Too thin

[Meabhal]

We have recently acquired a working cocker who was being sadly neglected by her previous owners.  She is very thin and needs to put on about 2kg before the vet will vaccinate her. The vet suggested puppy food (she's about 2 we think).   At the moment we're feeding her the same food as our pug, which she loves, but she isn't putting on any weight despite getting about 3 times the amount recommended for her ideal weight. Any ideas or suggestions to fatten her up. She gets lots of exercise and in the 2 weeks we have had her has transformed but she's still too thin! 

[Sasha B]

Tripe is supposed to be good for weight gain. Raw green tripe added to to the food.

[Patp]

Are you feeding her according to her weight now or her ideal weight that she should be?

As Sasha has said, try feeding tripe, but personally I would split her meals into small meals and feed the tripe as an additional meal to her kibble rather than at the same time.

You can buy frozen blocks of tripe from PAH.  It might also we worth looking at a working dog kibble suitable for very active dogs which is usually fed to keep their condition and energy levels up at this time of year?

[elaine.e]

Hi and welcome to COL and well done for taking on your rescue girlie. We're a very nosey lot on here, so it will be lovely to hear more about her and see some photos of her too please .

Raw green tripe (absolutely stinks, but most dogs love it) is a good food for putting weight on and is also full of natural enzymes, so it's kind to the digestive system. Personally I wouldn't feed it in the same meal as kibble because raw food is digested quickly whereas kibble takes a lot longer to digest so mixing the 2 together can cause problems. You could try feeding a meal of raw green tripe in the morning and one of kibble in the evening.

If you decide to do that the easiest tripe to obtain is probably Nature's Menu, as most Pets At Home and many other pet shops sell it. Or you could go on the Natural Instinct website and see if there's a local stockist. You can order online from them, but if you just want to buy some to try it will be very pricey to buy it online.

Raw dog food is generally fed at between 2% and 3% of the dog's ideal bodyweight per day. So to give an example, if your girl's ideal bodyweight is 12kg a full day's ration would be between 240g and 360g per day. So for feeding 1 meal of tripe per day I'd suggest 1.5% of her ideal bodyweight.

If you decide not to feed anything raw and stick with kibble I'm not sure I'd feed her 3 times daily allowance as that's such a large amount of food that I'd worry it would put a strain on her system, especially after having been so poorly fed, but would look to make a steady weight gain on a more normal amount of food. Did your vet advise to feed 3 times the amount? If so that's fine of course (I'm not a vet or nutritionist) but if he didn't say that then it's probably best to check with him.

[PennyB]

I would try feeding her on large breed puppy food as well - when Wilf was very skinny, Burns dog food nutritionists suggested I did this - am doing this again re Bosley as he's very skinny as well (he looks more like a whippet at the moment)

[Meabhal]

Thank you for that advice. Very useful and helpful. We have a good old fashioned butcher near us so I'll ask them about tripe.

[elaine.e]

Thank you for that advice. Very useful and helpful. We have a good old fashioned butcher near us so I'll ask them about tripe.

I think you'll find that the butcher only sells white tripe, which is tripe that has been cleaned and sometimes bleached to make it fit for human consumption. The washing removes all the enzymes and many of the nutrients that make it such an excellent dog food. White tripe isn't recommended as a dog food for that reason.

Green (unwashed) tripe can only be sold as pet food so a butcher is unlikely to have it unless he butchers his own meat, and many of them don't.

[PennyB]

I think you'll find that the butcher only sells white tripe, which is tripe that has been cleaned and sometimes bleached to make it fit for human consumption. The washing removes all the enzymes and many of the nutrients that make it such an excellent dog food. White tripe isn't recommended as a dog food for that reason.

Green (unwashed) tripe can only be sold as pet food so a butcher is unlikely to have it unless he butchers his own meat, and many of them don't.

that's an idea as I get bones from a butcher who does his own butchery - will ask him if he does tripe

[Patp]

My butcher will get me raw tripe, but he is not able to have it in his shop so I have to pick it up when it is delivered.  However it is  to handle and cut up into meals, so now I just get the frozen stuff.