Hi,

Our retriever was struggling to keep weight on, she is 2 now, so we thought she would have filled out.

I wouldn't say she is underweight but she doesn't appear to be the correct weight either.

A couple of dog walking friends recommended feeding her pasta, tripe, liver etc.

She's quite taken to the pasta (she's been having it for over a week now), some days we give her dog biscuits with it and gravy and other days dog meat with it.

Can a dog live on pasta and remain healthy?

Hi cazf - Would you remain healthy if you lived on just pasta?  I'm no expert but I do know that carbohydrates are not a carnivores first choice ;)  If my dog were struggling to keep weight on for no obvious reason I would rule out any health issue's, maybe take a trip to the vet and ask their opinion (I think my mum's BC is a bit fat but vet say's she is just right!)  Make sure worming is up to date before setting about a suitable diet that the dog does well on - Obviously that is going to be your choice, once you have ruled out every other reason for her lack of weight - What was she fed on before?
Sarah
PS My dog loves a bit of tripe and liver (in small amounts) but she also gets whole rabbits, chickens, poussin, venison, hearts, lamb, fish, eggs, kidneys, ribs etc etc

Thanks for the reply, I'm a novice to owning my own dogs. Had them as a child but parents dealt with health issues etc.

She is off to vets for booster so we are going to mention it then.

Would pasta be good as an extra meal and dog food and biscuits as the main meal?

We have had her on pedigree & biscuits and pal & biscuits, but she didn't eat these that well.

Worming is upto date and been ruled out.

Hi cazf - thing is your talking to someone who generally wouldn't feed pasta :)  Only because it isn't a first choice food source for a carnivore - just because the dog is eating it doesn't mean its a good food source (I came to that conclusion after watching my hound tuck into fox crap :D).  Anyway!  My dog used to be fed JWB (way back in the day) she didn't eat enthusiastically and she had a dry coat so I had to look into something else and I now feed raw (after much research) - this works for my girl, she loves feed times, she looks fantastic , her coat is glossy and her poo's aren't large and offensive she also does very well with her weight - a little too well :rolleyes:.  I'm assuming you are feeding tinned pedigree/Pal with biscuit?  Look at what is in it, lots of unneccessary rubbish?  Have you tried Naturediet or naturesmenu?  You can get them in packs at PAH for instance - The lamb variety contains 60% lamb as well as carrots, ground bone, seaweed and vits + mins added - probably better then Pal?  I know many dog's that really love it and it doesn't contain artificial ingredients (both naturediet and naturesmenu have websites)  Hope this helps with some ideas?
Sarah :)

Hi,

We have some minced beef from PAH in a little packet we also did have some tripe.

She does eat these but we thought the pasta may help her better, plus she seemed to enjoy the pasta that bit better, or rather that should be she eats it better.

But I think I understand what your saying, pasta may help her gain weight whereas the beef, tripe product is probably far healthier.

Correct tinned with same range biscuits.

Many thanks by the way.

Hi Cazf, it may also simply be a case of feeding her more!  Those packs of mince, are they prize choice or AMP something like that?  Cos you can get bags of frozen mince beef with heart and tripe, tripe on its own, rabbit, chicken, lamb - quite a few variety's I think.  When my hound started her new diet I used my eye really to decide if she was getting enough!  I started feeding 3% of her bodyweight, it worked out about 700gms a day (which I split into two meals) I then walked up to the vet every Saturday morning for a weigh in!  If she went up I cut down - If she had gone down, I would have up'd the amount - It may be that simple?
Sarah :)
PS I do know of people who have fed pasta when their dogs have been unwell - as its bland.  I just wouldn't rely on it as a regular food source :)

Just to say thanks for your time.

Hi Cazf
What kind of retriever do you have?

I have labs and one is quite a fussy eater. He is very much working type and his weight is only just the average, whilst my show type are heavier.

My fussy eater, loves vegetables he will eat raw chicken, beef and mince beef, tripe, liver and kidney (all raw).  He loves pasta - but I don't give it that often as I don't think he gains enough from it.

I add stuff like Pilchards in tomato sauce (I know over 35 labs and they all love it), to his meal and he eats it.

However, sometimes, like people we have to accept the ground sheet we are working with. Your dog, like my boy, may never be a big eater  and may always appear on the just right side of lean and that is the way your dog is.

Hi Cazf,

I would stop giving pedigree and put him on something a little more healthier with less gross ingredients.

Pasta is fine to add to dogs meals as long as it doesnt make up the bulk of it.One thing that helped my underweight girl gain weight was marrow,buy the marrow bones from the butcher,get him to saw it lengthways,then scrape the marrow out and mix in with your dogs meals,marrow is very nutritious and dogs love it,green tripe is also good for adding body.

Christine

I certainly don't have anything against feeding raw but it doesn't fit into my lifestyle and circumstances at the moment.  My springer (working) was underweight and had very sensitive digestion until I changed him onto Autarky.  He increased his weight and as long as I don't expand his diet, his digestion is great although he will never be a dog who carries lots of weight.  The pros and cons of Autarky has been well documented in various threads but it works for my dog.  I do feed pasta occasionally (when there is extra left over from our meals) and my dogs like it but I wouldn't use it as a main source of food.

The only problem I had with Autarky was that my boys put on too much weight with it!! Apart from being a bit podgy they looked great on it ...would definately use it again if I were to stop feeding raw.
Might be worth mixing a bit of tripe in with the complete diet to help gain some weight.
Archer

Is it worth considering Autarky?

I'll mention marrow to OH when he gets home & see what he says.

Manxpat we have a golden retriever.

Thanks all

I would definately consider Autarky..it is a good quality food at an excellent price.
Archer

Be careful with Autarky, its main ingredient is cereal.  Go for better quality if you can such as James Wellbeloved, Burns etc etc

The problem with some dogs, especially some of our retrievers breeds, is that they are just destined to be a little bit lean and there is not alot you can do about it! I have Flatcoats, which I show and my young dog who is now 2 years old, has always had problems with weight.  He eats plenty and leads an active life.  His mother (6) and my other dog (8) have never had problems with weight, but Scout is just a little finer all through compared to the others.  Some dogs just need time and maturety to bring them on and retrivers should be slow maturing.  I have tried all sorts of foods to put weight on him.  They were reared on JWB and my others are on it too.  Scout has tried JWB large breed, Euk, Arden Grange (both went staight through him), Aurtarky, Beta,  high quality stuff and some not so high quality.  Then, about 3 mths ago, he got fed up with me messing him about and just stopped eating!  He is now on butchers tripe and pedigree mixer and is thriving on it!
Maybe your golden just needs time to grow up.

"Be careful with Autarky, its main ingredient is cereal. "

I thouht the best commercial dry dog foods that are available had a cereal as its main content. The one I feed has 55% rice compared with 30% lamb and I think this is an excellent food.
Sure by splitting the cereal into maize, wheat, barley, oats, adding some vegetable derivatives etc.  ... you can get the meat % to be the highest figure. Certainly the Burns and James Welbeloved have cereal as the main ingredient.

Robert are you being sarcastic???
Sometimes you just cant tell,some people do think what you described to be a good food!

But Christine, even you recommend Burns to people. And it has a high cereal content ...

Yes it has but not as high as some and not as the first ingredient,i cant remember but burns uses whole grains and not derivatives or fractions??
In an ideal world there would be no cereals in dog foods,like the one i'm about to start feeding(zero grains)the less the better,i think.

I stand to be corrected! I just had another look at the ingredients in Burns,and the first ingredient IS a grain
All this time i thought a meat was the main ingredient for some reason???

Sorry if I sounded sarcastic but its a  simple fact behind commercial dry foods. Personally  I think JWB and Burns are some of the better foods. Burns in particular because of using a single cereal. I use commercial foods but am not here to advocate one manufacturers over another as dogs and especially their owners are all  different in their needs.

No need to apologise :D

WHOLE grains are not a bad thing as long as they dont amount to more than the meat content of a particular food.

This thread seems to have gone a bit off topic!  To get back to the pasta.  I feed a small amount of pasta as their third meal of the day when I put my dogs to bed.  I add any table leavings to it, i.e. meat scraps and vegetables or a small amount of canned Butchers dog food.  If I want to put weight onto any of my dogs, I mix 1/2lb of green tripe to both their breakfast and evening meal for about a week.  This is guaranteed to do the trick!

I have always fed dry complete foods. I always look for a high % of whole grain, as a low % would generally mean that the food is filled with vegetable derivatives. You are very unlikely to find a dry food where the meat % is > 50% that is commercially viable.

For putting weight on a dog I tend to ignore the marketing blurb on the front. I tend to select the foods based on the ingredients and analysis on the back where the manufacturer has a clear labelling policy and select foods based on the needs of the dog:

Before adding things to the food, I have tended to look for  growth/stamina foods - i.e. those marketed for puppies/juniors/performance/ lactating bitches / underweight dogs / large breed growth.

The reason for this is that I only have a laymans knowledge of nutrition and have left the task of balancing the foods down to the nutritionist who work with the manufacturers. if you are going to trial things, you really need to give it a few weeks to see the results.

Just my opinion though

Hi Robert,
What make do you feed your dog.
Are you the same Robert who has a springer that chases shadows like mine, if so how are things in that department.
Sandie.

Hi Sandie

currently I feed Burns. I'm a different Robert - a Golden Retriever Robert with no shadow chasing.

Robert i have just started feeding a commercial food that has NO grains,absolutely NONE,notta one :D For the first time in my fussy dogs lives,they scoff it down,wheras before they would only eat "plain,no toppings" dry food if they were absolutely starving after holding out for 3 days with no food :(
It's called Evo,you can check it out at www.naturapet.com this company truly cares for the pets who eat their food,they do not advertise,only go by word of mouth and it's one of the top selling holistic foods in the U.S and here in Australia,they prefer to put their $$$ into the quality of their food rather than big hype advertising.

So you see,grains are unnecasary in commercial dry foods even tho the manufactures of low grade foods say they are ;)

Looks excellent if you can get it. I'm in the UK so will have to wait for it to reach over here.

Hi,

I feed jwb for my show Golden Retrievers,it is far better for dogs to be more shall we put it on the lean side than the other way ;-).
If your bitch does need a little extra than feed a good quality food such as JWB,bURNS or Royal Canin then mix a raw green tripe dont whatever you do cook it it will make yuo vomit :-D you won't need to this for long so be careful.

Also think how much exercise your giving the dog to how much your feeding a dog under 12 months should not be on vast amount of exercise so feed accordingly and remember all dogs weights are different look at your dog you should be able to feel the ribs BUT they should not be poking out or visible to the eye.Get used to looking and feeling over your dog not how much they weigh as such.
Too many people read numbres and not using a good eye to assess their dogs ,info on the back of feed is their as a guide only and so are the weights they give.

Briony :-)

Robert you have 2 foods in the u.k similar to innova-eaglepack and fromm gold- you can check them out and also order at www.postalpets.co.uk

A large group of people here campaigned to get natura pet foods over to Australia,Britain has twice the population as Australia,if enough people show interest then they may consider supplying,the only thing is they wont supply to big chain stores,or any pet shop who sells animals etc.