[daneladyhuffman]

I have a two year old great dane I have tried several different dog foods for him, but he still is not gaining weight. You can see his ribs, hip bones, and spine. I have taken him to the vet complete A one bill of health. I asked the vet why he is not gaining weight and he says it is normal for him to look like this, but I think he looks sick because he is so skinny. Can someone help me put weight on this dog please?

[mutinycb]

Originally Posted by daneladyhuffman

I have a two year old great dane I have tried several different dog foods for him, but he still is not gaining weight. You can see his ribs, hip bones, and spine. I have taken him to the vet complete A one bill of health. I asked the vet why he is not gaining weight and he says it is normal for him to look like this, but I think he looks sick because he is so skinny. Can someone help me put weight on this dog please?

I feed my brood of rescues Eukanuba for Large Breed Adults. I mix in once a day one can or package of some kind (i.e. Pedigree, Iams, Eukanuba, etc.) of moist/ground dig food or every now again, those with chunks o' meat & gravy. I usually do that in the am. They get the one soup sized can or two packets between the five of them, and in addition to a nice full cup of Eukanuba. I mix well. After the eat or gobble that up in the am, I refill bowls with another cup of just the Eukanuba. They are all then free to eat or graze as they wish. My dogs are in excellent health, shape, and their teeth and coats are spectacular. So says my vet! If you like, I will share a picture of my Olive. Her "before" picture is Heartbreaking. She is skinny skinny skinny and all manged out. Her "after" pic is Heartwarming! Hope this helps. Good luck and Woofs to you and your Dane./I][/I]

[CorkyMax]

Originally Posted by daneladyhuffman

I have a two year old great dane I have tried several different dog foods for him, but he still is not gaining weight. You can see his ribs, hip bones, and spine. I have taken him to the vet complete A one bill of health. I asked the vet why he is not gaining weight and he says it is normal for him to look like this, but I think he looks sick because he is so skinny. Can someone help me put weight on this dog please?

First off--Could you post some pics of him so we can see what you are talking about as him being skinny and sick looking? How much does he weigh? How tall is he from top of shoulder down? By the way what is his name? I am like you in that I tend to think some dogs need more weight on them because of the way they look. I have a new rescue dog that I'd like to see gain a few pounds but the vet says she is at the right weight!

I have a breeds book that I will quote from about the Great Dane:
---EXERCISE & FEEDING----Great Danes need plenty of exercise, at the very least a long daily walk. They are prone to bloat so feed small helpings and avoid exercise after meals. Ideally, the food dish should be raised so that the dog can eat without splaying its legs. Me commenting here: Just some info about raised diners--I have seen a little info that raised diners are more apt to cause bloat but in the case of how tall a Great Dane is, I would think you could have the food dish raised just enough so his legs are not splayed while eating. I am going to give you a link about Bloat toward the end of this post which I think you should be familiar with as Danes are prone to this and it is an emergency you have to act fast on or your dog would die if not treated at once. It is important to know all the symptoms as soon as you see them so you know that is what is happening and be able to act quickly!

Back to the book quotes: HEALTH PROBLEMS: Being very large and heavy, Great Danes are prone to hip dysplasia and some genetic heart problems.--end of quote from book. As I do not know you--I do not know if you are familiar with hip dysplasia, If you don't know much about it, I would suggest putting words--> dogs hip dysplasia in your browser.

There is a final reminder from this book: BE AWARE: Prone to bloat, so avoid exercise after meals. (end of book quotes)

About Bloat---> BLOAT in DOGS Be sure to read all the posts in this thread and click on all the links in them (Even a link about raised diners)

Whether your dog needs to gain weight or not--It sounds like it is best for this breed not to be heavy and to lean towards a lean dog to avoid the heart problems and the hip dysplasia! And 'heavy' meals are more apt to cause bloat also.

Sorry if it sounds like I am lecturing you--I just love dogs and want to help them as much as I can. So, lol, getting to your question on dog foods. What kind of dog food have you been feeding? Of course some cheaper dog foods are no good and the dog just poops it all out as nothing there of value! I bet it costs a lot to feed such a big breed! And some foods are expensive. I am not a feeder of commercial dog foods as a rule, but just having rescued an older dog who has prob. been on this stuff her whole life (She is 10ish--a stray so no background info at all)--I have to slowly wean her off of the commercial. I feed raw and some home cooking to my other dog so want to do the same for her-Sami. But some good commercial dog foods I might suggest are Call of The Wild, Canadae and Blue Buffalo. I am sure others in here will give you some good ideas also.

To recap on my questions: Name of your dog? Some pics of your dog? What does he weigh? How tall from top of shoulder down? What kind of dog food have you been feeding? What

Some ideas, but be careful if your dog is only use to dog food---Peanut Butter (This is fat so be careful on amount) Little cheese---again this is fat---The most calories are in fatty foods of course! Hopefully your dog doesn't need to gain weight.
Here is another link to a lot of info on this breed and a lot of pics (6 pages). Be sure to scroll all the way down on these pages as the ads get in the middle of some of these pages and is misleading and you think you are at bottom of pages when you aren't! Some of these pics can give you an idea of whether your dog is too thin or not. I saw some pretty thin looking dogs here. Note all the 6 pages to click on at bottom of the pages. Great Dane Information and Pictures, Great Danes

[daneladyhuffman]

His name is Diesel he is a two year old intact male dane. When i got him he weighed 8 pounds which in fact at 8 weeks he should have been closer to 20 pounds. I have researched everything about Great Danes, I have talked to my vet and he says he is fine for his height 371/2 @ the withers and around 120 pounds. I am looking at him and can see his ribs, and lower spin along with his hip bones thinking as the vet says this, this cannot be normal. I fed eukanuba in the past along with Imas and even tried evo but none of them seemed to help. I have mixed dry with wet and even put in some boiled hamburger every now and then he still does not gain weight. I have raised bowls always have, (I had a rottie years ago) and learned then from the vet about raised bowls. He is in perfect health now issues what so ever, very loving and gentle as the breed should be. He is the perfect dog just won't gain weight. I have trained this dog in sign language and german as well as english, he has free rain to food 24 hrs a day. I just don't understand it. I am going to school to get my bachelors degree in science vet tech with all the bells and whistles but cannot figure out what is going on with this dog.ops: I will post a picture later as I am new to this forum and need to figure it out.

[daneladyhuffman]

There are pictures of what Diesel looks like in my album I made.He just looks sick I think, I am embarrassed to even put them on here. I don't want people to think I am starving my dog cause I am not by any means of the word.

[harley_quinn]

I've fed my pug the following brands over the past four months:

Premium Edge
Pro-Plan With the little pieces of chewy things in them
Castor and Pollux Organix
Wellness Super Mix

I'm sorry none of the titles are too exact. When we brought Harley home, she had some skin problem near her tail (rough patch under fur) and some kind of dark rough area on her teats. Her previous owner said he fed her "what ever is the brand at Walmart". She was around... hmm.. I think 17 or 18 pounds when we picked her up and 16 pounds in May according to her vet records. When I took her to the vet in September, she weighed 19 lbs. The vet said she was in great condition but not to feed her too much because she could become overweight. I'd like to think that changing the quality of food she was eating improved her health. She has had no problems (aside from anal glands and being missing ) and is an energetic little thing. Try food with quality ingredients and do some research online. Since I picked up my pug, I wanted to try some brands similar to Wellness, but the only thing the pet store near our home sold was Premium Edge. Then because it looked appetizing to my bf, we got her Pro-Plan. And a few weeks later, the Castor and Pollux (which I had remembered hearing good things about) was on sale, so we stocked up. Now, or she was on Wellness and it seemed to be a good fit. I recommend Wellness. I also thought my pug looked a little skinny, but there is a Great Dane @ our apartments that takes the cake for being thin.

[CorkyMax]

Originally Posted by daneladyhuffman

There are pictures of what Diesel looks like in my album I made.He just looks sick I think, I am embarrassed to even put them on here. I don't want people to think I am starving my dog cause I am not by any means of the word.

I see what you mean. I would prefer more weight on him too but I think he looks healthy otherwise--Face is not sickly looking! I wonder if he is digesting his food properly--or does it go straight through him? Does he poo a lot --like piles? Maybe you can supplement the dog food by adding cooked rice--add a little butter or peanut butter to it and mix in with his dog food---But do make sure the dog food is a good dog food too. Feed him some eggs mixed in too. Could try it for a while and see if it helps.

In case you do supplement with human food--Hope you will read this thread so you don't give dangerous 'stuff'--No Raisins for one thing! Here is the link to this thread:

Foods that are hazardous to a dog

Put words in your browser--> How to make a dog gain weight. There are a lot of sites to see on this. I only read this one: How to get a dog to Gain Weight | eHow.com BUT please read the above link I gave on the hazardous foods for dogs first just in case some 'idiot' mentions one of them in these sites!! Esp. no onions or raisins, chocolate, etc.

[daneladyhuffman]

I can't give him peanut butter he is allergic, I have tried some people food, I think I may just keep working with different things cause there has got to be something that works out there. I will check out the food to feed website thing too, thanks for the help.

[Krissy48lowes]

My first question would be what brands of dog food have you tried in the past? As most of today’s popular brands (Iams, Science Diet, etc) are full of fillers instead of actual nutrition. I have a border collie/aussie mix that for years I’ve struggled with weight, a dull coat, and stomach issues. It wasn’t until by pure accident that while shopping at petsmart for dog food that I received a lesson from the Nutro reps on dog food and its ingredients (and no if your curious I don't feed Nutro). Most of the lower quality foods are full of corn, which isn’t a highly digestible by most dogs. I also found that they contained very little protein and instead contained items like chicken parts. My advice to you would be too look at a dog food that is higher in fat, and lower in filler foods. Good luck I’ve been there, and fortunately for me a change to a better well balanced diet and the use of a elevated diner really helped out my dog.

[Lala]

have you heard of the Raw Canine Diet? Pretty much, raw human food. But NOT grains included in the diet.

[Grimace17]

Just answered a similar question but in my opinion Blue Buffalo and Orijen are the best foods. The only problem is that they are a little pricey. Do you feed your dog several times a day or does the food sit out all the time?

[jameserickson80]

I think you should try out protein and fats. Innova, California Natural, Canidae are good but you can also try not so popular brands, we can never know what might work for your dog.

[Taming Rover]

This might seem like an obvious question but when was he last dewormed? Do you think he could have worms? tape worm even?