Advice - how to get my dog to gain weight

I'm worried about my four year old beagle (again!!!!)

She's thin. I took her to the vet last week for her annual shots and raised my concerns, asking him how I can get her to gain a couple of extra kilos. He said she was optimum weight, and things were fine, so no advice was given. But he did say any thinner and they'd look into it :rolleyes:

She devours food, has been wormed and other than doggie gastro a month or so back, she's healthy. But she feels the cold, and I'd like her to be a little heavier so if she was to get sick again, she can manage it.

Right now she eats supercoat dry food. She has a schmackos chew for breakfast. Bones are a bit of an issue - big bones make our other dog sick, shanks get stuck on her teeth. We do give her chicken necks. She gets skin irritations that are food related, but the supercoat seems to be okay.

So any tips on how to get her to gain a bit of weight will be appreciated.

Try a dry food higher in protein, like a puppy food or working dog food.

Hope that helps, it helped us pork up our skinny staffy.

working dog food helped our border collie- and making up our own wet food for her- we just make a mix of mince, lentils, leftover veggies and rice. We don't use a recipe, but I know lots of people do, we just mix in whatever we have on hand. :)

I agree with Krystals, wet food is awesome for our dogs...

Our dogs got a bit on the skinny side a year or so ago and we found that there wasnt enough protein in their biscuits, we always choose the brands by 20% protein or higher if we can. Supercoat is usually around that mark.

We feed our dogs dry biscuits in the morning then for dinner they get the same amount of dry bisciuts, plus raw mince (about 100g each) some vegies and either a cup of rice or pasta, they are in perfect health and weight ranges for their breed. We also crack a raw egg into their dinner every month or 2 to give their coat a nice shine.

My mum has an older dog and she has been having issues eating and gaining wait and the vet has given her some tinned special dog food, if the wet food doesnt help or higher protein biscuits this might help?

My two poodles are too skinny, especially one of them. She is actually my mum's dog but we have her for a year. She's very nervous and neurotic and has always been a bag of shaking bones! I started feeding them 'Four Legs' about two months ago (used to give them homemade mince, rice and veg). Both dogs have gained weight and my boy is even feeling a bit tubby! Four Legs is little balls of meat and veg rolled in coconut (for their coat??) and you buy it in the refrigerated section at the supermarket.

Off to check the protein content...

Thanks for the advice!

I'd heard about trying puppy food, so might get a small bag of supercoat puppy and mix it through her normal dry. We'd like to give them some fresh meat, so will definitely be buying some mince. She's not a huge fan of rice, strangely enough (I thought beagles ate everything!). I'll see how she goes. I've seen the four legs brand too, so I might do a few mix ups of her dinners (gradually, of course)

Krystals - This is a weird question.....how do lentils go when they come out of the other end of the dog?! We have fake grass, so not the easiest to clean!!!!!

hahaha, I seriously haven't noticed! We just add some dry red lentils to her mix .... she digests them as far as I can tell- we have more problems when she eats canned food and gets chum-bum :) Smells like burning tyres!!!

She's 10+ years, (rescue dog, not sure of her exact age) When she's working, she's quite active and will run for between 2-6hrs a day. (6 is extreme, and it's her choice to stop or start - as if we could stop her!)

She has 1 cup supercoat working dog in the morning and 2 cups of wet food at night. She often gets the cut offs from our own meat, regularly gets bones as well. She doesn't eat any people food. When she's not working, we still feed her the same amount. She bulks up a bit, but loses it again quickly when she goes back.

I think puppy food has a higher level of fat than the others...the working dog has higher protein which has worked the best for Ella.

I took our cavalier to the vet for weight gain early this year (she is 2yrs and not desexed) and all they suggested was I up her advance dry dog food and cut out her chicken necks. She said chicken necks were full of water and although good for her teeth they would do nothing for her weight gain. It took several months for her condition to improve but finally now she looks better then ever. Her coat is also twice as thick as it ever has been. I've always struggled to get her to have a lovely cavie coat but finally she does. All she gets now is a few kitchen scraps, she has access to advance all the time I don't let her bowl get empty (have to go look at the bag but its for thinner dogs) and about every week she gets a few bones. She gets our chop bones which are a favourate to chew on and I go to the butcher and get dog bones. There is almost always a bone in the yard although after the first day there is no meat on it just bone. She now looks a million dollars finally.

Is she desexed? That often fattens them up. We haven't desexed our girl.

Definately the working dog bikkies work. We have a white bull arab that FREEZES her butt off & drops away drastically in cool weather & the working dog bikkies keep the weight on pretty well.
I feed 'Cobber Working Dog' or if they start putting a little too much on drop them back to 'Cobber country dog'.

We had same prob here and the vet said to put back on puppy dry food for a few weeks.

Krystals - Hehe, thanks for the reply! Canned food is out in this house for the safety of our fake grass :ROFL:

Mildez - She's desexed. I've already upped the amount of dry food she has, and haven't noticed an improvement. Thanks for replying hun.

Lissy & Kylz - Thanks for the tips :D

I've been considering giving her another worming too - is that a problem if they're too close together? She was wormed (Drontal) about three weeks ago. Thought that if maybe there was a problem, we might need another boost.

Just thought I'd update in case anyone else is going through the same thing :)

We added puppy food into her normal dry food twice a week, and on the other nights, give them both Four Legs (which they absolutely love).

And she's gained weight. She looks fantastic and is really happy. Thanks for all your advice and tips :hug:

Glad that puppy food worked. It's what a vet told us to do so no harm passing on the info and saving someone else money

glad shes gained weight - i was going to suggest raw bones with lots of marrow on them also if it happens again ;)