Feeding an underweight puppy?

Luci07

Luci07

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Just looking for some more tips please. I wasn't looking but have ended up with a rescue Stafford x pup to add to my brood. Rescue took her and her siblings out a very VERY bad situation, have wormed her, vaccinated and chipped her. After testing her with my lot, she has come home.

At 12 weeks old she is just 4kg. Rescue have been feeding plain biscuits and advised I do the same. She is incredibly hungry (cue me now putting the food waste up in the shelf). I was a little free with food yesterday and the result was a bit of a runny tummy.

I have bought her Canagan dry food, very high meat content, low cereal, no saturated fats or additives.

Thoughts on helping this little one put on weight? She is finding her feet very quickly!
 
I had the same thing just before Christmas and my pup wasn't as old, she couldn't even eat or drink so was obviously straight off the bitch when she was found in a cardboard box in a car park. She was tubed at the vets to get some fluids into her and was then fed on soaked Chum Puppy which the vet advised to continue with until she was a better weight. It's suited her along with a little meat so I've kept her on it and she looks amazing, is a good weight, is amazing and I wouldn't be without her at all! Hope your pup gives you as much pleasure too. TBH, if she's that poor, I would go with whatever she wants to eat in small quantities as whatever she has will go through her at first, it's bound to as she has no lining in her stomach; my vet always says the simpler the better for anything in this situation.
 
Also lots of small meals rather than large helpings. I fed one of my foster pups his first meal at 6 am then every three hours throughout the day. A few days on Prokolin might also help settle the pups's tummy.
 
Why no fats?

I have occasionally had to deal with under weight dogs and the best thing by far is raw unwashed beef tripe straight from the abattoir including a portion of the fat that comes with it.

Failing that, I'd include a lump of lard in the feed. Why straight biscuits? That sounds crazy to me. Are dogs really designed to digest straight cereals?

As with feeding any animal, change the diet gradually so the correct bacteria and micro flora have a chance to multiply to cope with the new food. And, yes, they will probably get the runs until they have adjusted to the new feed but the tripe will fix that.

"When in doubt, follow Nature" applies.
 
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