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How skinny is too skinny?

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  • Edie
    • Gold Top Dog
    Edie

    Posted : 6/27/2006 11:33:01 PM

    Vinia check outhttp://www.ziwipeak.com 
  • Vinia
    • Gold Top Dog
    Vinia

    Posted : 6/27/2006 11:44:59 PM

    Thanks for the awesome link Edie! That food looks really great [:)]
     
    I just e-mailed them- hopefully it won't be too expensive (apparently they only sell their dry food in 1kg bags) and there'll be a shop in Christchurch where I can get it, or I'll be able to get it sent down.
  • jennie_c_d
    • Gold Top Dog
    jennie_c_d

    Posted : 6/28/2006 10:19:28 AM

    Most pet dogs are too fat. To me, she looks fine.

    She *should* eat her food, quickly. Puppies should be a little bit hungry. It keeps them trainable, active, and thin enough so that their joints aren't stressed while they're growing. I think it's really dangerous to have an overweight puppy. Unless the puppy is dangerously underweight, I wouldn't try to put weight on.

    Pocket is part greyhound, and part ridgeback. Sighthounds are known for being thin. She looks great, to me!
  • diane303
    • Gold Top Dog
    diane303

    Posted : 6/28/2006 12:58:43 PM

    Boy, it's hard to say.  Greyhounds don't have body fat.  They are all muscle and bone.  My pointer, Grace, shows her ribs slightly, but her spine and hips are covered with muscle.  Her rear legs are REAlly muscular.  So I stopped worrying about her.
  • RidgebackGermansShep
    • Gold Top Dog
    RidgebackGermansShep

    Posted : 6/28/2006 3:05:19 PM

    If i take Dvet's advice, then Kaiser is too thin. I CAN feel his hip bones, sharply. There is no fat or no muscle in between his hip bones and skin. He doesn't have much of an appetite though...he will usually leave a little bit of his 6 cups per day. He is so athletic and runs constantly...so i can't make him be still so he will put on weight. He's very healthy otherwise...but i think i might take him to the vet to see if there could be an underlying problem. I just don't think i've done anything wrong with him.
  • jjsmom06
    • Gold Top Dog
    jjsmom06

    Posted : 7/20/2006 4:42:39 PM

    I have owned greyhounds for many years and volunteer at a local greyhound rescue. I don't know how to tell on other breeds if they are too thin, but on a greyhound I do.   Greyhounds that are in perfect shape will show the outline on ONLY the last two ribs. Also, the very tips of their hipbones should be visable when you look at them from the side (or above looking down on their lower back).
  • Vinia
    • Gold Top Dog
    Vinia

    Posted : 7/20/2006 4:50:53 PM

    Thanks JJsmom!
     
    That's some very helpful advice- I'm going to go check the ribs/hipbones on Pocket when I get home. [sm=happy.gif]
     
     
     
  • jjsmom06
    • Gold Top Dog
    jjsmom06

    Posted : 7/20/2006 5:48:10 PM

    You are welcome. I actually just found two conflicting thoughts on what a greyhound should look like if they are in a good weight. Both of these quotes I took off of different greyhound adoption sites so it looks like there is conflicting views within this breed. 
     
    "A good rule of thumb is that you should be able to feel my ribs but not see them. You shouldn't be able to readily see my hip bones, but you should see 1-3 vertebrae in my back."
     
     
    "You should be able to see the last two or three ribs and feel their hip bones. "
     
     
    I have always heard "see the last two ribs, and just the tips of the hip bones"- but maybe this is wrong??? From the pictures I don't think she looks too thin! Sometimes hard to tell on puppies- they often times look too heavy or thin just based on their growing stages!
  • dogslyfe
    • Gold Top Dog
    dogslyfe

    Posted : 7/21/2006 7:35:54 AM

    By typical pet home standards, all of my dogs are too skinny. [:D] I would say the majority of pet dogs I see are overweight - most by quite a bit. These pics of June are rather blurry, so you can't really see her ribs, but if they were in focus you probably could. Typically If she moves right I can see the last two to three of her ribs, but her hip bones do not show. I can feel them, but they're not overly sharp. June has a whippetty look about her:



  • jennie_c_d
    • Gold Top Dog
    jennie_c_d

    Posted : 7/21/2006 8:02:20 PM

    My dogs, too, are "too thin".

    Actually, yesterday was Teenie's 10 month gotcha day, and I decided that she was a smidge thin, and she can be on a maintenance diet, now! Ten months, and no more weight loss needed. Hooray!!!

    Anyhow, people keep their dogs too fat. My vets are thrilled with my dogs' muscle tone. They aren't working dogs, like Becca's, and they aren't competition dogs, but they're VERY active pets.  It drives me crazy when people think that a dog with a thin padding over the ribs are too thin. They don't even need that!
  • Vinia
    • Gold Top Dog
    Vinia

    Posted : 7/21/2006 11:35:44 PM

    jennie- Congrats on getting Teenie's weight down! Yay! [:)]
     
    I checked Pocket's thinness/fatness by JJ'smom's standards, and she seems to be okay- you can just barely see her hip bones sticking out, and in certain lighting conditions some of her ribs (it's a bit hard to tell otherwise).
    I started feeding her a bit more (meat rather than kibble), so she's not as skinny as in the OP- we've been having a particularly cold winter this year so I wanted her to have a bit more meat on her to keep her warmer...