Trying to fatten up my GSD

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sarah1710

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Hi All

Just wondered if anyone can help. We have a GSD who is just over a year old and seriously needs some extra weight. At the moment she is on dried food only - as much as she wants - so I thought about adding in something else as well. What I cant decide is do I go to Tescos and get lots of tins with just 4% meat in or do I splash out and feed Natures Harvest for example with 71% meat - will the % of meat make a lot of difference for adding weight? - in all other ways she is perfectly healthy with boundless amounts of energy.

Or maybe you can suggest other things that would be much better for weight gain.

Many thanks
 
*clears throat*

Have you though about feeding RAW?
The idea being that to put on weight you feed more bone.

Dogs don't have a digestive system that can cope with grains which is the cause of most dogs allergies so please don't go down the route of feeding a poor quality food.
Any raw question just ask.
 
This one for CC or MM - they will be along in a bit!!
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Hello and welcome, and lets have some pics of your girl
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Don't buy crappy tins. GSDs can have problems with absorbing food and as Katie says, raw is probably the best thing you can feed but for some people it is logistically difficult. Katie or KarynK will advise you better than me
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Nature Diet does seem to be one of the better brands, there is also DUCK and Autarky which are very heavily meat based.

I have a very rangey male on Arden Grange lamb and rice, that can be bulked up with eggs, natural yoghurt and veg oil. You can also feed oily fish.

For dry food, Royal Canin do a breed specific range for GSDs and their digestive quirks, but it is expensive.

Also make sure you are exercising her, not her exercising herself, my female is a 'fence-runner', she will run up and down all day if allowed (even when getting 2-3 hours walking a day
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) and as such also runs off all her weight! I found keeping her in the house or a smaller area than normal when she is not being exercised helped.
 
Sorry, very quick answer as just popped in here before going to work. How thin is thin, at a year old she shouldn't be carrying much weight, what does she actually weight? Anyway, if you can get hold of it I swear by green tripe to put the weight on, stinks to high heaven but they love it. You can buy frozen blocks from most of the big pet supermarkets.
 
Thank you everyone for your replies
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I think I'm going to have a go at feeding RAW!

Katie_Houston - have you got any tips to help me get started, how do I go about changing, how do I know how much to feed, do I feed vegatables as well? all these questions going around in my head
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CC - pics of her to follow on Monday when my daughter returns - I think I would get in a pickle trying to upload photos!! as for eggs yep she has a good supply of those already as she helps herself to the freshly laid ones from the chickens!

MM - with regards to her weight I'm not sure, again I will get her weighed on Monday and update post - all I know is that when I stroke her her ribs are very prominent, they dont feel if they have any covering at all, and her hip bones are not much better either - to look at her she looks ok as her coat is lovely and shinny and fairly thick its just when you touch her!!

Once again many thanks and I'll post pics and weight on Monday and keep you updated on the RAW feeding
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you could try adding some rice- it might help, and wont upset stomach, and boiled potatoes would help bulk up too. is she a nervy sort of gsd- they are often thiner because of burning up up nervous energy. ps in regard to previous post, in case you havent used it before; if you go for useing tripe, wash your hands in cold water after- warm or hot water seals in the smell on your hands
 
Pasta is always a good thing to use and they love it. I find rice binds thema little sometimes.

However, a lot of GSD's at one year old are 'rangey', so much growing to do I suppose
 
When my youngest GSD was 12 months she was pretty much as you describe, you could feel her ribs etc when you stroked her. Imo that is fine at that age as long as they don't look ribby and are fit and well, shiny coat etc. Evie weighed 29 kg at 12 months, she is now 17 months and has put on a bit more condition but you can still feel her ribs. Def worth getting your girls weight checked but sounds to me as if you don't have too much to worry about. Look forward to seeing the pics.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Thank you everyone for your replies
smile.gif
I think I'm going to have a go at feeding RAW!

Katie_Houston - have you got any tips to help me get started, how do I go about changing, how do I know how much to feed, do I feed vegatables as well? all these questions going around in my head
confused.gif


CC - pics of her to follow on Monday when my daughter returns - I think I would get in a pickle trying to upload photos!! as for eggs yep she has a good supply of those already as she helps herself to the freshly laid ones from the chickens!

MM - with regards to her weight I'm not sure, again I will get her weighed on Monday and update post - all I know is that when I stroke her her ribs are very prominent, they dont feel if they have any covering at all, and her hip bones are not much better either - to look at her she looks ok as her coat is lovely and shinny and fairly thick its just when you touch her!!

Once again many thanks and I'll post pics and weight on Monday and keep you updated on the RAW feeding
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I could harp on about it for ages.
You need to feed between 2-4% of her body weight but its also a bit of trial and error.

I would start off with some chicken or mince and just mix it in with whatever she is getting already and then slowly cut down until you are just feeding her the raw meat.

You can feed just about anything you want.

Make sure she gets some bone in with the meat.
I started by getting whole chickens and just cutting them into pieces. then they get a good amount of bone and meat.

You can feed veg if you want but you don't have to i just crack an egg over their food once or twice a week.

Let me know if you have any more questions.
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Thank you both Keziah and Whitewood these are good things to bear in mind for her - great tip about the tripe thanks
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and yes I guess she has done lots of growing in a short space of time....

Thank you MM for the reassurance
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I will get her weighed tomorrow and post along with the pics

Katie-Houston - thank you so much for getting back and giving me some good tips for starting off, the unknown is always scary
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I will start introducing chicken and mince (with bones) to her over the next few weeks and see how thing go

Once again many thanks for all your help and I'm sure I'll have some more questions along the way!
 
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