Advice required on what dry food for an underweight dog

Dog food and feeding Dog foods
1

Hi all

I have 2 Labradors (working), 2 & 3 years old. I feed them both on Skinners Field and Trial, duck and rice. It seems to suit them both, but the 3 year old, is on the skinny side. I’ve spoken to the vet and they are happy with her health, but they would like me to try a different food, and they have suggested Royal Canin, but from looking at the info on this site, I’m not sure that the suggested switch is a good one.

I’d say she’s about 2.5 kg’s off her target weight based on her frame.

Can anyone suggest a dry food that would help her gain that weight ?

Thanks in advance

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Personally I would avoid Royal Canin. I would think that some of the 80/20 foods would be better for weight gain as many are higher in fat. Often they are a little more expensive though. Are you looking to spend about the same as you do the skinners?

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Personally I would avoid Royal Canin. I would think that some of the 80/20 foods would be better for weight gain as many are higher in fat. Often they are a little more expensive though. Are you looking to spend about the same as you do the skinners?

Price point isn’t critical, especially if I can find something that she copes with well, but also adds some weight, any recommendations?

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You could try the Dog Food Directory, using the filters 4 - 5 stars and no red ingredients. This will bring up plenty of the 80/20 products as mentioned by Tinyplanets. An alternative is to keep your dog on Skinners and mix with a good quality wet food. They too can be found on the Dog Food Directory. If you change to an 80/20 product, transition gradually to prevent any digestive upsets.

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After doing some research I’ve decided to try her on Akela 80/20, they recommend a 15 day switch over, so we will be following that.

Thanks for the suggestion, I will let you know how she goes on it.

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6

I have a skinny red setter, and I found that he would not put weight on with anything else but raw. I have tried quite a lot of the dried foods and was told to feed more at each meal only to find that the more I gave him to try and put weight on the more his stools became loose.
Then I tried even raw even though he is still a bit thin he is getting there with the raw .

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7

Just to provide an update.

After 7 weeks on Akela 80/20, my skinny lab has started to put weight on, and stomach / stools are all fine, overfeeding by 10% for her weight.

Will start to dial that 10% back over the next month or so, to monitor if the weight she has gained will stay with her.

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Thanks very much for updating. It is good that your dog has had no problems with digestion as some dogs can, when overfed the richer foods.