Best food/diet for weight gain

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cariad

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I have a deerhound who will be 2 in September. I always knew she was the runt of the litter, but that was ok. She is as healthy and full of life as they come, energetic, runs about like the hounds of hell are after her (well, it is the terrier, so....) and just generally loves life. But she is a bit of a picky eater and really does need to gain some weight. It is just so embarrassing when anyone strokes her as you can feel every vertebrae in her spine! She is fed at lunchtimes, has an own brand biscuit that is a complete food, own brand tinned food, chicken, rice, eggs, fish, heart, liver, cottage cheese, vegetables, snacks etc (not all at once obviously) and she will eat something enthusiastically for a few days and then go, nah, don't fancy that any more.

I don't think she will ever be a huge dog, which is good in a way and that's fine, but I would like to see her a bit better covered. My last deerhound was very chunky, but not overweight, just a bigger dog altogether. I did wonder whether I was comparing the two too much, but no, I think objectively this one would benefit from a bit more weight.

Anyone got any suggestions for food/supplements/regimes etc? Many thanks.
 
Add warm bone broth to food 😊 when my dog was very poorly and didn’t eat for 3 days it did the trick to get her begging for food you can get ready made, make your own or get the powdered stuff to add boiling water to, just don’t give more than recommended and check sodium amounts. Good luck !
 
I'm not on FB, I'm afraid and yes, have tried feeding more than once a day. Again, she though, oh good, seconds, but then lost interest in the second set of food! She is very easily distracted and will wander off to see what the others are doing with their food (eating it before someone else does) then wander back and have a few mouthfuls more etc. I have tried feeding her in isolation to see if she would concentrate more on eating, but no, she just scrabbled at the door to get back to the others. Hence trying to find something to actually eat that will promote weight gain.

Thanks for the interest and suggestions-keep them coming!
 
When my whippet decided to try and commit suicide by not eating and lost so much weight he had every bone sticking out of his back etc, I went in hard. Beef mince mixed with extra thick double cream, served every hour so he was actually eating quite a lot, just in tiny doses. It put weight on super quickly. Mine are both raw fed and need roughly double the recommended amount. They do exercise a lot but I've alway found sight hounds need way more than you'd think.

One of mine doesnt like breakfast and picks at it, he prefers to eat a snack mid day and then his main meal evening time. He acctually likes a midnight snack but I try not to encourage that or he goes to bed and wakes me up anywhere between midnight and 4am! i used to leave him dry food down all the time, but my other one is a huge pig and piles weight on so cant be trusted to free feed. They get 2 mins to start to eat and if they walk away from their bowls it goes back in the fridge for later. Otherwise fat boy slim scoffs 2 meals and ends up the worlds fattest whippet!n It does seem to have cut down on the faffing and being distracted when eating though now they know its taken away and wont be there when they come back.
 
Mince and extra thick double cream! Mine won't eat food that has been taken away and re-presented; it has to be a fresh bowl. Fortunately the others are willing to have a go.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I think what I'll do is a bit of a combination of everything as a start-change her food to puppy, try a supplement and broth, up the raw /fish stuff and try two feeds a day, see how that works over about a month. As I said, she's healthy enough, she was at the vet for something unrelated not long ago and they weren't at all worried. It may be just how she is, like some people seem to be able to eat tons and never put an ounce on. This is one occasion when pets are definitely not like their owners. Cheers. C.
 
cariad said:
Mince and extra thick double cream! Mine won't eat food that has been taken away and re-presented; it has to be a fresh bowl. Fortunately the others are willing to have a go.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I think what I'll do is a bit of a combination of everything as a start-change her food to puppy, try a supplement and broth, up the raw /fish stuff and try two feeds a day, see how that works over about a month. As I said, she's healthy enough, she was at the vet for something unrelated not long ago and they weren't at all worried. It may be just how she is, like some people seem to be able to eat tons and never put an ounce on. This is one occasion when pets are definitely not like their owners. Cheers. C.
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When we acquired an underweight, oversized 22 week old Lab bitch, I swapped her feed onto Arden Grange, Giant breed puppy kibble, with a topping of wet food. The kibble has a high oil content, which helped her to put weight on. As I later found, she had also been reacting to rice in her diet, so grain-free also helped enormously. Even our adults are fed x3 per day, which is a legacy from the Rottweilers who needed that to avoid bloat.
 
Millie's Wolfheart do a high fat complete dry food which I have my greyhound on currently, just short term as she dropped weight and condition after we moved house and possibly due to stress of vets visits not long after. I'm considering moving her to a higher carb non grain free food once her weight is back up.

She went very underweight when she first arrived so we moved her from the Pedigree dry food she came with to a MW dry food. Then used toppers including tinned sardines in oil, greek yogurt (not low fat), and raw green tripe. Over time this seemed to really improve things.
 
cariad said:
Mince and extra thick double cream! Mine won't eat food that has been taken away and re-presented; it has to be a fresh bowl. Fortunately the others are willing to have a go.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I think what I'll do is a bit of a combination of everything as a start-change her food to puppy, try a supplement and broth, up the raw /fish stuff and try two feeds a day, see how that works over about a month. As I said, she's healthy enough, she was at the vet for something unrelated not long ago and they weren't at all worried. It may be just how she is, like some people seem to be able to eat tons and never put an ounce on. This is one occasion when pets are definitely not like their owners. Cheers. C.
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I honestly thought he was going to die and would have given him caviar if thats what he wanted 😂
 
Double cream not good for dogs.
I’d shut her away so she’s not distracted by the others.
CJS do a pretty crappy but very high calorie food, when I’m home later I’ll see if I can find it’s name.
 
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