Help needed to fatten up dog

N9eav

An odd one this. We recently got a dog 2 yr old Pyrennean Mountain dog from a rescue centre. Its a proper pedigree etc, but was returned to the kennels by the original purchaser, after a marriage break up.

The dog is underweight, but I can't get her to eat much. You would think a dog that normally weighs 8 stone might eat the house up?

It would seem that the previous owners may have fed her chips and stuff as she won't eat dog food, but will eat table scraps.

Any dog experts out there have a good fattening diet?

Fleago

Hi N9eave,

If you can stand the revolting look and smell, tripe is excellent for bodying up dogs. It comes frozen and you can buy it either from Pets at Home and the like or from animal feed merchants. The latter will be cheaper.

I would recommend feeding it in addition to a complete kibble food in the first instance. Just mix it up with the complete. I know lots of people say what's the point of supplementing a complete food, but we're doing this very effectively with one of our who needs bodying and it's doing him no harm.

Now, the thing about tripe is that although humans find it truly revolting, dogs absolutely love it and it is likely to tempt her to eat. Don't make a fuss about her eating, just put down what you want her to have and if she doesn't eat it up within about 10 minutes just take it away and don't try to tempt her with anything else. Then just do the same at the next normal feed time. As long as she's in good health otherwise, she won't starve herself
I would also split her food into two meals a day.

Blimey, I haven't half gone on and sorry if I've told you stuff you already know, but hope it helps a bit. Good luck with your new girl :T

Fleago

Becles

You could try and wean her onto dog food.

Say for a few days give her mainly human food with a tiny bit dog food. The next few days give her 75% human and 25% dog food. Then a few days of 50% of each, and so on till she's finally eating only dog food.

For big dogs, it's easier and cheaper to buy the large (around 15kg) sacks of dried food.

Glad

this isn't really 'pure money' so shouldn't be in 'anything else, pure money'
I wasn't really sure where to move it but hope the people in OS can help you out

Trow

What kind of dog food are you giving her? Tinned or dried? If you have only tried on or the other, I would try switching to the other and see if that is what she is used to.

A bit off topic - but when we had our golden lab when I was a kid we went on a fishing trip. We had sandwiches packed for us and dog food for her. She was MUCH more interested in the sandwiches than the dog food (unlike usual - she would eat pretty much anything other than the cheap dog food) - so we made her a dog food sandwich. Did she eat it? Did she heck!!

mrsn_2

Type "Satin Balls" in your search engine, there are lots of recipes available for "fattening up" dogs. I do know of an old fashioned way of increasing appetite (and it does work, Ive used it) but it involves the dog eating fresh horse manure !!!!.

Have you had such a big dog before, I am not being rude, but sometimes people think huge dogs eat mountains of food, when infact they don't. I agree with fleago, put her food down, and if its not gone withing 10 mins, take it away, she will soon eat when she is hungry. If you can't stand the smell of tripe, an alternative is chicken mince, if Im trying to put weight on a rottie, they get 2lb of chicken mince and a 1lb of high energy complete.

Karen

N9eav

I buy the big sacks of dried food from the farmers merchant at £6.25 (good deal) and mix in about 600g of canned food. The tripe seems like a good idea, but the kennel used that and she did not eat much of it.

Firefly

The only food that has ever caused my dog to increase his weight is Autarky. It's a good healthy blend of herbs in a gluten free kibble and is well priced at about £14 per 15kg sack. I would try that with the addition of sardines in oil on top.

You can get Autarky at any local animal feed merchant or in small bags in Tesco, Sainsbury and the like.

N9eav

Glad wrote:

this isn't really 'pure money' so shouldn't be in 'anything else, pure money'
I wasn't really sure where to move it but hope the people in OS can help you out

Sorry I thought anything else was anything else

Fleago

Hi N9eave,

I would get even just one packet of tripe and give her a try with it. It's possible she was very stressed in the kennel and this may have affected her eating, so something she didn't eat there might possibly be ok now that she's settled with you.

The main thing is though try not to worry too much; she's only two and will take a while yet to fully mature body wise, so as long as you are offering her a good diet and she's fully fit in every other way you don't have much to worry about (even though you will )

Fleago

squeaky

There's actually a thread running in this site - questions and answers about starting a forum for pets. It started with "Can we have one?" and seems to have evolved into a discussion about pets and their care etc...

So you might find some good advice there too.

Otherwise, here in Old Style seems to be the place where pet related questions come to rest. We have a thread that moved into home made recipes for kibble that might be of help to you - so if I can find it again I'll post a pointer to it.

Edit: To see the thread just ---> Click Here