High calorie, high fat diets/foods (non pit)

[Trillian]

This is Roger. He has vaccination distemper. That being said, he twitches all the time and doesn't digest correctly and metabolizes too quickly to keep weight on. He's currently eating a combination of raw and TOTW kibble. He gets peanut butter and plain yogurt for a treat twice a day and several dog snacks twice a day...any other dog would be the size of a house, roger is still emaciated looking. He's not 'fit', he really is thin. He still has a good quality of life all things considering and is a very happy puppy. Anyway the point of this post; what other foods can we give him to help him keep he weight up or even gain weight,

[Curly_07]

Have you had him checked for parasites? This causes many dogs to not be able to gain weight.

Adding canned food rather than dry helps dogs gain weight. It's higher in calories and such.

[Trillian]

Have you had him checked for parasites? This causes many dogs to not be able to gain weight.

Adding canned food rather than dry helps dogs gain weight. It's higher in calories and such.

We added canned food for a long while and it seemed to help a little bit, we'll go back to adding it And yes, he's had several vet check ups with in the last 2 months. He's completely free of all parasites.

[Curly_07]

Good to hear!

Here's something else:
http://www.ehow.com/how_7811986_homemad ... -food.html

[AmberD]

When I was looking for something similar to totw but higher calorie, I found Earthborn Holistic grain free formulas to be a great alternative. It keeps weight on my high metabolism dog better than anything I have tried.

[Savage Destiny]

Try Acana, specifically the Grasslands variety. It's not much higher protein and fat than TotW, but it is more calorie dense.

We've had major success with multiple dogs with the same issues as Roger when we've recommended trying the Grasslands. One of my co-workers has a GSP that he could never get to gain weight- he was emaciated even when eating 6+ cups of food a day. He tried everything from high quality to total crap, and nothing really worked until the Grasslands. Since then, we've switched a lot of dogs with similar problems to it, and they all do fantastic.

I'm not entirely sure why. The other flavors don't even seem to work as well.

[Timas Mom]

I'd also look at digestive enzymes and probiotics to maximize what he gets out of his food.

[Misskiwi67]

Is he a large breed puppy? If so, you may want to avoid high fat diets and rapid weight gain because it will increase his risk of orthopedic diseases later in life.

I'd much rather see a puppy grow slowly and appropriately for their breed, puppies that are thin but still have good muscle mass are healthy, not sickly.