# basset hound mixed with lab rescue, need weight gain.



## metal-otaku (Nov 14, 2012)

when i first brought my dog home, you could see ribs and spine. we has given 4 cups of beniful regular adult. a day. 2 cups in the morning 2 in the evening. though he'd wait patiently for his food and bowl. once it was down and you moved back he'd scarf it completely down. after about 2.5 weeks he seemed to figure out we were going to feed him regularly. and stopped scarfing his food. he ate just till he was full. depending on how much exercise he did. that'd be a half cup to all of it. mostly though about a total of 3 cups is averaged a day. 

my concern is we are probably let our boy have a lot of activity and exercise. and because he's not eating all 4 cups, hasn't put on as much weight as i'd like. i can still feel spine and ribs, easily. and if he's in certain positions, standing you can still see a bit of spine, and laying down so his baggy basset skin is towards his back you can still kind of see ribs. 

he is considerably better since we brought him home. putting on 7lbs. but i feel we still have a way to go. we tried switching to puppy beniful for higher calories. however, this wasn't something we could sustain, as it caused me to vomit (from smell) when i got his meals. can anyone recommend another way to get more calories into him with the same amount of food consumption? 

on another note i guess to add his treats. he gets anywhere from 6-20 small fruit treats, they say they contain 6 calories each a day. he also gets maybe 5 small lamb and rice treats in a week. 

he dislikes bacon and liver flavors. so much as he removes them when put in his food dish. and our dog can not have peanut butter as i'm allergic, and if he licks me after eating it, or things containing it or potatos (greenies) it's a very bad deal with eyes swelling shut. but any other suggestions i would appreciate.


----------



## ChaosIsAWeim (Feb 12, 2011)

I would switch him to a better food first and see if that helps. Either grain free or grain inclusive would be better than what you are feeding. If you have a tractor supply store near you, their brand is a grain inclusive, 4 Health is the name, it is pretty decent for the price. DogFoodAdvisor is a good tool, look for brands that are 4-5 stars.


----------



## Amaryllis (Dec 28, 2011)

I agree with Chaos. A good grain free, high protein food would probably help. 

How long have you had him? My vet advised me to put weight on Kabota slowly, though of course, your case may be different. You can try satin balls, they're sovereign for weight gain.

Can we have a picture of him? Two, actually, one from the top while standing and one from the side while standing. If we could see his condition, it would help.


----------



## metal-otaku (Nov 14, 2012)

we've had him 2 almost 3 months. he went to the vet the day after we got him. as i wanted to have his condition checked, and to check his shots. as he had been adopted shortly before us and returned in less than a month. and had gotten some shots in that time.

but the vet is the one who said to give him the 4 cups of beniful to get his weight up. but he's not eating all 4 cups anymore. hence my worries. 

i was under the impression that beniful was a good brand of dog food, was this incorrect?


----------



## zhaor (Jul 2, 2009)

metal-otaku said:


> i was under the impression that beniful was a good brand of dog food, was this incorrect?


Beneful dry food is one of the lower end dogs foods out there. There are worse food but not much worse.



metal-otaku said:


> he dislikes bacon and liver flavors. so much as he removes them when put in his food dish.


I'm a bit confused about this statement. Did you actually add bacon and liver to his food?


----------



## jbuck92 (Sep 28, 2011)

My Aussie rescue was in a similar situation when I got him. He's 23 inches tall and weighed just 43 lbs. All ribs, spine and hip bones were showing. I fed him Innova Puppy for about 2.5-3 weeks, 4 cups a day. I slowly switched him over to Wellness Core (grain free) and have been giving him 3.5 cups a day of that for the last 3.5 weeks now. He's up to 52 lbs. None of his ribs or spine shows, and just 2 small bumps where his hip bones are. 

If he isn't eating all 4 cups of the Beneful, he may have gotten tired of that particular food. Try switching to something else that is a bit higher quality of dog food. Wellness, Wellness Core (grain free), Innova, and Innova Evo (grain free) have done really well for any dog that I have had growing up, however your mileage may vary! I'm going to be switching Drake over to Wellness Core Ocean once we finish this big bag up now to give him a change in flavor. Taste of the Wild, Blue Buffalo and Blue Wilderness are also foods that a lot of dog owners like to feed, but I don't have any experience with them myself. DogFoodAdvisor rates them highly though.

Other things you can try to help him gain weight stuffing a Kong toy with different things throughout the day. Before you give him the Kong, wash it really well with soap and water to get rid of any rubber smell. I soaked mine in chicken broth for an hour or so. Things you can stuff it with include:

1. Plug the small hole at the top, fill with kibble and then fill with water. Line the big hole with peanut butter or plain yogurt and freeze.
2. Soak kibble in chicken broth, beef broth, etc. and fill, then once again plug the big hole with peanut butter or plain yogurt and freeze.
3. Anything else yummy you can think of!

It gives him a chance to play and figure out how to get the food out, and will also let him get some calories in. If you're trying to get some weight on him, I wouldn't count calories right now. If he's hungry, feed him. If he won't eat his kibble right away, give him a different treat that you know he will eat. Now, of course, once he's up to a proper weight and isn't eating his kibble while waiting for that tasty treat, tough luck! Make him wait it out.


----------



## metal-otaku (Nov 14, 2012)

zhaor said:


> I'm a bit confused about this statement. Did you actually add bacon and liver to his food?


 no we put beggin strips and pig skins stuffed with liver filling. he pulls them out and leaves them on the floor next to his bowl and won't eat them. same with real bacon



jbuck92 said:


> 1. Plug the small hole at the top, fill with kibble and then fill with water. Line the big hole with peanut butter or plain yogurt and freeze.
> 2. Soak kibble in chicken broth, beef broth, etc. and fill, then once again plug the big hole with peanut butter or plain yogurt and freeze.
> 3. Anything else yummy you can think of!
> 
> It gives him a chance to play and figure out how to get the food out, and will also let him get some calories in. If you're trying to get some weight on him, I wouldn't count calories right now. If he's hungry, feed him. If he won't eat his kibble right away, give him a different treat that you know he will eat. Now, of course, once he's up to a proper weight and isn't eating his kibble while waiting for that tasty treat, tough luck! Make him wait it out.


a couple of things we do give him food all day. i free feed him. but i still measure it out. and we can't give him anything with peanut butter since i'm allergic. i stuff his kongs with the fruit treats, and the lamb ones. is there something else high calories, besides pb, that he can have? my s.o. seemed to think cheese was a bad idea that he might get stuffed up. he also once a week gets small ice cubes of apple juice. like less than a shot glass of apple juice. might be less than half a shot glass.


----------



## marsha=whitie (Dec 29, 2008)

metal-otaku said:


> a couple of things we do give him food all day. i free feed him. but i still measure it out. and we can't give him anything with peanut butter since i'm allergic. i stuff his kongs with the fruit treats, and the lamb ones. is there something else high calories, besides pb, that he can have? my s.o. seemed to think cheese was a bad idea that he might get stuffed up. he also once a week gets small ice cubes of apple juice. like less than a shot glass of apple juice. might be less than half a shot glass.


Seriously, look into getting him on a better food. You're pretty much feeding him candy every day (Beneful is full of sugars and corn, things that dogs really shouldn't have.) You don't need to give him treats as food, or cheese, or apple juice. 

Look into what was already suggested. OR, go to the pet store and look at each bag and compare their calorie levels. I did this with canned once when my dog refused to eat kibble, and found that Authority CANNED puppy food (found at Petsmart) had the most calories/can. 

Find a better kibble (one with a high calorie content), and maybe look in to adding some canned as well. There is NO NEED to add human food, or cheap dog treats, to your dogs food.


----------



## hamandeggs (Aug 11, 2011)

Yeah, if your vet's plan for weight gain is just "feed him a ton of Beneful," I would almost say to consider finding a new vet. Beneful is really not good food. It's like fattening up on Cheetos and McNuggets. Sure, you'll gain weight, but not the healthy way. 4Health, and Kirkland are good, reasonably priced options. The grain-free foods are more expensive than those, but they also have a lot more calories. Taste of the Wild and Nature's Domain are good options if you want to go that route. Dogs generally think grain-free food is pretty tasty as well. 

If you can't give your dog peanut butter, there are tons of other nut butters, including sunflower and soy nut, which don't have peanuts or tree nuts at all. But before you start messing with any of that stuff, I would get your dog on a MUCH better food than Beneful.


----------



## Amaryllis (Dec 28, 2011)

Beneful is about the worst thing out there. So are beggin strips. 

Wellness Core, Wellness, Taste of the Wild, Blue Wilderness, Acana are all great foods available at pet stores. If you sign up at Wellness' website, they send you coupons every so often. If you absolutely must buy dog food at walmart, Ol' Roy just came out with a line of food that is much, much better than their other horrible crap. It's called Ol Roy Healthy Mix.

If you're going to buy treats at the grocery store or walmart, look for Milkbone Naturals. You'll have a lot more options for good, healthy treats at the pet store, but it is more convenient to pick up a box at walmart.

If you want to put something on the food to add flavor and calories, use no more than a teaspoon of olive oil. Olive oil has good, healthy fats and most dogs really like it.


----------



## Willowy (Dec 10, 2007)

Amaryllis said:


> If you absolutely must buy dog food at walmart, Ol' Roy just came out with a line of food that is much, much better than their other horrible crap. It's called Ol Roy Healthy Mix.


Maybe you're thinking of Pure Balance? Healthy Mix dry food (the wet stuff looks good, though) appears to be Walmart's version of Beneful :/. I can't find an ingredient list but it is brightly dyed with pretty pictures of corn on the bag. I'll take a look at the ingredients next time I'm there. 

Ol' Roy Pure Balance is halfway decent. No added sugar or coloring, anyway! And it has meat as the frist ingredient.

OP, Beneful is VERY high in sugar. Look at the ingredient list; you want to see meat as the first ingredient, Beneful doesn't have that. See the added sugar? Bad news. Dogs definitely should not be eating sugar every day. See the artificial colors? Nasty stuff--in fact, artificial food coloring is illegal in Europe. People only think Beneful is healthy because they have ad execs who are really good at their jobs.


----------



## metal-otaku (Nov 14, 2012)

his dog food is from sam's club. but all the treats are from the pet stores. as all the walmart ones all have stuff in it that makes me ill. and i'm allergic to all nuts. so no hazelnut or other spread can he have. his fave thing is fruit. and the only fruit snacks for dogs i've found are all organic labeled. so i don't think they are cheap or bad. they are actually really pricey i think. they only come in small bags and the pieces are the size of a nickle. not much bigger than a piece of kibble.

and the snacks added to his food aren't to flavor his food or to eat more food. it's to keep it off my floor. when we first got them we'd give it to him and he'd put it on the floor. my brothers dog would hide his treats, so we weren't sure if he knew they were to be eaten. putting it in his bowl i thought would show hey it's food, and it not bit a icky wet mess on my floor.

and wet canned food isn't an option as it also makes me sick. (weak stomache with smells. canned tuna also does this.)

my brother uses blue bufflo but his dog won't hardly eat. at my house he scarfed down my dogs beniful and my dog ate his food. even after i mixed their bowls together. (they share out of water and food dish just fine, but fight over toys, and affection.) would it be a good idea then to maybe swap food with my brother for a while to see if his will eat better on the sugary stuff? he only eats ok over here. he's not gaining weight either, but he also doesn't eat hardly anything but treats except over here. (he doesn't have them stashed as much here. also thinking since you say it's high sugar that's why he likes it better?) and then us both go to the blue bufflo? his dog is 9mon though to add i guess. (poor eating habits might be age.) he eats if they are lucky a cup, cup and a half a day. exceptions are at my place or after my dog leaves his place, or after the dog park.


----------



## gingerkid (Jul 11, 2012)

Sam's Club is owned by Walmart. I wouldn't worry about buying treats if he loves fruit. If you really feel that he needs something special, a berry or two, a little piece of banana or melon will go a long way. To be honest, you don't need treats much bigger than kibble unless they're for something REALLY special, like after getting his nails clipped, etc. If his favorite thing is fruit, and you really feel you need to give him treats, many dogs go crazy for berries, and banana would work great for plugging the top of a kong. You don't need much - one berry (or half, if they're good-sized strawberries), an inch or so a banana at a time, and you can fold the peel back over and save the rest for later (but it only lasts 1-2 days once open, and it will turn brown but this is from exposure to air - it should still be safe to eat, even for people).


----------



## Willowy (Dec 10, 2007)

If you're stuck with Sam's Club, Exceed chicken flavor isn't half bad. They changed the formula so it's not as good as it used to be but it's still not terrible. No food dyes, no added sugar, and at least doesn't have corn as the first ingredient. Even Iams or Purina ONE would be better than Beneful. Heck, regular Dog Chow would be better than Beneful. Sugar is just not good for dogs.

Yes, dogs like sugary food better than healthy food, just like kids prefer candy to vegetables. But it would be much healthier for him to find something more nutritious.


----------



## zhaor (Jul 2, 2009)

Is there financial limitations limiting the food to Sam's Club food only? I don't know if I missed that in one of the posts somewhere. A lot of the dog treats are even worse than the food in terms of additives and preservatives. I would really just not bother with any store bought treats. I'm guessing the fruit treats are fruitables? They aren't particularly great either and probably not worth the money. They're essentially just fruit cookies and also contains sugar.

Anyways in all these suggestions for food, I've kind of lost what the actual question is. "Higher calories for the same amount of food" would just mean getting a food that's higher calories.

If you want to add things to get him to eat, canned food would be the general suggestion. I don't particularly think they smell bad especially compared to canned fish for people but if you really can't stand canned food, maybe try something like no salt added cottage cheese? Adding water and heat the the kibble can also help it smell more appetizing to encourage eating. You could actually boil some chicken broth to use instead of water for a bit more flavor and fat. You can then also strip off the chicken meat and save them to use as treats.

Fish oil is a good supplement and since it is still a fat it does add some calories as well but not too much. Olive oil and coconut oil are also relatively healthy fats you can add in limited amounts.


----------



## metal-otaku (Nov 14, 2012)

gingerkid said:


> Sam's Club is owned by Walmart. I wouldn't worry about buying treats if he loves fruit. If you really feel that he needs something special, a berry or two, a little piece of banana or melon will go a long way. To be honest, you don't need treats much bigger than kibble unless they're for something REALLY special, like after getting his nails clipped, etc. If his favorite thing is fruit, and you really feel you need to give him treats, many dogs go crazy for berries, and banana would work great for plugging the top of a kong. You don't need much - one berry (or half, if they're good-sized strawberries), an inch or so a banana at a time, and you can fold the peel back over and save the rest for later (but it only lasts 1-2 days once open, and it will turn brown but this is from exposure to air - it should still be safe to eat, even for people).


 see my s.o. seems to think real fruit will give him the poops. though real fruit is in the treats. i can actually see it. but if so that actually makes things much easier. we also have turtles, who get fresh fruit and veggies, and the fish get treats in the way of fresh veggies and fruit. so there is plenty of that around here. 

i thought purina made the beniful brand too. is there a reason why one by them is ok and the other is bad?

i don't want him to eat till his sick. eating till he's full like now is ok. i'm just worried cause he's still under weight. sam's was the only place we could find when we first got him that had large bags of what my s.o. picked out or large bags of any dog foods, when we first brought him home. he'd eat alot, and go through 20lbs in 5 days. so the 42lb bag didn't even last 2 weeks. with our small house keeping several med bags around isn't feasible but getting gas for all the trips of smaller bag weights wasn't either. he eats less now. so i can switch to foods now that come in smaller bags. because they last longer.

and the vet asked what we were feeding the dog. and i told her, then she recommended the amount. she asked who and why that food was picked. i said my s.o. picked it cause it's what his family had fed their dogs. however on his own he had a smaller dog and he was fed george micheals but that only comes in small bags and is super pricey for the amount our dog eats.

also no it's not fruitables. i just seen those today online. these are nutra something (we keep them in a plastic lidded bowl and i toss the bags so not sure on the exact name)


----------



## Willowy (Dec 10, 2007)

If you're trying to put weight on a dog, i definitely recommend the Maker's Mark Exceed chicken flavor (might be called Performance formula?). It's very high in calories.

Purina makes, literally, hundreds of different kinds of pet foods. The quality varies wildly.


----------



## gingerkid (Jul 11, 2012)

metal-otaku said:


> see my s.o. seems to think real fruit will give him the poops. though real fruit is in the treats. i can actually see it. but if so that actually makes things much easier. we also have turtles, who get fresh fruit and veggies, and the fish get treats in the way of fresh veggies and fruit. so there is plenty of that around here.


Real fruit might give him the runs if you give him _too much_ - a couple berries a day, especially spread out over the day should be fine for a dog the size of yours (I'm assuming as a basset/lab cross his ideal weight would be ~50-60lbs?). If you're concerned about soft stool, just try giving him a tiny bit (one berry, a small slice of banana) and wait 24 hours to see if he gets a soft stool. Alternatively, my dog doesn't really like fruit (the only fruits he'll eat are melon, and even then its kind of begrudgingly), but he loves sweet potato so we've started cutting up or slicing sweet potato and baking it at a low temp (250F) until it gets crunchy. He loves it and its easy - sweet potatoes are cheap and a large one will last us over a week (we use his new kibble for training as well). Anyway, real fruit as treats probably won't really help him put on weight. However, using hot dogs or boiled chicken might.

Are these the treats you got? Just wanted to say, they look pretty good.

Dogs don't really _need_ treats, just like people don't really _need_ cake. They're not something that should be given all the time, with the exception of training. Even then, treats for training should be tiny (size of the nail on your pinky finger or smaller) and most dogs benefit most from short (e.g. 10 minute) training sessions. Little pieces of hot dog or cheese (if he can handle it) work even better for most dogs than store-bought treats. If you find a kibble he loves, you can use kibbles for training instead of store-bought treats.

I know picking a dog food can be totally overwhelming if its not something you've ever looked into before. Dog Food Advisor is a really great tool. The only downside is I wish their site had a cost category (like restaurant review websites?). Since you want a more calorie dense food than you're currently feeding, this is a great list of the calorie content in 1 cup of different brands/varieties.

And as Amaryllis said, as long as he's not in any imminent danger of dying from malnutrition (which doesn't sound like the case), its better to put the weight on slowly, so it could be several months before his body condition looks properly healthy.


----------



## metal-otaku (Nov 14, 2012)

gingerkid said:


> Real fruit might give him the runs if you give him _too much_ - a couple berries a day, especially spread out over the day should be fine for a dog the size of yours (I'm assuming as a basset/lab cross his ideal weight would be ~50-60lbs?). If you're concerned about soft stool, just try giving him a tiny bit (one berry, a small slice of banana) and wait 24 hours to see if he gets a soft stool. Alternatively, my dog doesn't really like fruit (the only fruits he'll eat are melon, and even then its kind of begrudgingly), but he loves sweet potato so we've started cutting up or slicing sweet potato and baking it at a low temp (250F) until it gets crunchy. He loves it and its easy - sweet potatoes are cheap and a large one will last us over a week (we use his new kibble for training as well). Anyway, real fruit as treats probably won't really help him put on weight. However, using hot dogs or boiled chicken might.
> 
> Are these the treats you got? Just wanted to say, they look pretty good.
> 
> ...


 yes those are the treats. 

and he went to the vet yesterday, he had some issues after being left at my brothers house. he got lots of blue buffalo. stole leons food. and toys. and lost a good portion of fur due to separation stress. sadly it only took 24 hours. and we were gone for 5 days. but he now has baths and med treats to fix it.

and he has put on 12lbs in 2months. he's now at 52lbs! a few more pounds and he'll be good. 3lbs-5lbs. 

he's a bit stubborn so the treats are some times bribes. and for in the kennel all day by himself. (stuff the kong) he was mostly trained when we got him. he knows sit, off/down, he answers to his name, and he knows get your butt over here. and sorta let go/drop it. listening to those things all the time is iffy. depends on if he feels like it. so bribes help.

though since he's been back home he's been listening to everything we ask of him. except walking good we are still working on that.


----------



## gingerkid (Jul 11, 2012)

Good to hear he's doing better.  Those last few pounds will come with time.


----------

