weight question for 14 month old Lab

[deke]

So my 14 month old lab eats like a horse and still does not gain any weight. I know that every dog is different and every food is different so i will try to explain my set us as detailed as possible. In the morning he eats three cups as soon as i wake up, goes out and relieves himself. After i get home he eats another three cups and then just lounges around the house or we go for a jog or throw his dummy for a while. The pup is really a lazy dog in the house, but when he gets outside he is just a fireball. We are feeding him Nutro Max chicken and rice, because he had an allergic reaction to Purina Pro Plan that was pretty horrible. What really concerns me is how skinny the pup is, you can see all of his ribs, and when he gets wet you can clearly see his backbone all the way to his shoulder blades. We have already upped his food from four cups a day to six, and that didnt help. We are thinking about trying to switch him foods, but because of our previous fun at the vet we are a little gunshy to say the least. I have been told to add peanut butter to his food to boost the calories, is this a good option? Should we try switching foods? Just looking to put a little weight on this pup so i dont have puppy cps at my door saying i am not feeding properly. Any advice would be helpful

[birddog1968]

6 cups seems like alot, post up a couple pictures of him.

Labs will eat you outta house and home if you let them, and being overweight is one of the worse things you can do to a lab.

[mcbosco]

Labs are usually the exact opposite, where people struggle to keep them thin. Medically he is ok?

6 cups is a lot are you feeding a normal type food about 25% protein 15% fat?

If so, go up to something with 20% fat, like a 30/20.

There are a gazillion to choose from.

Try Eagle Pack Power that seems to be available everywhere for less than what that Nutro costs.

[deke]

Birddog, he is the black one in my avatar, not the greatest picture but no pictures show how skinny he is because he is black and it hides it very good in pictures. But when he is wet you can see his whole backbone, that can not be normal. And i know they are big eaters, all i have ever had is labs and i have never even seen a lab that is this skinny.

[birddog1968]

Birddog, he is the black one in my avatar, not the greatest picture but no pictures show how skinny he is because he is black and it hides it very good in pictures. But when he is wet you can see his whole backbone, that can not be normal. And i know they are big eaters, all i have ever had is labs and i have never even seen a lab that is this skinny.

My current lab was built like that, more like a pointer, he's filled out now in his old age but he was thin thin when he was young. Still would like to see a close up of him. And i to would have him on a good 30/20 feed or better. Eagle pac , diamond EA.......Dunno if I have ever fed a lab more than 3 or 4 cups a day at most.

[GUNDOGS]

have you dewormed him?? i would try deworming him before anything else..people sometimes forget dogs need to be dewormed not just young pups..i think 6 cups is too much and increasing the food more and more is only going to cause another issue like diarrhea and gas..this might just be more of a medical issue then a nutritional issue, hope you find the help you need, good luck.....ruth

[deke]

We have dewormed him, our vet has dewormed him. That is why we are stumped on what to do. He inhales his food, and the only time i have seen him full is when he ate a quarter of a bag of dog food when i was in the shower. This pup just flat out eats food and is never not hungry, which makes me think we are not feeding him enough? Could his metabolism be burning this food faster than we can put it into him? It seems like the more food we feed him the more energy he has but he does not gain any weight?

[ultracarry]

I would rather have a A skinny dog then a fat one. just feed him and seeing the backbone and ribs is good. I wouldn't worry about it. Just upgrade to at least 30/20.... all the fat show dogs I see are on blue buffalo.

[birddog1968]

We have dewormed him, our vet has dewormed him. That is why we are stumped on what to do. He inhales his food, and the only time i have seen him full is when he ate a quarter of a bag of dog food when i was in the shower. This pup just flat out eats food and is never not hungry, which makes me think we are not feeding him enough? Could his metabolism be burning this food faster than we can put it into him? It seems like the more food we feed him the more energy he has but he does not gain any weight?

My lab is like that, he would eat till he fell over, still to this day at 10 he is like that. Do as suggested, bump him up to higher protien/fat food and hopefully you can in the future get him down to 4 or 5 cups, his metabolism will slow down at some point. This is all assuming he is good medically.
Still would love to see a good close up of him standing.

[deke]

I will try to take one with a good camera tonight when i get home, should i just take one from the side or from on top of him. I think he looks good, very defined muscles and not a ounce of fat on him, but everyone else including my vet and my buddies old ladies boss (vet) thinks the dog is way underweight for his size. He is the same size as my other labs and about thirty pounds under his weight.

[cutty72]

My lab does good on 6 cups/day. Feeding 30/20 Performance Diamond right now. If you want to stick to Nutro, try the High Energy. I was on that, but I didn't like the price.

[rinker]

Dogs are just like people, they all have different metabolisms. I had a young pointer a few years ago that ate four times as much as the other pointers that I had. He would also eat it faster than the other dogs. I turned three horses out on grass this spring, two of them got fat and the other one lost weight. I would just gradually keep increasing his feed until he is maintaining the weight that you want.