Are there Simple Additions to Food to add fat/weight gain?

[Woofie]

I'm having the same issue with my young girl - her backbone is literally quite visible. She eats like a horse, however.

Can't give her too much peanut butter - makes her too hyper.

She eats raw/homecooked; so I've been adding in more fattier fish meals and leaving a little more fat on the beef heart when she eats that. She's already getting some carb's; I don't want to overload on those either, don't feel they give her the same fullness.

[DuryLane]

How about some hard cheese such as cheddar, etc? I know that I have to watch the amount of hard cheese I feed to my dog or she will pile on the pounds. You can always give some a try...

[bett]

there are those raw feeders who say never to mix raw with cooked, or kibble.
i have and do.
jake, my nearly 12 yr old is on very good kibble, if there is such a thing, and gets a raw egg every morning, shell and all. a scoop of non fat greek yogurt at night instead of the egg. and organic pumpkin both meals.
eli is a raw fed boy so….
and vangie is a pita so i'm still figuring out how to deal with her high eosinophil count and food. she' s getting a equality novel kibble, and i switch every month.
jake will sometimes get a chicken neck too.with the kibble.

[Tanya]

She gets quite a bit of cheese as treats. It's one of our main "high value treats" (we are doing tons of training lately - or at least we SHOULD be haha).

Tripe CHUBS? haha havent' heard of that, I generally use Trippett, but will look.

Yes her food is grain free. I had thought of the grain thing as I had a previous foster that coudl not put on weight and I tried tons of foods - I was thinking he probably needed grains. I am pretty sure his adopters have him on a grain inclusive food (didn't ask) and he has finally put on some weight with them (they have had him a year and a half now).

Thanks guys. I will consider and possibly try starchse (sweet potatoe). But when they are in teh house I tend to over eat them hahahaha. But I'm getting better

Ultimately I had initially wanted Penny on raw but don't want one dog on raw and one on kibble for simplicity sake - and not sure about putting Rocky on raw (we hadn dabbled in it awhile back, then he had some potential healht issues so we looked for a special kibble, but now it seems there is no healht issues but still not sure). I may look at dehydrated. but right now I'd rather not start the food roller coaster if I can help her in other ways.

[Sue]

Tanya, I'm surprised no one has mentioned satin balls as a supplement for weight gain. You might want to try that as something that will put some weight on her. I'm not sure about the availability of one of the ingredients in Ontario (Total cereal) but there may be a substitute cereal you can use.

Original recipe from the Instructables site ( Put weight on your dog with "satin balls" ). Mixing directions are at the link.

10 pounds hamburger meat (the cheapest kind)
1 lg. box of Total cereal
1 lg. box oatmeal
1 jar of wheat germ
1 1/4 cup veg oil
1 1/4 cup of unsulphured molasses
10 raw eggs AND shells
10 envelopes of unflavored gelatin
pinch of salt

However, if you just want to try them out or have a small dog, I recipe this scaled down version (1/10th or the original).

1 pound cheap hamburger (for high fat %)
1 1/3 cups Total cereal
1 1/2 cups uncooked oatmeal
1 raw egg
6 tablespoons wheat germ
1 package Knox unflavored gelatin
2 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons unsulphured molasses
Pinch of salt

The only thing I suggest you change is the oil; vegetable oil has no health benefit, so substitute it with an oil that does (like flax seed oil which is high in healthy omega 3s).

[Snowshoe]

Here's an idea from our new Holistic Vet. She says saliva production aids in digestion. The more anticipation, the more delay before the meal is actually delivered to the dog, the more saliva is produced (we call it drool) the more benefit the dog gets out of a meal. At the same time drool is being produced the stomach digestive enzymes are being produced in greater numbers in preparation for digestion. I'm not sure if this is her idea or an idea or if it's fact. But maybe a big stir up with lots of lip smacking, yummy, yummy sounds and a delay between mixing and setting down the dish would help? I have a feeling this is not the sort of thing you see immediate results from.

ETA: An article to lend credence: Food and Our Digestive Tract

[Tanya]

haha well Rocky must digest very well with all his drooling Penny is not much of a drooler but is VERY VERY anxious for supper these days, she never begged like this until recently.

Thank you for the info on satin balls. I would be afraid she puts on too much weight haha. I just want to make sure she has enough fuel to be healthy and active