Please could someone help. My parents GBGV bitch is very skinny and would like tips on how to make her gain some weight. She has 2 meals a day, she has a handful of Markies biscuits in the morning and we are starting to give her some boiled rice mixed with an egg and some sugar as she doesn't like rice pudding. Any other tips would be great s we would like her to be a bit fatter for Crufts (although it looks like she is going to be coming into season soon if our males behaviour is anything to go by:().

Thanx in advance
Louise.

Breasts of lamb seems to be quite good for putting weight on!

Christine

PetTripe is also good for putting weight on and easily digestible. Although a tip.... dont cook it, it stinks awful.!!! I couldnt go in my kitchen for days after I had cooked it..... well no one told me not to!! lol

Lynn

would she eat 3 meals a day, if so it might be an idea to try that ,at least until you get her ready for crufts-ask your butcher to keep his lamb fat, mines minces it for me and charges very little for it, i add a bit to each feed if i think id like a touch more body on someone, suits supposed to do the same but ive not tried it,

It's a big enough struggle to get her to eat two meals a day. We have to keep our GSD near her so she feels she has to eat it. The GSD doesn't like it though as he is so scared of her as in the past she has really turned on him over food. But, I have never known a dog to take so long to eat food having been brought up around Bull Terriers who are greedy pigs :)

A little oil in her food might help too - just ordinary veg oil.

Fran

from carolwales. do you cook the breast of lamb or feed it raw/

I ahve always added a spoonful of raw beef suet to the food if any of my dogs have needed to gain weight, its good for the coat too.

Lisa

I feed whole minced (bones and all)raw breast of lamb. I am lucky and get "local" meat from the butcher, he minces it twice, so its the size of minced beef that we would buy and I get about 8 minced whole breasts for about £5 - about 12lbs of meat. Its excellent for putting on weight if the dog's tummy can tolerate it as its very fatty, and my dogs got a bit loose to begin with. They refused it at first, which was quite funny as I thought they would love it, but after a few days were munching into it happily.

I use beef suet too, if I run out of the lamb, also cod liver oil, sardines in oil, evaporated milk, but not all the same day!! If lack of appetite is the problem Restore from Stock Nutrition is excellent for restoring appetite. Maybe you could try Pedigree weaning porrige or even the chicken complan as a lunchtime drink. I have always wondered if you can feed dogs boiled linseed as a supplement - it works wonders on underweight horses , as does soaked sugar beet. I understand Beta Puppy has sugar beet in it. One of my dogs who is naturally on the lean racy side and very active, was put onto a low protein food, about 20%, and gained weight, probably cos she calmed down a bit. She was given athe range of "extras" already mentioned, as well. Can you restrict exersise a bit or does your breed need lots of muscle tone?

Also Rasks - the edible treat bones from Pedigree are pretty high in calories, I should think one of those a day might help.

Tripe is a good way to get some weight gain.
We always used it when we had Boxers.

A kennel owner recommended that I try custard creams for rescue dogs that needed to gain weight quickly,on top of their normal diet. Don't buy the expensive ones, just own brand makes.I would replace the Markies with the Custard Creams. It does work, but make sure that you are not tempted to have one everytime the dog has one, or you will find out first hand just how well it does work :rolleyes:

I've just had a weight problem with my very active 12mth male weim. The breed says it all done it :rolleyes:

He was looking pretty ribby and like you I wanted him to put on weight in time for Crufts. I feed him a complete dry diet of chicken and rice. I basically increased his food by approx. 200g a day and divided it into 3 meals, I also added 1 desert spoon of coconut oil to his morning feed just incase there was a problem with him not absorbing his food correctly. After about 10 days I noticed a big difference in him, I did stop adding the coconut oil because his stools were slightly soft and after stopping the oil they firmed up again. Also when stuffing his kong or buster cube instead of using treats I used his food, he's so damn greedy he isn't bothered what he eats anyway. He's been on 3 meals a day, no increase of exercise but no decrease either for about 6 wks and he's now at the correct weight for his size.

Wish I'd known about the blumming custard creams, they're my fave and I would have had a damn good excuse to buy em :D

HTH.

Message for Heelerkay.
Just wondered where your boxers really quite skinny when they were pups.We have just aquired a boxer pup off friend and she is very bony, the pup obviously .We have given her some worming syrup, and she seems to always be eating, normal puppy food and tit bits from dinner plates etc.We were going to give her another week and she if there is a change if not, off to the vets.She was actually sick today and we found a trainer sock which she had eaten. Has anyone any advice on this.

Message for Heelerkay.
Just wondered where your boxers really quite skinny when they were pups.We have just aquired a boxer pup off friend and she is very bony, the pup obviously .We have given her some worming syrup, and she seems to always be eating, normal puppy food and tit bits from dinner plates etc.We were going to give her another week and she if there is a change if not, off to the vets.She was actually sick today and we found a trainer sock which she had eaten. Has anyone any advice on this ??
Also she is sixteen weeks now and not toilet trained at all. We have only had her for a week. We have made some progress but she doesn't seem to bother when she crouches down in the house.
Sam

Carol

I used to cook it and use the gravey over the kibble but now I feed everything raw - lamb breasts, chicken wings and carcass', fresh tripe and other offal, vegetables etc

Christine

There is a complete food on the market called GAIN .It is used for greyhound racers and comes in 2 varieties one being higher in protein and fat than the other.If u feed this along with tripe then u should see results pretty quickly .We gave it to one of our bitches that was a bit on the skinny side and 3 weeks later she had not only caught up her sister but weighed 4pounds more

Thanx for all your replies, they were very helpful. We are going to try the custard creams, veg oil and the beef suet. Our dogs are already fed on mince tripe & beef.

PLeeease forgive me for stating the obvious Freeway, but has the dog been wormed for tapeworm recently? Granny's and sucking eggs comes to mind - ;-), no offence intended. :-)

Yes. All of the dogs were done at the same time. It was the first thing that was done.