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  • Weight gain needed

    As I mentioned in another thread, I have a terrible time putting weight on Pixie.

    She's 28", built like many poorly bred Danes so she has the greyhound body complete with the grey hound but muscles, but everything else is scrawny. No chest, narrow body, etc. She weighs about 70 pounds. Her last rib is visible and you can feel her ribs but don't really see them unless I take her off oatmeal for a few days. Then her ribs do show. Her spine is boney but not obvious. Her hip bones do stick up, and like the ribs become really obvious if we don't do oatmeal for several days. They aren't terribly visible, but you can see the dip between them. And the butt bones stick out too, rounded with muscle, but visible and boney.

    So, she doesn't look emaciated or anything, but she just won't put on weight. Here is what I've tried - I'm hoping someone has some other ideas:

    1) Feed 2 pounds a day (about 3% of her body weight)
    2) Feed pork
    3) Reduce exercise/activity

    She appears to be allergic to beef so I opted for pork. Nothing improved. On 3% feeding all she did was poop a lot. Reducing activity didn't do anything either.

    She does gain weight on 1.5 pounds a day (2% of body weight) and oatmeal. She looses weight as soon as she doesn't get oatmeal.

    Her poop is excellent, she's got a lot of energy. My vet believes her hot spot she developed a few months ago was due to too much protein or calories. She was on the 2 pounds of pork and turkey during that time. This is a holistic vet who promotes a raw diet. He had me cut meat in half to 1 pound a day, adding in equal volume of veggies to keep her feeling full, and believed it was ok to continue the oatmeal. She lost weight on that, so I bumped her up to 1.5 pounds and veggies and oatmeal. No hot spot return.

    I hesitate to take her up in meat again because that change did make the hot spot go away (it was a nasty one, took two weeks to clear up, after being around for about two weeks while I tried to treat it myself).

    She eats mostly turkey, due to allergies/sensitivities to chicken and beef. She gets pork a couple times a week. I give lamb, buffalo, emu or elk as available but its too spendy to give more than once a week. Turkey is the staple food item.

    I don't know what I should be doing here. I need to build up muscle on her since she's doing agility and needs more than what she's got to jump 24". What have you done to successfully add muscle and promote healthy weight gain on a raw fed dog who can't have beef?

  • #2
    I'm not really knowledgeable on this stuff, but am going through the same thing with my dog. To build muscle, you need protein. Have you tried eggs, or peanut butter? Titan usually gets a peanut butter sandwich with white bread once a day to put on some weight. The peanut butter and eggs are a good source of protein. Beans are as well, but I'm not sure if dogs should have them. Good luck with your pup!
    'The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.' Ben Franklin

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    • #3
      Originally posted by firef2005 View Post
      I'm not really knowledgeable on this stuff, but am going through the same thing with my dog. To build muscle, you need protein. Have you tried eggs, or peanut butter? Titan usually gets a peanut butter sandwich with white bread once a day to put on some weight. The peanut butter and eggs are a good source of protein. Beans are as well, but I'm not sure if dogs should have them. Good luck with your pup!
      Considering she eats 1.5 pounds of meat each day, she's getting a good amount of protein.

      I haven't given eggs, I'll add that to the list of things to try.

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      • #4
        weight gain

        Unfortunately everything you are feeding is lean except for the pork. I would add some kind of oil to the diet. Work up to it slowly but I'd try for 1/4 cup daily. Don't use coconut oil because it makes them lose weight. Olive oil is healthy and a good source of vitamin e. Maybe feeding pork neck bones or spareribs would help. Look for pork roasts marked down. Pork brisket pieces are good. Anything that is fatty that you feel can be tolerated.

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        • #5
          Funny you should mention coconut oil! I actually just started giving it to them as they both had itchy flakey skin despite being on salmon oil. It got better on cod liver oil, and even better on coconut oil (I've only been feeding coconut oil for a couple weeks).

          I can get ground pork pretty cheap where I buy meat, and it looks pretty fatty - more than shoulders even with that thick slab of fat that is usually on them. I can probably increase how much of that I feed.

          Any particular kind of Olive Oil good to use? Do you think olive oil would make more sense than fish oils? Its probably cheaper for sure.

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          • #6
            weight gain

            Any extra virgin olive oil will be fine. I wouldn't drop the fish oil. That serves a different purpose. Dogs need the omega 3's in fish oil. It's not there in olive oil. You've got to get fat in the dog in order to gain weight.

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            • #7
              Ok, thanks!

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              • #8
                My boys get olive, fish and coconut oils (not all at once) added to their organs and ground meat and/or oatmeal and random stuff mixture. Mine eat off a spoon but you could just give gobs of it or make little meat balls, like satin balls. I add all sorts of things but one thing I often add is ground flax meal which is high in (good, raw) fat.

                Is there a decent amount of fat on her RMBs? I feed mostly turkey tails which seem to have a good proportion of meat fat and bone. My boys are quite thick despite eating well on the low end of their recommended amounts.

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