[ACHILLESDOBE1]

My puppy is 5.5 months old and hasn't had much of an appetite since I've gotten him at 3 months old. He will take a few bites and that's it. I've tried switching foods and tried switching eating schedule. My pup is about 55-60 lbs. but he is extremely skinny and tall. Does anyone have any advice how to get him to eat more or know why he is like this?

 

[melbrod]

Any possibility that he could be carrying a load of worms??

If you could manage to post a picture, it might help us to see just how skinny he is--everybody's eyes being different.

 

[ACHILLESDOBE1]

I dont think so because he has been to the vet quite recently and has had all his shots. my vet thinks he is fine but i know how little he eats and it seems unusual of any dog to eat this little. he wont even eat table food all the way he will take afew bites and go lay down or walk around looking at everythig else. I will try to post a few pictures maybe you are right he might not seem skinny to others but to me he is. thanks for the reply.
:smile5:

 

[Adara]

Are his parents good eaters? Grandparents? It's something I always ask the breeder. I've seen too many picky Dobermans not to ask.

I would try putting food down for 10 minutes. Pick it up unemotionally. Try again at the next meal. Repeat repeat repeat. See if you can condition him to be a better eater.

 

[ACHILLESDOBE1]

Thanks for the advice

I think both of the parents are good eater his dad is 110 Lbs and his mom is 95 lbs.

 

[ACHILLESDOBE1]

Here are some pictures.

 

[ACHILLESDOBE1]

Here are two more anyone please let me know if you think he is too skinny.

 

[suzanne]

It may be the pics but your boy looks older than 5 1/2 months? This is a pic of Murphy at just over 5 months

 

[Adara]

It may be the pics but your boy looks older than 5 1/2 months? This is a pic of Murphy at just over 5 months

I think this puppy's parents were oversized though at 110 and 95 lbs. Might be why he looks bigger/older?

 

[melbrod]

He looks a bit slender and lanky but not horrendously so. Has he ever had a phase where he looked chubby to you? Sometimes puppies get chubby, then do a growing spurt and get thin, and then go back to chunkier again as they grow. What is his energy like--does he run around and play vigorously or just mope around?

Feeding too much won't make a puppy grow taller--he will likely grow to whatever height and weight he is born to be. If he is playing and looks bright eyed and shiny, he may just be going to be a smaller dog. Or he may be a late bloomer. He will probably not hit his full muscle weight until he is close to two.

 

[vivienne00]

He isn't skinny. He is just not heavy boned. His chest is shallow at this stage of his growth and that makes him look thinner than he is. He hasn't developed the width you may be expecting. He doesn't look underweight to me. It is fairly normal to be able to see ribs when the pup lies down on their side like that since he hasn't yet developed much muscling (and there is very little muscling over the ribs in any case).

I agree that 110lbs and 95lbs are excessive weights for a doberman - which is a medium sized breed, not large, not giant. It may be that the parents are either very large boned and over tall, and/or they are overweight and your pup looks thin by comparison.

How many meals do you feed and how much food at each meal and what type of food?

 

[alaisa]

When I first took Blitzen in for shots, he was about 12 weeks and weighed in at 15 pounds. We were worried about his weight and the vet said that he did look a little skinny, although doberman puppies will always be very lean. The vet was worried it might be worms so he did a fecal exam, etc, but Blitz was clear. At the time he was on Blue Buffalo Lamb and Rice adult food which my breeder had the puppies on originally. My vet recommended that we continue to feed him the 1 cup a meal 3 times a day as we had been, but to add either a low sodium chicken broth or some cottage cheese to his bowl and mix it around to encourage him to eat (at the time we would feed him and he would eat a few pieces and literally not touch the bowl again... regardless of whether he had eaten much of his previous meal or not... it was scary!)
The boyfriend and I spent about a month practically spoon feeding the little guy using chicken broth, cottage cheese, peanut butter... basically the works in order to get him to actually eat some of his food. It was really stressful and frustrating however just a few weeks and he's now 25 pounds and looking much better so it was definitely worth it.
We started changing his food over to NutroMax, which doesn't seem as quality as Buffalo but Blitzen will eat it without any encouragement so looks like we're sticking with it!
Anyway, low sodium chicken broth, cottage cheese, and peanut butter worked for me.

 

[naturaldobe]

He looks like a lanky doberteen to me. I had someone tell me that Peyton is too skinny today, until i remembered that her dog is an obese bulldog. Dobermans are supposed to be lean and it seems like larger dogs like Dobes (not large, but larger) can often be skinny, lanky teenagers and it just takes them a little while to fill out. Better to have him on the lean/thin side than on the fat side anyway.

 

[lynz]

he looks ok to me too. Cayden is the same all legs and completely thin looking. I will take a pic of him today to let you see.