Hi Guys, I need some help. A lovely person brings a Chi to my ringcraft and it is incredibly nervous and painfully thin. You can see its spine and ribs clearly and its hip bones stick right out. She's only had it a few months, and apparently it was even worse when she got it from the breeder We've tried suggesting stuff to feed it to help put some weight on it. Apparently it wont touch tripe or anything like that. I suggested chicken just because apparently thats one thing it will eat, but she says it just doesnt have much of an appetite. She feeds it two "hamster bowls" of food a day (any idea what a hamster bowl holds???), dry food, a brand i'd never heard of. Can any people with chi experience give me some ideas of what foods i could suggest for her that it might eat. It is a sweet little dog but looks like it could be on an RSPCA advert :-( The owner is trying her best but i know how hard it is to get weight on a fussy eater! And all of mine wolf down the raw food in a second so i dont know what to suggest... Thanks!
Yes, dog has been seen by a vet (that was the first thing we asked too lol) and apparently nothing physically wrong with it, its just very thin. Will have a look at the link, thank you
If my chi hasn't had a good run/exercise she doesn't get a good enough appetite to eat 'properly'. As a vet nurse I would suggest little & often. I would suggest her trying a bit of chicken every hour to get the digestive system functioning which 'should' get her back into the habit of eating. At work we used to see a lot of smaller dogs with eating issues - quite often it was down to the owner turning 'eating' into an issue. Too much stress & tension which put the poor pooch right off its food! Good luck - bet its a horrible situation to be in.
I feed mine JW Kibble (Puppy) and JW Wet Food pouches (again Puppy). They also have a fresh boiled chicken breast between them every mid-morning, for basic training. All of my Chis are pretty piggy but Tiani is a total food picky nightmare. I've done all the "put the bowl down for 20 mins and then take it up and don't give any more food til next meal" but it doesn't work. She can survive on a very small amount of food and so will only eat what she needs to survive, if she doesn't care for the food much. Trouble is, she loves human food, which I hate to give her because I'm not then sure she gets all the balanced nutrients. Anyway, she will have a small handful of kibble in the morning, some chicken for training mid-morning, then tea-time some wet JW. Throughout the day though, she'll eat cheese on toast, scrambled egg, pasta, rice, anything I'm eating really, so I make sure that I eat something that is okay for her for lunch (usually scrambled egg). Anything I cook for her, I make sure I don't use salt or pepper or anything, just plain for her. Letting her eat like that, she maintains her 4lb weight. If I cut out the "human" food, she eats no more dog food. Meaning she loses weight, which I do not want. I have had two Vets check her over and both have said she's a picture of health, just a "picky Chi" which apparently many of them are. Obviously, nobody told the others they are supposed to be picky. They'd eat anything. So, my advice, make sure her Chi is on a good food. They only eat a small amount, being small themselves, so they have to have a quality food. Just pack out with other stuff that the Chi enjoys that is relatively healthy, like eggs, lean meat and cheese, so long as none of those affect her stomach That is what I do for Tiani and she really is one healthy dog
Has she tried her on 4 meals a day rather than 2? This is what I do to get weight on difficult dogs like this, worked for a few different breeds. Also bulk meals up with extra fats, mix butter in. JMO, some may disagree.
Hadn't thought of butter, yes, full of calories/fat. Guess what Tiani's getting in her scrambled egg tomorrow Thanx
