# Underweight Puppy



## Poodlebeguiled (May 27, 2013)

I'd not use the satin balls very much, if at all. Poodles seem to be prone to pancreatitis and apparently, a lot of fat (though, of course they need some) might be linked to it. I'd just increase the amount of a good quality, high protein puppy food. And feed 4 meals a day. (not huge meals) Don't over compensate and make your puppy too heavy with those growing bones. There's not a huge rush...he'll be okay. 

Puppy food is important, contrary to what a lot of people say about it...that it makes the bones grow too fast. It has nutrients essential for puppies. So, do some research and find a good quality puppy food. I like foods that aren't using peas, legumes, potatoes, seeds etc. That may be (though not proven yet) to be blocking taurine from being absorbed. I look for a high percentage (80% or more) of the protein coming from meat. If it says all life stages, I think that means it's okay for puppies too. He'll catch up. You can scramble up an egg and put a little on the food a couple times a day. Or a wee bit of cottage cheese. Or a sardine on top but not every day. If you don't always want to put these things on his food, he may become very accustomed to them. lol. And he maybe turn up his nose at plain food. But that can be dealt with later. Those things are nourishing. 

What are all those places on your post where there are numbers and symbols? Is that where you posted pictures and they don't show up as pictures? I don't know what they mean. But would love to see pictures of your new pup. Congrats on your new family member.


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## For Want of Poodle (Feb 25, 2019)

Poor puppy- but a lucky puppy that you have it now! 

I am going to hope that your breeder is wrong about age... 14 weeks seems like an odd time to start looking for homes, and 10 lbs seems quite skinny !

As for gaining weight, what did your vet say? What do her ribs look like? I know when I took my Annie home at 12 weeks(13.6 lbs), from a litter with 6 pups remaining, she was STARVING despite a good breeder and decent food, and the vet saI'd zhe needed to ga in some weight. I finished up a bag of what the breeder fed her, then switched to a puppy food with higher fat, and she finally didn't seem hungry and became a slender dog rather than a skinny one. She is a grazer, so I fed her 4-5 meals a day at first (put a measured amount of food down, let her gradually finish it, waited half an hour or more of empty bowl before adding food). Personally, I would prefer to feed a bit extra higher fat puppy food than satin balls, as puppy food should be formulated with the correct balance of nutrition for growing bones.


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## Angus (Sep 11, 2019)

Thank you for the responses!
I think the symbols are emojis, maybe? Oops!

I've got puppy food so we'll do more frequent meals, and I'll pick up some of the suggested extras for treats (I like to keep the food just food to avoid picky eaters, too). He's an eager eater, so hopefully that will help. 

We've got a bowl of his kibble out for rewards when he comes (I'm going to start loading the clicker later today, right now we're doing "cookies from heaven" for he & our mini poodle mix who thinks the pup is an invader!)

The concerns with growth & nutrition -- I figured folks here would know, so thank you! His ultimate size isn't an issue as I was supposed to be looking for a small breed LOL but I want him healthy and optimal!

Pics, I hope they work! Look at the body language on the bigger guy LOL


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## PeggyTheParti (Sep 5, 2019)

Our spoo puppy was underweight when we brought her home at 9 weeks: 10.8 lbs but with protruding bones. 

For the first three days, she vomited the Diamond Naturals kibble that the breeder sent home with us. It's possible she'd not been eating much at all before we picked her up. She was free fed with her littermates and they were all much plumper.

We gave her plain white chicken until we were sure she wouldn't vomit anymore, and then transitioned her to three meals of Nutro Ultra puppy kibble a day (using the serving size guidelines on the bag) plus a variety of training treats.

She filled out to a healthy weight VERY quickly!

Now we're pulling back a bit on the treats (e.g. using bits of fruits and vegetables in place of string cheese, or cutting back on kibble when she's got puppy class) because we realize rapid growth is not healthy either.

Here's her chart:

09 weeks - 10.8
10 weeks - 13.2
11 weeks - 15.2
12 weeks - 16.8
13 weeks - 19.0
14 weeks - 21.2
15 weeks - 22.8

(A calculator estimated her finished weight at 36.4 lbs when we first brought her home. Now it consistently estimates 44 lbs.)


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## MaizieFrosty (Apr 12, 2019)

Sounds like Angus came from a pretty bad place, but I'm glad he's in good hands now. Both of my spoos are from excellent breeders, but they were always a little on the skinny side as puppies. In fact, Frosty just got to what I consider an ideal weight at about 2 years old. I agree with Poodlebeguiled to feed 4 meals/day of high quality food. You don't want anything too rich/high in protein and fat at this age. He should reach a health weight pretty quickly. Don't worry about his height and weight, only about his physical body condition.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Yes to four meals a day or even better perhaps if your other dog is not a glutton free feed. Both of my poodles as pups were grazers and my GSD also did well as a grazer when we fed kibble.


I also don't think you need a huge amount of hi calorie fatty treats. If you use those now you will have nothing left as a high value treat once you get to stubborn adolescence.


Remember also that growth charts are an estimate. For a while Javelin was charting to be 60-65 pounds and I am happy that he generally is somewhere between 48 and 50 pounds. It is a much more manageable size for me and actually I think more of a traditional normal size for a male standard. They are not actually supposed to be giant dogs.


The last thing I will say about puppy growth is that it happens in spurts. Sometimes they get obviously taller and longer and look spindley. The very next week they might look fat.


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## Michigan Gal (Jun 4, 2019)

A 14 week old puppy does not need to be roly poly. As long as he is growing. Four meals a day is good, especially if he is active.


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## Poodlebeguiled (May 27, 2013)

I still put goodies on top of my poodles' food. They get Orijen freeze dried crumbled on top of their Victor kibble or sometimes as a whole meal... and/or Merrick canned that has 96% protein from meat. Once a week or so they get a sardine from the can, rinse it off a little. (use to feed raw so they had fresh) But I have taken a break from raw. And scrambled eggs on top about twice a week. Eggs are a very balanced food and very nutritious. I recommend you add some of these things to get your pup back in shape. My poodles aren't picky because I don't cater to them. :alberteinstein: ROFLOL. Seriously, if they don't want to eat the food, even if it doesn't have something extra tasty on it, then so be it. I take it away and they'll eat it the next meal. But I really do love to see them really enjoy their food.:angel::angel: And I don't have any children living at home anymore so what can I say? LOL.:lol:


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## Jbean (Feb 18, 2019)

I would recommend being super careful with the high-fat treats and also with changing foods. We switched from Pro Plan Sport to Pro Plan Puppy too fast and triggered diarrhea. You might want to transition slowly over a week or so. Puppy digestive tracts can be pretty sensitive. I spent much of the last year coaxing a very old dog to eat with a constantly changing variety of foods, but I learned my lesson about changing food too fast with the new recruit.

We were comparing weights at puppy class one night. Alfie was both the tallest and the lightest (and, of course just between you and me, the smartest!!!) of the "big dog" puppies. He's bony, but his weight has been increasing just fine according to the vet. As long as your puppy is eating lots of food, keeping it down/not having diarrhea and full of energy, he's doing fine.

Alfie doesn't tolerate any of the soft training treats that contain glycerin, whether or not they're sold as premium/healthy or just old-fashioned brands.


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## Carolinek (Apr 2, 2014)

He is a cutie! I agree that a good quality puppy food is your best bet. It’s also a wonderful opportunity for extra training using high value, nutritious treats, like boiled chicken. I make “brownies” for training treats. The dogs love them and they’re good for them. This recipe is liver but you can use any meat or even cans of tuna or mackerel.


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## Mufar42 (Jan 1, 2017)

He is such a cute pup. I also would follow PoodleBG posts. 4 meals a day of quality puppy food but I would transition him slowly by adding 25% new food to old for week 1 then 50/50 week two and so on. You will pretty much know how he is transitioning by his stool. You don't want him losing more weight because of having loose stool. I also add a tablespoon of canned meat to my dogs kibble. His breeder did it and I followed and still do. Some days I also add a handful of Instinct dehydrated toppers to it. My poodle we thought was going to be big but I don't think he reached 60 lbs and he is almost 2. Close though but he is thinner boned than some other poodles I see. We pet sit for a neighbors two standards and they are both much heavier than mine, not fat just thicker. I wanted a big boy but I'm glad he is what he is as my mobility has declined so he is all I can handle. I can tell from all your posts you are going to get this boy to be the healthiest poodle pup. Can't wait to follow his 52 week thread and see all his progress.


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## Angus (Sep 11, 2019)

Thank you!

We are nearly free feeding... when he is out and the other dogs are contained he has free access to food and his food as treats as we starting training (we loaded the clicker today).

He is eating pretty steadily and his poop remains formed which I'm using as a guide, should it get too loose we'll ease up. He's had an egg each day.

I will weigh him next week, but I can say he is already more of a pesky, busy pup like I would expect for his age. This gives me hope that he was just pushed out but not really stunted or damaged.

Oh! Also doing lots of activity mental and physical to help build up his muscles and increase appetite. He has become a great tugger and loves to fetch.


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## HSMI0811 (Dec 13, 2021)

Angus said:


> Thank you!
> 
> We are nearly free feeding... when he is out and the other dogs are contained he has free access to food and his food as treats as we starting training (we loaded the clicker today).
> 
> ...


I've picked up a SPoo and he's just 9 lbs at 12 weeks. I'm interested in how your guy grew up since it's been a couple years. Thank you


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

HSMI0811 said:


> I've picked up a SPoo and he's just 9 lbs at 12 weeks. I'm interested in how your guy grew up since it's been a couple years. Thank you


The last post in this thread was in 2019. I have a feeling you won't get a reply from the OP. If you are very concerned about your pup get him vet checked. You can also think about starting your own thread about this to see what other people's experiences have been. I have two spoos and while they are long since not puppies I will say Lily was about 12 pounds at 12 weeks (but she is dainty) and Javelin was probably closer to 15 pounds at that age.


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## cowpony (Dec 30, 2009)

I don't know if Angus is still monitoring PF; I haven't seen any posts lately.

My boy Galen was the runt of his litter. He was a skinny 6.5 pounds at 8 weeks and 16.5 at 12 weeks. At almost 2 years he is now around 50 pounds and just a smidge over 24 inches at the shoulders. He had an insatiable appetite when he was a small puppy.


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## HSMI0811 (Dec 13, 2021)

lily cd re said:


> The last post in this thread was in 2019. I have a feeling you won't get a reply from the OP. If you are very concerned about your pup get him vet checked. You can also think about starting your own thread about this to see what other people's experiences have been. I have two spoos and while they are long since not puppies I will say Lily was about 12 pounds at 12 weeks (but she is dainty) and Javelin was probably closer to 15 pounds at that age.


Thank you. We took him to the vet right way when we brought him home. At 10 weeks, he was less than 5 lbs. He's gained 4 lbs in the 2 weeks we've had him, which is great. He's doing good so far and we go back to the vet next week. I'm just really curious if he's going to catch up like others have or just be a smaller standard. I was really hoping for a good sized Spoo, but I just couldn't leave him there in that condition, poor guy. We'll take what we get because he's part of the fam now.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

It sounds like he is doing really well with you. As to final size, I am not so sure that predictive graphs are super reliable. If they were then Javelin should be 60 pounds but he is about 50-53 pounds. I like the sizes of my dogs. Javelin is at my upper limtis for picking him up and actually I bought steps and have him walk up to the grooming table.


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## 94Magna_Tom (Feb 23, 2021)

My Spoo Elroy was 10½ lbs when I got him (at 8½ weeks),17 lbs at 12 weeks, and is now 56.7 lbs at 42 weeks. During the early stages of rapid growth, he was eating A LOT! 2½ cups a day (of Purina Pro Plan) at 12 weeks, and increasing by 5 grams/week. He would have eaten more if I gave it to him. He put on a little over 2 lbs/week up to the 20 week mark, then slowed to about 1-1½ lbs/week to the 36 week mark.


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## tennysonsmom (Sep 29, 2021)

I see similar advice but I’ll add my own. I have a house full of poodles that have a hard time staying at a good weight and what is currently working for us is Pro plan performance, most recently the salmon formula but I like to switch between protein sources, and then to make it as appetizing as possible a few spoonfuls of canned wet food and a little water or bone broth mixed in. I switch up the mix in to keep everyone interested so occasionally a freeze dried raw topper or something like that. I am also hesitant about the satin balls, especially for a puppy so young. Even though he’s underweight I think you’re still going to want a slower, steady growth rate for his joint development and I can see satin balls causing digestion problems and diarrhea. If he has energy and is eating and drinking normally I would say he’s going to do fine and will catch up just fine. 😊


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