How to build up my boy?

Rufus had his check-up at the vets last week and he is a little underweight, 29kg (about 64lb) the vet said, "just put a little more on him" I was asking too many other questions to remember to ask how to do that.

I've increased his walks thinking this would make him more hungry, but he's gone from running about like mad to just ambling along sniffing and won't even fetch the ball- there I am jumping about like mad shouting "come on lets play! Fetch it!! Look wooooo!" but it's like he's just got bored with more than 2 walks a day.

He's never been a big eater, he gets easily distracted from his food. He's on Purina Pro Plan Puppy Athletic dry food. The whole family are banned from the kitchen while he eats otherwise he just tries to play, or go outside, or anything but eat and getting it down him has always been a problem. We tried smaller more regular meals, less, larger meals, not 'making' him eat, letting him nibble all day (he barely ate a thing) sprinkling parmesan cheese which he loves, he just licked it off, putting warm water on his food, putting nothing on his food, mixing in chicken, tuna, NOTHING seems to work.
The best we have come up with is mixing a large spoon of canned food (pedigree chum with jelly) which must first be blended otherwise he picks out the chunks, into his dry food and adding a little warm water. This way I can get him to eat 2 cups a day which is 400g dry food.

Is he bored of his food? He's been like this since we got him. I'm wary of changing it at this stage, he's 16 months.

So how can I make him put on weight, I guess treats are not a good way to do it. Should I put more canned food in as he won't eat more dry food?
Should I find a way to make him run? I need ideas there as I can't run myself and can't afford agility lessons or similar yet.

It's a puzzle to me

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I am not familiar witht he foods in the UK, but you can add broth or cheese to his food to make it more appealing. yu can also feed green tripe to add weight. I wish I had that issue with my boy. he will eat and then just bark demanding more- no matter how muich he gets

Try mixing the canned food in with the dry and heating it up. It increases the scent for the dog and makes it more interesting. Yogurt or parmesan cheese is a surefire way to get my guys to eat, too. I must also admit, I've never had a problem getting weight on a dog!

ButtersStotch wrote:

I bet you won't weith Owen either :wink:

ButtersStotch wrote:

heating the wet food is a great idea! panda practically turns inside out if i warm anything up for her...she really thinks she is getting ''people'' food

maybe its the dry food. At 16 months; perhaps its time to transition from the puppy to an adult food?

kerry wrote:

ButtersStotch wrote:

I bet you won't weith Owen either :wink:

Well, let's put it this way, Kerry. Owen is 4 months old now and only weighs about 15 pounds less than Rufus. He's a solid tank but he'll definitely eat given the chance.

Quote:

maybe its the dry food. At 16 months; perhaps its time to transition from the puppy to an adult food?

Puppy food should let him gain weight easier, though. Unless the "athletic" part is for a high energy dog so it's reduced calorie? Does Rufus have a sensitive tummy?

ButtersStotch wrote:

kerry wrote:

ButtersStotch wrote:

I bet you won't with Owen either :wink:

Well, let's put it this way, Kerry. Owen is 4 months old now and only weighs about 15 pounds less than Rufus. He's a solid tank but he'll definitely eat given the chance.

Yeah Morgan would eat anything and he puts on weight easily, he also has a lot of bone mass. he is DOWN to 109 lbs.

Chauncy likes the Sheepie pops recipe we found here.
They are good for weight and healthy.
I use:
1 QT Vanilla yogurt
1-2 bananas
3-4 Tbls Honey
I sometime sprinkle a very small amount of granola on top.
I freeze in 1/2 c. containers and they are a big hit.
These are faily high calorie ( esp. the banana and yogurt ( usu reg. , not low fat. )

Hi Cassie oops sorry Miss Deacon,

First of all you will get sheepies who are fussy and who are not big eaters this really nothing to worry about, as Zorro came to us he was only 25 kg. and we had a lot of work.

You say he is eating 400g per day that is actually quite good, then according to his proper weight approx. 36 kg x 10g per kilo body weight he is getting enough food.

When he is out and sits how big is the heap he leaves then through this you can tell if he is processing the food properly or just letting it pass through and getting no benefit from it.

He is old enough to put on an adult food and I would recommend "James Wellbeloved it has an excellent reputation, you could also try Eukanuba we feed this brand to all our sheepies.

Let us know how you get on and the best of luck.

We switched to this Athletic food because he was previously on Robust which we discovered is like a diet one for podgier breeds.

I'm gonna make some of those sheepie pops. His stomach is generally not too sensitive, we can slowly add new stuff. He leaves fairly big 'heaps' :lol:

the last one of the day tends to be a bit runnier, but no real problems I don't think.

He's eating breakfast right now, he usually has just a few nibbles but I think he likes his food heated up. My house stinks :lol:

Hint of Mischief wrote:

I'm gonna make some of those sheepie pops. His stomach is generally not too sensitive, we can slowly add new stuff. He leaves fairly big 'heaps' :lol:

the last one of the day tends to be a bit runnier

Cassie if as you say the heaps are fairly big then I would say he is just passing the food through without getting any benefit from it, I would recommend using another brand "James Wellbeloved" for example, the other reason could be the water in your area is causing him to pass big heaps also because it is runny in the evening.

Wow that is interesting. The water is very hard in our area, I think they are runnier when he has had more exercise. We will look into the James Wellbeloved food, I like that they are 'natural' he had the treats before, I think they were seaweed and made him stinky. I notice the kibbles have alfalfa in them, I'm a bit dubious about that because I believe alfalfa triggered my own thyroid problems :roll:

I will do more research.

You definitely want a low filler food, with high nutrients. With a good quality food his piles should be smaller.

Good luck, Cassie.
I struggle with the same thing with Chewie. I have fed him great foods, he just isn't that interested in food. We have other dogs, and he doesn't care if they eat it!

But, knock on wood, he finally is eating more.

He is only 24 inches at the withers, so not a huge boy. He was stuck in the 60's # weight range for almost 2 years!! 66-68# for over a year.

Just lately (last few months) he has seemed more interested and has gotten to an new high weight of 71 pounds!!

He is 2 1/2 now, I think he just had to get older.

Looser poops are quite normal later in the day, for any breed of dog. Especially after exercise or playing. I have several that have that bowel pattern on any given day.

We've just changed Poppy over from puppy to adult food and, all of a sudden, she can't get enough of it! She was just like Rufus, really not bothered if she ate or not - Sweetpea often got two dinners if I didn't catch her in time to stop her stealing Poppy's! Since we changed her over to adult (she's on Eukanuba Lamb & Rice) she eats the whole dishful in a minute and then goes to see what Sweetpea has left! Weird as she was on the puppy lamb & rice so the flavour hasn't changed at all - who knows??

Good luck!

BGN

I am shocked at Ru's weight, considering he is Archies half brother and a month older.

Have you been in touch with Pauline and Colin, maybe that Dams pups have been lighter than Archies Dam?

Maybe my pup is a lazy fat boy?

Daily Archie eats 600g of the proplan lamb and rice, and then alternates with the chicken and rice (the latter produces softer ligher stools)

He is also troffing the cats food occasionally! :evil:

in addition to his proper food he has small biscuits on our walks when he has been a good boy (sitting at the road etc) also he gets at least one large charcoal Bonio a day. He also will eat apples and carrots, he likes buttered toast cheese, but I only give these in small quantities as I thought dairy wasn't good for them.

He drinks gallons of water a day, we also are in a very hard water area.

Ugh. I wish I had weighed Ru when we got home that day :roll:

We weighed him last night, he was 32kg (over 70lb) that's an increase of 3kg in under a month. I have been feeding him more but the vet must have been wrong? Or my scales are wrong :lmt:

Hint of Mischief wrote:

Ugh. I wish I had weighed Ru when we got home that day :roll:

We weighed him last night, he was 32kg (over 70lb) that's an increase of 3kg in under a month. I have been feeding him more but the vet must have been wrong? Or my scales are wrong :lmt:

ALl my dogs lost 10 pounds when we changed vets. Scales vary.

You could also try him on the Whiskas Moist sachet's Archie loves them

He also loves pasta and tuna and boiled eggs - he gets very growly when we go near his bowl when he has this :lol:

It is good to see that RU's weight is increasing, don't forget to put some Turkey aside for him!

Glad I found this thread

Bally has been off his food lately (because of the heat, I think) and now that he's had his operation, he's hardly eating at all

You can actually see that he's lost weight now, so I'll go try some of these ideas on him pronto

I'm just gonna throw my 2 cents in here, and I didn't read
through all the responses so far, but...
That doesn't seem underweight for 16 months to me. My
one dog, Zeke, was right around 66-68 through 20 months. By the
2 yr mark he started really filling out, and no longer looked
like his legs were way too long. We never changed his feeding
and the neutering was long past. Now he is much closer to
100 lb than 65 :oops:

I will admit he is a bit heavy, but he
is a much bigger dog than Tucker.
You have to trust your vet, of course. But he is right around
the point where his energy isn't really going to growth anymore
and he will probably fill out a bit. (Unless there is another issue.)
He also may not be as hungry as he was when he was actively
growing.
Just some thoughts - I'm not saying your vet is wrong. I wouldn't
really worry much about it - but that's just me!

Shellie

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