Hi all,

This time last year, my Henry weighed, I am ashamed to say, 39kgs :-(.  He also had stomach trouble and so I switched his food from Eukanuba to Burns and he is now a very respectible 32kg.  I cut out all his treats and purely fed the burns.

My prob now is that I don't want him to lose any more and I feel that he is just lacking something in his diet whilst continuing to lose weight ever so slowly but surely.  He does a lot of obedience training and is very active all day long.

I don't want to mess too much with his food because touch wood, no stomach probs to date and lovely firm poo's from him but I just want him to maintain his weight and not keep losing and give him a bit of ummf in his diet to compensate what energy he burns off training etc.

I guess what I am asking is, should I increase his Burns or is Burns going to be so lean that he continues to lose weight and therefore should I change brands but just watch his weight??

Any thoughts/help appreciated.

Em

I would just keep what you have him on and adjust the amount according to whether he gains or looses if you are happy with his current weight :)

Lucy
xx

I've just come off Burns for that reason, dog losing weight. The trouble with Burns is if you increase it too much it causes runny pooh. i did add frozen mince to her food though with no trouble, so maybe add something but just be careful and do it gradual.

I came off Burns for the same reason too.

I had my two retired greyhounds on a mix of the Burns Active (24% protein/20% fat) and the normal Burns but I had a job keeping weight on them depsite adding in frozen mince blocks (Prize Choice) every other day and adding Kronch FBO, Vit E and groomers EPO and Royal Jelly, etc. Decided that was silly and have had them on a ~26% protein/~16% fat Timberwolf food (at the moment Ocean Blue as I liked the grain free idea) as a complete with added veges and the 22%/12% fat Timberwolf Black Forest for every other day when they get some meat added - this variety has actually had the phosphorous levels altered so it is safe to chuck your own meat in.

I read the protein thread but still nervous to try the 36% protein/18% fat type (Wild n Natural) as all the stuff I read about retired racers harp on about less than 20% protein. Even racing feeds are usually only 28% protein, although greyhounds are actually one of the few breeds who actually get skinnier as they age rather than putting on weight, and do not carry much body fat!

The switch from Burns to Timberwolf had to happen quite quickly as I misgaged the length of time for ordering over Christmas (Zooplus were very good however as always), but their stools stayed nice and firm despite the rapid change over. Still need to tinker with the amounts to keep the weight right (has gone up a bit to much really!) and reduce the amount of poo - I always think if there is too much poo then they are not absorbing alot of it.

I have a 10 year old neutered male (Paddy), 7 year old speyed female (Frisby),  (both my father-in-laws) a neutered 6 year old male (Ebony) and a 5 year old intact girl (Stamford - who came into season today and so is currently sulking in the utility room behind a baby gate to contain the dripping a bit!) on it and so far so good. Even the fussy 10 year old is gobbling it down.

My only concern now is Ebony who depsite quistel, FBO, EPO, Royal Jelly still has the bald bum and thinning coat and scurf he developed a few months back - greyhounds do have something called bald thigh syndrome but he had such a great load of hair and won BIS at a companion dog club show in the summer. His thyroid is fine, but he is still moulting a lot and greyhounds don't moult! Currently trying Bob Grass skincure...!

Exactly the reason I took my WSDs off Burns and they are now on CSJ Command Performance.  Burns is great for the losing of weight but I do find alot of dogs cant seem to sustain weight on it.  Shame really

My three Bernese have no trouble keeping weight on fed on Burns fish and raw green tripe, nice firm poo's too. In fact one of mine can live on fresh air and just one burns bicky extra and she gets fat, try telling OH that she  can survive on the small amount she gets quite happily, he is always trying to give her a bit extra so I always feed the dogs to make sure he is not cheating, she is a very willing partner in this particular crime!!

What makes Burns such a lean food then?

Lower protein and oil than some other foods. It is also very likely breed specific - greyhounds generally burn up calories just sleeping (which they do alot of) - very high metabolism and my two are very active, and as I've said tend towards being underweight as they age, unlike Labs which have the opposite problem. A few months back though I needed to get weight off one of my father-in-laws dogs who looked more like a lab than a greyhound and Burns was perfect for that. I did like Burns for its ingredients etc best out of all the ones that were easy to get hold of in the UK though - what came out the other end was very good, and my two never once turned their noses up! Have heard good things about Timberwolf though so thought I'd give that a try. I do know of other greyhound owners who have their dogs on Burns and are doing fine - think mine are just very active - I do take them swimming, free running in the local nature reserve, and they endlessly do laps of the garden and play with toys, chew bones, etc etc all day long!

Thats the reason I changed from Burns,my dog was not just lean he was underweight,the nutritionists gave me a few different sacks free of charge to see if they made a difference but still my dog was underweight,in the end they told me to add cooking oil bolied chicken and veggies to his food,but I could not see the point in paying for a sack of food and then having to add other foods to a food which Mr Burns says should not be added to in any way or form,thats why as a last resort I changed over to raw