Hey There,

A friend of mine just adopted a beagle that I was fostering, she is a
little underweight, would like to put maybe 3-4 lbs on her, possibly
more, she has been eating Canidae for about a month now,she seems to
be doing well so far. Question is...to help her gain weight should he
just increase the amount she is fed daily (she is eating what is
recommended for her range not sure exactly the amount) or should he
supplement the diet in some way? Looking for suggestions., thanks!

"Fancy" wrote in message
oups.com...
.. Question is...to help her gain weight should he
just increase the amount she is fed daily (she is eating what is
recommended for her range not sure exactly the amount) or should he
supplement the diet in some way?

Feed the dog for the weight you want her to be. The best way to do it is to
put on weight slowly. A couple of eggs a week and an occasional tin of
sardines, and/or yogurt daily would be good fresh things to add to the dog
food.

buglady
take out the dog before replying

In article .com,
Fancy wrote:
Question is...to help her gain weight should he
just increase the amount she is fed daily (she is eating what is
recommended for her range not sure exactly the amount) or should he
supplement the diet in some way?

You need to increase the calories in or decrease the
calories out (burned). I don't think you should ever
decrease calories out unless the dog is ill or injured or
in dire straits or otherwise unable to exercise as much as
usual.

It doesn't sound as if she's hugely skinny. I prefer to
keep my dogs on the thin side but if she's too thin she's
too thin. One way to get a modest increase in calories is
to feed more often (say, 3 meals/day instead of 2). Innova
products tend to be higher in calories and Evo in particular
is crazy high in calories, although it's kind of a weird
diet. Performance formulas also tend to be higher in
calories. For dogs who are seriously underweight there are
always Satin Balls - there are a bunch of recipes for that
on the internet and they're easy to find, but those are for
dogs who are seriously underweight or who aren't eating.
--
Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis -

If you can't say it clearly, you don't understand it yourself -- John Searle

Thanks, I had thought of feeding her the amount for the weight we
wanted her to be, but I was concerned as she tends to bolt down her
food, I didn't want her to end up vomitting..Never thought of adding
an extra feeding time, (duh, seems so obvious now!) No, she's not
hugely skinny,just has very little fat covering on her ribs and spine,
poor girl was found out of town couldn't even lift her head she was so
exhausted and hungry. Sad..

So a couple eggs a week.hmm, would you give the whole egg (minus
shell?) would you give it cooked or raw?
What do you think of maybe adding some canned Evo (assuming I can get
it here) to her dry Canidae?
Thanks guys, I'm tryin to review our plan of attack!

"Fancy" wrote in message
oups.com...
So a couple eggs a week.hmm, would you give the whole egg (minus
shell?) would you give it cooked or raw?

........whatever you're comfortable with. Yes, minus the shell.

What do you think of maybe adding some canned Evo (assuming I can get
it here) to her dry Canidae?

......sure, that will be fine. If the dog only needs to gain a fewpounds, I
wouldn't feed too much more or feed extra delicious food that you're going
to take away when the correct weight is reached.

buglady
take out the dog before replying

For dogs who are seriously underweight there are
always Satin Balls - there are a bunch of recipes for that
on the internet and they're easy to find, but those are for
dogs who are seriously underweight or who aren't eating.


The vet thinks Cali is still too skinny and I need to try something
different. We talked about preformance diets and I plan to try that. But
now you mention this so I researched it on the net. It sounds like it
might help her put on some quick pounds. I found a recipe but different
websites disagree about the egg. Some say shell, some say no shell. What
is best? And how much difference can the shell make?

In article , MauiJNP wrote:
The vet thinks Cali is still too skinny and I need to try something
different. We talked about preformance diets and I plan to try that. But
now you mention this so I researched it on the net. It sounds like it
might help her put on some quick pounds. I found a recipe but different
websites disagree about the egg. Some say shell, some say no shell. What
is best? And how much difference can the shell make?

Well, a few things:

1) I've found that vets can be pretty clueless about dog
weight. They see so many really fat dogs that overweight
comes to seem normal to them and healthy comes to seem
thin, or something.
2) I tend to think of satin balls as a recipe to help out
dogs in trouble - dogs that really are very underweight,
or that won't eat because they're sick, etc.
3) Why do you want to put on weight in a hurry? It's
healthier to do it gradually unless her weight is low
enough to be a health problem itself.
4) Egg shells pass through. Maybe the dog can extract some
calcium from them but the shells get pooped out. I
occasionally give my dogs hard-boiled eggs with the
shells on and they have pretty entertaining poops
afterward.
--
Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis -

If you can't say it clearly, you don't understand it yourself -- John Searle

1) I've found that vets can be pretty clueless about dog
weight. They see so many really fat dogs that overweight
comes to seem normal to them and healthy comes to seem
thin, or something.
2) I tend to think of satin balls as a recipe to help out
dogs in trouble - dogs that really are very underweight,
or that won't eat because they're sick, etc.
3) Why do you want to put on weight in a hurry? It's
healthier to do it gradually unless her weight is low
enough to be a health problem itself.


Cali is very skinny and alot of her bones still out. It is pretty gross. I
asked the vet about testing her for something to see if there is a problem
or something medical going on. They didn't think it was necessary because
she acts fine and looks healthy otherwise.

She eats about 1/2 cup of food a day. I offer her more but she never
empties her bowl. I usually put not quite a cup of food in her bowl at a
time and she gets it twice a day. She is on a lamb and rice formula. I used
my magic bullet to grind the food into tiny crumbs and then mix it with room
temperature water (to make it like a wet food consistancy). Then I throw it
some unground pellets (of the same food). When she does eat, she eats both
the wet stuff and the dry chunks. She doesn't pick anything out which is
good. It sounds like a lot of work just to get her to eat but it really
isn't. It took about 5 minutes to grind a couple pounds of food and that's
used for a few days/weeks depending on how much I do. I mix the water and
food before each feeding but that doesn't take more than a few seconds to do
then feeding all dry. She seems to eat a little more this way (the wet/dry
combo). I don't mind continuing this long term because it is easy and seems
to work but I'd love to get her to put on a few pounds (1-3) as quickly as
is healthy.

I was hoping to do the Satin balls (just added in the mix I already do) till
she got to a better weight and then go back to only the mix above. Or maybe
I can use the balls as training rewards or things separate from the feeding
time? If she'd try to give me a hard time about eating her dog food after
the Satin balls are discountinued, I wouldn't worry too much about her
missing a meal or two until she realizes I won't give in. At the
weight/condition she is now, I really hate for her to miss a meal (which she
hasn't done once since I started the mix described above). I just don't
know if the mix I am doing will allow her to gain weight because she seems
to be burning it all off. She hasn't gained any weight in months, not an
ounce!