Any one have some ideas on how I can put weight on my 18 month old female GSD? I fed her a BARF diet of about 3.5 lbs of food a day but that did not do it and now she gets 8 cups of Eukanuba a day (4 is recommended) and still nothing. She has VERY high food drive but I just can't get weight on her. She is way too thin. The internet has a billion articles on dieting your dog but I can't find a thing on putting weight on a dag. Any help will be greatly appreciated for the health of my dog.

you should be gratefull that she is thin and sounds like very healthy. She'll fill out as she gets older. Keep them light and there is less strain on the joints.

I have the same problem with my 15.5 month old GSD. I am now feeding her Heaps including free range dry food as well as the rice/veggie/oils/sups/meat mix they get for dinner, the other two have put on some weight but i can just about play the xylaphone on her ribbs! i have stopped her outings for training etc in order to not burn more fat/energy.
If there is anything that would help i too would love to hear of it.

Eukanuba is garbage. It won't do your dog any good.

Even if the vet hasn't found worms, you could still deworm. Just because they didn't find them doesn't mean they aren't there.

You vet should do blood tests as well to make sure her organs, etc. are functioning properly.

I solved my great dane mutt's skinniness problem, which had been going on for several months, by feeding BARF, supplemented with a good amount of organic extra-virgin olive oil, avocados, fatty cuts of salmon, and nut butters, and whole nuts for treats.

There is a recipe I found for putting weight on a dog. It is called (revoltingly) "satin balls." Do a search for "satin balls" and you will find the recipe. I pray there is nothing else with this name on the internet.

The main thing I think you should focus on is deworming and having your vet run blood tests. If you were feeding BARF correctly and supplementing well she should not be underweight.

It is true of course that dogs should be kept lean. But that doesn't mean that they can't be TOO skinny. Talk to your (quality) vet.

Hi Robert, The very first thing to do before you play the food change or additive route is to have your vet do a complete overview on any physical condition which might also include the dogs overall nervous system. A lot of time the dogs central nervous system is out of wak simply because the dog is not getting enough quality exercise. Good tiring exercise on any dog and in specific a breed such as a GSD that has a working heritage will tone the dogs nervous system down which on its own calms the dog between workouts thus allowing the body to be more efficient in the burning or speed of the cal burn.

Worms might be a factor but you have mentioned that you have done this. Have you maintained a worming program and also did you insist that your vet search for additional parasites, such as Giardia or Coxie.

What kind of stools does the dog produce. Your dogs digestive system could also be a problem. Irritated bowl syndrome which could indicate that you may need a Prescribed Diet if the dog has Croans or another such problem.

I also do not believe that the Euk will on it's own do the job. My dogs are stress factories when not worked but we maintain there normal weight with plain jane everyday basic Iams. I would use the Euk when on the road and in hard training as an extra boost due to the stress that I would over install in the dog at that time but not as a everyday food.

You might want to try adding carbs to the diet. Pasta and do not be cheap and or Rice or the spuds left over from your own dinner. Chicken fat will also make a good additive but I think you have this covered with the Barf Diet.

As long as the dog is only thin as in a good conditioned thin do not stress out. Dogs as they mature will fill out but if the condition of the dog appears to be leaning towards being emancipated then yes you have a problem.

I did the same thing as you with my Axel when he was a young dog and only weighed a thin 45 lbs. I thought how is this Malinois at that weight ever be able to do hard man work. Well he did and I came to understand that this was his working weight and the rest is history with all the good things that happened for him.

By the way Axel will be 13 years this fall and today he is a little chub bucket at 70 lbs.

Age has a way of doing this.

Another thing to think about if you are not already is to limit the dogs activity between periods of exercise such as a routine of being crated.

Good Luck
Jerry

Just a question, but how much does your dog weigh in at, and how large is she. In an 18 month old dog with good eating habits and good energy it seems to me that you don't need to "put weight on her". In a lot of working line GSDs you will see ribs, that is not uncommon nor is it unhealthy- even if your vet says that your dog is to thin.

Unless there is a health problem, I doubt that you guys need to fatten your dogs up. I own a male that is fit to a T. He is five now and I still see his ribs. He eats like a pig and has lots of healthy energy. He is more than 25 inches high and only weighs about 71 lbs soaking wet. He has a very large frame also. Looks like a damn grey hound. (kinda :rolleyes: <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> ) He has no health problems. Just a skinny guy.

I'm just thinking out loud here. Both of these dogs are pretty young. They are your dogs and you have to decide if they are just skinny or unhealthy. A lot of working line dogs don't carry a high percentage of body fat. Less than most dogs I would guess. And you will hardly ever hear from a vet that your dog looks healthy, just "He seems a little under weight." Again just a guess here. . .

Good luck troops.

I respect Jerry's advice about adding carbs (pasta rice potatoes), but I want to mention that with my underweight dog, carbs seemed to be a big part of the problem. He would eat and eat his kibble (Solid Gold or Innova mainly but I varied it) and poop and poop and it seemed that not only was the grain passing through his system nearly undigested, it was also sapping his energy or his ability to derive the nutrition he needed from his food. I was also really worried about bloat because it seemed like he would fill his stomach up as full as it would go in hopes of getting some benefit.

I believe that one of the ideas behind the BARF diet is that dogs don't need really need carbohydrates. Clearly some dogs do well on them, but my very underweight dog did not. He is a large, high-energy, non-working Great Dane/Pitbull cross.

I would not worry. With many of North America's pets overweight and underexercised, seeing a thin dog in shape is great. As long as there is no underlying medical problem for being underweight (like Jerry said, your dog should have a complete physical) being thin at this stage in life is ok. My dog at this stage was also thin. He stabilized at around 2 1/2 years of age. But I still keep him thin. He alternated between eating like a horse and turning his nose up at all food.

According to most knowledgable vets, as long as you can feel some flesh and a slight padding along the spine (that would be the tenderloin portion if you're talking pork chops) it should be fine. When you go to a dog show and see how much meat some of those dog pack on, even young ones (judges like padding I guess) I'd rather have a thin dog. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Okay everyone, why do you assume that the poster doesn't know whether his own dog is the right weight? Yes most dogs are too fat (same with most people), but it is still possible for dogs to be too skinny. I am glad that when I had this problem I didn't post asking for help, only to be told repeatedly by people who had never seen him that it was good that he was skinny. It is not good for a dog to be so skinny that you can count every one of his ribs from across the room and his back looks like a stegosaurus.

Go ahead and remind the poster that it is good for dogs to stay pretty lean. But if he thinks he has something to worry about, you are not doing him any good by telling him not to worry. His dog could have any number of health problems causing it to be too skinny.

Thanks so far for the help. Here's some more info. She is 52 pounds and I own her littermate sister who is 60 pounds and looks normal (last two ribs visible). I do keep my dogs thinner than most people think we should (people who don't know better) but this female is too thin IMO. Her stools are a light brown and usually solid. She does not have worms as she has always been on a monthly wormer and her blood work is normal. The vet says she seems healthy by the tests but even though she knows I like my dogs thin she even agrees with me that she seems too thin. I too could play xylaphones on my dogs ribs and I can feel plainly every vertabre (sp?)she has. Anyone ever try molasses or honey?