Thanks lol yes I plan on overtime up his food intake. I would hate for him to get diarrhea..
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OP, puppies grow quickly, so they can stand to be plush at this age. I don't believe in keeping puppies skinny anymore than I believe in putting infant children on diets. Pups can catch a bug fairly easily, because of their immature immune systems, so I'd prefer to err on the side of having a plump puppy vs. a skinny one. My now 8.5 month old was eating about 7 cups a day of fairly calorie heavy food at your puppy's age.
I agree with the others here...yes...your puppy is way too thin.
Are you feeding a "PUPPY formula to your puppy? If not, you should consider it because a puppy formula usually has more fat and calories than an adult formula.
I hope you can get some weight on him.
I'd guess my 6 month old is around 65 pounds.
I will say this. About two months ago he got horribly sick with a combo virus that's been going around here. It's a mix between canine influenza virus and kennel cough. He was in boiled rice and canned ID food for about a week. During a two week stretch of the illness he didn't lose any weight. However he had been gaining about 3 pounds a week. I really think that his stores helped sustain him when he was sick and I'm glad he had a little fluff to spare.
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You might consider a higher calorie food versus feeding the dog six or eight cups (which is a lot of food). Pro Plan Sport 30/20 is pretty high in calories and especially fat. I find it works too well and can't feed it to my adult dogs or else they pork out and I can't get a handle on it. I'm pretty sure you could feed it to farm animals when you're trying to plump them up before they are butchered (tongue in cheek -- but it does contain corn)!
Have you taken your pup to the vet to ensure that he is healthy and parasite free?
Welcome to the board.
If the additional food doesn't seem to put weight on him in a noticeable way fairly quickly, I'd go to the vet. As Labradorks mentioned, parasites could be at work here (no offense, the nasty critters can be picked up so easily). Hope he just needs more food. Comparing the earlier photo to the two more recent, I'd be prone to thinking that he just had a growth spurt that his food intake didn't take into consideration...but his coat looks a bit dryer/duller to me in the most recent ones, too, (could be just the lighting) and that could possibly be something else (could also be not enough food/protein especially).
[I had tried a new food with my two and shortly after Dan started looking a bit dull and actually had a few tiny flakes forming...I checked and the new food was a lower protein. I went back to mixing the foods and the dullness/flakes were gone in about a week. I won't be switching foods.]
Wasn't kidding at all. Seems many get hung up on the guidelines printed on bag. So everyone here that said "give him more food", left lousy advice huh?
I own a book on puppies; selecting, housing, feeding,socialising, etc. and he advises "feed puppy all he'll eat 3 times a day, pick up bowl after 15 minutes or so", this authors advice has shown to be accurate the many times I've used it.
No offense taken- yes we have been to the vets recently; and he's had a full checkup. He unfortunately broke his back leg, so we are getting over that, and doing some therapy work.
I think it was the lighting in the picture. It definitely was not the best, in person his coat is pretty shiny :)
I will look into the fat contents more tho; he may need more of a fatty foods because he is a very fast growing boy! He did just go through a growth spurt to. And I didn't even think of upping his food intake 🙈
I really hope just a bit of extra food will do the trick tho.
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I tend to keep my guys on the thinner side than many here, and even I think he is too thin in that first set of pictures. Where he looked a few weeks ago looked good to me, so I’m guessing growth spurt.
I’ve never had to feed a dog more than 4 cups a day though (and that was my big male - the girls topped out at 3), so I would suggest looking into a higher calorie food for him, at least for the next 6 months or so until his growth slows down - all I can think about 5-6 cups of food a day is how much poop will be generated!
Just be sure to continually check in on him as their growth will start slowing down by about 9-12 months and you don’t want to let him get too heavy at that point either - it’s not good for his joints.
Yeah there seems to be a fine line of where he needs to be.. I'm definitely looking into a decent higher caloried food for him for the next few months. Then hopefully will be able to switch him back to the food the other 2 are eating.. even with my German Shepherd I've had the opposite problem - and had to always watch out for them getting to heavy. But completly different dog breed here lol
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