Feeding an underweight dog - advice please!
We adopted a very sweet yellow lab/retriever x from the Chessington centre on Thursday. All going well except that he is clearly quite underweight as all his ribs are easily visible and his hips protrude. According to the feeding guidlines on his dry complete food he needs approx 560g per day which we have increased to 620g for the time being. However, is this the right thing to do or is there a better way to gradually increase his weight to a satisfactory level such as including tinned food in his diet? Any advice would be gratefully received.

Hi there Tempting though it is, I wouldn't suddenly feed him huge amounts because he looks like he needs it - especially if he's young and still growing since that could cause problems. Dog food makers are notorious for writing on the packet that your dog needs bucketloads - that's good for their business! Whatever you choose, I'd go for a good quality make which isn't bulked out with cheap cereal products and doesn't contain additives such as colourings. I'd have a word with your vet to be on the safe side. But for on the spot free advice, you might also like to post on another forum where a canine nutritionist I know - and other knowledgeable people - will most likely be able to help. It is at http://www.ttlntl.co.uk/forum/ and you would need to post under the 'health and diet' section. Of course, other people here may have had similar experiences with their rescues and be able to tell you what they did. :D Good luck!

Hi toosey girl. Congratulations on adopting your lab x!! We adopted Benny a couple of weeks ago and he was very thin too. As well as this he had tummy problems (very loose with some blood). We took him to the vet as soon as possible just to get a check over. He weighed in as 25.5 kg and the vet said he should ideally be 29kg. She gave us some chicken and rice for a few days to settle his stomach and give it a break. After a few days we fed him his usual Pedigree complete mixed with two table spoons of rice and plain yoghurt, gradually decreasing the yoghurt and rice and his stomach is better now although still a bit soft pooh but no more blood. Anyway, the feeding instructions on our bag says 380gm per day. We mostly have been giving him 2 meals of 200gm to make 400gm per day. But as he has been snatching food and gobbling his meals within seconds we increased his daily intake by adding a lucnchtime extra meal of 200gm. He seems to be more relaxed with 3 meals of 200gm and has put on 1kg in 2 weeks. So, I guess we are helping him increase his weight slowly which is good??? I weigh Benny by weighing myself on bathroom scales and then picking him up , weighing again and subtract my weight.

Hi Toosey Girl! We'd love to see some piccies of your lil boy! I had the opposite problem to you in that our rescue was on the rather rotund side! It might be worth giving some Natural Plain Bio Yoghurt to help line his stomach for the time being. Sometimes, rescues tend to have a touch of the trots for a few weeks whilst they are settling down - it's a fairly normal response to such a change in their life. Also, rather than give extra dog food, maybe steam some veg or do some pasta - just add a couple of dessert spoonfuls to one of the meals. All nice and natural and just a boost to his meal for a few weeks. We always chuck a small extra handful in for our two - it makes a bit of a change for them. Good luck and congrats on your rescue. Hope everything goes well for you! :lol:

I'm clearly being really dense here - I'd love to post a photo but I can't figure out how!!! :?

Just put a phot onto flickr - this should be the web address http://www.flickr.com/photos/12655721@N07/2392884253/ Sorry about being sooooo thick!!!

great piccy - it made me laugh out loud :D

so lovely - could be my Willow's double! :shock:

Lovely face 8) A good way to get some weight on a dog is to feed lamb breast and tripe. It is always wise to introduce new food gradually and in small amounts at first. I get my butcher to cut lamb breasts in2 inched strips and buy either frozen blocks of trip or freeflow frozen tripe. Would be worth getting him weighed and keep doing it over several weeks to makes sure the weight gain is done very gradually. Also has he recently been wormed ? Lucy xx

Sorry forgot to say make sure they are both fed raw and not cooked :wink: :)

His medical record doesn't say so we have wormed him as a matter of course just to make sure but that was only a few days ago so it may take a while to work fully. Saw vet today and he wasn't particularly concerned about his weight saying that as he is only 18mths old he will gain weight as he gets older but I am still a little concernedthat his hips and ribs a so visible. But if the vet is unconcerned then that does stop me worrying quite so much as before. I think however, I will try some of you suggestions as they can't do any harm as long as they are in moderation. Juls

Give him a few weeks of lots of TLC and you won't have the same dog anyway! :wink: Keep us updated pleassseee!