butcher)beef dripping,full fat cottage cheese,you can mix these in with the kibble. raw chicken necks with fat on, raw chicken wings,buy cuts of meat that are relatively fatty and make up a few or more meals a week of meat,whole wheat pasta, brown rice or potato,pumpkin,sweet potato,for desert give a meaty bone such as the above or a turkey neck.

There is a great recipe floating about on the net which claims to be able to put weight on a dog in a matter of days,alot of show goers use it to beef up their dogs before show day.Type "satin balls recipe" into your search engine and it will come up with heaps of sites that carry the recipe.

god luck

christine

Thanks very much for that Christine, I will definately give some of those a try - being a vegetarian to me it sounds quite revolting but I am sure my boy will love it! I will be sending my hubby off to the butchers, I will get the cottage cheese!

I am now off to check out that recipe!

No worries,glad to help :)

I know how you feel,i'm not a huge fan of meat either,but when youv'e got dogs i spose you have no choice ;) I promise, you do get used to it,i used to balk when i had to handle raw liver or green tripe but now it doesnt bother me in the slightest,i dont even wretch when liver cake is baking in the oven anymore.

If you have any more questions please dont hesitate to ask,one of my dogs came to me an undernourished bag of bones,so i know how you feel and i have tried just about everything to get her to gain the weight she needed.

christine

I have 3 pointers and they are very lean and people do say they are too skinny.  They work for up to 6 hours a day so they ain't carrying any fat on them for a reason :-D

Anyway, when we do need to put a little bit of weight on them, we use a bit of groundnut oil poured on their dinner.  This also gives them more energy for their work so you may end up being a bit too active.

Helen

Hi Helen,
Is the oil called "groundnut" or can you use sesame,peanut or any oil made out of nuts?

christine

It's groundnut and you can get it in Tesco's.  Not sure about using the others.

Helen