Hello, my dogs need to gain weight. The lady at the pet store said possibly the raw we feed was mostly carcass as opposed to muscle meat and therefore not as nutricious thus skinny dogs. We buy our raw in bulk as its the only raw we can afford, we get it at a pet store who gets it from a butcher. The lady suggested supplementing in kibble a few days a week, so she gave us a high quality sample...acana fish....to try...they had gross poops and even grosser gas....will this pass as they adjust? Do you think the raw even though not top notch is better than kibble? Or is a high quality kibble better than a lower quality raw?

Their raw poops are currently crumbly...which the lady said meant there was too much bone in the raw...has anyone else heard this? They also get salmon oil, eggs, vit e and occassionally bread from the baker as well as buckwheat noodles(was for old dog to gain weight)kelp, flax etc. and bones once a week.

the dutch shepherd eats 1.5lb and the cane corso eats 3lb and is way too skinny imo and every other "helpful" stranger who sees her...

We do not want to quit raw altogether b/c they all do well on it including the 15yr old dog but are finding they are needing to eat so much of it to keep weight on...no complaints otherwise.

Any advice would be very much appreciated as everyone has differing opinions and I dont know whats best for them...Thanks so much

Hello, my dogs need to gain weight. The lady at the pet store said possibly the raw we feed was mostly carcass as opposed to muscle meat and therefore not as nutricious thus skinny dogs. We buy our raw in bulk as its the only raw we can afford, we get it at a pet store who gets it from a butcher.

What is it, exactly? What does the supplier claim is in it?

The lady suggested supplementing in kibble a few days a week, so she gave us a high quality sample...acana fish....to try...they had gross poops and even grosser gas....will this pass as they adjust? Do you think the raw even though not top notch is better than kibble?

I STRONGLY recommend against mixing raw and kibble.

Or is a high quality kibble better than a lower quality raw?

Too vague. High quality kibble is certainly better than unbalanced raw, but beyond that we need to know exactly what is meant by "low quality."

Their raw poops are currently crumbly...which the lady said meant there was too much bone in the raw...has anyone else heard this?

Yes. But not necessarily bone ... calcium in general. Are you including eggshells with the eggs? How many, how often?


They also get salmon oil, eggs, vit e and occassionally bread from the baker as well as buckwheat noodles(was for old dog to gain weight)kelp, flax etc. and bones once a week.

What does "bones once a week" mean? Recreational bones?

I'd stop the bread. And noodles have no more calories than any other carb or protein. (Carbs and protein have 4 calories per gram, and fat has 9.)

the dutch shepherd eats 1.5lb and the cane corso eats 3lb and is way too skinny imo and every other "helpful" stranger who sees her...

This doesn't mean much unless we know their body weight. Also if you link us to standing side views and a view from above, looking down (also standing), that will help.

We do not want to quit raw altogether b/c they all do well on it including the 15yr old dog but are finding they are needing to eat so much of it to keep weight on...no complaints otherwise.

If you answer all the questions, I'll bet money we can suggest very inexpensive ways to (1) balance the diet and normalize the poops, and (2) add calories.

For example, cooked eggs are a great food. (But including the shells if you give eggs regularly is too much calcium, unless you are measuring the ground shells and giving the right amount to balance a boneless diet.)

How's the coat and skin? Do you see signs of too little fat? This is an obvious weight-adder, but does not take the place of a balanced diet, so we still need the answer to question #1.

Hello thanks for getting back to me! It isnt a name brand raw but it is ground chicken, bone in organ as well and veg. human grade chicken. We add eggs shell included a few times a week. the shep is about 55lb maybe less now but only b/c she was getting chunky so we cut back to a 1lb and now is too skinny so we are upping to 1.5lb...she ranges inbetween 50-60lb....the cane corso is 90lb maybe a bit less now as it varies as she is very hard to keep weight on. Lady at pet store said she needs to gain 15-20lb and shep at least 10...i think maybe not that much but definitely do need to gain weight.

I would not be mixing the raw and kibble! I would do raw one day kibble the next.

Yes recreational bones once a week. The bread we get is for free from a baker in the village we walk them in...its some special holistic extremely healthy bread....i thought maybe it would bulk them up, we dont give a lot as i fear bloat...maybe this is wrong?

They have shiny coats and good skin, clean ears, dont stink. Old dog doesn't have as nice a coat as he used too, due to age i think. The shep is not a huge concern, she will put weight on once we up her food, the corso is definitely too thin, she has ribs showing hip bones sticking out, can see her spine...she is healthy otherwise, has bin to vet etc and wormed. She has bin a healthy weight at different times, shes 5..but it fluctuates..shes always bin thin though. Thanks

Bread is not a good dog food. I would leave that out completely.

Which is the old dog with not that good a coat? The CC or the GSD?

How many eggs are you giving per week? Are you cooking them?

Stop giving shells. You are seeing calcium-heavy poops.

I do not think you are going to need kibble. Even every other day, you've been given a little indication of digestion issues with the bad gas. JMO. I personally would rather not feed both, and the bad gas would convince me even more. Let's see if we can improve the raw diet with very little added cost and no digestion issues.

Post back about the eggs. We can't use use raw eggs in enough quantity to make a weight difference, but cooked eggs are good and eggs are very inexpensive.

So are lamb flaps and turkey tails if you can get either one, BTW. (They would have to be added gradually because of their high fat content. Don't let the dogs get diarrhea! That can really do a number on underweight dogs.)

Is there any fatty protein you can get free (or almost free)? Do you make yogurt or have laying hens? Know any hunters?

Hello, sorry the old dog is a border collie springer spaniel x he is a decent weight, a little scrawny in the backend due to muscle loss from not being able to walk for a time, we actually almost lost him and a vet advised us to put him down but we didn't feel it was his time and we kept him on the raw and gave him vitamins and he is walking and did a huge turn around, amost like a miracle! Last Christmas we were lifting him up to go bathroom and this Christmas he was sniffing all the gifts and glaring at us b/c he thought he didn't get enough treats..lol..anyway...

I didn't realize cooking eggs changed the calorie count on them, thats good information as i can get cooked free range eggs through work and also the skinny dogs at work will be getting extra egg now! I had not been cooking them, 2 or 3 eggs per dog per week is pretty average. My bf has a hunter friend but im not sure we would know what to do with a big slab of meat..lol..I will be sure to get some lamb flaps and turkey tails! Thanks for the tip! I am relieved to hopefully not switch to kibble, in all honesty although I know the good brands are decent it truly felt wrong and unnatural feeding it to them...and weoooo the gas!!!

 Quote: Cat Richter

I didn't realize cooking eggs changed the calorie count on them

It doesn't. It's just that it's not good to feed enough raw whites to make any weight difference. If you are feeding more than the occasional egg, you need to cook them.

http://leerburg.com/webboard/thread.php?topic_id=27038&page=1#289518

You can start immediately, IMO, to add cooked eggs (no shell) to the diet they now get.

If they are used to two or three raw per week with the yolks, then IMO you could start immediately giving each dog 2 cooked eggs per day (no shell). I would start with one whole egg and one with no yolk just to be super careful about not triggering diarrhea with the fat in the yolk.

Then I would work up to the full two eggs with their yolks. Two whole eggs would add about 130 to 150 calories .... a cheap way to add a fine source of animal protein and fat.

Watch the poop when you add the eggs with no shell. Let us know so we can help if you still need to decrease calcium.

I will start that right away!! Thanks so much for your help! i'll keep you posted on hopeful weight gain