# add ins to kibble???



## stolibaby (Mar 6, 2011)

OK so Stoli is almost 11 months now and at around 10 months he was 63 lbs. The thing is he just looks so skinny!! His ribs aren't sticking out but I can definately slightly see them and I just don't know if I need to start adding things into his food to make him gain a little weight. I know that shepherds tend to be skinny and then fill out later but I just feel he is almost too skinny. His food is Blue Buffalo Wilderness and as puppy he was on LB Puppy Wellness I am currently feeding him 4 cups of the Blue Buffalo which is about 1/4 cup more than the bag suggests. He has days where he eats all of his food and then others where he may do 50-75% of it. Ya this kid is picky too which doesn't help with his skinny issue. I don't want to just throw random things into his food but healthy good for him add ins (if it seems necessary that is) and just wondered what some are


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## My2Furkids (Sep 21, 2010)

Had been having problems getting my pup to gain weight also - breeder recommended adding in raw hamburger to the kibble.. We've been feeding around 1/4 lb each meal with a small reduction in kibble. He's done well and loves it


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## MaggieRoseLee (Aug 17, 2001)

If he's eating all the Blue Buffalo each day, then I'd just increase the amount. The recommended amount on the bag is just a GUIDE and I know sometimes I give more or less depending on how my dogs look.

That said, if you have a picky eater and they won't eat all their food, then what worked with my picky eater was canned CAT food. What they have to put into cat food to make it stinky yummy for picky cats worked for my dogs. They also have TONS and TONS of different flavors which gave the variety my dog needed.

It was amazing how only a 1/3 to 1/4 of the cat food can mixed with a ton of water to gravy it up, added to the normal amount of DOG food kibble would almost guarantee my dog would finish her meal. Cans are also easy to re-lid and store in the fridge until the next meal. The following are the size cans I use and the lids.

I also use Nupro dog food supplement with is a yummy powder you add water to that gravy's it up and my dogs love that for one meal a day.


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## clearcreekranch (Mar 18, 2010)

I use a small amt of can dog food to make a gravy in the a.m. And I add cooked veges (from the freezer), salmon oil, and a tbls of plain yogurt in the p.m. I, too have a picky eater.


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## Jax's Mom (Apr 2, 2010)

My2Furkids said:


> breeder recommended adding in raw hamburger to the kibble..


Some people may need to space out raw meat and kibble since both digest at different rates. The reason dogs can eat raw meat is because their digestive system is faster but when slowed down by kibble, it could cause illness if there is bacteria on the raw meat and the meat spends a little extra time in the dog.


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## BowWowMeow (May 7, 2007)

I have never had a problem mixing raw and kibble (no digestive problems, even for dogs with very sensitive stomachs). 

I wouldn't feed cat food to dogs because my experience has been that when my dogs get into the cat food they almost always get diarrhea or bad gas.  Also, grocery store brands of cat food have terrible ingredients. 

I don't feed kibble anymore but when I did I added all kinds of things like:

cottage cheese
yogurt (still use that)
raw and/or cooked meats
canned tripe (still use that--the brand is Tripette)
canned salmon or jack mack (still use that)
raw or cooked eggs (still use those)


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## Zan (Nov 12, 2010)

I have been giving Neko a little bit of green tripe on her kibble (canned - "Tripett" brand) and she loves, loves, loves it. It's supposed to be very good for their digestion - I hope so, 'cause man does it stink! She really goes for it though. I also sometimes cook up turkey backs (very inexpensive) and give a little bit of the shredded meat and broth.

That's good to know about the raw/kibble together not a good combination.


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## dogfaeries (Feb 22, 2010)

According to Lew Olson's site B-Naturals, it is perfectly fine to feed raw meat with kibble.

scroll down to where it says Mixing Kibble and Fresh Food:
Feeding Tips for Enhancing Your Dog's Nutrition | B-Naturals.Com Newsletter


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## My2Furkids (Sep 21, 2010)

We've been doing the raw meat and kibble together for at least a month now and he has done phenomenal. Breeders might not be vets, but I figure she has raised enough dogs in her 10+ years of breeding to know what works and what doesn't


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## GSD_Xander (Nov 27, 2010)

If you want to gain weight apparently satin balls are good for that but you don't want to overdo it - I guess they're really effective. There are recipes online for them.

Xander often acts like he's really hungry with two meals a day so midday sometimes I'll give him a raw, frozen chicken wing. It keeps him busy for a little while and he loves it. It hasn't caused any stomach upset at all. 

Since he's not eating all of his food I would consider adding things like:
Raw ground beef
Raw egg (you can add the shell too but if he's a picky eater I would just do the egg)
Scrambled egg
Shredded cheese
Cottage cheese
Canned sardines, tuna, salmon or chicken

The good thing is that he's not overeating since some dogs will eat anything you put in front of them. He may just not be hungry. You could try free feeding his daily kibble amount to see if over the course of a day he'll go munch on it.


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## DonP (Apr 13, 2009)

We add pumpkin.


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## stolibaby (Mar 6, 2011)

BowWowMeow said:


> I have never had a problem mixing raw and kibble (no digestive problems, even for dogs with very sensitive stomachs).
> 
> I wouldn't feed cat food to dogs because my experience has been that when my dogs get into the cat food they almost always get diarrhea or bad gas.  Also, grocery store brands of cat food have terrible ingredients.
> 
> ...


Ya Stoli got into some dry cat food once and it was AWFUL!!! So ya I will prob try to avoid using that since I really don't want a repeat of those 48 hours 



GSD_Xander said:


> If you want to gain weight apparently satin balls are good for that but you don't want to overdo it - I guess they're really effective. There are recipes online for them.
> 
> Xander often acts like he's really hungry with two meals a day so midday sometimes I'll give him a raw, frozen chicken wing. It keeps him busy for a little while and he loves it. It hasn't caused any stomach upset at all.
> 
> ...


I used to do the whole only leave it out for 20 min thing which worked for a bit but then he started to not eat so we went to the free grazing thing and sometimes he will eat his full amount but other times not so much. I went and bought some hamburger today so I think I am going to go back to two feedings a day but mix in a tiny amount of hamburger so as to basically make him smell it and hopefully causes him to eat it all at once and we can go from there. 

I don't want him to gain too much as he had UAP and I want to keep him in a healthy weight to avoid causing stress and pain as much as possible to the elbow but want to basically make sure my dog isn't looking like I am malnourishing him lol


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