As some of you may know at work we have switched the dogs over to BARF diet, they are doing very well on it, they are calming down and are much happier the ones that needed to lose weight are starting to lose it rather than putting it on and the vet has commented on how well the dogs are looking, But...
the vizslas, Wilf and Melyn needed to when we got them put weight on, Melyn is putting weight on but Wilf appears to be losing it, also Bella our puppy weim also needs to put a bit of extra weight on, as these are highly strung dogs they are having more food to help put the weight on, but what can i feed them to help them gain weight faster so that they dont look like they have just been dragged of the streets? (they eat well just as i said Wilf doesnt seem to be putting the weight on) or is it were they have been switched over to the BARF diet, this is their 3rd week of the BARF diet, but my boss is worried that they need more so keeps trying to feed them rice when im not looking.
any ideas
tanya

Well first of all weight is somewhat relative; one person's skinny is another person's fit!  Most dogs, like us, are generally carrying a little too much padding :D

You do not say how old these dogs are, obviously as they grow they will go through horribly lean stages until they mature which is all the more noticeable for their short coats.

Their exercise regime will also have a bearing on their food intake.

The other thing to remember is that raw fed dogs do tend to have a different "shape" because they are not carrying around surplus fat etc.

You are only into your third week of raw feeding and the body needs time to adjust to metabolising the new regime, detox from the junk that was in the commercial food and rebalance itself.

What amounts are you feeding them per day in weight?  What constitutes their diet say over a 10 day period?  Are they on any supplements?  Where do they sleep?

Are the dogs pets only or are they required to do a job of work? 

If you can respond I may be able to help you.

Wilf, Melyn and Bella have roughly 1 1/2lb-2lb of food a day, although this is normally adjusted according to work levels, appetite and weight, somedays the dogs will eat more than others,  they have supplement every other day, and in a 10 day period have 1 meal of fish, 2 meals of meaty bones (ie lamb chops, oxtail etc) 1 offal meal with veggies, a veggie mael with a bit of meat, 3 muscle meat meal, and 2 poultry meals, this can though vary as they may have less meaty bones and more poultry or the fish meal might be cut out and they have a joint of meat or a marrow bone.
They live in kennels which are converted stables, the bulidings were 3 stables which are now 5 kennels, they are complety sheltered from the elements and have a 'front door' which is kept shut on cold days/night to help maintain the warmth in the bulidings,
they have just started their training as detection dogs so it is only light daily work at the moment,
I havent seen the dogs for a couple of days as they have been with my boss who has been starting on a shift before i get to work and finishing when after i finish, but Wilf is a very muscular dog as is Bella, and they seem to have increased their muscle tone, Melyn is muscley but not as much as the other 2 and to me she is putting on weight.
They were being feed originally a cheap food and tripe (the cheap food being all the different completes foods surplus mixed together and sold as a food called 'breederpak')
Wilf and Melyn are 12 mths old and Bella is 6 mths old
thanks
tanya

As a guideline adult dogs should be fed 2 - 3% of their bodyweight per day.

Calculate this by multiplying 2/3 by your dog's weight and dividing it by 100. Eg 2 x 30kg/100 = 600g, 3 x 30kg/100 = 900g.

However be guided by your hand and eye; if the dog is looking a little too ribby up the amount and reduce if the dog is looking a little too well padded! Dogs will vary depending on age, sex, activity level, temperament and time of year plus their sleeping conditions; therefore if they are sleeping outside in unheated kennels they will require more calories to maintain their weight and keep them sufficiently warm.

Also if you have an entire male they will carry less weight especially at this age.

Do I understand from your post that they are only being fed once a day?  If so they should really be fed twice a day otherwise the dog cannot properly process this amount of food in one meal.

A marrow bone is not a meal but a recreational bone.

Hopefully you are feeding a variety of species eg lamb, beef, pork, chicken, turkey, rabbit, duck, etc etc and muscle meat including heart.

Also a variety of offal - kidneys, tripe and liver.

Eggs seem to be missing from your diet which can be included in the veggie meals and a good meal is eggs, veggies and yoghurt.

You don't mention exactly what supplements they get so I need this info.

Your 6 month old puppy should be having around 10% of her bodyweight per day or 2/3% of her projected adult bodyweight per day.

Technically your 12 month old dogs could still be classified as pups as they will not mature until 3 and complete ossification will not occur until 18 months old, generally HPRs tend to mature between 2 - 3 when their ribs spring and their brisket drops.

I am familiar with working HPRs if that is any help.

they are fed raw eggs once a week as well as natural yoghurt once a week, the supplements are, kelp, alfalfa, garlic and at the moment they are having cod liver oil, but am i right in thinking flaxseed oil or safflower seed oil are better to give, they are having a variety of meats and we are at the moment sorting a kitchen area for the dogs and seperate storage for their frozen and chilled food stuffs as at the moment we have the one freezer with chicks rats mice etc for the birds so food for the dogs is being bought daily.
As i said before the meals in the 10 day period do change around and in the 3 weeks of being fed BARF they have only had one lot of marrow bone.
Wilf although he eats well can tend to be picky and the first time he was given raw meat refused to eat which is where i suspect the problem lies as if he refused to eat, my boss would have given him someting cooked, also he keeps saying they need rice to bulk the dogs out even though i have explained it wont bulk them out and that they cant digest rice but he is slowly listening to me
these arent his first HPRs as we also have 2 GSPs these were raised on Arden Grange and are at the moment in boarding kennels so are still on Arden Grange, the vizslas although were happy and clearly loved the breeder and he clearly loved and cared for them well were fed on cheap food and lived in kennels of 3 so had to fight for their food so were slightly underweight when we got them 6 weeks ago.
tanya

I would stop the CLO and feed Fish body Oils at around 1000mg per day (look for high EPE/DHA content) I get mine from Healthspan (don't buy fish body oil unless it clearly states the EPA/DHA content).  FBO is preferable to CLO as it does not contain Vitamins A and D which are fat soluble and can, in high quantities, prove toxic; it also contains more Omega 3s.  If you are feeding liver once a week they will not need extra Vitamin A.

FBO is also preferable to feeding flaxseed because a) some dogs get the "itchies" from it and b) it is more "available" to the dog as it is "active".

If you feed FBO you MUST also supplement with Vitamin E (use only natural Vitamin E identified by the label D-alpha-tocopherol, synthetic Vitamin E is labelled Dl-alpha-tocopherol) at 400 iu per day.  This has a synergistic effect with the FBO as well as being an anti oxidant.  The reason for feeding natural as opposed to synthetic is again the "availability" question.

I would also consider giving Vitamin C with bioflavenoids at around 1000mg per day as it is a natural anti-histamine, anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant.

Dogs not knowing what to do with raw food at first is quite common, but hunger is wonderfully motivating :D

Anyway all in all sounds as though you are on the right track! :)

Nearly forgot, as you originally posted about weight, if I wanted to put weight on my dogs I would feed food that was calorifically dense eg contained a lot of fat and/or increase oil input, you cannot really OD on FBO and you could add EPO too, although you are then upping the Omega 6s

HTH

Chicken/turkey carcasses/skin, breast of lamb/mutton or scrag end with high proportion of fat on it rather than the chops, pork belly & trotters, animal dripping all should put weight on them. :)

Christine, Spain.

My goodness you all feed your dogs a kings diet :-)
Which of course is the best diet for dogs.
I changed to raw meats at least 18 months ago, and never looked back. However I have a difficult lot as they dont like a lot of bone content. But they look fine. I think what I noticed the most is skin tone and coat texture with our dogs. The skin instead of dull and lifeless, now gleams in the sunshine and you can see muscle ripple across my dog when he is running. He is a picture to watch on our walks.  Keep up with the BARF diet it will come together, but if its three weeks so far, its still early days.
Sometimes a dog looks skinny if they are not happy some Weimaraners especially are whittlers, they like to be with the owners 24/7 and can loose a lot of weight if kennelled. They for some reason dont like other doggy companions they want human companionship. If they are part of a kennel system their is not a lot you can do about that of course. You are doing everything you can do keeping them warm etc. So they dont burn off energy with heat loss.  You may just have to give them more time.