food for harvey

harv the old man is my eating machine. right now he's a skinny 48 pounds and he's eating 4 cups of canidae ALS a day. and he's pooping four cups of canidae, too. yowza. (for comparison, my young dogs at 45 and 55 pounds eat 2 cups and 1.5 cups a day respectively).

he's healthy- there doesn't appear to be any reason for him to be eating so much other than he's just got a fast metabolism. (no worms- he's been wormed, had two negative stool sample, and takes interceptor monthly, bloodwork is normal, urine sample is normal).

so. canidae = 4 cups/day to maintain his skinny self. i had him on timberwolf wild and natural (i think that's the name- the grain free) and he ate 3 heaping cups of that per day. i just can't afford to feed him on timberwolf- that stuff is expensive (but gosh it smelled good).

what i'm looking for and don't know if exists is a food that's got moderate protein but higher than usual fat. the only one i've found is eukanuba performance foods, and, yeah. 'nuff said. but part of me is considering trying it because if it works for him, it works for him. (i feel dirty for admitting that in public!)

Would it hurt to put him on a grain-free food and supplement with something very high in calories and fat? I've been having a hell of a time keeping weight on Eve too, since she's on the move almost all day. I've switched her from California Natural to Innova EVO, so she gets 3/4 cup of that per day and then gets a cup of raw, high-fat ground beef mixed with oatmeal, some fish oil and a tablespoon of nutri-cal. It's put a bit of weight on her (1lb is pretty significant to her 23lb frame) and it's a nice change from feeding and cleaning up 2.5 cups of CN per day.

I can't think of a really high fat, but lower-protein food. Sorry!

What do you consider moderate protein? What type of fat level are you looking for?

Eagle Pack Holistic makes a lamb based food that is 22% protein and 15% fat - http://www.eaglepack.com/Pages/HS_Lamb.html

Or you could look at Healthwise Active which is made by Natura and it's 30% protein and 20% fat. It's a great food with a great price tag : http://www.healthwisepetfood.com/products/default.asp?id=545

If I knew what fat & protein level you were looking for, I may be of more help...

basically i'm not comfortable feeding something with 42% protein. upper 20s or lower 30s would be ok. i'll have to see if i can order the healthwise active- that's exactly what i'm looking for.

I don't know if it works as well for dogs as it does for horses, but what about adding a bit of oil to his food? That way you could up the fat content without touching the protein. I know some people add olive oil to their dogs food to improve the coat, so I'm assuming it would be okay.

My horse is currently having some health issues and needs to gain weight - I've increased his oil and added ground flax to his food as well to increase the fat levels.

Anyone who carries Innova or California Natural should be willing to special order you a bag. Or, I have found amazon.com is a good place to order off of. The shipping costs aren't too bad at least to my area. Since Healthwise is so reasonably priced, it's not so bad when you have to pay shipping...

i'm pretty sure the gal at the petstore would be willing to order it for me. i'm having to special order my cat food through her as well (she doesn't carry large bags of california natural, and when you're feeding a herd of five, buying little tiny bags just doesn't cut it!)