weight gain

[abraxas]

hello,

i have a male rottie that i work in SchH. his energy level is high both, in & out of the house. he is VERY active. i am feeding canidae and i supplement with flax seed oil, ester-c, hokamix-30, nupro (which i alternate w/ the hoka), salmon, and raw bones.

he weighs about 92 lbs., but is a little thin for his frame. i want him lean, but i am afraid he is a little too lean. he eats about 4 cups of canidae/ day and he is 16 months old.

i would like to add other food to his diet so that he can gain about five lbs., but i want to do it gradually over the next 6 months or so. any suggestions as to how i can safely enhance his diet in proprtion to the nutrition canidae offers and add weight slowly?

i want to keep him on the lean side, but he is a little too thin right now. thank you for any suggestions.........

[shybird]

I think I would opt to just add another cup of Canidae to his meal. Makes it much easier to get the balance right. Since he is working he may need the extra calories.

[frontierrots]

I agree. Just feed him more Canidae.

I have never in 17 years had a male that age and withhigh activity be able to hold weight on less than 5 cups a day and some even eat 6-7 cups a day!

I currently feed Healthwise which is high calorie and my males all eat 5-6 cups a day

[abraxas]

i have tried to feed more canidae, but he will not eat anymore than 4 cups/day. i will try adding gravy and see if he takes it........

[CarolineS]

People with performance dogs that have high calorie requirements usually supply those extra calories through fat. Fat has a lot of calories but very little in the way of nutrition, so it can be fed without upsetting the balance of the kibble.

If your dog tolerates vegetable oil, you can try adding some to his food. Some dogs are sensitive to too much fat, others will take as much as you can feed them and be fine. One tablespoon of most types of vegetable oil has approximately 120 calories. If it doesn't upset his digestion, working up to 3 or 4 tablespoons per day would give him the extra calories to put on some weight while not upsetting the balance of the Canidae.

Another option would be to switch him to a performance dog food that would have a higher fat and calorie content

[southerncomfort]

If you are working your dog in SchH, you might consider supplementing his diet with a product like Peak Performance. Which many of us with true "working dogs" have had great sucess with. Muckdogs began a good thread a few weeks back...http://www.rottweiler.net/forums/sho...ighlight=peak, however you need to go down about 10-15 post to get through the fluff, it starts to give some great info in the later posts.