Dutch Shepherd Forum

Hey guys. I just adopted a a Dutchie that had been pulled from the pound and is uber skinny. He needs to put on at least 10 pounds to just be lean!

He's been to the vet and consensus is that he just needs time and groceries.

He's getting a high protein grain free kibble and I just mixed up a batch of modified satin balls with 73/27 ground beef, flax meal, oil, beef gelatin, pumpkin, and whole raw eggs. I'm adding that as a third meal and I'll be upping the kibble a bit too. I'll be making the switch to raw but I don't want to change everything at once. I'll start adding some chunks of whole chicken as treats in a week or so.

We are walking twice a day for a total of 3 miles and he has supervised play with my Mal mix when I'm home.

Any tips or tricks to share for putting the weight on quickly but healthily?

He's 26" at the shoulder. I'll swing by the vet and get a current weight this weekend.

Oh, and his coat is blech!

So glad he's found a caring home.

As for the coat, my adopted guy had course hair, though not a bad coat. I started dosing him with coconut oil and salmon oil. His coat became super shiny and surprisingly soft. You probably know the benefits of salmon oil; coconut oil is the anti-everything oil (bacterial, fungal, etc.)

I can't advise one way or the other when to introduce these into his diet; just recommending them at some point.

Ground flax seed should offer some help with his coat as well, keeping in mind, however, that it's a grain.

Members on the board who are well-versed in nutrition will chime in, I'm sure.

Thanks Raven. I used coconut oil in the satin balls recipe and the flax meal instead of wheat germ.

The good thing is he's totally not picky! He inhales anything I give him.

NewlyDutched wrote:I'll be making the switch to raw but I don't want to change everything at once.

Do you feed raw to your other dog now? The only reason I ask is because I've never had an issue moving a dog to raw from kibble when pulled from a shelter situation.

Which kibble are you feeding now? How much are you giving each time?

When trying to put weight on an emaciated dog, I would suggest feeding smaller meals at least 3 times per day, but I would add a 4th so that his system doesn't get overwhelmed. Without going into too much detail, starvation does horrible things to the system and organs. Too much food too fast can go wrong and at the very least you can end up with diarrhea. I wouldn't expect (or even shoot for) more than adding 2 pounds per week.

If you are going to stick with kibble instead of raw, you might want to add canned in for one meal. A quality canned food is higher in meat protein than kibble, is higher in natural fats than kibble, lower in carbohydrates than kibble, is more filling, and typically has fewer chemical additives. For canned foods, I would recommend Merrick, Canine Caviar, Tiki Dog, Wellness Core, Lotus Dog.

Whatever you feed (kibble, raw, canned), I would add a probiotic to help the flora in his gut and digestion. You can either buy a probiotic (I like Mercola's pet probiotic) or you can use an organic yogurt (I prefer goat's milk yogurt because it's easier to digest). If it were me, I would also make some bone broth. Bone broth is very nutrient dense and I've never met a dog who didn't love it. I also like using colostrum with sick, emaciated, or otherwise immuno-compromised dogs. You can mix it in with the yogurt. I would also start him on fish oil & vitamin e.

Be careful about too much coconut oil at this stage. Coconut oil has lauric acid in it and it can cause diarrhea in sensitive tummies.

Right now he's getting 2 cups of kibble twice a day and about 3/4 pound of the satin balls as a 3rd meal. He was getting 3 cups of kibble a day total when I got him and as it has only been 2 days I don't want to overdo it.

He's also getting snacks. I fill a dispenser toy with about another cup of the kibble for him to play with while I'm away. Tonight I froze a bowl of water with a hamburger patty in the middle for tomorrow's away time.

His poops have been good. Soft but no diarrhea.

He was at a foster and they were feeding First Mate. They sent me with a few days worth of kibble and I intend to transition to raw as I was planning to do so with Mal mix at the end of my bag of Taste of the Wild. I'll just switch a bit sooner.

I'll definitely add the probiotic and fish oil.

i agree with Stacy --- don't aim for rapid weight gain - aim for quality nutrition, since all his body parts need fundamental building blocks to work with for re-building. feeding a lot of kibble too fast will do more harm than good.
canned food is definitely a good idea. merrick's ''working dog stew'' would be very valuable for getting him
a variety of organ meats that offer a variety of nutrients he sorely needs. their turducken is also a good choice, but the working dog stew should be part of the diet.

For the can food, look at the ingredient, many have Carageean. Dont buy any that have that, its usually near the end. Like the others said, dont rush the weight, it will come. Sadie was super thin too when I got her and it was a slow process, but she is lean built anyway. Switching right to raw should not bother them. I switched to raw and they were fine.

I started the coconut oil slow, then built up, it made a huge difference. You can also add Honey.

We have had great success putting weight on and keeping it on feeding Taste of The Wild Bison and Venison,
a brick we get from an organic beef rancher at the farmers market composed of raw Heart, Lungs, Liver, Trachea and Stomachs. In addition we use Missing Link Ultimate Coat or Hip and Joint, Salmon Oil, Egg and handfuls of blueberries. We tend to like others have mentioned put weight on over time and weigh dogs weekly to chart their progress.

You need fat in the diet or these dogs will keep eating massive amounts and never gain weight. Elli is up 13lbs now since when I got her at 2 years old. I keep the fat high and am feeding half of what I fed when I fed the average amount. If you're going raw, pork is an easy ones to add fat with.

I don't know enough to give advice on feeding but I'd like to say that is a good looking dog. Even despite the skinniness he is very handsome. I love the first pic. He looks so attentive. I'm glad he found a good home.

Thanks for the help. I grabbed some more meat today, chicken leg quarters, some whole yogurt, and since blueberries were on sale a big tub of those.

I need to source some meat variety this weekend, particularly some organ meat.

I ordered some salmon oil online. My other big fat sources are high fat ground beef, flax, and coconut oil.

I'm throwing a handful of blueberries into each meal and blending pumpkin in with the beef mix. He also like bananas.

Thanks Karenz, I think he's gorgeous an can't wait to see him filled out and shiny!

Merrick cans have Carrageen in them, please dont feed that. I use cans to help Sadie keep weight on too but there are good brands that dont have this in it.

“Although derived from a natural source, carrageenan appears to be particularly destructive to the digestive system, triggering an immune response similar to that your body has when invaded by pathogens like Salmonella. The result: “Carrageenan predictably causes inflammation, which can lead to ulcerations and bleeding,” explains veteran carrageenan researcher Joanne Tobacman, MD, associate professor of clinical medicine at the University of Illinois School of Medicine at Chicago. She says the food ingredient irritates by activating an immune response that dials up inflammation. Her previous work showed a concerning connection between carrageenan and gastrointestinal cancer in lab animals, and she’s involved with ongoing research funded through the National Institutes of Health that is investigating carrageenan’s effect on ulcerative colitis and other diseases like diabetes.

The concern over food-grade carrageenan isn’t new. Beginning in the 1960s, researchers started linking the ingredient to gastrointestinal disease in lab animals, including ulcerative colitis, intestinal lesions, and colon cancer.”

Today's hunt was fruitful. Brought home 10 pounds of pork to freeze (scored at .99/lb) and some marrow bones. Found a good chicken source so I think I'm set for a few weeks. It's been under a week but I swear I already see some gain!

YEAH!

Stopped in the park and snapped a couple of pics on the way back from the walk to the feed store for treats and toys (go figure, he chose a tug). He's really skittish about traffic but otherwise a joy to walk.

Looking good!

So, while playing a game of freezer Tetris to make space for raw feeding I realized I have about 10 pounds of frozen local steelhead and some salmon bellies I brought home from Alaska a year ago. Can I feed these whole as part of the diet if he'll eat them? The salmon has no bones but the steelhead is both in fillets and smaller whole fish.

Don't feed the salmon until others step in here. Some say it shouldn't be given unless it was frozen at a certain temperature (lower than your typical home freezer).

Love the tiger tongue in the last photos.

Here is an idea. Smoke it over apple wood, with a little maple syrup and brown sugar and you have Indian Candy. Enjoy eating it with your boy, make him work for piece, every time giving you just a little more. Those bellies should be outstanding.

There are flukes present in some fish, including both salmon and steelhead, that are fatal to dogs. The FDA has guidelines for ensuring the flukes are killed: commercial freezing at -31F (-35C) for 15 hours OR you can freeze at -4F (-20C) for 7 days. If your freezer doesn't get that cold, is 1 year long enough at the temp it gets? I have no idea. If you cook 'em, I'd ensure there are no bones.