I was coming home from training my dog and someone screamed out their truck window 'FEED YOUR DOG!' I was pretty shocked and embarrassed. I get a few people saying this (saying that he's too skinny in a polite way, not screaming at me), and other people say he looks really healthy (normally pit bull fans seem to say healthy). I feed raw. Primarily chicken necks, meaty lamb bones, beef neck bones, hamburger, eggs, yogurt, pumpkin and I just started to add cheese to fatten him up a little.

This picture is when he was around 11 months and now he's a year so he's added a bit of size.

http://i1098.photobucket.com/albums/g380/pawcamptraining/104.jpg?t=1290192488

Overall he looks good to me, he looks to be all muscle, with good coat and in good condition.

If he was mine I might want to fill him out just a little more so the hips are less cowlike and the spine isn't so visible.

But at 11 months it can be really difficult to get weight on them. It took until mine was nearly 4 to get him away from the starved look. I had no luck at all until I started adding raw virgin coconut oil to his diet, it made a big difference.

JMO, he could gain a few ounces. Nothing to scream out truck windows about.

Healthy dogs handle raw fat very well. That would be my choice with a healthy dog who didn't eat quite enough. (Well, second choice. First choice, if he will, is just a little increase in the overall diet.)

By "raw fat," I mean raw animal fat or cold-pressed oils; cooked fats are actually chemically changed, and cooked (and rancid) fats are the fats that are often behind the cases of "holiday pancreatitis" that are going to start popping up.

If I wanted to add fat, I would do it very slowly/gradually. Even though dogs are well equipped to use raw fat, a sudden increase can definitely trigger diarrhea. You always want to avoid rather than cure diarrhea.

PS Supermarket oils are not at all what I mean. I am thinking of cold-pressed unrefined safflower, hemp, sunflower, canola, etc., and raw coconut oil .... I buy these oils at the natural food store and I store them as carefully as I do the fish oil (in the fridge). (The coconut oil is far less volatile and can live in the cool dark pantry.)

All JMO! I think he looks good and all I would aim for myself is to not see the hipbones so clearly. Others may disagree, though. I would not yell out a truck window at you.

HAHA. Jennifer posted while I was typing.

I too have fallen under the spell of the claims for raw coconut oil. I started researching them and came up with enough authoritative backup to make me buy a jar, even at $10. It's very spendy (when you see "virgin coconut oil," that's not it. It will have the word "raw" too).

Don't be surprised that coconut "oil" looks almost like mayonnaise. It's not liquid unless it's slightly warmed.

Thanks to both of you. I do agree with you two and would prefer a slight cover over all the bones. I don't like seeing the spine. So in a way I have to admit he is too skinny. It's just not something I'm doing on purpose, some days he eats better than I do. But I guess people don't know that. It's just frustrating to have people accuse you of abusing an animal, especially when you put so much time and effort into training and caring for him.

I'm assuming the extra padding will make sure there will be more muscle development around his back and hips. And a fair amount of muscle and fat will prevent injury, correct? In terms of feeding him I'm more concerned with protecting his muscles and joints, especially the hips.

I'll definitely look into the raw virgin coconut oil. Thanks. I found when I added more eggs and a little yogurt to his diet his coat got so much better. It's like silk, kind of strange.

I have fed small amounts of high quality virgin coconut oil and the dogs loved it! Heck, I love it too.

I was in Whole Foods one day and they were giving away samples of this chocolate made with virgin coconut oil, and it was simply
heavenly
I prefer it in it's raw state over cooking with it though.
But as an added extra fat for a dog, I believe it is a good thing as long as it hasn't been bleached or rendered down with high heat.
The good stuff actually tastes like coconut, yummy if you like that taste which I do. The dogs were on me like a bee to honey, so they liked it very much.

And just a quick reiteration of the RAW fat idea.

Supermarket "cooking" oils, corn oils, Wesson oil, canola oil, all that crap -- this stuff is no better for dogs than it is for us.

If the RAW coconut oil is to spendy, I'd rather go with another oil that's cold-pressed, no chemical processing, than use the not-raw coconut oil.

Mechanically pressed oil means what it sounds like -- kinda squeezing the oil from the seed rather than extracting it with chemicals. (And the chemicals are bad, like hexane.) Olive and nut oils will probably say "cold pressed" to differentiate because there are certain harder seeds like canola that actually do require some steaming to soften before pressing (but it will say "mechanically pressed").

Unrefined whole oils might look less attractive, but they retain all the nutrients they came with. "Naturally refined" probably had some hit used on it as well as fine straining, but still no chemicals. This is what I look for to cook with.

In general, though, I buy nothing but cold-pressed unrefined oils (and raw cold-pressed coconut oil), and I treat them carefully (as the prices would prompt you to do
anyway. )

And of course, there's nice cheap raw animal fat!

 Quote: Michael Pugsley

Thanks to both of you. I do agree with you two and would prefer a slight cover over all the bones. I don't like seeing the spine. So in a way I have to admit he is too skinny. It's just not something I'm doing on purpose

It really is hard when you feed them mass amounts of high quality food and they are still so skinny. I worried about Loki for a couple of years, did blood work, tested for worms, tried different foods and really could not get weight on him.

Coconut oil really helped pretty quickly and also made his coat look awesome. But also his metabolism slowed down about a year after he was neutered. I don't know if it was turning 3, the neutering or a combination of both, but now we have to watch it because he still acts hungry all the time but has put on noticable weight. I don't want to swing the other way and end up with a fatty!

I started small with about 1/8 of a teaspoon per meal to avoid an upset stomach, it took about a month to work our way up to an eating spoonful a day.