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The puppy is not gaining muscle mass well. Nutrition for weight gain, rejection of dry food and love for cat food - we solve the dog's problems. What Not to Do

May be associated with some diseases of the internal organs, such as the liver or pancreas.
First of all, of course, contact your veterinarian. He will prescribe your tests (clinical and biochemical blood tests and stool tests). If they detect diseases of the internal organs, then the veterinarian will prescribe a course of drug treatment for your dog and select a suitable diet for her.

Perhaps the dog is due to the defeat of the body by helminths. This can also be determined by a veterinarian by looking at the test results. If there is such a problem, buy an anthelmintic drug (the veterinarian will also help you choose the right one) and give it to your dog. Usually, after solving this problem, the appetite returns to the dog, and she quickly gains the weight she needs.

If everything is in order with your dog, then you should reconsider his diet.
If you feed your pet with natural food, do not forget that the dog is, first of all! When feeding natural, take food rich in animal proteins as a basis in dog nutrition - meat, fish and sour-milk products.

When preparing porridge for your dog, keep in mind that meat or offal should be about 70%, and cereals - 30%. Cook cereals first (rice, buckwheat, preferably millet - this is the most fat-rich cereal. But note that millet must be thoroughly boiled) and only then add finely chopped meat, offal or fish to the porridge. From meat, dogs can be given beef and chicken. Beef is given either steamed or well-frozen. Be sure to remove all tubular bones from the chicken before feeding. Let's give the ocean fish, having previously slightly welded it and removed all the bones from it.

Feed offal (heart, lung, liver, kidneys, scar) to the dog in its raw form, except for the liver - it should be boiled. Feeding raw, unpeeled beef tripe is good for gaining weight in a dog. Give it to your dog at bedtime in its pure form, that is, without porridge, as an additional bait.
Several times a week, give the dog fermented milk products between feedings: kefir, varenets, cottage cheese.

Not always the dog's refusal to eat has threatening reasons, often the reason for weight loss is the carelessness of the owners or their careless attitude to feeding the dog.

We establish the causes of thinness

An animal's health and longevity depend on how well it eats. Sometimes loving owners feed their pets and then struggle with being overweight. But it also happens that they suddenly find weight loss for no apparent reason, so they are worried why the dog is losing weight.

This condition has several causes, and not all of them are associated with diseases and dangerous problems. However, malnutrition leads to malnutrition, therefore, to a shortage of useful vitamins and minerals, nutrients. And this already threatens a general weakening of the body, a decrease in immunity and the development of many diseases.

Therefore, it is necessary to respond to weight loss as quickly as possible and identify its cause. It may be included in the following list:

  1. If your dog is losing weight quickly but is eating well, this may indicate an increase in his food needs. If the dog is actively growing, moving a lot and expending energy, is pregnant or nursing puppies, her usual food may not be enough to cover the increased calorie expenditure.
  2. When the dog has lost a lot of weight, and her appetite is good, this may indicate an insufficient calorie content of her food. In terms of volume, she can eat a lot, but in fact the food turns out to be “empty”.
  3. It is much more dangerous if the dog has become lethargic and has lost weight. This condition may indicate the presence of a disease. It can be anything. A virus in the blood, a cold, diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, helminthic invasions, a foreign body in the intestines, tumors of various origins and other diseases can provoke a decrease in body weight.
  4. The dog often refuses food if the usual diet is changed. When switching to another food, the animal may not perceive it and not eat at all until it is returned to its usual (or favorite) food.
  5. As with humans, it is most common for dogs to lose interest in food during and after illness. A sick animal may refuse to eat for several days, and this is within the normal range. It is important that the dog drinks water - dehydration, especially with illness and starvation, is extremely dangerous.
  6. When a dog shows a lack of interest in food when poisoned, then this is a normal reaction of the body, allowing it to cleanse itself of toxins. The task of the host is to start giving food in small quantities, in pureed or crushed form, to allow the stomach to get used to the normal process of digestion. In this case, you need to use only high-quality dog ​​food.
  7. Weight loss can also be provoked by health problems in older animals, for example, dental diseases or inflammation in the oral cavity, stomach diseases, and so on.


If the dog is cheerful and cheerful, eats well, but does not gain weight, you need to take care of its nutrition and reconsider its composition, volumes, quality and caloric content. But when weight loss leads to exhaustion, the dog's ribs and pelvic bones, vertebrae stick out, nausea and vomiting occur, the condition of the coat worsens - such dangerous symptoms should force the owner to show his dog to the veterinarian.

In any case, you need to entrust the treatment to a doctor and not self-medicate, so as not to harm your beloved four-legged friend.

What not to do

If the dog has lost weight dramatically, then this most likely indicates the presence of internal health problems. A specialist should treat the pet, and the owners themselves need to know what should not be done in any case:

  1. Attempt to give an animal medication, especially intended for humans, without the permission of a veterinarian.
  2. Force a dog to eat.
  3. Increase the calorie content of food by increasing its fat content.
  4. Overfeed the dog.
  5. Use the same food, such as giving your dog only meat in large quantities, or feeding him the same dry food for many years in a row.
  6. Feed the animal too often.

The nutrition of the dog should be correlated with its age, sex and size, energy losses. It must be not only varied within the acceptable range for the dog (not ice cream and sweets with smoked fish and sausage!), but also balanced in terms of fat, protein and carbohydrate content. Also, do not forget about vitamins and minerals, so important for the health of the pet.


When to feed your dog

If the dog has lost weight, but eats well, you need to feed it harder, increasing the calorie content of the food or its volume. Most often this happens after an illness or injury, and the animal quickly restores its condition. However, care must be taken not to overfeed the dog, this can cause indigestion.

Food should be given little and often, increasing its volume gradually, allowing the weakened body to get used to food gradually.

Before the exhibition, the question often arises of how to gain weight for the dog so that it adds a little “roundness” to its forms and looks more advantageous. During such periods, you need to increase the calorie content of food, for example, add more cereals to it, and slightly limit the activity of the animal.

This is a good way for a dog that is characterized by excessive energy and mobility, but you can not completely deprive him of movement, this will have a bad effect on both health and appearance.

If the dog is not gaining weight at all, you will have to completely change its menu. You need to track how quickly she eats her usual portion. If the food is destroyed in 5 minutes - the dog is given little food, if it takes more than 20 minutes to eat - a lot.

Food should be balanced and selected according to the breed and age of the animal. When the owner himself cannot cope with such a task, a veterinarian will help him.

Thinness can be explained by the condition of the animal. If she is a lactating bitch with a large number of puppies, then the pet owner should feed her lactation-wise.

A healthy adult animal is fed twice a day: in the morning and in the evening. Very large dog breeds can be fed once a day, while small lap dogs can be fed up to three times a day.


After the animal has eaten and moves away from the bowl, it is taken away, the remains are thrown away, and the dishes are washed and cleaned. Food should not be constantly in the direct access of the animal, it knocks down the regimen and disrupts proper digestion. Ideally, feed your pet at the same time - he will develop a habit. Clean drinking water should always be freely available, especially during the hot season.

Taking care of the proper and rational nutrition of his pet, the owner will not only save his good health, but also make the dog beautiful, strong, looking great.

Good afternoon. Dog, German Shepherd, 2 years old, weight slightly over 20 kg. We walk regularly, at least twice a day for half an hour. We are trying to pick up food so that she finally begins to gain weight, but she does not perceive all the food. Sometimes there are problems with the stool (how much I ate, so much of that, and sometimes diarrhea). Diarrhea can be in the morning and normal in the evening or vice versa. Weight gains, then drops. Allergy to royal horse meat, pedigree, chappie (this one ate the longest, but either they got caught on a fake, or something else, but she stopped eating it, the allergy was quite strong. Red ears, eyes, tummy, diarrhea). He does not absorb these feeds at all. They started to feed her Brit (yellow) food, the allergy went away, she eats well, at first she was absorbed better than now, but she does not gain weight (there is an appetite). Question: What is the best food? Where there is more protein and fiber, or the one where there is more fat than protein and fiber? Does it make sense to buy grain-free food? Like chicken and potatoes?

Hello!

Submit a photo of the dog. Please note that feeding Chappi, Pedigree, Belkanda, Caesar is not recommended for feeding dogs. Neither dry nor wet. These are very harmful feeds that can sooner or later provoke gastrointestinal diseases, allergies and quite often lead to the death of the animal. Sausages, milk, soups, borscht and everything else "what we eat ourselves" is not applicable for dog food. This rule is. Feed your animal either a quality commercial food: Acana, Gina, Orijen, Hills, Royal Canin, Eukanuba, Go Natural or Now Fresh. Or natural products: rice, oatmeal, buckwheat + beef, turkey, rabbit (but not in the form of minced meat) and stewed vegetables (cabbage, cauliflower, carrots, beets). The percentage of meat in the main diet is at least 40-50%. Also remember that you should not mix natural food and industrial food in any case. Vitamins must be used for any type of diet, for 1-1.5 months. 2 p. in year.

Opt for a chicken-free, low-fat formula.

The symptoms you describe suggest that the shepherd dog most likely has a problem with the pancreas. More specifically, pancreatic acini insufficiency. Without long-term intake of enzyme preparations, the normal functioning of the intestine is impossible. Accordingly, the increase in muscle mass is difficult. Perform ultrasound diagnostics and pancreatic secretion sampling to confirm the diagnosis. When it is confirmed, it is necessary to prescribe a special therapeutic diet. Like Hill's Canine i / d Low Fat.

However, until a diagnosis is made, use a chicken-free diet. Acana, Gina, Orijen, Hills, Eukanuba, Go Natural or Now Fresh. To increase muscle mass L-carnitine and Retabolil injections. Discuss dosages with local experts.

Please provide more information within the next 14 days.

Health to your pets!

Sincerely, Team" Veterinary practice"

Dogs usually have an excellent appetite. Many of them eat as much food as is available to them, while gaining weight well. Often, domestic dogs weigh even more than is allowed by the breed standard or the peculiarities of their constitution. But in some cases, pets need enhanced nutrition, so any dog ​​owner needs to know how to fatten a dog if necessary.

When to feed your dog

Exhausted dogs need a special diet. Exhaustion can occur after feeding a bitch too large a litter - more than 10 puppies, after a serious illness, surgery.

Wasting occurs in many working dogs that do not receive the required calorie nutrition. This is especially true of sled dogs moving long distances and carrying loads. Sometimes you need a dog to put on weight before a show. Fashion includes not only certain breeds, but also some individual characteristics of dogs within the breed: color, height, weight, external fatness. Therefore, dogs are forced to lose and gain body weight due to body fat and muscle mass.

Older animals are often naughty and refuse to eat because they feel unwell. They quickly develop exhaustion due to metabolic disturbances in the body. Before changing their diet, they should be taken to the veterinarian to determine the causes of this condition.

How to form a diet for fattening?

The easiest way to fatten a dog on a natural diet. She has a pronounced smell and taste that dogs like so much. Industrial feeds are not as attractive and do not have a variety of tastes. Some animals get bored, bored. If the animal receives industrial food, then it can be made more interesting for the dog. For example, mix dry granules with finely grated cheese, boiled and chopped meat, fish, eggs, many animals willingly eat industrial feed, to which a little cottage cheese, kefir, and low-fat sour cream are added.

It is very important for puppies and pregnant / lactating females to receive dairy and sour-milk products: kefir, fermented baked milk, cottage cheese, cheese, natural yogurt. This improves the digestive system, improves stools, colonizes the intestines with beneficial microorganisms, and also supplies the body with calcium in an easily digestible form. Feeding dairy and meat products must be spread over time, since their combination has a bad effect on the well-being of the dog. Once or twice a week, boiled fish with bones removed should be included in the diet. On the fish broth, diluted with water, porridges turn out well. Fish should be given only lean.

Bird eggs are an excellent source of healthy cholesterol and vitamins. They are given boiled. If among dogs lovers to drink raw eggs. A dog should not be allowed to do this until it is sick, has not gained the desired weight, or the bird that has laid the egg is showing signs of illness.

Vegetable food - cereals, vegetables, fruits - is a source of essential carbohydrates and a stimulant of the gastrointestinal tract.

An emaciated animal needs to be fed more often than usual: from three to eight times a day. If it completely refuses food, you need to drink it with warm water from a syringe and inject glucose preparations. Which foods should be included in the diet for fattening depends on the individual situation and the health of the animal.

Feeding malnourished dogs

Here's how to fatten up a dog after exhaustion. First of all, she needs to be given meat. Meat for dogs is a source of essential amino acids that these animals cannot get from plant foods and even fish. If the animal has been starving for a long time, then only thermally processed meat should be given to it, since it is better absorbed, and lean, since excess fat upsets digestion, which leads to even more problems. The daily portion should be 75-80 percent meat.

Other volume should be occupied by products of plant origin. For example, meat goes well with cereals. Buckwheat, rice and oatmeal are useful for dogs. Allergies sometimes occur to corn grits. Wheat groats are not recommended for feeding predators. Cereals are boiled in water without adding salt. Chopped meat and grated raw or stewed in their own juice vegetables and fruits are put into the resulting porridge: carrots, beets, apples, spinach.

Fattening puppies after an illness, for example, enteritis, involves the inclusion in the diet of semi-liquid puree products: boiled meat, sour-milk products, liquid oatmeal, thick vegetable soup with pieces of meat. Fattening the bitch after weaning puppies involves enhanced nutrition according to the scheme prescribed for feeding her during the period of whelping and lactation.

Feeding for fattening from other considerations

To fatten up a dog quickly before the show, it is enough to reduce its physical activity and increase the daily portion of food. You don't need to change your diet. Firstly, if the dog is participating in the show, then he is in good shape and gets everything he needs from his menu. Secondly, the change or introduction of new products can cause adverse effects in the form of an allergic rash, tarnishing and matting of wool, hair loss, delamination of claws, flow from the eyes or nose, redness of the eyes, ears. All this will significantly reduce the chances of the dog at the show.

What not to do

In the old textbooks on dog breeding, puppies and teenagers are advised to feed semolina porridge boiled in milk or meat broth. Doing this is not worth it. Dogs do not digest wheat well (semolina is a product of wheat processing), and many breeds of dogs are allergic to this cereal.

You should also not include lamb and pork in the diet of animals due to their high fat content. This adversely affects the liver and pancreas, creates a significant additional burden on the gallbladder. In addition, pork is a highly allergenic product. The ideal option is rabbit, turkey, veal, horse meat. They are boiled, and animals with good health are scalded, chopped and fed with herbal supplements.

Do not replace meat with offal for the fattening period. Offal is less nutritious, besides it is worse digested. The exception is the liver. It can replace a third of all meat in the daily diet a couple of times a week. You can feed only boiled liver.

To fatten a dog so that it gains weight, you need to increase the calorie content of the diet. Pure calories are provided by carbohydrate foods, so the dog needs to boil porridge and soups with vegetables and cereals in a broth diluted with water.

Feeding additives

The diet will be significantly enriched with meat and bone meal, fish meal, fish oil, seaweed, St. John's wort, Eleutherococcus leaves, nettle, plantain, dandelion leaves.

What do you prefer to feed your pets?

Poll Options are limited because JavaScript is disabled in your browser.

    Porridge with various additives 46%, 8411 votes

Excessive thinness is always alarming. This applies to both people and animals. But does the translucence of bones through the skin always require prompt action? Is this evidence of dangerous ailments? What do experts say about the problem?

About the causes of thinness of animals

We note right away that pets taken from the street or shelters do not gain weight due to a lack of protein and vitamins. Taking them home, you should not abruptly start fattening, give large portions of food, because good intentions can only do harm. Both weight gain and weight loss must be approached carefully. The main thing is not to harm the metabolism of the animal. It is best to take your pet to the veterinarian and undergo a complete medical examination. But not all owners have this opportunity. Therefore, it is necessary to exclude the probable causes of weight loss.

Perhaps your pet is nursing multiple offspring? Then she really needs to increase her diet, because the growing body of puppies every day takes more and more nutrients from the mother.

Sometimes, if there are two dogs, one can simply eat the other, less active and fearful. Watch both and draw the right conclusions.

With dysbacteriosis, food will also not be fully absorbed, which means that the dog will lose weight. If there are undigested residues in the pet's feces, then for sure the reason is precisely this disease. In this case, it is necessary to conduct a course of probiotics.

Perhaps your dog is too young. Some representatives of service breeds gain full weight only by 2-3 years. They should not be tried to fatten at a young age, exceeding the norms of food intake or increasing the frequency of its intake. An overactive metabolism for such dogs is the norm at a young age.

Or maybe the reason lies in malnutrition? Are you sure you're offering your dog enough food to make sure he's getting enough calories? Start by weighing your pet. Cynological tables will help you determine the compliance of the result obtained with generally accepted standards, indicating the minimum and maximum weight depending on the breed and gender of the dog.

Calculate if your dog is getting enough calories per day. Please note that for 1 kilogram of weight per day, representatives of small breeds should receive 85 kcal, medium - 70 kcal, large - 60 kcal. If your dog is really not getting enough of his calories from natural feeding, then it is recommended to gradually, over the course of a week, increase the serving size by 5-10% to the required daily allowance.

How to properly feed a dog?

If the dog is very thin, then it should be fed not twice, but three or four times a day. After all, the small stomach of an animal simply cannot accommodate a lot of food with all its desire.

Experienced dog breeders recommend that in case of severe thinness, transfer the pet to special high-energy feeds. On their packages there are exact instructions, dosages corresponding to the weight of the dogs. Follow these guidelines strictly. Make sure your pet always has access to fresh water.

Also, in the case of severe thinness and the dog's nutrition with ready-made food, it is recommended to replace them with canned food. If within a week the animal began to gain weight, it means that he was simply tired of the monotonous diet. In this case, you can consider the option of changing the usual food to a better one or transferring the dog to a “natural dog”. But to combine it and industrial feed is categorically not recommended.

With a natural diet, you need to make sure that your pet gets enough B vitamins, especially B12, which is found in eggs, liver, and lean beef. For catastrophic weight loss (for example, after a serious illness), veterinarians advise offering sugar-free infant formula as a "snack". Too frisky, active dogs will not be harmed by energy supplements. These are complexes of substances that stimulate metabolism. If within a week or two after all the actions taken, you do not notice improvement, that is, weight gain by the dog, then you cannot do without a comprehensive examination of your pet friend.