Advice to help weight gain please

SaharaS

SaharaS

Well-Known Member
Joined
21 October 2011
Messages
2,479
Visit site
As title really, what have you found to be the best types of food to help gain weight.

Will try give as much detail as i can here so apologies but I'm notoriously incapable of a short post but at least you have all the info!:D
-Been weighed in feb & had dropped slightly,but looked ok-always been lean & hard to keep weigh on..re weighed on thurs, dropped again. by 2kg. After being weighed in feb, I decided to gradually try raw again-didn't suit him last year, tho seems to love it this time. As the daylight hours & weather have been drier we've been out more -plus had a few stresses recently on hotter days when i had to do things with sheep etc and he was only able to watch from the car. He seems bright & happy otherwise -tho ribs are showing and hip bones easily felt.

-4 in August White German Shepherd. Rescue which worries a lot as well as being a busy very energetic dog. I'm easing off the longer walks while I up the calories & quantities -since fri 3% + of ideal weight. Diet is raw and home cooked as we gradually swapped to raw the weight has come off. when he arrived 2 years last sun,he was soooo unkeen on the kibble he arrived with,literally ate one bit at a time, often left lots so I top dressed with veggies & meat then I changed gradually to completely homecooked/natural organic organic where poss & he was lean but good condition..since the trying again with raw I started with supermarket meat,fish etc then found a local butcher who sells frozen blocks, which i thought would be better for variety, bone, ease of feeding & seemed good & natural with a good amount of bone/offal..and no mincing or crushing needed-but now i think th quality may not have been as amazing as I was led to believe-these were not the value 60p blocks I hasten to ad & had no addititves or preservatives/water added.

I don't mix raw /cooked in one meal.he was fed 3 but now 4 times a day to get the quantities in. I'm feeding oils-olive, coconut & ricebran. I try to balance everything over a week.

He gets Dorwest keepers mix as well as dried crushed eggshells for calcium.
he also loves his organic whole milk, yeo live yoghurt & cottage cheese and usually has 2 eggs scrammbled or omlette with his veg portion daily.

-Has been wormed. Will go for tests if weight doesn't stay same or increase by next week (vet nurse said should take 5 days but just said try him on chicken(???) but would like to know what YOU would give to help him. He doesn't agree with mixes& I don't feed canned meat or dry food as even on a holistic one (Autarky) he had dry skin & didn't really enjoy it. Loves his fruit & veg & if he has rice or pasta or soaked/porridge oats they would be brown,wholemeal(not the oats!:D) & only organic-he hasn't seemed to disagree with it tho after reading about bloat I started easing off & barely feed either now tho have reintroduced since since fri.

I'm sure its a combination of the change (initial) to raw, plus the increased excercise, swimming and hot days..on an already very busy boy..there is only one health thing that I'm keeping an eye on other than this which was a pussy skin cysty thing on his back that was the reason for initial vet visit in feb-pea sized lump on skin an inch& half off spine produced a bit of cottage cheese looking pus.It was stubborn but went.on thurs I found a waxy excretion on a virtually identical area,I caught it accidentally which is how I noticed it..on closer inspection the waxy black sebumy scabby bit crumbled off & left a wart/tick looking round sore that bled where I'd knocked it-had not felt before even when grooming so could have furminated it:o Its only 4-5mm round and red, looked like a blood blister with no pus,raised and is now a dark reddy black sore looking scab..keeping an eye on it and applying various things to see if it will go.thought best mention.

So over to you all for your tried & testeds! How long should he take to start showing & any tips from those who rescue alot I'm sure you have all the secrets:D Huge thanks in advance

oh and Please be nice:D
 
Just skim read your post as off to work. The best thing I have found over the years is raw green tripe (if you can stand the smell). We used to get whole cattle tripes and cut off chunks, but you can buy it in more civilized frozen blocks now. What does he actually weight - contrary to what some believe the GSD is supposed to be an athletic dog not a great lump so he may not be as underweight as you think.
 
Have you tried him on one main meal a day - late evening - with a snack breakfast?

This actually allows better digestion.

AS MM says tripe is good for packing on weight as is tuna in oil a couple of times a week. Why are you feeding rice bran?

Forget his weight -how does he look & act?

I had a GSD here that the vet wanted the owner to get weight off. IMO the dog was on the lean side but the vet had "looked at a chart". Said dog was a big, gawky, youngster and going to finish over the top of chart weight. Weigth doesn't matter -condition does.
 
Thank you MM S4S and Lexie At first weigh was 32kg i think that was good but was only 20 months then with little muscle.stayed around that till feb he was 30.2 vet said tests I said feed! Changed to higher raw % he is now 27.9kg ribs used to be easily felt but not ribby tho could show when active.thurs he was ribby very visibly. It's been gradual.hip bones show easier tho not as bad this am. Had tried one main meal with rest as fillers but he was sick alot and I worry about bloat ESP as he is stress natured tho that is easier to control by sensible management.was going to try get a green slow feeder to slow the two main meals now and do the other two as top up smaller ones if that makes sense.skin good,eyes bright,masses of energy good muscle compared to before- we do a Lot of daily hill work doing the animals and I'm now able to school 2 horses for 15 mins a day without him having stress poos tho still gets upset so he has now learnt to sit by school relatively calmly -much more so than if watching further away in car. Luckily don't hack!! Nice now as for 1st year he was so distressed I didn't ride much(plus my health reasons).his coat is healthy silky soft and shines and breath doesn't smell -poos look like he digests well and nice consistency - as dog poo goes they are very tolerable smell wise and easy to tell stress poos from food related so not yet had runs from food-only instantly on a fear trigger but these very rare now which is brilliant.will get oily fish later and tripe- what is the difference in tripe blocks (frozen) and green tripe?butcher looked blank and said tripe is tripe. He has a lean tall athletic frame not a heavy boned chunky type.currently feeding 1005g minimum not including milk and oils
 
The blocks of tripe are washed/processed most of the time. Raw tripe is unmistakeably, stomach lining, villi and all!!

I'd rather mine on the lean side. Out of all the dogs I know these past few days, he has coped best with the weather, despite being dark and longcoated, because he is lean, fit and doesn't carry any excess coat.
 
Thank you CC..so I guess green tripe is raw & unwashed/unprocessed? Silly question I know, but does tripe come under meat or offal? or something else completely? I try to disassociate raw meat with any food or animals..handled at arms length..tripe gets the old bbq tongs treatment & industrial black marrigolds, champagne corks up nose/no kisses from dog etc

I was really worrying over the weekend with all sorts of senarios that could come out of a blood test, but then it struck me the nurse didn't say anything other than how good he looked till I said he's dropped(when on scale) THEN she started saying he wasn't much different to her greyhound (which I felt a bit too harsh as she did also ask me what breed he was:rolleyes: so now i think judging by what i fed previously i had to a fine art by eye & didn't weigh (cooked) I'm wondering if they usually drop weight when they first change to raw and if they were perhaps encouraged to do bloods rather than feed increase first after all thats going to be the best part of £100-120 still even if they show nothing.. also are there some dogs who simply might just do better on home cooked? I wish they all had their own decoding & instruction manual just like a car..scan the chip/plug them in to a machine & bingo dog management system will print while you wait!*scuttles off to Dragons Den*:D
I took pics this morning on our walk but am too scared to post them now!:/
 
CaveCanem said:
I thought offal but the good people on hear tell me it counts as meat.

If he is well in himself and his stools are OK I really wouldn't worry too much.
Click to expand...

Thank you CC - I think he's the same happy boy he normally is...tho might simply be down to living with me..recon that could make anyone lose weight. Right will stop panicking & start cramming the freezer full of stinky things.:eek:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top