Too skinny!

[Devin and Indy]

My mini-goldendoodle Indy has always been slim (he definitely has the poodle body), but you can see his ribs and pelvis very clearly when he is wet. I asked the vet and she said he needs to gain weight. 

 

The problem is I cannot, for the life of me, get him to eat more! He is on the Honest Kitchen dehydrated food and I add in a Stella and Chewy's dehydrated patty. He'll eat around 350 kcal a day with no problem, but he needs to be eating at least 520!

 

I got him to eat a little more last week, but since then he has had diarrhea and pooped in his crate multiple times (I don't have access to a hose so this means cleaning it with paper towels, gross!). He also has been panting a lot and acting oddly.

 

It's been a struggle since day 1 to find food that he liked to eat and that didn't give him diarrhea so I'm really at a loss for what to try next. I picked up some Taste of the Wild to mix in the wet food, but I'm really nervous about adding it. 

 

Sorry for the novel, but has anyone else dealt with this successfully?

[Devin and Indy]

Yes, he was in for his yearly check-up/shots last Monday. I remember because I didn't know to bring a sample so they had to take one (which, understandably, he hates a lot)

[Sami Lee]

Was he clear?  also how old? Is he going thru that "teenage" awkwardness?

[Devin and Indy]

He was clear. He's about 16 months now and has always been skinny/underweight.

[Kaytlin and Cooper]

Cooper was like that when she was a puppy. She was on Raw, but we switched her to Orijen and she gained weight nicely. Now she has orijen 4 days a week and raw 3 days a week. Maybe you could feed puppy food? it has more calories and fat that adult food. All but 1 formula of Taste of the Wild is pretty low protein so id stay away from those til he has gained the weight he needs to. Have you tried Orijen or Acana? they are high protein nutrient dense, and there are several formulas so you can rotate the proteins to help keep Indys interest.

[Devin and Indy]

I just ordered some Orijen. You are totally right and I feel silly for not looking before, but the Taste of the Wild (especially the one I got) is REALLY low on protein. The Orijen will double the amount of protein he gets!

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

TOTW is a good quality grain-free food that is on the recommended list.

A high calorie grain-free food is EVO.  The only problem is that is was bought out by Proctor and Gamble who historically ruin the high quality foods they buy.  You could check with Karen in the food group to see if she knows if EVO has had a formula change or not.  When my dogs were on it, we had to watch their weight for gain.  Their poop was perfect from the four dogs.

[Kaytlin and Cooper]

Also looks for Natural balance chubbs -  I sometimes add some of the grain free one to Coopers food to help give her more energy when we go hiking or when we add apple cider vinegar to her food to help with her icky eye crusties

http://www.naturalbalanceinc.com/dogformulas/DFRolls.html

for some reason they dont have the duck one on there, its grain free

 

edit - here we go http://www.naturalbalanceinc.com/dogformulas/DandP_Treatroll.html

[Lisa, Daisy & Dexter]

It's funny you should mention that when you tried feeding more he got diarrhea, that is what happened with Daisy. The Vet told me that if you over feed the poop starts out hard and gets soft at the end.

We did try the same food you are feeding Indy now (dehydrated) and it gave D bad bad diarrhea.

I think Indy just needs a higher caloric food. We feed Daisy Acana (grain free) now and use to feed her Orijen. We would have kept her on Orijen but it seemed to always be out of stock. She heats 2-2/3 cup a day (1/2 in the am and 1/2 in the pm). She rarely eats treats, when she does they are high value for training purposes (like baked chicken that I cook myself), though I now have treats on the counter for customers who want to treat her cause she is so cute they are fruitables. Daisy weighs 65#s, when we shaved her down we thought she was way too thin and that is when we tried to give her a little extra. 

If her poop gets a little sloppy we add a tablespoon full of can pumpkin.

Daisy is not food motivated but rather play motivated so she has to like her food. Acana has 3 different flavors, Pacifica (salmon) Prarie (chicken) and another that is lamb.

[Kaytlin and Cooper]

and new ranchlands - beef!

[Devin and Indy]

Thanks so much! It's nice to not feel like I'm the only one.

[Dot, Maggie and KoKo]

My Maggie is a skinny minny too.  She weighs in at twenty pounds and is not a big eater. I feed TOTW to both dogs, a cup in the morning mixed with a small amount of wet and another cup plain in the evening.  KoKo will eat anything that Maggie leaves behind.  Maggie is like Indy in that she has a totally poodle body and coat.  I know that she is getting enough to eat and is healthy and active so I think some of them are just slim and trim (wish I had that problem).  I did buy an awful lot of dog food before finding the right food for them.  TOTW has different flavors so that I can switch them around so they don't get bored with the same taste at every meal.