Weight gain suggestions for Siberian/food switch?

ORIGINAL: momoftwo

papillon is right about the bil jac.  It really porked up one of my dogs and fast, too.  They seem to love it.  We fed our bridge girl bil jac when she was very sick; only food she wanted to eat.

I know a breeder that uses Bill Jack to put weight on her dogs before a show.

OK, I read these suggestions because I was going to ask on behalf of Kord.
 
He is 11 months old and weighs 71lbs. Here is the problem. When he was little I had to spread his food out on the floor the get him to slow down so he did not gulp it down. Today I have to add broth or hand feed him to get him to eat. He is not losing weight, but he is looking very thin. I tried satin balls but I need something long term.
 
I put some of this down to weather and age, but I am concerned. I need something that I can add to his food to encourage, and don't get me wrong, pick up a hot dog and he is right there, it's his food he does not like.
 
Today I bought him adult food, Nutro Max for active dogs. And canned nutro for active dogs. Though hyper-active is the word I use for the boy! Any other suggestions?

ORIGINAL: Truley

OK, I read these suggestions because I was going to ask on behalf of Kord.

He is 11 months old and weighs 71lbs. Here is the problem. When he was little I had to spread his food out on the floor the get him to slow down so he did not gulp it down. Today I have to add broth or hand feed him to get him to eat. He is not losing weight, but he is looking very thin. I tried satin balls but I need something long term.

I put some of this down to weather and age, but I am concerned. I need something that I can add to his food to encourage, and don't get me wrong, pick up a hot dog and he is right there, it's his food he does not like.

Today I bought him adult food, Nutro Max for active dogs. And canned nutro for active dogs. Though hyper-active is the word I use for the boy! Any other suggestions?

11 months old?  I'd say it's the age. Alot of people do not agree with me on this, but I really think there is a correlation between fussyness and age.  I've talked to too many people with fussy dogs, that wouldn't normally be fussy (not a small breed), between  5 months and 2 years.  My dog was like that.  He ate great until he was 6 months.  Then he became fussy. Then around 2 he started eating like he was starving. It's like human toddlers.  There are just too many things to do, than eat.  And...he used to eat Nutro Max, until he became so fussy he wouldn't I couldn't stand it and switched to Nutro Ultra, which he liked for a while.

You have a large breed pup.  What breed do you have?  It could be just that he is going through stragly, long legged growing stage. At the age of your pup, I would be careful what to recommend, as large breed pups grow too fast if eat too much calcium.

Again Eagle Pack Holistic Chicken has worked in the past.  It contains the correct amount of calcium at 1.1%.  I'd try that.  Joey liked it and continued to like it.  It is actually the food that may have pushed him out of the fussy stage.

I have a long lanky teenage GSD, yes I know they slim down and I know that he has reached his standard height. He is not a plush coat so his ribs are more noticable. I know they slow down on food intake when they reach a certain age too. FYI, when I asked the vet was not concerned with his weight.
 
His problem is that he is in constant movement all day long from sun up till sun down!
 
Good news is today I bought Nurto Max beef flavor for active adult dogs, 18pct fat, and canned nutro with 8 percent fat. We opened the bag and his head when in and we had to scootch him out. He couldn't eat it fast enough.
 
I am going to go to 1 meal a day on the new stuff and see how he does, if it is looking like it is not helping I will try 2 feedings, then after that I will try the Eagle Pack Holistic Chicken.
 
thanks

I went through that with my pup! He was skin and bones and we tired EVERYTHING. Solid Gold, Eagle pack, innova, and it goes on and on...finally tried Canidae and he looks GOOD. Healthy, shiny, still thin, but not scary. Switching to the chicken and rice formula was like a miracle. He immediately had more energy (gulp!) and firmed up his poo. Good luck! I know how worrisome it is when your baby is too thin!

jennie... yes she's an adult, around 3-5 years old.
thanks for everyone's suggestions...
I've added a third meal midday... generally what she did not eat for breakfast plus some canned or the nature's botanicals loaf. I'm adding an egg nearly daily and am trying the Eagle Pack for now, but will move to BilJac if it doesn't work.
Odd thing is when I go above a cup (which is not enuf) she actually leaves more in the bowl and refuses to finish... this dog does NOT like plain dry kibble. I'm wondering if homecooking would be better.
I'll also try and get prozyme... I have Solid Gold Sea Meal at home in NH and will be there next week.. is that similar?

I'm leery of the no grain foods as I think this may cause her to stay at a similar weight due to what some other posters said and also b/c when she was at the sleg dog kennel she was fed a high protien food and lots of raw beef and was not much heavier. I'm actually considering the Nutro beef as well... I'm not a huge fan of Nutro but I think I remember Ron posting how well it works for shadow who is part husky. i saw a kennel of huskies recently that were on the raw prey model of feeding (an entire raw animal) and they looked absolutely terrible, but those that I've seen with some grain based kibble somewhere in the diet looked better.

I had a woman in Petsmart ask me yesterday if she was a "sickly senior dog" because she was so thin... when I told her no she looked horrified, as if I was starving my dog

The first food that put any weight on Bugsy was TWO.  He was never seriously underweight but he ate HUGE amounts and he was a good deal underweight.  We went to TWO with added meat/fish and he finally gained.  We are now using SG Barking at the Moon and Mmillenia with good results.
I understand though that your pup likely needs more grains as my boy needs lots of protein.  Good luck!

I was researching TWO... and apparently they ship for free now? That makes it more reasonable.
Ahhh I don't know if grains are good or bad, i read such conflicting info... Maybe a diet of TWO or raw would get her to eat.
All I know is she won't touch dry kibble (like Solid Gold or Eagle Pak). i've changed my mind a million times but I'm thinking now of trying the TWO since they ship for free and adding raw tripe when I can or some canned.
Her poop right now is sooooo liquidy with the food increase and switch to Eagle.
i've never had a picky dog before that would let itself get so skinny rather than eat! Oliver the lab would eat dirt if I served it to him

Yea I can't even comprehend a picky dog, I've always been around labs and my giant mutt thinks everything is a delicacy and I might add nothing upsets his tummy which is good because Lord knows what he eats when he isn't in view!
Have you been able to determine if there is a protein source she prefers?  We use the OB and the bison and have used the Elk all of which smell quite fishy.  I've heard the chicken goes down well with pickier eaters - we haven't tried that as he is allergic to chicken.
I loved being able to add some ground beef, beef heart or fish with his TWO

If you order 2 large bags you get a 10% discount too and it winds up be a very fair price.  Pretty calorie dense for a lab though []
Others will be able to tell you more but a little pumpkin should help firm the stools.
I had read that OB can cause loose stools in some dogs (not mine) so I threw some brown rice or pumpkin in with his as we changed from a different food thinking that they would firm up any potential problems.  Pumpkin gets recommended by many here.

Good luck!

I haven't found a protein source she prefers over another... the solid gold was lamb and she wouldn't finish it, the eagle is chicken and she seems to like it but also wouldn't finish it if dry. She really likes the Pet Botanics food roll that I've been adding to the Eagle that is beef, but I don't think I'll buy another since it is soo smokey smelling, can't be good.

I don't know if I blame her... if I was a dog, kibble seems fairly unpalatable lol.
She loves raw chicken, turkey, and beef. She also loves canned mackerel.
After reading the TWO website I think I'll try the chicken... unfortunatley I don't know if I'll order two large bags since maybe I should be keeping Snickers and Oliver on the Solid Gold... why mess with something that's working, you know? I get comments from everyone trainers to vets, to dog park people about their physique and coats. On the other hand TWO is a great product and they might do well on it as well. 10% off brings it near to the Solid Gold price. A while back I had researched switching them over but my local store stopped carrying it and I didn't want to pay shipping. Decisions, decisions.
What is OB?

Khoale really just doesn't look good at all.. dry, sparse, not soft coat (I do add salmon oil).
nice call on the pumpkin, I didn't even think of it!

Sorry OB is TWO Ocean Blue - our favorite []  Its a fish based food with no grains, the bison and elk have a strong fish smell to them too.

I am a huge fan of TWO but will say that for large breeds it is very calorie dense.  That is just what I wanted so I didn't have to feed Bugsy giant amounts of food.  His physique is like the poster child for bloat so I didn't want to feed buckets of food to him. 
If I were in your situation I would probably try a bag for her keeping the others on SG.  You could then see how they like/do with small amount of the chicken but this would avoid the worst case scenario that they don't do as well on it and she doesn't like it and you have LOTS of food.
TWO is great food but as I am just rotating to SG it seems good too.  Interestingly the TWO kibble is SMALL and Bugsy chewed that, the SG kibble is bigger and he doesn't.  Go figure but makes me think he might like the taste of TWO better.  Keep in mind he thinks the cardboard from a 12 pack of diet coke is like dying and going to heaven [sm=biggrin.gif]
I always wet his kibble as to me it seems better with a little gravy than just bouncing around in this bowl to austere for me


I haven't been to the white mtns in years but it is beautiful country!

ORIGINAL: outdoorschik
i've never had a picky dog before that would let itself get so skinny rather than eat! Oliver the lab would eat dirt if I served it to him

 
Have you had her checked for any intestinal conditions?   Before my dog was diagnosed with IBD, he would rather starve than eat kibble----he simply has a hard time digesting kibble (among other things).  My vet suspects that  it actually "hurt" to eat, therefore, he would refuse to eat.  Anyway, I won't bore you with all the details, but one of the first things we did was to put him on just canned food---we used the Nature's Variety canned (95% meat).
It was amazing to actually see him eat for a change of pace--we have since transitioned to raw with great success. I know that another menber of this board (willlowchow) has a dog with IBS, who displayed similar behavior (refusing food) before her diagnosis as well.
My point is that sometimes the dog is not just a picky eater, but has an underlying health problem.
 
Here is a good site to check out if you suspect it may be something more:
[linkhttp://www.dogaware.com/specific.html#ibd]http://www.dogaware.com/specific.html#ibd[/link]
 
Hopefully, it's just a case of a picky eater, in which case, the Timberwolf Organics would be a good choice.  I know many picky eaters who go nuts for the bison and elk formulas.

How was your dog diagnosed?
I think that Khoale looked better before I got her when she was working this winter even though she was skinny. She's been picky for a while, in the winter we feed sled dogs a warm mixture of kibble, hot water, raw beed, egg powder and fish oil... she'd dump her bowl all the time to our dismay to pick out the raw meat bits. I suppose it is possible IBD and grain is part of the issue based on this and her frequent really soft poop. To my knowledge she has never had the really hard poop like oliver and Snickers.
I love the internet and dog.com... makes me think about all the possibilities, but I always wind up waaay confused as to which way to go. For a while I was thinking that she'd do better with a grain base somewhere in her meals but if she does have a bowel issue, maybe grain free is the way to go with mostly raw?
Yikes, I'm confused now...

Forgot to add... Oliver has a very similar body structure to Bugsy, EXTREME narrow, deep chest... i do worry about bloat in him as well.
Thanks... it is a beautiful area .. being in VA right now REALLY makews me miss it, the heat, the flatness, and the PAVEMENT ugh.

Oliver is pure lab?  Bugsy is a dane mix (may be lab or gsp or coon hound or all of them!) I love the leaner labs but have less love for the blocky body type, love the breed!
Bugsy used to eat his food so fast its as if we never put it in his bowl - then he would get hiccups now he just burps!