How To Put Weight On A Dog With A Small Appetite?

[lukkylady]

Join our free community today.

Connect with other like-minded dog lovers!

Login or Register

my 4yr old whippet is losing weight

since i got the lurcher.

she always was a grazer

but cant do that no more

cos the lurcher is a bin :teehee:

my whippet has such a small appetite

its virtually impossible to overfeed her :blink:

she eats small meals several times a day

if i can get it into her

i tried really smelly foods

but she licks and picks at it, then walks away

shes very ribby and a prominent spine :unsure:

i hate seeing her this thin

is there anything i can do?

i've tried everything i can think of.

i waste more food cos she wont eat it

and i dont want to overfeed the lurcher.

they are currently on raw: chicken, turkey, tripe, rabbit & some red meat

she will take butchers tripe tinned, tripe sticks and some dry autarky

in small quantities

am i being too concerned? :wacko:

 

[lukkylady]

i weighed her and shes 12.5kg

 

[eve]

She does not look painfully thin in the photos but you are a better judge of her condition.

Unless she is a big whippet of about 20" at the shoulder, 12.5kg is a respectable weight.

I would suggest that you weigh her every few weeks and see if she is loosing weight for sure.

It may be that she is just expending more energy if she has a new friend to play with.

Fresh tripe will put the weight on her better than anything else.

My slow / picky eater gets fed seperately from the others so that they cannot steal the food.

Hope that this is of some help

 

[bertha]

My blue whippet has lost weight since we got his son who is now 10 weeks old. They spend a lot of time playing and running about. Pye is fed on raw butchers pet mince, I have a good butcher, he doesn't put rubbish in the mince. Chicken wings, lamb ribs, meaty bones, wholemeal biscuit, no complete food, eggs, sprats, tinned tuna, any left overs like pasta or rice. All my dogs are fed like this.

Lamb is good for putting weight on, so is tripe. From the photo she doesn't look thin, as Eve said, having a new pal to play with could be making her run around more.

Do you feed them together? I mean at the same time, because usually a bit of competition makes them eat better.

I think you have to be firm about feeding, mine are fed twice a day and that's it. If she doesn't finish her food, take it away from her, don't hand feed! Most dogs will eat what they need, some just eat more than others.

:thumbsup:

 

[masta]

Buy a tin of corned beef cut into cubes and hand feed between meals as much as she will take, complan is also good for supplement feeding as well as evaporated milk, rice pudding

 

[chelynnah]

She doesn't look too thin to me - though when you're used to other breed seeing those spine bones does scare people (I don't know if you're used to other breeds).

My oldest looks her best at 11.6 kilos - anything heavier and she's fat. My middle one is best around 12.3, and the 'baby' got up to about 12.7 and was actually finally looking good. Three completely different weights for 3 different whippets (all related).

Honestly your girl doesn't look underweight to me at all.

 

[Seraphina]

She looks pretty good to me too. I cannot see any ribs and that to me means she is just nicely covered. But if you feel you would like bit more weight on her; i find that giving them raw chicken necks or wings puts weight on them. My dogs would eat as many necks as i am willing to hand out Usually i give about 3 to each, but if anybody starts to look just bit too well covered they only get one a day.

 

[moonglow]

Her weight looks fine to me too,but if you want that bit extra on her I would up the tripe & give her Yorkshire pud between meals :thumbsup:

 

[Strike Whippets]

She looks fine to me but if you want to add weight then horlicks added to their food is brilliant and full of trace vits and minerals )

 

[hawky]

my daughters whippet was a picker and a finicky eater so an eldery lady who had kept whippets for yrs told her to put her on the digestive challenge lol give her 2 digestive biscuits in the morning and again in the night after she been fed it worked here and she looks lovely now though your dog doesnt look overly under weight but like ours i like to see them well covered hope you have some luck :luck: