I have a working cocker pup, Barney, who is four months old.  I cannot keep any weight on him.  I had him on Burns minibites for a few weeks but he was constantly starving and looked thin, so I changed him onto CSJ Command Performance 27.  He seems to be getting even thinner, and I am feeding him around 600g of the food a day, divided into four meals, even though he weighs only around 5.8 kilos.  This large quantity obviously makes him poo a lot, although the consistency of the stool is fine.  The breeder is in our village and has another of the litter - Barney was bigger than this other pup when we originally got him, but is now significantly thinner (incidentally they both get exactly the same amount of exercise).  You can see his ribs quite clearly, which makes me feel really bad.   He doesn't need worming, either.   I'm taking him to the vets tomorrow, just to be sure that there isn't something wrong with him, though he does seem full of energy and has bright eyes and a nice shiney coat.  I'm anticipating that they will suggest putting him on Hills Science Plan, which I am not terribly keen on as I don't think the ingredients justify the cost of this product.  I wondered if anyone had any suggestions?  I don't mind paying Hills prices, but I would prefer better quality ingredients for that money.

By all means get him checked over but I suspect your vet will assure you that a lean dog is a healthy dog and it is pretty typical of a working cocker to be like this in fact, unlike their show sisters, you rarely see an overweight one.

I have no trouble keeping weight on and stools good on Arden Grange.  Others may suggest their own favourites.

Thanks Isabel and Brainless.  Arden Grange is one of the foods I considered when I switched him from Burns - I will look into this again, as I think it has a slightly higher protein and fat content than the CSJ food I'm using.
Do you think it is OK for a four-month old puppy to have very visible ribs, then?  His body looks more like a whippet's than a cocker's. People at our puppy class have commented that he looks thin.

> People at our puppy class have commented that he looks thin

I had this with my dog when he was a pup but he wasn't thin, just lean unlike some of the other pups that were already beginning to look a little weighty.  He is now two and is still lean but covered, if you get my drift, and I think I would struggle to get him fat.  Many people are used to seeing overweight dogs and so those that are the ideal weight probably do seem 'thin'.

He is fed Arden Grange and I have hed no problems.  Re the Burns, there was a boxer round the corner from me and he was fed Burns and always looked too thin and they struggled to keep any weight on him at all.

Hi Rosemarie, my WSS became a resolutely skinny pup after he comae to us, and I am sure that it had a lot to do with the fact that he no longer had any competititon from litter brothers and sisters for the dinner bowl. On the advice of lots of other breeders I put him on lots of tripe tripe and now at a year old he has filled out. good luck!

My sister boxer bitch was very thin up untill about 18 months old, her ribs were visable. My sister felt awfull about the way she looked, but the vet was always very reasuring and very pleased to see a lean young dog rather than a fat one :)

My golden bitch was very thin. I switched her to AG Premium and that seemed to help.

Thanks all.  I'm taking him to the vet this afternoon.  It sounds like a lot of people are finding Arden Grange good for underweight dogs, so I will try him on that once the bag of CSJ is finished.  If all else fails, I'll try the stinky tripe!

For getting the weight on a young or picky dog I have found Arden Grange Prestige the one to go for.  It is what my nursing girls get, and also I use it for puppies initially and then they go onto the puppy Junior.

AG here too.  I put my young goldens on it about 18months ago, one of them i was worried about being quite thin....but now she has blossomed and looks good at nearly 2yrs old.

It turns out that poor Barney has worms.  I took him to the vet this afternoon and she poked about in his pack passage and what looked like a tapeworm came out.  I was completely mortified.  I don't understand it as he has was wormed regularly before and after leaving the breeders up to three months, and I wasn't planning on giving him another wormer till next week.  And, other than him being thin, there were no other symptoms, such as dioherrea.  Anyway, he has had a drontal tablet which will hopefully kill them off, but I will need to examine his poo carefully for the next couple of days.  No wonder he is so hungry and skinny - the vet agreed that he was looking thin. 

Yikes   Drontal should get it.  Not all wormers do.  Was it Drontal you have been using?

The breeder had used Panacur and gave me some to take with him when he left, which I used at 12 weeks.  The vet reckons it may not have been effective.

Panacur covers the usual worms (round worms) that are found in puppies, but does not cover tape worm (unusual in pups) or certain less common worms which can be picked up occasionally, most often where other livestock use the ground.  Hook worm for example.

Thank goodness you took him in and have found the reason. Poor little tyke. He'll feel so satisfied now :)

I've just been looking up worms on the internet, and what the vet found looked like a roundworm rather than a tapeworm (she didn't seem very sure which it was).  It looked a bit like spaghetti. 

Hi Rosemary

Replying to your post as last year I looked after a 4month old Working Cocker pup for a friend, I was concerned then for her weight as although she didnt look bad, I could feel her ribs with no fatty covering (which I like a young pup to have) not much on her at all!
I tried over the two weeks to feed her up, although I knew my friend had her on a very good food , this cocker was absolutely manic!  Never stopped, and actually tired all of us out even though we have large gundogs that are boisterous.

I put her slim composition down to her energy levels, is your boy like this? manic and on the go all the time?   If so a change of food may not be the answer, you could try a supplement like Missing Link or something similar

Good luck
Beth

Yes, that sounds just like Barney, he never stops.  Even the vet was amazed at how hyper he is.   Obviously we can't give him much exercise at this stage, so the only thing we can do to try to tire him out a bit is training.  I haven't heard of missing link - will look that up.  Thanks.