# Trying to gain weight



## Mysticrealm (Jan 31, 2016)

I weighed Asher today and he weighs less that he did when he was like 11 months and he's 20 months now. And he was not overweight at 11 months and has gained a lot of muscle. 
He was 53 pounds around a year old and now weighs 49. 
If he was shaved a think that he would look a touch too skinny and I know what a fit animal looks/feels like. Though he's obviously not emaciated and is able to hold and build muscle he has virtually no cover on his ribs. 
I was feeding him 4 cups orijen six fish though he normally only ate 2.5-3.5 cups of that depending on the day as he stops eating when he feels he should stop eating. 

My current plan is to add my pom's super high calorie primal freeze dried food as a topper to what he's currently eating. I can't only feed him this cause he would need half a bag of food a day at least and it's close to $40 a bag! But it's the highest calorie food I have found so I thought I would add it to what he's eating. 
So I plan to feed him 3 cups of food (the average he tends to eat) of orijen in his puzzle toys (I think he eats more out of them anyways than out of a bowl but they max hold 1.5 cups). And/or feed part of it in a training session. This is approx 1400 cals. (Suggested feeding for a dog his size is just over 2 cups)
Then add 6 nuggets a day of primal in his bowl after his kibble. This would be about 315 extra calories. This amount of food is meant for a 15 pound dog according to the package. 
I did this the past couple days. Sometimes as usual he eats all the kibble. Sometimes I can encourage him to finish it if he doesn't feel like it. Right now he happily eats all of the primal but it's new and exciting so that may not last. 

Is 1700 calories a 'normal' amount for a 20 month old spoo who does 4-5 off leash runs a week as his main exercise? Do you think this plan will succeed? Any additional 'easy/yummy' calorie ideas?


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## MollyMuiMa (Oct 13, 2012)

The guaranteed way to add weight is to feed him 'Satin Balls' long known by breeders and show people........you can find the recipe here in a past thread or online.... Google it!


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

I second the recommendation for satin balls. Asher may be like Javelin with a crazy high metabolism. When I changed to home cooking I was feeding him the portion that seemed correct for his weight, but before I knew it he had lost about 5 pounds! I upped his regular meal portion, but it was really giving satin balls that got the weight back on him. It took several months to get him to fill back in. BTW our vet doesn't mind if you can feel ribbiness, but pays close attention to the top of the pelvic bones being well covered.


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## Mysticrealm (Jan 31, 2016)

Thanks guys. I can hardly keep myself in groceries so I don't know how great I'd be at keeping my dog in groceries haha. I'll try my current plan for a couple weeks and see if I'm getting any weight gain, and if not I'll try doing the satin balls. My pom also needs to gain weight, but his issue is going days without eating. Drives me batty.
i don't mind slightly ribby, but I do think he's a bit overly ribby.
It's a bit tough getting him to eat ALL this kibble. It definitely means I have to get involved and keep reminding him to eat it.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Oh do try the satin balls. They aren't a big deal to make and I am sure that both Asher and your pom will eat them. You can also make a big batch and freeze them. I used them as lunch time snacks and they still had their regular breakfast and dinner.


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## Viking Queen (Nov 12, 2014)

As a growing pup, Poppy was eating about 4-5 cups a day, was too skinny and hungry ALL THE TIME. I was feeding Orign and going broke with the food costs, chews, training treats, etc and she was still hungry. When I changed her to EVO, which is much higher protein, her consumption fell to between 1 3/4 to 2 cups per day. Now at 21 months she is a lean, fit, not too skinny girl. A 28 lb bag costs $60 at Chewy if you are on their automatic reorder program. Local stores sell it for $70 a bag. It takes Poppy 10 weeks to eat a bag. The cost is $6.00 a week if I buy through Chewy. 

A lot of people don't want to buy EVO Because it is owned now by Mars. I don't have that problem. When I worked for a locally owned pet store I was lucky to be able to visit the EVO manufacturing plant, in Fremont Nebraska, and it was eye opening. The quality and freshness of the ingredients can not be questioned from what I saw.

They offer 3 varieties of EVO so you can rotate proteins.

Iris ate EVO her entire 14 years of life and thrived on it. As long as it is manufactured to the same standards as it is now I will continue feeding it to Poppy. Poppy always had a softish poo when eating Origen, that also cleared right up with the change to EVO.

When Iris was a puppy I tried gradually changing her from the breeder's food to EVO, she picked out the breeders food and spit it on the ground. When I changed Poppy to EVO from Orijen, she did the very same thing. So much for a gradual transitio to a new food.

Natura Pet web site tells you all you might need to know about the food....including each state from which they source their ingredients. The chicken/turkey food is what I am now feeding Poppy. It is 42% protein...17%carbs. 516 kcal/cup.

I hope this gives you another alternative to try. It has sure worked for me, Iris and Poppy for the last 15 years.

I wish you luck in a search for a different food for your boy.

Cathy and Poppy

Added some pictures from the back of their bag. Feeding chart for 50# dog shows 2 1/4 cups per day. Not much more than Poppy eats, btw she free feeds.


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## bigpoodleperson (Jul 14, 2009)

Not any more ideas really, just commiserating on having a skinny dog. For the past 5 years, I have not been able to get weight on Draco. You can easily feel each rib, spine and hip bone with pretty much no fat cover to them. If he had greyhound hair and skin then you could probably see all of the bones. He has great muscle and is not sickly looking. At one point I got him up to 50lbs, but usually is 47-48lbs. 

I found that the more I mixed and added, the pickier he got. He even eventually refused my homemade mix-ins. He now gets no regular add-ins, and has 10 minutes to decide if he wants to eat that meal or not or it goes up. Luke would be happy to eat all the food all the time, so it has to go away if Draco doesn't want it. He is on a food that we found he actually likes for the past year even though it is not considered a great brand. He has never liked any food for more than a few weeks, and he will regularly eat this. It took a few missed meals to get him to eat when offered, and he will still skip meals. 

I know its a little different for you being Asher has a show career and you want to get him up in weight. I don't have to worry about getting and keeping Draco's weight above what he naturally is at for a show career. If Draco was being judged and had a shaved butt, that might change things..  He is so lean and muscled though that no dog has ever been able to beat him running at the park!


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## Mysticrealm (Jan 31, 2016)

Thanks guys. Weird. I thought I had replied after Viking Queen's post but it has disappeared apparently.
Yes if he wasn't showing I wouldn't probably worry about his weight. He certainly isn't emaciated or anything, but for shows I'd like him to be a hair more filled out.
We'll see what his weight is like in a bit and go from there.


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## Dechi (Aug 22, 2015)

What if you tried some good quality high calory canned food mixed with the dry? Some dogs reslly like it a lot.

I have trouble getting Beckie to gain weight as well. If she didn’t est a bit of canned food, she’d be really thin !


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## Mysticrealm (Jan 31, 2016)

So an update. I went to weigh him today. His weight when I weighed him a little less than 2 weeks ago was 49.6. Today the scale said 52. So that's going in the right direction. I still think he probably could weigh 55 or so. We'll keep with what we're doing and weigh him again in a couple weeks and see if we are getting closer to that.


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