I have a 8 month old Basset puppy, and after meeting with the breeder says that i have to bulk her up abit. (she is fine height and length), the vet says she is a good weight but after seeing how bulky and muscley her siblings are i am wondering what the best food to feed her on. She also says to cut down her walks to let the weight gain also. The breeder has suggested tripe but not what the best mixer is. She said i should stay clear of burns and laughing dog mix As it tends to make them loose. She was on RC maxi junior but went off it and now i have her on Hills Large breed puppy.
Sorry it is long winded. But any help would be greatly appreciated.

Muscle comes with exercise.  Overfeeding leads to fat.  As with humans, health lies in leaness :)

To get some good condition on her, try walking up hill, feed a high-protien food (Origen, for example) and massages also work well. I agree with Stooge, bulking up shouldn't just be fatness, it should be muscle.

if your vet has said she is a good weight and ideal why would you want to change her?  Just cos her siblings are more bulky doesn't necessarily mean that she should be as well.

Hounds like people are different even if they are related, personally I would never try to bulk up a pup with food and I am not keen on suddenly starting extra exercise, increase both slowly but never over feed a basset hound.

Sounds like your breeder isnt exercising her as much as you are, you'll find hers flabbier and puppy fattish.

Funnily I started off feeding my girl a raw complete mix from Natural Instinct plus a RC mixer then I switched to Taste of the Wild grain free plus chicken carcasses a couple of times a week

Having to count pennies I switched from the NI complete and moved to plain frozen meats like Prize Choice tripe/beef/chicken etc

She lost condition, not weight, but lost a bit of body.
I put her back on a raw complete again and the body came back.
Not scientific by any means, and I have another girl a year older who thrives on anything...

Should a Basset be on large breed puppy food anyway? Shouldn't it be on small/medium?

Hills will keep her in good condition, it is a food that only gives what the body needs,  in fact vets will often put dogs on it to help lose the weight that other foods and lack of exercise put on. It may not be the best food to help build muscle. I don't know whether your puppy is just right or if she is being over walked and not having enough protein for her build.

How much outdoor exercise is she having? The golden rule is 5mins continually walking per month of age. If you are overdoing this by quite a lot plus not giving her enough protein she may well be underweight for a Basset, if you have her from a good breeder I would always trust that breeder to know what she is talking about.

Tripe is great for adding bulk along with fresh meats (frozen and then defrosted for serving) and with a good complete food she will have the perfect diet. :-)

>Should a Basset be on large breed puppy food anyway? Shouldn't it be on small/medium?

No, Bassets are a large breed; you need to imagine the size they'd be with 'conventional' legs.

I see, those little legs had me thrown. :-)

I thought tripe took weight off ?

We had a Basset as a child, they're definately a large breed; think Lab size on short legs.

> I thought tripe took weight off ?

No - tripe helps to put weight on.

Forgive me that I don't know anything about Bassetts, but I had the same problem with my lanky Italian Spinone boy up until the age of about 21 months - he looked more like a lurcher than a Spinone! esp compared with those his age I saw in the show ring, who looked almost like full grown 3 y.o adults compared with him.

It seemed to me that he was just a slow maturer - some are more than others - and I made a conscious decision not to up his food and exercise (from 12 months was on about 30 mins daily off lead) because I didn't want to store up trouble for the future in terms of arthritis etc.
However, a friend who had been a successful and caring grehound trainer in his younger days told me that when they wanted to put condition on one, they'd feed raw breast of lamb, or scrag end of neck lamb.  I did feed him this about 3 times a week on average and he absolutely thrived on it, it helped him very gradually and naturally fill out and he now (at 2 yrs 4 months) looks more like breed standard, although slightly on the light side (he'll never be a show dog I think).

Imho, if they're late developers they're late developers - I'd simply let nature take its course with just a bit of help such as the raw lamb.

Have to say at shows the Bassets that have appealed most are the younger leaner ones, think they look horrid heavy.

Tripe is a good way off putting weight on dogs, added to there kibble or feed it self!