If you have noticed your dog not looking as healthy as usual, you may be interested to learn how to put some weight on him to get him close to his ideal weight. While there are a number of techniques on adjusting your dog’s diet to gain weight, you should first and foremost take your dog into your veterinarian for a check-up. Often times weight loss can be associated with a number of health problems and as a responsible dog owner you want to ensure that your dog if perfectly healthy before adjusting his diet.
If your dog is found to have health concerns by the veterinarian, you should discuss treatment options and diet options to help ensure your dog has the optimum nutrition needed to fight off any disease and become stable with his weight. However, if your dog is perfectly healthy and may just be so energetic he needs more caloric intake, you can begin introducing foods into your dog’s diet that can help your dog put weight on, and build lean muscle. Please note it is important to introduce new foods to your dog one at a time, preferably one per week, so you can narrow down any possible allergies or problems that may arise from a new food. With that being said, check out the tips below to help your dog put on some pooch weight!
Dry Dog Food
Kibble is a great way to help your dog gain weight; however, you need to read the ingredients to ensure your dog is getting a good, well-balanced meal from the dog food. A good, high-quality kibble that is not only great for weight gain, but good for all dogs in general will have a high protein intake – made with REAL meat. Make sure you see chicken, beef, fish, or a wild game within the first five ingredients. Take note that you do not want to see the words “by-products” or “meal” following this protein ingredient. Those words indicate the protein is not an optimum cut of meat. You also want to ensure the dog food contains carbohydrates and the minimum are added – you do not want your dog to consume more than twenty percent of his daily caloric intake on carbohydrates. Make sure the carbohydrates included are in the natural form (nothing enriched). Look for brown rice, whole wheat pasta, sweet potatoes and millet are good examples of natural carbohydrates.
Canned Dog Food
Canned dog food is more of an expensive treat; however, it is a great way to help your dog pack on some lean muscle. Canned dog food is often packed full of rich protein and water, which helps make this meal easily digestible by your pooch due to the soft texture. You can also mix canned food with dry kibble for a nice change of pace for your dog.
Added Protein
You may also want to add in some extra protein with your dog’s dry or canned food. It is okay for your dog to enjoy some “people” meat with his meal as long as it is broken up into small pieces and are bone free. You want to make sure your dog can easily digest the food and does not accidentally swallow any pieces of bone that could damage his throat or esophagus, or digestive system.
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