# Puppy Food/Weight questions



## obelinux (Jun 19, 2012)

I have a 12 week puppy who weighs ( 10.5 kg ~23 pounds). The breeder feels that he's thin and needs to put on more weight. Problem is it's getting hard to get him to eat his normal food.

He has 1 cup Royal Canin ( German Shepherd puppy in the morning )
Afternoon is a porridge with 1 boiled egg 
Evening is 1 cup Royal Canin with a little bit of yogurt/cottage cheese
Night is Rice with some lentils/vegetables

Right now it's hard to get him to eat even this much. Ideally he is supposed to have 3 cups RC, but he's halfway bored through the first meal itself. Sometimes he needs to be handfed. He also gets over an hour of ball play with a good deal of running. I'm not sure if this is too much for him, but he's always desperate for more.

Unfortunately food options are limited since RC is the best food available here. Can't feed him BARF since my family is vegetarian and they won't be okay with meat being cooked in the house.

Is there any way to increase his appetite?


----------



## doggiedad (Dec 2, 2007)

i think you'refeeding him enough. check to make sure lentils are
ok to feed. what's the porridge made from? try adding can food
as a topper. your pup may not be eating because he's fed to much. he
may not be hungry. use weight charts as a guide line.



obelinux said:


> I have a 12 week puppy who weighs ( 10.5 kg ~23 pounds). The breeder feels that he's thin and needs to put on more weight. Problem is it's getting hard to get him to eat his normal food.
> _______________________________________________________________
> He has 1 cup Royal Canin ( German Shepherd puppy in the morning )
> Afternoon is a porridge with 1 boiled egg
> ...


----------



## obelinux (Jun 19, 2012)

The porridge is made from Finger millet Eleusine coracana - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Maybe I can try to reduce the rice/lentil and increase the dog food intake. 

As per one weight chart I saw, at 3 months, they need to be 14 kilos ( 30 lbs). Wasn't sure how I could make him jump that much weight.


----------



## KatsMuse (Jun 5, 2012)

obelinux said:


> I have a 12 week puppy who weighs ( 10.5 kg ~23 pounds). The breeder feels that he's thin and needs to put on more weight. Problem is it's getting hard to get him to eat his normal food.
> 
> Ideally he is supposed to have 3 cups RC, but he's halfway bored through the first meal itself.
> 
> Is there any way to increase his appetite?


IMO, No healthy dog will let himself starve...his appetite will probably be better with just the RC 3 x a day . If you leave out the other stuff and just feed the RC...he will look forward to his next meal.
Might take a couple of days since he's had so many choices before? The RC has all the nutrients he needs for now. Limit snacks too...just my opinion.


----------



## Ken Clean-Air System (Feb 27, 2012)

They all grow at their own rate, the charts are just averages. As long as the pup is fit and lean, not skinny or overweight, I wouldn't worry about him being below what the charts say. 

I do agree though that more dog food and less people food, especially the grains/legumes and rice he's getting, would be better. I'd give at least some kibble at each meal, spreading the amount per day equally over all the meals. If you want to add a bit of something to each meal to make it more interesting just add a small amount per meal for variety.


----------



## Elaine (Sep 10, 2006)

It doesn't matter that your family is vegitarian, because your dog isn't. Your dog must eat meat and other animal products to be healthy. Any attempt to feed him vegitarian will cause serious malnutrition. 

Feed him the kibble at all meals. No problem with adding the egg. The lentils and veggies won't do him any good unless they are pretty much emulsified as that's the only way he can digest them. Stop with the porridge as it's a poor source of nutrition for him. 

You don't have to cook meat before feeding. You can add small amounts of raw meat to his meals if you want.


----------



## louvel1 (Aug 20, 2012)

I agree with Ken clean regarding growing t their own rate. At 12 weeks my pup who is also on RC weighed 23lbs. However, I just took him in for his last set of shots at almost 17 weeks and he was weighing 42 lbs. 

My dog got board of dry RC so now I mix in half of a small can of nutro max puppy food per feeding and he tears it up!


Sent from my iPhone using PG Free


----------

