BenBen has gained weight. New picture at end post

Other than chicken (which I don't think is a bad idea), if he eats his regular food well you could just try adding a third meal of that. That's what I've always done with my young, active dogs who needed to put on weight. Or maybe try puppy food, which is probably higher calorie than his regular food?

Pound for pound, fat has more calories than any other food source. There is no reason to limit this (other than GI issues with too high a fat diet). I wouldn't boil any meat you add to the diet as that tends to remove the fat and some of the nutrients - dumped out with the water. If you choose chicken, just oven roast it and add back the cooked out fat (most dogs love this and if no GI issues is a good source of calories.)

There are some that promote a low (no carb) diet when treating various cancers. It's very hard to keep weight on with this diet, but something to consider.

BTW, coming in the next several months, pet foods will have calorie content added to the labels. Good thing if you can calculate serving size :B

Doug, DVM

I've heard of many show people, using something called "Satin Balls" to put weight on dogs.
I did a quick google search and this came up.
Don't know if it's something you might want to try - might want to run it by the vet first.

Satin Balls
or
Holistic Dog

When Bella dropped weight we gave her coconut milk/cream, sweet potatoes. When she was really sick I would make mashed potatoes with white potato, the coconut milk, butter and sweet potato ... she would always take some of that for me no matter how sore her throat was from the esophagitis.. The coconut milk will list the caloric value on the label..You will find it in any large supermarket with an Asian food section. I also made her knox bloxs with the coconut milk, water and unflavoured gelatin to keep her hydrated...she actually wasn't wild about the knox bloxs but my other two loved to get whatever she would not take .

I went with a very low carb, higher protein & fat diet with Loppy when we were battling his oral melanoma. He had to eat soft foods so I pureed baked chicken or boiled some dark meat chicken or higher fat ground beef in a bit of water and added just a little of natural (not instant) brown rice to soak up the water and then chopped that up for him. Brown rice is a complex carb and in small amounts it was fine to feed him according to our holistic vet. She helped me gain more than twice the time they said he would "survive" so I trusted her suggestions. He actually thrived until those last few days....Looking at him you would hardly notice that he was in the battle of his life. He only weighed four pounds less the day we said "farewell" than he did the day he had the oral surgery to remove as much of that nasty cancer as we could without debilitating him.

Of course, my disclaimer is that with his type of cancer chemo wasn't part of the protocol. What I am trying to say is a high protein & fat diet can help sustain them when they are fighting the good fight.

My thoughts are with you and BenBen... keep him well fed, well loved, and well hydrated.... I know you will.

CatandJim wrote:
I went with a very low carb, higher protein & fat diet with Loppy when we were battling his oral melanoma. He had to eat soft foods so I pureed baked chicken or boiled some dark meat chicken or higher fat ground beef in a bit of water and added just a little of natural (not instant) brown rice to soak up the water and then chopped that up for him. Brown rice is a complex carb and in small amounts it was fine to feed him according to our holistic vet. She helped me gain more than twice the time they said he would "survive" so I trusted her suggestions. He actually thrived until those last few days....Looking at him you would hardly notice that he was in the battle of his life. He only weighed four pounds less the day we said "farewell" than he did the day he had the oral surgery to remove as much of that nasty cancer as we could without debilitating him.

Of course, my disclaimer is that with his type of cancer chemo wasn't part of the protocol. What I am trying to say is a high protein & fat diet can help sustain them when they are fighting the good fight.

My thoughts are with you and BenBen... keep him well fed, well loved, and well hydrated.... I know you will.

Good advice and pretty much what we followed with two dogs with cancer. We were advised to stay away from carbs and sugars, research will bear this out.

We did feed a lot of brown rice, never white, lots of chicken and even beef. We included Broccoli too.

I never boiled chicken though, I did oven bake it. If you want to maintain or gain weight you may want to just add more goodies to his two meals if it is going to be a problem with the other dogs.

Good luck Barb, I hope some of what we all tell you is helpful.
My thoughts too are always with you and BenBen.

Sher

I am thinking about medical marijuana for Sputnik. I have someone nearby that is into mm and can make her some infused butter. Can't stand the stuff myself but it might help her. Not sire if it is legal where you are. Here it isn't for cats but is for humans and I easily qualify for it.

I fed Strider people food hamburgers pizza anything he would eat. The way I looked at it any food he ate was good.

Barb, how's BenBen doing, are you able to get him to eat more calories?
Strider might very well have the right idea for now.
Keep us updated.

Sher

Ike was a skinny dude, too; and he didn't seem to digest fats well? For breakfast, I would make him a bowl of instant oatmeal (maple and brown sugar was his favorite since he didn't really like fruit): but I'd add a raw egg, slightly scrambled to the oatmeal/water mix; then microwave it. It wasn't as many calories as I wish I could have gotten into him - but the nice carb/sugar buzz helped him have a playful morning, at least...LOL! I figured anything that kept him moving, helped stop the muscle wasting of old age?