High calorie food suggestions

[JENGOSMonkey]

@beth314 Hey Beth, the people giving you advice and reassurance so far have much more experience raising puppies than me. I'd defer to them. BTW, we weigh both of our dogs weekly and keep a log.

Something else to consider; although, it may be comparing apples and oranges. Logan was almost two when I brought him home. At first his appetite was veracious. He didn't eat, he inhaled food. Then, after about 6 to 8 weeks his appetite changed. He started getting picky and took forever to finish breakfast. I experimented by eliminating one ingredient at a time to see if something had gone bad or if he simply didn't like it anymore. Nothing really made any difference. Not long after we sprinted south to gather Sparkle up and bring her home. Once she was here at home... Logan's appetite exploded again. Back to inhaling meals regardless what was in it. In his case... I have to wonder if he just got lonely and was maybe a bit depressed.

If we hadn't gotten Sparkle, I'm not certain we'd have figured that out.

[Branch]

Hi, well u have a lot of responses but here is mine. My boy has ALWAYS been a picky eater but my 1st girl B was not.
My boy also got car sick in the beginning. He is 13 now!
I found a great dry lamb food by Open Farms ( chicken messes with his tummy even though he loves it) then I buy ground Bison and sorta stir fry it in pan with Bone Broth, I add the 3 together and hooray no more tummy issues

[DonC]

Try adding some Espilac (cans are easy). Puppies love it and it carries a lot of calories.

FYI I suspect she's just testing. If that's the case the picky eater phase should disappear.

@jengosmonkey said in High calorie food suggestions:

If we hadn't gotten Sparkle, I'm not certain we'd have figured that out.

My interpretation would be you introduced some competition and he wasn't about to lose out. You could be right though.

[Kembe]

@jengosmonkey
“ At first his appetite was veracious. He didn't eat, he inhaled food”

Kembe has always INHALED her food - you’d think we didn’t feed her. She has to eat her food from a “puzzle bowl” to slow her down.

[Isabob]

I had the same problem , I wrote to this blog years ago, I ended up searching for a food Izzy would eat. He is 8 now and still picky , I have resorted to giving him some dry food in the morning and leaving it out for him and then some canned food for his supper, I still at 8 yrs old have to put something yummy under the canned dog food and then he will eat it. If I give him canned in the morning which I used to he doesn't touch it. So I figured if he was hungry he would eat some of the dry food during the day and wouldn't go hungry. This is the only thing that has worked for me over the years. When I first started my food search he looked emaciated , the vet could not find any health problems at the time.

[Beth314]

This is all good information for me and thanks for writing. Funny that I bought one of those food puzzle dishes along with other (darned expensive) food toys because my experience has been food scarfing puppies and dogs. I think these things will be collecting dust in this household.

This morning I was burned out on "worry". I figure she will not starve herself to death. Not a comforting thought but feeling a bit helpless. My stress around this surely wasn't helping her appetite.

I've resigned myself to this raw diet I found that I believe to be healthful but no carbs. She eats it. I did find that if I sprinkle kibble around on a rug she will eat some of it, so that's working. To heck with the rug! A food toy of a sort. I will get some Espilac.

Her body at this point looks OK, more like a sleek adult B. I just prefer a little more weight in a puppy - might be my fear from watching a foster puppy die of parvo that might have survived if he had weighed more from the start.

We weighed her the first day; 10.5 pounds. Will weigh again in the AM. She's grown in length and height so would be great to see a table of average weight vs age for Basenji puppies. Or maybe those of you that keep track could share your data.

[elbrant]

@beth314 said in High calorie food suggestions:

I've resigned myself to this raw diet

If you read the ingredients, these types of products are usually meat and veggies. I typically make my own from human grade food. Bags of frozen veggies are currently (2021) $1US or less, meat is $2-3 per pound (assuming you are not going to use Prime Rib). I'm not a big fan of raw meat, so I generally just put everything into a slow cooker and let it do it's thing. Shred the meat (if necessary). Give it a good stir and freeze it in reasonable amounts to prevent spoilage. Broth, or bone stock can add moisture and another flavor dimension if you think your pup would like it.

Calcium is important. Some people grind up the egg shells from their breakfast. I think it's easier to include a (plain) Tums in the bowl (maybe go half of one at this age).

You will save a ton of $$$ (comparatively speaking) and end up with a better product.

p.s. I nuke whatever portion I'm putting down (~30 seconds) to help bring the food up to "room temp".

[Beth314]

@elbrant I've cooked my own "dog" food similarly and can try that again. No prime rib here. I would like to add some sort of vitamin supplement so any suggestions on that would be good.

Espilac is "currently unavailable" at the local stores where I've looked and outrageously expensive online.

[tanza]

@beth314 - At her age and if no health issue, IMO, vitamins are unnecessary..... I would most likely believe that teething and growth have been playing a part. Many do use raw so nothing wrong with that.

[elbrant]

@beth314 I use the VetIQ MultiVitamin. WalMart sells it in the pet section and online. Sam's Club used to have it, they may in your area, but my local Sam's took it off the shelf.