One of my rescue dogs is very underweight and although hasn't lost any weight since being with us - he hasn't put any on either! He has had lost of -*test*-('")s but all come back negative.

At the moment he is on Oscars gluten free food - it's twice as expensive as the other feed I buy and not working - Does anyone have a good quality "fattening up" food they can recommend please? (Any details where to find it!)

Thanks

Why don't you try CSJ Command Performance. It's gluten and additive free and comes in 18%,24% and 30% protein. I use it for all 4 of my dogs and it's quite reasonably priced at £29.50 for 15k. I use the 18% protein as 2 of my dogs are labs with a tendency to gain weight but friends at agility use the higher protein to keep weight on their hyperactive collies.

I've always fed any underweight dogs on tripe, potato, porridge, and fatty lamb... the meats are fed raw and the potato cooked. Porridge can be made with water instead of milk.

When Tilly lost her weight and dropped to 10 kilos post op. we added into her Royal Canin diet, scrambled eggs, tripe, fatty lamb, potatoes and cornflakes for the carbohydrate content, difficult with the dry food as the higher protein levels would send her loopy, also we fed her meals 3 or 4 times a day instead of 2 which seemed to help. She now eats Naturediet and is finally at a stable weight.

Obi also has had some trouble keeping weight on, I've been feeding him porridge for breakfast made with full fat goats milk (he doesn't seem to tolerate gluten either and but he seems ok with oats). This does seem to have helped.
Sorry can't help with commercial foods as he's on a raw diet, maybe that would be worth a try then you can choose fattier meats? Though the really fatty cuts go straight through Obi
Recently he went off his raw diet and I tried him on Naturediet (which I think is a great food) but the weight fell off him even though he was eating 3 packs a day.
I know how you feel, I've spent years trying to keep weight off my lab, now I'm finding it a struggle to keep it on my spaniel
How thin is he? Do you have a picture?
I've also heard that 'Satin balls' are good for putting weight on, not tried them though!
http://dfordog.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=57
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We have had trouble with Sage holding her weight, but now feed her tripe (the frozen blocks) with mixer biscuit. With Deefa we have the opposite problem. Sage is fed twice the amount that Deefa gets a day and they both seem to maintain a healthy weight. If Sage starts dropping weight, we keep her on the same rations but switch her to two meals a day. If her weight is staying steady we feed her once a day.

Hi

Thanks for the advice, that's really helpful. He's fairly steady weightwise at 13 kg - I've been told he should be around 22kg. Hopefully with the right diet and rest after ligament surgery he'll fatten up nicely.

I've been told by vet that if he (the dog!!) is neutered he will put weight on - is this true?

Some do, some don't.
I think it's more likely that as the dog gets older, it puts on weight because it is less lively. Not really anything to do with neutering

Tripe is fantastic I would highly recommend you giving it a try (well, not you, your dog )

Stellar weighs 15kg and is quite stocky and muscular - Rufus weighs 17kg, and looks decidedly skinny - though i think it is just his build - lanky I feed Rufus about 30%more than Stellar, and am thinking of increasing this further still - though my OH says i'm worrying over nothing as he is full of energy and has a lovely glossy coat

We started feeding tripe when we moved down here (February) and I have to say, all the dogs are looking really well on it. Teal, has always been difficult to keep weight on as she is just so active but tripe has done the trick. We give them tripe and biscuit in the morning and Chudleys in the evening.

Helen