How Can I fatten up a German Shorthair Pointer without giving him Human Food?

Question

About 3 months ago I rescued a German shorthair pointer who was supposedly 4 months old and weighed only 16 lbs. He is now approx. 7 months old and only weighs 25 lbs and my vet says he should weigh close to 40 by now. I feed him the amount it says to give him on the pedigree bag if not more.

Answer 1

i would see a vet to be sure.

Answer 2

Puppy food - I presume that the vet has ruled out things like worms or rickets and liver shunt?

Answer 3

Don't feed him pedigree, only feed him IAMS. Pedigree gives them diarhea, or at least it does to my Shorthair. Also, make sure you feed them twice a day. You can also give him some more than what the bags says. Buy him some treats, my Shorthair loves like the li'l jerky treat things.

Whatever you do; don't always keep food in front of it. I have a friend that did that with his when it was small liek yours, it's messed up now and needs food like 24/7.

Hope I helped.

Answer 4

give him puppy food?

Answer 5

First of all, please get him off Pedigree.  I don't care how much money they spend on advertising - they are one of the worst foods on the market.  Also stay away from Purina, IAMS/Eukenuba and any standard grocery brand, like Alpo, Kibbles n' Bits, Cesar, things like that.  You'll only put your dog in worse health.

Feeding fresh muscle and organ meats, fresh uncooked bones and a minimal amount of vegetation, like parboiled carrots, green beans or sweet potatoes will put your dog in the best health he could be.  A dog's digestive system is made to consume fresh meat and bones - feed him anything else, and he will not be in good health.

I'm not totally opposed to properly made dry foods - it's just that most brands, instead of using meat and meat byproducts, add all kinds of corn, corn byproducts, dyes, additives and chemicals and varying amounts of wheat sweepings and chaff.  A dog is not an herbivore; how is his body supposed to process a large amount of grains and vegetation?  They can't, and eventually, whether a few months or few years down the line, succumb to the inadequate diet.

It's just a matter of making an informed decision.  Visit the BARF diet website:  http://www.barfworld.com/  

This article concerns canine epilespy, but is truthful concerning diet:  http://www.canine-epilepsy.com/healthydi...

Kudos to you for rescuing a dog - he is one the road to happiness now.  Please take it a step further and lead him down the road to healthiness.

If you're not fully convinced that real, fresh food mixed with a gourmet, holistic or organic premium dry food is the way to go, then in the meantime please get your dog on a good puppy food, like Blue Buffalo, Newman's Own, Eagle Pack or Authority Harvest-Baked, while you do some more research.  Your dog could use the additional protein and fat.

Good luck!

Answer 6

If you want to your dog to gain weight, you need to feed him a high quality food, not Pedigree. Pedigree, Iams, Purina, or whatever other brands you can buy in a grocery store or places like Walmart are not healthy foods. And unlike what "moonshooting" (answer below mine) is saying Hill's Science Diet and Eukanuba ARE NOT good brands. All of these foods are full of by-products (parts of animals that aren't good enough for human consumption), sugars, artificial colors, flavors, preservatives, and dyes, and fillers like wheat and corn. Dogs can't even digest these ingredients properly and don't get much nutrition (or for some ingredients any nutrition) from them. To put it simply, they are junk food for dogs! Your dog is not getting the nutrition that he needs, therefore he is not gaining weight!

The only reason veterinarians and shelter's recomend any of these brands is because these companies provide financial support and donations for veterinary institutions and practices and shelters. It has even been proven that these brands contain chemicals that are used to euthanize animals and shorten your dog's life span.

Use this website to help find a high quality dog food, it has brands graded based on their ingredients and shows you how to grade dog food http://www.ask.com/bar?q=how+to+grade+do...

Your dog should be on large breed puppy food as it has more of the nutrition that larger puppies need (this will also help him gain weight). Because he is under weight you should feed him more than what the bag says until his weight is normal. Large breed puppies should eat puppy food until they are 24 months old.

When switching foods, mix the new food in with the old one for about a week so your dog's digestive system can adjust to the new food. Start off with 80% old with 20% new. Increase the amount of new food and decrease the amount of old food each day.

High quality food may be more expensive initially, but because it has more nutrients, you will actually be feeding your dog less than what you would with low quality foods, so it will be the same price if not cheaper in the long run.

Pet stores also sell high calorie supplements like Nutri-Cal to help dogs gain weight http://www.petco.com/product/105877/Toml...

Answer 7

switch him to a premium food like Iams, pedigree isn't that good just cause its called pedigree.

Answer 8

Feed your dog 1 cup of food 3 times a day instead of 1/2 a cup of food 2 times of day!

Answer 9

Is the dog thin or just small all over?  What did your vet say to do?  Does the dog have worms?  Definitely he should be eating puppy food.  You could try adding Nutri-Stat or Nutri-Cal, too (go to K V Vet online, kvvet.com).  Is your dog going to be stunted for life due to lack of enough food?

Answer 10

He shouldn't be on pedigree.

i was a dumb owner before(confusion) i fed my dogs pedigree.

that was long time ago but anyway,

i notice that my chi was very underweight.

i came on here to seek help.

and got all of this info on how bad pedigree is it is filled with corn the main ingredient (very bad for dogs) also had a bunch of fillers. and animal fat and all this unhealthy stuff.

actually pedigree is one of the most unhealthy dog food there is.

So i immediatly change to Nutro Ultra.

It is pretty expensive but worth it.

in just 1 week of eating it my chi gained 7 ounces! thats A LOT.

and all my dogs fur was much more healthy and  there eyes where nice and glowy!

So i HIGHLY suggest you change your puppy's food quality.

it will be much more money but very very well worth it.

Answer 11

Feed him puppy food - he should be eating puppy for until a 1 year old anyway!

Answer 12

In sheltering you see lots more that "one or two" starvation cases. We see them constantly. Putting them right onto regular dog food usually gives them screaming diarrhea. I always kept ziploc bags with hmbg & rice, noodles, chicken etc frozen so I could grab them & nuke them as soon as a dog needing it came in. I would cook for them for at least 4 - 5 days & introduce dog food slowly. You could see a great difference in coat & weight by the end of the first week. and dont buy him the cheap "pedigree" dog food, choose a brand like hills or eukanuba. Cheap dog foods have little nutition in them and cannot sustain a dog.

Answer 13

Increase his intake...give more food, more often.

Decrease his activity level.

You say you dont want to feed people food, but when my show dog looses weight my handler pressure cooks a whole chicken for about 2 hours and mashes the whole pot with a potatoe masher.  He then supplements the dog food.

Answer 14

Switch his brand of food to something with higher protein. Either puppy food, or an active breed food. They have both at most pet stores. Ask your vet if this doesn't help.  

Answer 15

Pedigree is a very poor quality food and the bag gives a suggested amount but your dog obviously isn't getting enough nutrition if it isn't maintaining a good weight.   Get a decent quality food and feed it enough so that it gains weight -- I will assume you have had him evaluated for and treated for health issues that could be a problem with regards to weight.  You have find out what kind of worms and reworm them a couple of weeks later at least once if not more to make sure you get rid of them.  Seven months and 25 pounds is malnurished pretty bad.  He should have been being fed several meals a day of a good quality food with obvious increases in weight and condition.

Answer 16

well first off change his food. i dont think you would be very healthy eating garbage and animal by-products. keep away from grocery store food brands likr ol roy and pedigree and yes, even purina. get some good stufff like nutro, canidae, blue buffalow, wellness. and try giving him some satin balls. that gets meat on them rel fast so you have to be careful how much you feed.

http://www.njboxers.com/satin-balls-reci...

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=sat...

goodluck and thanks for rescuing!

Answer 17

If he is 7 months old then it is imperative you be feeding him really good stuff right now :) GSPs reach their maximum height at about 9 months and their growth plates fuse.

HOW tall is he right now? I'm trying to get an idea of his general size, although I agree with the vet that he sounds underweight. GSPs tend to be lean and rangy, but 25 is downtight skinny. The vet says it is a food issue?? How long have the worms been gone? He might still be bouncing back from that.

Before I address feeding ideas, a couple of questions:

How is his coat in general? his eyes?

What is his activity level?

Why do you want to avoid giving him "human" food?

Putting healthy weight on a GSP puppy is more than loading him up on calories--it means balancing what he eats so he gets enough nutrients and not a bunch of low quality fillers. A skinny GSP is not good, a fat GSP is also not good.

I like Innova for my adult GSP. I add a couple of squirts of salmon oil to it and that adds calories and some healthy fats. I think it is good for his coat.

I think adding some "human" food to his diet wouldn't hurt if it is the right stuff. Certainly some occasional meat scraps in small doses wouldn't be bad. Satin balls are a ground beef recipes used to put weight on dogs that are burning a ton of calories (google for recipes) but I wouldn't recommend suddenly adding a ton of extra foods or satin balls all at once or you'll make him sick.

Start by finding a really good, nutritionally complete dog food with high quality protein and few fillers. Change him to it slowly by giving him a bowl with his old food in it and a small amount of the new food for a few days, then gradually increase the percentage of the new food until it is all new food. Get some good quality salmon oil and gradually add it to his food until you get to the recommended amount.

Keep in mind that higher quality food could mean feeding him fewer cups of food but he'll be getting more calories and nutrition. It is important that you don't over feed him at any one meal or he'll get diarrhea. You should still be feeding him twice a day but you can feed him three times a day if that seems to work better for his stomach.

Bottom line: if his coat looks good, his eyes look good, his p**p is solid and well-formed and he's acting okay, then his diet is okay and putting the weight on is just a matter of time.

Good luck!