How to get your dog to gain a healthy weight. Nutrition for weight gain, aversion to dry food and love for cat food - solving dog problems How to feed a dog so that it gains weight

Sometimes the dog loses a lot of weight after long illness or due to other reasons. What to feed your dog so that it gains weight - this issue needs to be dealt with in a timely manner. Remember that you need to fatten the animal in such a way as not to disrupt the metabolism in the body.

Before deciding how to fatten properly skinny dog In order for her to gain weight, you need to figure out whether the weight really cannot be called sufficient for her physique and age. Both his health and his predisposition to illnesses in later life depend on whether the pet’s weight is normal. With a normal weight, the dog develops fully, and intensive physical exercise don't burden her.

Video “How and what to feed a dog”

In this video, experts will tell you how to feed your dog properly.

Causes of weight loss

Sometimes the owner of a four-legged creature notices that his pet suddenly began to rapidly lose weight and eat poorly. The best way out from the situation - show the dog to the veterinarian and undergo a comprehensive comprehensive examination. However, keep in mind the fact that this will cost you a decent amount. That’s why you should first establish the reason for your dog’s rapid weight loss, and only then make a decision.

Among the common factors, causing loss The pet's weight should be highlighted as follows:

1. Feeding your pet's offspring. After this, the dog usually requires serious recovery.
2. Dogs living in the same house cannot share food among themselves. In this case, it is advisable to isolate the malnourished dog from other individuals during feeding.
3. The dog suffered from a helminth infestation. In this case, you need to give the animal special drugs from worms, otherwise the consequences may be sad.
4. It's all due to my young age and individual characteristics breeds

Feeding offspring

Lack of appetite is not always associated with health problems in your pet. Sometimes she does not eat very actively and at the same time loses weight due to the fact that most of nutritional components leave with milk. When a dog fattens its offspring, it often loses weight. In this case, it is recommended to increase the portions.

Also make sure that your daily menu includes vitamins. Then the puppies will get more useful substances together with mother's milk, and the tailed mother herself will not actively lose weight. We should not forget that sometimes the birth of babies in dogs is associated with serious complications. The reason for this is surgery or illness.

High competition for food

Sometimes the owner of four-legged creatures does not notice the exhaustion of one of the pets in a timely manner. It would seem that the food is distributed evenly, and each of your doggies has their own bowl for food. However, keep an eye on your animals while feeding: it is quite possible that someone is left without treats because they cannot win their “place in the sun.” All you have to do is feed the deprived dog in another room so that his food is not taken away.

Age and characteristics of the breed

Among the reasons for a dog's sudden weight loss, it is also worth highlighting its age and individual characteristics. For example, representatives service breeds Dogs often gain weight by the age of 2-3 years. This is explained by the fact that the animal’s metabolism is early age too active. Therefore, increase daily ration not worth it.

Keep an eye on your dog first: if he continues to lose weight, you should show him to a specialist and check if everything is in order with his health. After consultation with your veterinarian, you can modify your daily diet.

How to fatten your pet

In order for the dog to look healthy, it should have normal weight and has stopped shedding, it is necessary to provide her balanced diet. You can fatten her up using a set of the following products:

• high energy feeds. These include foods high in protein and protein;
• natural ingredients. Buckwheat, rice, oatmeal - such porridges contribute to weight gain. As for meat, it is better to give preference to beef, rabbit, chicken;
• unrefined vegetable oil - just add a few drops to the food;
• fish, liver, cottage cheese - these products are high in calories and can well diversify a dog’s daily diet.

Mix ready-made feed It is not advisable to use homemade products, since this will only disrupt the metabolism in your pet’s body.

What not to do

Some dog owners prefer to feed their four-legged friend semolina porridge cooked with milk. Refuse this dish, since the dog tolerates the processed wheat product, like cereals in general, with great difficulty. You should not feed your dog lamb and pork, as such meat is too fatty for him.

Do not replace meat with offal - they are given to the animal rarely, as a good meat supplement, but not as the main ingredient. The best option is porridge and soups with meat and vegetables. It is possible to prevent anorexia in your dog and increase his appetite if you follow the basic recommendations of your veterinarian.

Not only people go on diets, sometimes dogs also need an individual diet. And this is not always connected with overweight, as is commonly thought, a pet may not gain the required weight. Oddly enough, gaining weight is more difficult than losing it. Especially if your pet for some reason refuses to eat the dry food prescribed by the doctor, and instead has a strange passion for cat food. Therefore, the question is what to feed the dog so that it gains required weight and why the pet stopped eating with appetite - relevant for many owners!

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How should you feed your pet to make it gain weight?

The problem of not gaining the required weight is very often associated with health problems. If your dog was quite well-fed, but suddenly began to lose weight and stopped eating with appetite, this is a very alarming bell. Increasing the dose of food for him is not a solution to the problem. In general, selecting an individual diet is a complex and painstaking process. If you do this thoughtlessly, you can disrupt the animal’s metabolism and get problems for the rest of its life.

Therefore, before fattening your dog, examine it as closely as possible. common reasons sudden loss the weights are:

Some dog breeds always look thinner, in particular hounds and pointers. As well as young animals, weight gain is more intense after 2-3 years of age. Therefore, there is no need for unnecessary panic. But if you can examine the dog's ribs with the naked eye, his spine protrudes strongly and zygomatic bones, most likely her weight is insufficient.

The following products help you gain the required weight:

1. Specialized high-energy food. Pay attention to energy value food your dog eats and choose the most nutritious options with increased content protein and protein.
2. If you feed natural food, then give preference to cereals such as buckwheat, rice, and oatmeal. The diet should include complex carbohydrates, they take longer to split and carry a greater energy charge. For meat, it is advisable to eat whole beef, chicken, and rabbit. Quality meat contributes speed dial muscle mass. Don't give too much fatty foods, weight gain should occur due to an increase in muscle mass, and not due to the accumulation of fat masses.
3. Mix unrefined food into your food vegetable oil, approximately 1 tablespoon per serving. Can be given 2-3 times a week chicken eggs and a few drops of fish oil.
4. Wouldn't hurt for variety and correct set weight fish, liver, cottage cheese, 2-3 times a week.

Three levels of dog fatness

Do not try to feed the animal with food and natural food at the same time. This scheme does not lead to weight gain, but threatens metabolic disorders. Another tip for owners who want their pet to gain weight: feed food three times a day instead of two. In this case, the dose of food may be the same or greater, insignificantly. In addition, when your pet is on an intensive diet, do not forget to monitor his weight and calculate the nutritional value of his meals.

Focus on what pets different breeds must receive a certain amount of calories per day:

• dogs miniature breeds For 1 kg of weight you need approximately 110 Kcal;
• small dogs have 85 kcal per unit of weight;
• medium breeds for the same weight need 70 Kcal, and large breeds – 65 Kcal;
• For very large or giant breeds, 1 kg of mass requires 65 Kcal.

What to do if your dog refuses dry food?

The now popular dry food is an ideal feeding option for both the dog and its owner. Feeding dog food takes minimal time. At the same time, a high-quality option is completely balanced and allows you to lose or gain weight as needed. Dogs often eat dry food with pleasure, but there are exceptions.

A dog may refuse dry food for the following reasons:

1. She is used to natural food and dry food is new to her. If you want to switch your animal to a dry diet, do it gradually. Start by replacing a small portion of your diet with dry food, gradually increasing it until it reaches 100%. This will take at least 1-2 weeks; a faster transition is fraught with food stress.
2. The food is not suitable for the dog. There are a lot of manufacturers of dry diets and some option may simply not be suitable for your pet. Offer your dog several different foods and settle on the one that the animal will eat with great pleasure.
3. Individual non-perception of feed components. This situation is quite unlikely; most foods are universal and hypoallergenic. Moreover, paradoxically, a dog can eat cheap food with greater appetite than more expensive food. This is due to the fact that economy food manufacturers use flavorings to make their product more attractive. While holistic or super-premium feeds only operate natural ingredients. And they don’t emphasize their taste with additional additives.

Dry food is often prescribed by veterinarians medicinal purposes and if your pet refuses to eat it, try this:

Soak dry food in water low-fat kefir or yogurt. Perhaps your pet will like this option more.

Sometimes pets refuse food due to health problems. Consult your veterinarian to see if your pet may have dental or oral problems or indigestion. A video from the channel “Me and My Tail” will help you learn more about different foods.

Is it acceptable to feed a dog cat food?

Pet food manufacturers differentiate between dog and cat food for a reason. These pets have different needs and all this is taken into account in the qualitative and quantitative composition of their food. So feed the dog cat food, as well as a cat as a dog, is wrong.

For example, cat food contains more proteins. And a dog, if it regularly eats such food, has every chance of quickly getting a metabolic disorder. And also serious problems With digestive tract, renal failure and rash on the skin.

In addition, cats have a need for the amino acid taurine, which is reflected in the composition of cat food. Dogs are capable of generating this amino acid on their own, and an additional dose of taurine from the outside is detrimental to canine health.

And in general, dogs and cats need different ratios of proteins, fats and carbohydrates and different amounts of vitamins and amino acids. Therefore, systematically feeding a dog with cat food is unacceptable.

It’s another matter if the dog ate cat food just once – this is not a reason to panic. The difficulty can be observed if you have both a cat and a dog living at home at the same time. For some reason, animals often think that the food in their neighbor’s bowl tastes better. In addition, dogs can use their physical superiority and take food from cats. The solution is to feed each pet individually so that no one is tempted to eat their neighbor’s food.

Video “What to feed a dog?”

Help in compiling proper diet There should be a video below, taken from the “Expert Speaks” channel.

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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 you (clinical and biochemical analysis blood and stool analysis). If they detect diseases of the internal organs, the veterinarian will prescribe a course for your dog drug treatment and pick her up suitable diet.

Perhaps the dog is due to helminth damage to the body. This can also determine veterinarian by looking at the test results. If this problem exists, 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 regains its appetite, and it quickly gains the weight it needs.

If everything is fine with your dog, then you should reconsider its diet.
If you feed your pet natural food, do not forget that a dog is, first of all! When feeding natural food, take food rich in animal proteins as the basis for your dog’s diet - meat, fish and dairy products.

When preparing porridge for your dog, keep in mind that there should be about 70% meat or offal, and 30% cereal. 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 fish to the porridge. Meats that can be given to dogs include beef and chicken. The beef is either steamed or well frozen. Be sure to remove all long bones from the chicken before feeding it. Give ocean fish, after lightly boiling it and removing all the bones.

Feed the offal (heart, lung, liver, kidneys, tripe) raw to the dog, 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 week, give your dog fermented milk products between feedings: kefir, Varenets, cottage cheese.

There are not always threatening reasons for a dog’s refusal to eat; often the reason for weight loss is the inattention of the owners or their careless attitude towards feeding the dog.

Establishing the causes of thinness

Its health and longevity depend on how well an animal eats. Sometimes loving owners feed their pets, and then fight excess weight. But it also happens that they suddenly notice weight loss for no noticeable reason, so they worry why the dog is losing weight.

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

Therefore, you need 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 nutritional needs. If your 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 caloric expenditure.
2. When a dog has lost a lot of weight and has a good appetite, this may indicate that its food is insufficient in calories. 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 lost weight. This condition may indicate the presence of a disease. It can be anything. A virus in the blood, a cold, or illness can trigger weight loss. gastrointestinal tract, helminthic infestations, foreign body in the intestines, tumors of different origins and other diseases.
4. The dog often refuses food if the usual diet is changed. When switching to another food, the animal may not accept it and may not eat it at all until its regular (or favorite) food is returned to it.
5. As in humans, the most common cause in dogs is a decrease in interest in food during and after illness. A sick animal may refuse to eat for several days, and this is within normal limits. It is important that the dog drinks water - dehydration, especially during illness and starvation, is extremely dangerous.
6. When a dog shows a lack of interest in food when poisoned, it is normal reaction body, allowing you to cleanse yourself of toxins. The owner’s task is to start giving food in small quantities, in pureed or crushed form, to allow the stomach to get used to the normal digestion process. In this case, you only need to use quality food for dogs.
7. Weight loss can also be caused by health problems in older animals, for example, dental disease or inflammation in the mouth. 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 review its composition, volume, quality and calorie level. But when losing weight leads to exhaustion, the dog’s ribs and pelvic bones, vertebrae stick out, nausea and vomiting occur, the condition of the coat worsens - similar dangerous symptoms should force the owner to take their 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 suddenly lost weight, this most likely indicates the presence of internal problems with health. A specialist should treat the pet, and the owners themselves need to know what under no circumstances should they do:

1. Trying to give medications to an animal, especially those intended for humans, without the permission of a veterinarian.
2. Forcing a dog to eat.
3. Increase the calorie content of food by increasing its fat content.
4. Overfeed the dog.
5. Use monotonous food, for example, giving the dog only meat in large quantities or feeding it the same dry food for many years in a row.
6. Feed the animal too often.

The dog's nutrition should be correlated with its age, gender and size, and energy loss. It must be not only varied within the limits acceptable for the dog (not ice cream and sweets with smoked fish and sausage!), but also balanced in the content of fats, proteins and carbohydrates. We also shouldn’t forget about vitamins and minerals, which are so important for your pet’s health.

When to fatten a dog

If the dog has lost weight, but eats well, you need to feed it more strongly, 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, you need to be careful not to overfeed your dog, as this can cause indigestion.

Food should be given often and little by little, its volumes should be increased gradually, allowing the weakened body to get used to food gradually.

Before an exhibition, the question often arises of how to gain weight for a dog so that it adds a little “roundness” to its shape 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 animal’s activity.

This good way for a dog that is characterized by excessive energy and mobility, but you cannot completely deprive it of movements, 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 monitor 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 feed, then a lot.

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

Thinness can be explained by the condition of the animal. If this is a lactating bitch with big amount puppies, then the pet owner must feed her taking into account lactation.

A healthy adult animal is fed twice a day: morning and evening. Very large breeds It is permissible to feed dogs once a day, and small lap dogs are given food up to three times a day.

After the animal eats and moves away from the bowl, it is taken away, the remains are thrown away, and the dishes are washed and put away. Food should not be constantly in the animal’s immediate access; this disrupts the diet and disrupts proper digestion. Ideally, feed your pet at the same time - it will develop a habit. There should always be a clean, freely accessible drinking water, especially in the hot season.

Concerned about the correct and rational nutrition of his pet, the owner will not only protect him good health, but will also make the dog beautiful, strong, and looking great.