Dry dog ​​food for weight gain. True advice on how to fatten dogs. How to formulate a diet for fattening

A powerful, well-groomed dog flexing his pumped up muscles evokes not only admiration, but also respect, because achieving such physical shape is not easy. Most owners who buy dogs of large and medium breeds dream of having them pet resembled an elastic, muscular lightning, ready to rush towards danger at any moment.

Alas, most often, after a couple of years, the long-legged, active puppy turns into a round-sided, fat hulk who only loves to eat and take a nap in the sun. The owners are perplexed: how can this be? After all, they provided the pet with proper nutrition. Where is the activity and muscles of steel that you dreamed of?

In order for your dog to acquire, in addition to good condition and excellent appetite, a strong muscular frame, you will have to work hard. After all, dogs, like athletes, require not only attention and proper nutrition, but also training. We know modern achievements helping athletes become Olympic champions(for example, vacuum therapy or, in simple words, massage cupping), but what about our pets? Let's figure it out together.

What you need to know before you start classes

Building up muscle mass for a dog - this is exactly the case when, as they say, rushing is more expensive for yourself. You shouldn’t start training a week before or strive to turn a skinny little guy into a real canine athlete in a couple of months. Graduality and consistency are two basic principles that every owner must adhere to.

In addition to these two unshakable postulates, there are several important rules, which are important to observe both for your own peace of mind and for maintaining the health of your pet:

• Before starting training, be sure to check the animal for the absence of joint pathologies, heart diseases and injuries. If your pet has any of the above points, the dog needs not so much exercise as physical therapy that can fix the problem. Only a qualified veterinarian should develop such a set of exercises.
• Lose weight. First of all, this concerns, of course, four-legged friend, whose weight should be within normal limits. But the owner himself, if necessary, should improve his form a little - this will make it much easier for you to work with your pet.
• Consider the breed and hereditary characteristics of your four-legged friend. There are dogs that are initially unable to look courageous and powerful - for example, ornamental breeds. But for terriers of the so-called bull type (bull terriers, staffies, American Staffordshire terriers and) or Molossians, pumping up a luxurious relief, as they say, is a couple of trifles - the main thing is to approach the training correctly. It is equally important to look at the dog’s genetics. If all your dog's relatives have a rather dry constitution, it is unlikely that you will be able to deceive nature by getting a dog with the muscles of a bodybuilder. However strength training They definitely won’t hurt you by improving the terrain, movement and endurance of the animal.
• Don't forget about water. During training and after training, animals become very thirsty, so make sure your pet has free access to the water.
• Do not start intense training with early childhood. By putting too much stress on your puppy, you risk getting loose joints in adulthood and a reluctance to do anything at all. Kid getting right physical activity, should come back from a walk tired, but not exhausted. A couple of hours of rest should completely restore his strength.
• No monotony. Boring, repetitive activities will discourage anyone from doing anything. Diversify your workouts by adding an element of play or intellectual activity. Mindfulness tasks alternating with physical exercise, will allow your dog to develop not only muscles, but also intelligence.
• Don't get carried away with various weights. Popular harnesses and collars with lead weights, despite their wild popularity, are of little use for pumping up muscles. A static load from above may develop endurance, but it has little effect on the formation of muscle relief. In addition, do not forget that lead, most often used as ballast, is a rather toxic material. Ask yourself, would you like him touching your pet's body for several hours a day?
• Take care of your dog's ligaments. Puppies and young animals are especially vulnerable in this regard. Try to avoid sudden jumps and turns during exercise. By the way, fixing the paw ligaments with elastic bandage, which is carried out by analogy with human limbs, does not bring any benefit to the dog. Anatomical structure paws of your pet makes such a procedure pointless and does not protect the ligaments from stretching and excessive stress.
• No anabolic steroids. Don't believe those who claim that the little white pills successfully used by bodybuilders will not harm your pet. Firstly, anabolic steroids negatively affect reproductive function, and secondly, they simply burn the kidneys and liver. Agree, an excessive price for luxurious muscle mass.

Exercises

Well, now that everything necessary measures precautions have been taken, it's time to start physical training.

. This includes not only classic jogging, but also carrying an object uphill or over rough terrain. Such training develops endurance and trains all muscle groups without exception, and also improves propulsion, which is especially important for show dogs that show themselves in a sweeping trot. To remove loose fingers or improve the condition of the metacarpus ligaments, we recommend that you run not on asphalt, but on corrugated surfaces, such as gravel, coarse sand, or just a primer.

. A truly universal exercise for which there are no contraindications. Every dog ​​knows how to swim from birth, however, many are afraid to go into the water. To accustom your pet to the water element, do not try to use the old old-fashioned method of throwing the animal into deep water. IN best case scenario you will forever discourage your dog from approaching any body of water at all, including the bathtub. IN worst pet you will have to save. With all the ensuing consequences and a high risk of losing your dog altogether. It is best to set an example for your dog by going into the water first or throwing your favorite toy nearby, inviting him to play. Swimming perfectly develops the muscles of the shoulder, neck, hip and back corset, giving the animal’s body the necessary relief. In addition, by swimming, the dog learns to breathe correctly with its mouth closed and is freed from the risk of overheating in hot weather. And, most importantly, most pets like such training, capable of fetching a ball out of the water for hours or frolicking in shallow water.

Walking up the stairs. You should immediately warn that only moving up the steps is effective. It is generally not recommended for puppies under 6 months to go down the stairs, and later this should be done with an eye on the breed and physical condition animal. But climbing (whether up the stairs or uphill) develops muscles perfectly hind legs and makes the angles of the hock joints more expressive.

Walking on a tight leash. Walking on a tight leash helps correct small size of the front paws, if it is not genetically determined, but appears as a result of improper rearing. To get a visible effect, you should take the dog on a jerk chain and lead him as close to the leg as possible, pulling on the leash and forcing the dog to stretch his neck, walking on tiptoe. Every 40-50 meters, change the pace of walking, moving from a trot to a walk and back. It is important not to loosen the tension on the leash, preventing the dog from losing his step. In addition, a strong sweeping trot, when the dog on a tight leash and in a harness moves in front of the handler, perfectly strengthens the back muscles, removes over-tracking, and raises the withers.

Jumping, overcoming barriers. Overcoming barriers perfectly strengthens muscles that are not involved in other types of exercise. It is best to combine such exercises with running, alternating different types activity. The obstacles over which the dog jumps should be low in order to avoid excessive stress on the joints when landing. Jumping up for a toy or bait is great for developing agility and propulsion in the hind limbs. The main thing is not to get carried away with such exercises for up to a year, while the ligaments are still weak, and choose a non-slip surface for jumping.

Carrying heavy loads. You should not use various weights that are attached to a harness or leash as weights. Such a burdened harness only spoils the straight line of the back, leading to over-tracking, and a collar with weights causes discomfort to the dog while moving. The best way develop neck muscles and lower jaw- give the dog the opportunity to carry a load in its teeth. A special wooden dumbbell or a regular stick is best suited for the role of a simulator.

Towing. You can combine business with pleasure by allowing your pet to tow loads. Firstly, if the weight and physical strength They allow you to have a pet, you can give your children plenty of sledding in the winter or remove all the construction waste from the site. Secondly, towing weights is an excellent development for the muscles of the chest, neck and back. The main thing is to take into account the weight and height of your pet, choose the right harness with fastening near the tail and not get carried away with the exercise until the pet is one and a half years old.

Various sports. Games with fellow tribesmen. This type of training is more likely to be pleasant than effective, but outdoor games, especially for puppies, are an excellent way to develop initial muscles and strengthen weak ligaments. Dog handlers have noticed more than once that puppies growing up in a pack are much more physically developed than their solitary peers. Therefore, if you are lucky enough to gather a group of kids of about the same age for a walk, do not waste time on a fun puppy party and fuss.

Balance. Balance exercises are needed, first of all, for dogs involved in sports or making a show career. They help you learn how to make sharp turns and jumps when crossing the track, and also make the exhibition trot more confident and sweeping. However, even if your pet is just a pet, such activities will allow him to protect himself from injuries during outdoor games, improve coordination of movements and perfectly strengthen the muscles of the back and limbs. For exercise, special inflatable balls, fitballs, or air-filled rubber pads with spikes are most often used.

Proper and regular physical training is a huge burden not only for your pet, but also for the owner himself, who is forced to take part in the process every day. Your reward will be a wonderful athlete walking proudly next to you and flexing his muscles. And you yourself will be surprised to discover that your physical fitness has improved significantly, because training with a dog is a fitness activity that brings not only results, but also incomparable pleasure.

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

When to fatten a dog

Malnourished dogs need a special diet. Exhaustion can occur after a bitch feeds too large a litter - over 10 puppies, after suffering a serious illness or surgery.

Exhaustion occurs in dogs that work a lot and do not receive the necessary caloric nutrition. This is especially true for sled dogs that travel long distances and carry loads. Sometimes it is necessary for a dog to gain weight before a show. Not only certain breeds are in fashion, but also some individual characteristics 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.

Old animals are often capricious and refuse to eat due to feeling unwell. They quickly develop exhaustion due to the disorder metabolic processes in the body. Before changing their diet, they should be taken to a veterinarian to determine the cause of this condition.

How to formulate a diet for fattening?

The easiest way to fatten a dog on natural food. It has a distinct smell and taste that dogs like so much. Industrial food is not as attractive and does not have a variety of taste. Some animals get bored and bored with them. 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 food, to which a little cottage cheese, kefir, and low-fat sour cream are added.

It is very important for puppies and pregnant/nursing bitches to receive milk and fermented milk products: kefir, fermented baked milk, cottage cheese, cheese, natural yogurt. This improves the digestive system, improves stool, and colonizes the intestines. beneficial microorganisms, and also supplies the body with calcium in an easily digestible form. Feeding with dairy and meat products need to be spaced out over time, since their combination has a bad effect on the dog’s well-being. Once or twice a week you should include boiled fish with the bones removed in your diet. Porridges are made well with fish broth diluted with water. Only low-fat fish should be given.

Bird eggs are an excellent source good cholesterol and vitamins. They are given boiled. If some of the dogs are drinkers raw eggs. The dog should not be allowed to do this while he is sick, has not gained required weight or the bird that laid the egg shows signs of illness.

Plant foods - cereals, vegetables, fruits - are a source of essential carbohydrates and a stimulator of the gastrointestinal tract.

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

Nutrition for malnourished dogs

Here's how to fatten up your dog after it's exhausted. First of all, she needs to be given meat. Dog meat - source essential amino acids, which these animals cannot obtain from plant food and even fish. If an animal has been starving for a long time, then it should be given only heat-treated meat, since it is better digestible, and low-fat, since excess fat upsets digestion, which leads to even greater problems. The daily portion should contain 75-80 percent meat.

The remaining volume should be occupied by products plant origin. For example, meat goes well with cereals. Buckwheat, rice and oatmeal are good for dogs. On corn grits sometimes allergies occur. Wheat cereals are not recommended for feeding predators. Cereals are cooked in water without adding salt. In the resulting porridge add chopped meat and grated raw or stewed vegetables and fruits in their own juice: carrots, beets, apples, spinach.

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

Feeding for fattening for other reasons

To fatten up your dog quickly before a show, just reduce it physical activity and increase the daily portion of food. There is no need to change your diet. Firstly, if a dog participates in a show, then it is in good shape and gets everything it needs from its menu. Secondly, the change or introduction of new products may cause adverse consequences in the form of allergic rash, dulling and matting of fur, hair loss, delamination of claws, runny eyes or nose, redness of the eyes and ears. All this will significantly reduce the dog’s chances at the show.

What not to do

Old dog breeding textbooks advise feeding puppies and adolescents semolina porridge, boiled in milk or meat broth. You shouldn't do this. Dogs do not digest wheat well (and semolina– this is a product of wheat processing), and many dog ​​breeds are allergic to this grain.

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

You should not replace meat with offal during the fattening period. By-products are less nutritious and are also less digestible. The exception is the liver. It can replace a third of all meat in daily ration a couple of times a week. You can only feed boiled liver.

To fatten a dog so that it gains weight, you need to increase the calorie intake. Carbohydrate foods provide clean calories, so your dog needs to cook porridge and soups with vegetables and cereals in broth diluted with water.

Fattening supplements

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

What do you prefer to feed your pets?

Porridge with various additives 45%, 9273 vote

1. An underweight dog may be associated with certain diseases. internal organs, for example, the liver or pancreas.

First of all, of course, contact your veterinarian. He will order tests for your dog (clinical and biochemical analysis blood and stool analysis. Thus, if they detect diseases of the internal organs, the veterinarian will prescribe a course for your dog drug treatment and select a suitable diet for her.

2. perhaps large dog loses weight due to infection of the new organism by helminths. This can also determine veterinarian, looking at the test results. In the event that such new problem present, buy anthelmintic drug(your veterinarian will also help you choose the right one) and give it to your dog. Usually, after solving this problem, the dog’s appetite returns, and it quickly gains the weight it needs.

3. if with yours big dog everything is in great order, then it’s worth reconsidering her diet.
So, if you feed your pet natural food, do not forget that a big dog is, first of all, a large predator! When feeding with natural food, for good foundation In a good dog diet, take food rich in animal proteins - meat, various fish and dairy products.

4. When preparing porridge for your dog for the last time, keep in mind that large amounts of meat or offal should be about 70%, and cereals - 30%. First cook the cereals (rice, buckwheat, preferably millet - this is the most rich in fats cereal. But please note that the millet must be thoroughly boiled) and only then add finely chopped meat, offal or different fish. From Russian meat, dogs can be given fried beef and chicken. Fried beef is served either steamed or well frozen. Be sure to remove all long bones from the chicken before feeding it. good fish give the oceanic one, after lightly boiling it and removing all the bones from it.

5. Feed offal (heart, lung, liver, kidneys, tripe) to the dog raw, except for the liver - it should be boiled. Feeding raw, unpeeled beef tripe helps your dog gain weight. Give it to your dog before bed pure form, that is, without porridge, as additional bait.
Several times a new week, give your dog fermented milk products between feedings: kefir, Varenets, cottage cheese.

6. and, of course, don’t forget about vitamins! When feeding natural food, they are simply necessary. At large selection vitamins, it is advisable to consult a veterinarian. And best of all, vitamins are not in tablets, but in the form of injections - this way they are absorbed faster and more efficiently by the new body.

7. If you feed your pet dry food, then everything is simple. Give preference to “Premium” and “superpremium” food classes. Choose food with a higher protein content (e.g. active dogs. When feeding your dog dry food, there is no need to add vitamins. But raw beef tripe won't hurt at all.

Excessive thinness of a dog can indicate a number of diseases, but this is not always the case. Pets adopted from shelters or from the street may be underweight due to a lack of protein, vitamins or microelements. Weight gain, as well as weight loss, should always be approached with caution. main goal– do no harm by “disrupting” the animal’s metabolism. Let's consider what to feed your dog so that it gains weight and what measures need to be taken.

Naturally, the best option is to show the dog to a doctor and undergo full examination. Firstly, a visit to the clinic is not always possible, and secondly, a comprehensive examination requires significant financial costs. To begin with, let's exclude possible options"on the surface", which are logical:

Important! Diarrhea and vomiting lead to rapid... If you are confident that you have the situation under control and are not going to see a veterinarian, add rehydron to your dog’s drink to avoid rapid loss of muscle mass.

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

About the causes of thinness in animals

Let us immediately note that pets taken from the street or shelters do not gain weight due to a lack of protein and vitamins. Having taken them home, you should not suddenly start fattening them or give them 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 animal’s metabolism. It is best to take your pet to a veterinarian and undergo a full medical examination. But not all owners have this opportunity. Therefore it is worth excluding probable reasons weight loss.

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

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

With dysbacteriosis, food will also not be fully absorbed, which means the dog will lose weight. If there are undigested residues in your pet's stool, then this disease is most likely the cause. In this case, it is necessary to take a course of probiotics.

Your dog may be too young. Some representatives service breeds They gain full weight only by 2-3 years. You should not try to fatten them at a young age by exceeding food consumption standards or increasing the frequency of food intake. A hyperactive metabolism is the norm for such dogs at a young age.

Or maybe the reason lies in malnutrition? Are you sure you are offering your dog enough food to get enough calories? Start by weighing your pet. Cynological tables indicating the minimum and maximum weight depending on the breed and gender of the dog will help you determine whether the result complies with generally accepted standards.

Calculate whether your dog is getting enough calories per day. Please note that for 1 kilogram of weight per day, representatives small breeds should receive 85 kcal, medium - 70 kcal, large - 60 kcal. If your dog really isn't getting enough calories when... 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 intake.

How to fatten a dog correctly?

If the dog is very thin, then it should be fed not twice, but three or four times a day. After all, an animal’s small stomach simply cannot accommodate a lot of food even if it wants to.

Experienced dog breeders recommend that if your pet is extremely thin, switch your pet to special high-energy food. Their packages contain precise instructions, dosages corresponding to the weight of the dogs. Follow these recommendations strictly. Make sure your animal always has access to fresh water.

Also in case of severe thinness and nutrition of the dog ready-made feed It is recommended to replace them with canned food. If within a week the animal begins to gain weight, it means that it is simply tired of the monotonous diet. In this case, you can consider the option of changing regular food to a better quality one or transfer the dog to a “natural” one. But to combine it and industrial feed absolutely not recommended.

At natural nutrition need to make sure that pet received enough B vitamins, especially B12, which is found in eggs, liver, and lean beef. In case of catastrophic weight loss (for example, after serious illness) veterinarians advise offering baby powder without sugar as a “snack”. Too frisky active dogs Energy supplements won't do any harm. These are complexes of substances that stimulate metabolism. If within a week or two after all the actions taken you do not notice any improvement, that is, the dog gaining weight, then you cannot do without a comprehensive examination of your pet friend.