Trying to get weight on a picky dog

I

I.M.N.

Well-Known Member
Joined
16 March 2011
Messages
445
Visit site
I have a nearly 3 year old GSD. He is the pickiest dog I've ever come across. I've tried everything to get him to eat, the longest he's refused to eat for is 2 weeks.

I had him on raw, which was great but he stoped eating that completely so now he's on Millie's Wolfheart biscuits and wet. He's still eating the wet but he no longer eats the biscuits. I like them to have biscuits as well as wet as I think the biscuits have more bang for their buck. He's also been on, and gone off, Skinners, Akela and Orijen.

He's very fit, alert and active, but I'd like him to have a bit more weight, I think if he weren't medium/long coated he'd look pretty skinny.

I'm looking for ideas of what brands I could try and also what are the best nutrients for weight gain? Any help is much appreciated. TIA
 
I have a lurcher who goes through ropey stages. When she looks a bit leaner than i would like she gets three meals a day instead of just two and has raw egg mixed in. She also gets puppy food.
 
Firstly, what does he weigh, GSDs arent supposed to be big , heavy dogs and at 3 I would expect him to still have some maturing to do.
As far as putting weight on, raw tripe is as good as anything in my view. You can get it in frozen blocks nowadays which makes it pleasanter to handle than when I used to get whole cows stomachs from the abbattoir ! It sounds as if you swap foods when he starts being picky, I would apply a bit of tough love and not give him choices. If he is not ill it is unlikely he will starve himself
 
Thanks for your replies. He gets his daily food split across 3 meals already, I've tried both raw and cooked egg and he's not a fan.

He's 34kg at the moment, but he's a tall lad. I tend to swap when it gets the the stage that nothing can get him to eat. I have tried tough love, he didn't eat for 2 weeks before I gave in, I don't think I could do that again it was horrible.

What concerns me the most is I have no wiggle room if something goes a bit wrong with him. My boyfriend took him walking in the Peak District for 2 days, he didn't eat the whole time and because of the activity level he was skin and bone when he got back.

I'll try the tripe but I'm not sure as one of the raw flavours he was on had tripe in and he never ate that one.
 
does he like fish? salmon is relatively high in fat. Although they might not be the best of foods, my picky setter loved Webbox chubb as well-actually he also loved the web box trays. I would also try tripe although fussy setter wouldn't go near it-he hadn't touched kibble for 6 years by the time I lost him.

does he act hungry and then turn his nose up?
 
He's about the same weight as mine.

Agree, anything fishy or with duck or lamb would add weight.
Is he stressy/nervous energetic at all? The fact that he doesn't eat when out climbing mountains would lead me in that direction. And he's maybe feeling the pressure from you? If you're stressing about mealtimes he may be picking it up?
 
I've had years of similar issues with my Irish Setter, who was extremely underweight when I got him. He would only eat Chappie at first, and was on that or a long time, til he got more adventurous. He has been on Arden Grange Sensitive (Ocean Fish) for the last year, and is looking fantastic - and he loves it, which is helpful, as he is exceptionally fussy! I just tried him on Arden Grange Senor, and he instantly reverted to turning his nose up, and only eating when absolutely starving (every 4 days).
 
I had this problem with my working line Labrador, I was sick of every meal time being stressful and having to throw away huge quantities of uneaten food. He was very lean and whilst I didn't want him fat he was only a few days of not eating away from looking ill. I tried all different types of kibble mixed with forthglade wet food but nothing made him want to eat until I tried Platinum dog food (ordered on the Internet), it has a higher moisture content so is quite smelly and he doesn't have to be fed huge amounts of it. Quite a few months later and he has never missed a meal, has a wonderful shiny coat and is happy, the right side of lean and well muscled. It has certainly taken the stress away from feeding him and I feel it's good quality :-)
 
another good quality kibble is Eden-they do a semi moist which is duck and tripe. my dog is on it (though not what you would call picky!)-not especially smelly though.

I do sympathise, having a dog who's just not into food is no fun-especially one who will literally starve themselves! and I found it very difficult to not transfer stress when trying to get the old setter to eat. however, he wasn't much better for the other people I tried either. he loved fish but wouldn't touch salmon oil but its worth a try. I could also sometimes trick him into eating by giving him some porridge-he'd then go on and eat his food.

The one thing that really made a difference though, was getting another dog (probably unhelpful)! what I was giving him then went up in value and he ate really well for a few months before we lost him.

if he's seeming hungry but then doesn't eat it might be worth a chat with a vet (sorry if you have already) as sometimes antacids can help I'm told.
 
I have a collie/pointer cross who runs up and down the back yard all.day.every.day... No matter what amount of exercise she gets. I struggled for probably about three years to keep weight on her, especially in winter (she has a very fine coat). I switched her from the normal medium breed Eukanuba to the high performance stuff and she's finally filled out and looks amazing now, to the point she was almost fat. She's quite a fussy dog, won't eat anything from the supermarket.
 
sasha1414 said:
I had this problem with my working line Labrador, I was sick of every meal time being stressful and having to throw away huge quantities of uneaten food. He was very lean and whilst I didn't want him fat he was only a few days of not eating away from looking ill. I tried all different types of kibble mixed with forthglade wet food but nothing made him want to eat until I tried Platinum dog food (ordered on the Internet), it has a higher moisture content so is quite smelly and he doesn't have to be fed huge amounts of it. Quite a few months later and he has never missed a meal, has a wonderful shiny coat and is happy, the right side of lean and well muscled. It has certainly taken the stress away from feeding him and I feel it's good quality :-)
Click to expand...

I have just looked at their website and am very tempted to try it. The amounts suggested in their feeding guide look quite low though. If it is not too much bother could you tell me how much your dog weighs and how much Platinum you are feeding him please?
 
Last edited:
Firstly thank you so much for all your replies, sorry I haven't replied till now I've been dealing with Christmas craziness. I'll try and reply to everyone as best I can...

I currently put a bit of pate on to get him in the mood, but he's taken to eating the pate and leaving the biscuits, and if I mix the pate in he won't touch any of it. I've been thinking about trying some sort of oil as he does occasionally like a bit of rapeseed oil that I give my horses, but he's never shown enough interest in it for it to cancel out his pickiness I don't think, but I might get some salmon and coconut oil and try them, does anyone know if its ok to give them a dollop of oil daily long term?

He is a stressy dog, not outwardly but you can tell his mind is always ticking away. I tend to give him space once I've put down his food, not far as I have another dog who would hover up his as soon as he could if I didn't monitor, which brings me on to the pressure point, sometimes he will guard his food from my other dog but not actually eat it, other times he'll just hand it over. I've tried using my other dog for pressure as well as taking all pressure, including me, away and leaving him alone with his food, nothing seems to make much difference. Sometimes he gets slightly excited when I'm getting it ready but on the whole he just waits patiently, and whether he's excited or patient doesn't seem to affect his chance of eating.

I've tried Arden Grange and he won't touch it, he also doesn't like lamb in wet or dry form. I like the idea of the Eden food if it's semi moist as I suspect he has an issue with the crunchiness of biscuits, and I'll look into the Platinum and Webbox.

He's not great with strangers so we tend to stay away from the vet, and I don't feel like this is serious enough (at the moment anyway) to warrant the stress to all involved of taking him to the vet.

I hope that's answered everyones points, sorry if I missed yours. Thank you all again for all your suggestions, they've given me a lot of other things to try.
 
Another suggestion to throw into the mix if he likes smelly wet food, though possibly quite expensive for a large dog - Natures Menu cans. https://www.naturesmenu.co.uk/natural-dog-food/shop-by-product/cans-and-pouches

Same stuff as their raw frozen ranges just canned and cooked, pongs to high heaven but is palatable and good quality. Mine have it when we're away racing and do well on it in a potentially high-stress environment. They have also been known to have a can of Butcher's tripe mix which I consider the canine equivalent of a takeaway. :p
 
If mine get a bit fussy then I mix goat milk and or sardines in tomato sauce in. I feed raw, but no reason why it wouldnt work with dry or tinned. Its the combination of the smell and the sloppy texture they seem to like!
 
Ok mealtimes look like a bit of an ordeal for everyone having read that! If he was mine I would change feeding. New food, new time, new bowl, new room. Don't let him see you prepare it and just leave him alone and start afresh with none of the past associations. Even put the food down and let him in the room and it's just there.
Natural Instinct is premade minced raw which is quite good and if he likes pate then wet Chappie might be an option.
Webbox is OK but you can get slightly more nutritious raw chubbs from some raw providers with a pate like texture. I have some salmon sausages that I got from Holland, they just say hundwurst on the box, will have a look and see if there's a brand name.

I get some Natura wet food trays from Tesco for travelling and they are very pongy ;) so he might like those.

I feed a spoonful of coconut oil daily but go easy in the beginning as it can give them the runs if introduced suddenly.
 
Last edited:
He's quite happy with wet food at the moment, though that can change, luckily Millies Wolfheart seem to do a good range of flavours across their cans so I just get him a different flavour for every delivery and so far so good. I'm just trying to get him to eat biscuits as the cost to keep him fed on only wet is rather high (especially after just purchasing my first home).

I've ordered a sample of Eden and I've enquired if Platinum does samples, so hopefully I'll have a couple of options coming my way.

The idea of a complete change of everything sounds like a very good plan as he is the sort to get a bit transfixed. I'm going to see if I can figure out a few logistics of it as I don't think there's much point doing it unless I can do the lot, but it's definitely a high possibility.
 
I thought seeing as everyone is being so helpful I'd show you the beast in question.

IMG_7355%20copy2_zpsfndbwvwe.jpeg
 
planete said:
I have just looked at their website and am very tempted to try it. The amounts suggested in their feeding guide look quite low though. If it is not too much bother could you tell me how much your dog weighs and how much Platinum you are feeding him please?
Click to expand...

I would definitely suggest trying it - or even just getting a free sample and seeing how it goes down. The kibble is square and is so tasty to mine that they will eat it as treats too which was never possible with other kibbles even the high meat content types - I tried many! I have two dogs on it, my lean Labrador weighs 29-30kg and he gets 150g twice a day but also gets half a tray of forthglade in each meal so he would need more kibble without that. Heis now in lovely fit lean condition. My Eurasier weighs about 22kg and gets just less than 150g twice a day without wet food but he is still growing (9 months) and is more well covered so I will reduce this back as he grows to maintain a suitable adult weight around 25kg.
 
Thank you Sasha. I am very interested as one of my bitches is allergic tp storage mites and the website seems to say the product will not harbour them. She is on raw at the moment but my freezer space is very limited so a bit of a headache. I am definitely going to try the Iberico and see how it works out.
 
planete said:
Thank you Sasha. I am very interested as one of my bitches is allergic tp storage mites and the website seems to say the product will not harbour them. She is on raw at the moment but my freezer space is very limited so a bit of a headache. I am definitely going to try the Iberico and see how it works out.
Click to expand...

I emailed them about samples and they very kindly offered the send me a sample of every one of their dry foods.
 
I have my terrier on Lilys Kitchen.He was skinny and a nervous temprament when he came to me and the weight would never stay on him.Its a good quality tinned meat human grade so it is a bit more expensive but there is no wastage and its solid meat with added veg. and herbs.He is doing great on it and has put on a bit of weight an is keeping it on and is muscling up well He has a small handful of Lilys dried bisc. separately as giving dry with meat causes wind.Protein eg.good quality meat is needed for weight gain.
 
Tinned Pilchards in tomato sauce mixed into dry biscuits usually gets my fussy eater eating!

(Not read all the replys so sorry if I'm repeating what others have said.)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top