Baron Needs To Beef Up - Advice On Adding Weight

[Guest CleverJason]

I've had Baron for about a year and half, and he's always had a sensitive stomach. He's a big boy - his racing weight was 80 pounds - and I've tried to keep him around that number, but he's constantly losing weight. Currently, he's just below 75 pounds and starting to look a little too thin. He gets 3.5 cups of Iams Green Bag every day, plus a pig's ear or chew every evening. If I feed him any more than that, he has accidents when I'm at work during the day.

 

I would really appreciate some advice on another food brand, or maybe some kind of food or additive that might firm up his loose bowels. I'd love to feed him more, and he'd love to eat more. Oh, and he has a clean bill of health from a recent vet visit, so I don't think there are any health issues at play.

[XTRAWLD]

Have a look at a Satin Ball recipe.

[Hubcitypam]

My 80 pound guys always got 4 cups a day. You could move to Iams puppy.

[Guest herbsofmine]

How would he be with buttermilk? Would that upset his stomach too much?

[GeorgeofNE]

Stop feeding him pig ears and "chews" for a bit. My pit bull mix had terrible poos when he ate those.

 

That might take care of the loose poop!

 

Don't rely on the scale--George lost weight when he retired, but he was never skinny. I attributed it to lose of muscle. Unless you dog looks too thin, don't worry too much about the numbers.

[lukasmom]

Check out Olewo carrots for the soft poops. Works wonders.

[cleptogrey]

check the caloric count of your food. all foods have it somewhere near the % listings. my male gains weight eating 4 cups per day, he's now 8.5 and i want to keep him on the thinner side, so he's down to 3.5/3.75 cups. he makes it up to 78-80#s on the 4 cup portion. aside from increase of a mere 1/4 c. per meal you can add in some white rice and boiled chop meat, that always puts the weight back on after a stomach bug in my house. cheap and easy, i swear by my rice cooker.

[kudzu]

Stop feeding him pig ears and "chews" for a bit. My pit bull mix had terrible poos when he ate those.

 

That might take care of the loose poop!

 

Don't rely on the scale--George lost weight when he retired, but he was never skinny. I attributed it to lose of muscle. Unless you dog looks too thin, don't worry too much about the numbers.

 

Ditto, ditto & ditto. In your position I would try ditching the pig ears, letting his system normal out a bit & then slowly up his calorie intake. Remember that some of the food increase will go to replacing the calories of the pig ears. Pigs ears upset many dogs' systems. That would be even more likely if the dog has a sensitive stomach.

 

Though keeping an eye on the scale is a good thing, more attention should be paid to how your dog looks. All my dogs either lost weight after racing or started to look more filled out without gaining weight. My assumption is they transformed from pro-athlete to weekend warrior physique.

[Houndtime]

My new boy was very thin at 73 lbs. He is a big boy. We feed him 2 cups of Iams each meal, plus a tablespoon or two of canned wet food.

 

Coconut oil is 130 calories per tablespoon. We were giving them that supplement for skin and coat until Shine started looking chunky, so we went back to the omega oils. I think you are feeding your boy too little food.