Help needed to fatten up dog

A question about : Help needed to fatten up dog

An odd one this. We recently got a dog 2 yr old Pyrennean Mountain dog from a rescue centre. Its a proper pedigree etc, but was returned to the kennels by the original purchaser, after a marriage break up.

The dog is underweight, but I can't get her to eat much. You would think a dog that normally weighs 8 stone might eat the house up?

It would seem that the previous owners may have fed her chips and stuff as she won't eat dog food, but will eat table scraps.

Any dog experts out there have a good fattening diet?

Best answers:

• Hi N9eave,
  If you can stand the revolting look and smell, tripe is excellent for bodying up dogs. It comes frozen and you can buy it either from Pets at Home and the like or from animal feed merchants. The latter will be cheaper.
  I would recommend feeding it in addition to a complete kibble food in the first instance. Just mix it up with the complete. I know lots of people say what's the point of supplementing a complete food, but we're doing this very effectively with one of our who needs bodying and it's doing him no harm.
  Now, the thing about tripe is that although humans find it truly revolting, dogs absolutely love it and it is likely to tempt her to eat. Don't make a fuss about her eating, just put down what you want her to have and if she doesn't eat it up within about 10 minutes just take it away and don't try to tempt her with anything else. Then just do the same at the next normal feed time. As long as she's in good health otherwise, she won't starve herself
  I would also split her food into two meals a day.
  Blimey, I haven't half gone on and sorry if I've told you stuff you already know, but hope it helps a bit. Good luck with your new girl
  Fleago
• You could try and wean her onto dog food.
  Say for a few days give her mainly human food with a tiny bit dog food. The next few days give her 75% human and 25% dog food. Then a few days of 50% of each, and so on till she's finally eating only dog food.
  For big dogs, it's easier and cheaper to buy the large (around 15kg) sacks of dried food.
• this isn't really 'pure money' so shouldn't be in 'anything else, pure money'
  I wasn't really sure where to move it but hope the people in OS can help you out
• What kind of dog food are you giving her? Tinned or dried? If you have only tried on or the other, I would try switching to the other and see if that is what she is used to.
  A bit off topic - but when we had our golden lab when I was a kid we went on a fishing trip. We had sandwiches packed for us and dog food for her. She was MUCH more interested in the sandwiches than the dog food (unlike usual - she would eat pretty much anything other than the cheap dog food) - so we made her a dog food sandwich. Did she eat it? Did she heck!!
• Type "Satin Balls" in your search engine, there are lots of recipes available for "fattening up" dogs. I do know of an old fashioned way of increasing appetite (and it does work, Ive used it) but it involves the dog eating fresh horse manure !!!!.
  Have you had such a big dog before, I am not being rude, but sometimes people think huge dogs eat mountains of food, when infact they don't. I agree with fleago, put her food down, and if its not gone withing 10 mins, take it away, she will soon eat when she is hungry. If you can't stand the smell of tripe, an alternative is chicken mince, if Im trying to put weight on a rottie, they get 2lb of chicken mince and a 1lb of high energy complete.
  Karen
• I buy the big sacks of dried food from the farmers merchant at Ј6.25 (good deal) and mix in about 600g of canned food. The tripe seems like a good idea, but the kennel used that and she did not eat much of it.
• The only food that has ever caused my dog to increase his weight is Autarky. It's a good healthy blend of herbs in a gluten free kibble and is well priced at about Ј14 per 15kg sack. I would try that with the addition of sardines in oil on top.
  You can get Autarky at any local animal feed merchant or in small bags in Tesco, Sainsbury and the like.
• Hi N9eave,
  I would get even just one packet of tripe and give her a try with it. It's possible she was very stressed in the kennel and this may have affected her eating, so something she didn't eat there might possibly be ok now that she's settled with you.
  The main thing is though try not to worry too much; she's only two and will take a while yet to fully mature body wise, so as long as you are offering her a good diet and she's fully fit in every other way you don't have much to worry about (even though you will )
  Fleago
• There's actually a thread running in this site - questions and answers about starting a forum for pets. It started with "Can we have one?" and seems to have evolved into a discussion about pets and their care etc...
  So you might find some good advice there too.
  Otherwise, here in Old Style seems to be the place where pet related questions come to rest. We have a thread that moved into home made recipes for kibble that might be of help to you - so if I can find it again I'll post a pointer to it.
  Edit: To see the thread just ---> Click Here
• Not so much for fattening dogs up but for a treat which they absolutely love make up some liver bread for them:
  You need 1lb raw sliced liver, 2 cups of flour, & 1/2 tsp garlic powder.
  Mix the liver on high in a blender until it is frothy & pour into a bowl. Add two cups of flour and the garlic powder and mix well. Pour in to a greased pan and bake at 350degrees for 25 mins.
• You might want to consider bones and raw food (BARF) - chicken wings are ideal for this. There are pros & cons and BARF has its supporters and opposers. My dog loves BARF.
  And before it's mentioned, raw chicken bones are NOT dangerous. It's the cooked ones that splinter and can cause problems.
  A UK BARF site here - Google for more.
• [/QUOTE]You might want to consider bones and raw food (BARF) - chicken wings are ideal for this. There are pros & cons and BARF has its supporters and opposers. My dog loves BARF.
  And before it's mentioned, raw chicken bones are NOT dangerous. It's the cooked ones that splinter and can cause problems.
  [QUOTE]
  and it keeps their teeth lovely and white and clean
• have you read the book - give your dog a bone !!
  Scarey.
  Karen
• I bought a roasted marrowbone tonight, that seems to ahve gone down well, except I have about a gallon of saliva all over the kitchen floor.
  Still the dog's wierd. I opened a nice can of prime meaty chunks and mixer, but she preferred the pizza crusts leftover!
• Have you wormed your dog? How about mixing up some gravy and pouring that over his/her food?
• Another thought N9eave Have you a nice, friendly local butcher? If you do, butter them up for "dog scraps" and fresh marrow bones. Our butcher gives us fantastic scraps, lovely ends of the roast beef and pork that they sell sliced etc. In fact, they look too good for the dogs
  Fleago