# Underweight Akita help...



## InStere0 (Mar 31, 2009)

Hi Everyone,

Almost 2 month ago Akira, my akita, showed up at my door out of the blue. He wondered around the neighborhood for about a week and nobody took him in and nobody claimed him or went out looking for him. He showed up at my door on valentines day and everyone in my family fell in love with him, specially me. He's a beatiful dog, very energetic, and just all around nice. I've taken him to the vet for check ups, shots, deworking...the works to make sure he's going to be ok. He seems fine, but everyone who sees him tells me that he is a bit underweight. You can sorta see his ribs, and his hip bones kinda stick out, and you can really feel his back bone when you pet him. Right now I'm feeding him this dog food called Sport mix high Protein. It has 27% protein in it. I've gotten some tips from the vet on how to get him to gain some weight like feeding him some extra meat and rice and i've been doing that for a few weeks now but he doesn't seem to be improving. I would say he's about 80-85 lbs right now, I would like for him to be around 95-100 lbs, like most healthy akitas. Do you guys have any tips on how I could get him to gain that weight?

I should point out that as far as dog foods go there's not a whole lot of variety down here where i live (Guatemala City) before I started with Sport Mix I was feeding him pedigree, but the main ingredient in that was corn and at least Sport Mix has chicken meal as the first ingredient.


----------



## spotted nikes (Feb 7, 2008)

Can you get Taste of the Wild? I put a GSD Mix on it, that I hadn't been able to get to gain weight in 5 yrs, and now I am cutting back her food because she is getting fat!

How often are you feeding? Try feeding smaller meals more frequently.


----------



## InStere0 (Mar 31, 2009)

No, no Taste of The Wild down here. I read online that it was one of the best foods out there but no chance of getting it down here. We pretty much have access to most purina products, eukanuba, pedigree and some local crappy brands. I feed him twice everyday. He wont finish everything at once so I just leave food out for him all day.


----------



## spotted nikes (Feb 7, 2008)

Can you get "Eukanuba, Naturally Wild"?

http://www.eukanuba.com/EukGlobal/U....jsp?id=1051&gclid=CLqn5-G9zJkCFRIhnAodNwG8ug


----------



## InStere0 (Mar 31, 2009)

Lol...when I said there wasn't a lot of variety down here I really meant it. Can't get Naturally Wild, just plain Eukanuba Large Breed Formula. Eukanuba is also really expensive, it's over $100 for a 44lbs bag. Don't know how much it is in the States, but that's really expensive here.


----------



## spotted nikes (Feb 7, 2008)

Can you add some meat to his food, like Chicken or beef (no cooked bones)? How about baby food (like Gerber) in chicken/rice, turkey, etc?

Maybe consider feeding RAW?


----------



## poodleholic (Mar 15, 2007)

> =InStere0;512561 I feed him twice everyday. He wont finish everything at once so I just leave food out for him all day.


That may be the problem, or at least contributing to it. Maddy was like that, and SO skinny! I just couldn't get any weight on her, no matter what I did. UNTIL I put her on a feeding schedule. If she didn't eat it all, I took it away anyway, and reduced the amount I was giving her a little. That's really all it took. 

In the meantime, you could feed your dog Satin Balls. I also feed baked sweet potatoes, with just a tad of butter, and a dash of cinnamon (which is good for dogs). My dogs love them, even the skins!


----------



## Shaina (Oct 28, 2007)

If you really think it's the food quality (I have no idea what that food is lol), you could try a homecooked or raw diet...we have a (currently very busy and absent) member from Belize who went the homecooked route due to the poor selection locally and prohibitive importing cost.

I'd love to see pics of your dog though, if you have any...I have a soft spot for Akitas


----------



## InStere0 (Mar 31, 2009)

spotted nikes said:


> Can you add some meat to his food, like Chicken or beef (no cooked bones)? How about baby food (like Gerber) in chicken/rice, turkey, etc?
> 
> Maybe consider feeding RAW?


I've been adding meat to his food, mostly hamburger and organ meat (liver, kidneys, heart) and rice and sweet potatoes.

I thought about going raw, but it would kinda kill my budget and he'd probablly end up eating better than me.



poodleholic said:


> That may be the problem, or at least contributing to it. Maddy was like that, and SO skinny! I just couldn't get any weight on her, no matter what I did. UNTIL I put her on a feeding schedule. If she didn't eat it all, I took it away anyway, and reduced the amount I was giving her a little. That's really all it took.
> 
> In the meantime, you could feed your dog Satin Balls. I also feed baked sweet potatoes, with just a tad of butter, and a dash of cinnamon (which is good for dogs). My dogs love them, even the skins!


I tried doing this at first, but he really wasn't getting enough food. Maybe 3-4 cups through out the whole day.

I've read up on satin balls and I think it's worth a shot, but how much should I feed him if he likes them?



Shaina said:


> If you really think it's the food quality (I have no idea what that food is lol), you could try a homecooked or raw diet...we have a (currently very busy and absent) member from Belize who went the homecooked route due to the poor selection locally and prohibitive importing cost.
> 
> I'd love to see pics of your dog though, if you have any...I have a soft spot for Akitas


If I do go for a raw diet I would have to see where I could get all the food for a good price. One thing I'm not too sure about is how much to feed him if I try the raw diet. He's supposed to be getting about 6 1/2 cups of dog food everyday but I have no idea what that would be equal to in a raw diet.

I'll try to get pics ASAP so you guys can see him.


----------



## Mason (Sep 17, 2008)

I've heard vets recommend feeding puppy food to help gain weight. Perhaps you could talk it over with your vet.


----------



## InStere0 (Mar 31, 2009)

Mason said:


> I've heard vets recommend feeding puppy food to help gain weight. Perhaps you could talk it over with your vet.


I thought about it, I'll ask my vet and see what he thinks.


----------



## AkiraleShiba (Dec 9, 2007)

My shiba shares your Akita's name 

I've read many time that we often think that dogs are underweight while they're perfectly healthy. But if you need to make him gain weight I would probably give him cereals like bread or rice rather than meat.


----------



## InStere0 (Mar 31, 2009)

AkiraleShiba said:


> My shiba shares your Akita's name
> 
> I've read many time that we often think that dogs are underweight while they're perfectly healthy. But if you need to make him gain weight I would probably give him cereals like bread or rice rather than meat.


Well I didn't think he was underweight until my vet told me he was, and after other akita owners said it too. I don't want him to get fat or anything, I just want him to fill out with muscle. That's mainly the reason Ive been feeding him meat. 

I think I'm gonna start him on an exercise porgram, maybe some weight pulling or some other kind of resistance training to see if it does something for him.


----------



## AkiraleShiba (Dec 9, 2007)

If he cooperates 

Oh ok, we've had great results with Orijen but you might not be able to find it, Akira has become quite a muscle man  It's composed of 70% fish and 30% vegetables and herbs.


----------

