Fattening them up

Spanky has dropped a lot of weight recently. Granted he's aloud to run himself silly. Upping his food intake doesn't work. He won't eat passed a certain point.

Any tricks of the trade that are high calorie... or just plain ol' fattening? He has lost so much weight guys. Like, full ribcage is sticking out as are his obnoxious hip bones. If he wasn't my dog I'd be calling animal control thinking he was being starved.



and no, he is not sick. He is naturally a very lean dog and even at the best of times there is a lot of ribbage felt. I'm pretty much up for anything.

BTW Im talking a four pound drop. Which makes a huge difference on a dog with virtually no body fat to begin with. His physique would make all high fashion models jealous. I do remember something called... something that starts with an S balls. Amber was feeding them to Bam if I remember correctly. I'm not ever expecting him to have a normal amount of fat on him. But slightly less boney would be nice.

Satin balls

There we go.

/looks that up

I really wish he wasn't prone to getting so **** thin. I just feel... bad. Every time I look at him or pet him. My mom hasn'ts een him in two weeks and was disgusted at how thin he is. It made me feel really horrible to be honest. Bandit never goes up or down. He's always perfect. Miley never changes either. Spanky though. He has a hard time keeping the pounds on.

I have no advice... but.. ((((((((((((HUGS)))))))))))))) Satin balls and digestive enzymes worked wonders for Bamm..

That's Spanky how I like him. It's the most weight he's ever had on. In my opinion you wouldn't want a dog at that weight dropping any... and he has.

/sighs

But he's also lost a lot of muscle tone so maybe I'm just freaking out because last time I weighed him he was 42 and now he's 38. I still think he could use to put on a bit of chub, even when he's not so tiny. I don't know. Besides my mom everyone thinks he looks great. Maybe I'm paranoid.

Young Borders tend to be on the lean side. All the ones I've had have been that way... BUT... I feel the same way... my two are WAY bonier than I want but they aren't even eating all of what I give them so... I'm rooting for you!

You could try Nutrical. I give that to Lucy when shes looking emaciated. That dog is SO hard to keep weight on! Shes extremely picky, she won't eat a lot. She changes her favorite food often. One week she will eat Kirkland can, the next she won't, so I switch to Innova can, may be on that for a few weeks, then hates it..then I try kirkland, but she doesn't want it either, so we move to Chicken soup..and so on and so forth.

And she loves Nutrical, she will eat that stuff no matter what.

And i HAVE tried satin balls, and the same thing. Sometimes she likes them, sometimes she doesn't. And she also doesn't eat dry.

How about meats with a higher fat content? Regular (not lean) hamburger, lamb, duck, etc. Will he eat that?

What kind of kibble are they eating?

Like Bailey suggested... I would supplement his regular meals with fresh meats/raw meaty bones, particularly fatty ones. Chicken with fat and skin on, pork feet/shoulder, etc. He will get extra calories that are healthy. Satin Balls work well, but I wouldn't feel comfortable feeding all of that Special K/cereal and such. I would stick with hamburger and eggs, which are fattening enough.

Gonzo does not have that problem, at all! He's a good weight now... but he eats wayyyy less than a dog of his weight/activity should eat. Like 2% of his body weight in raw. I've found he is an excessively easy keeper, but I think he's a bit smaller than your boys, in stature.

I just wanted to pop in and say that Blaze weighs only 37 pounds. He's very thin, too. I get opinions on it often from family and friends.

Spanky looks more heavy boned though? How tall is he? Borders are suppost to be pretty thin. I know one that is 10+ish and he's THIN! But that's his healthy, active weight.

Raw would probably help him, too. I've noticed since I've started feeing raw to Blaze he's putting on a layer of fat on his ribs. Which is nice, but he's still very lean, which I like on him.