My doberman is only 2 and she has a healthy appetite but she has always been so thin. You can see her bones. Our other doberman is 1 and she is not skinny at all, they eat the same food at the same times. Why is my 2 yr old so skinny. She doesn't have worms or any other other health issues according to my vet. Help

I have the same problem with one of my dogs. It seems like she eats all the time but she has no fat on her body. I just figure it's because she's so active and never seems to stop moving. The only thing I can think of doing is getting a better brand of dog food for "active" dogs. One that has meat instead of rice or corn for the first ingredient. I worked in a pet supply store and started feeding my other dog some of the "good" food they had there. It really made a difference in how healthy his coat looked. So I figure having food with more sustinance would help our skinny dog. I haven't tried it yet but I'm going to go get her some new food today. WHat kind of food do you feed your doberman? It's worth a shot anyway. It is much more expensive than store bought dog foods but it's usually worth it!

I feed my dobermans Nature's Choice, it has no bi-products and no artificial colors. The research I've done indicates it is a good food, but we do buy the rice formula. Do you think it is worth trying the one with meat? It is just so peculiar because our other dobe is not thin at all.

I just went to the place I use to work the other day and asked about a good food to help our dog gain some weight. What they gave me is called Innova EVO. It's high in protein (42%) and has more calories (1929/lb). You can read about it at http://www.naturapet.com/display.php?d=inn-home
You can also read about the other foods they have. Our dog seems to like it but I have only had her on it for about 3 days so I can't tell much yet. Every dog is different, of course, so I wouldn't necessarily compare your skinny dog to the other one. So, a new dog food is worth a shot. If it doesn't seem to change anything you can go back to the old dog food since she otherwise seems healthy. Let me know what you decide and I'll keep you posted on whether it seems to be working for my dog!

You can also buy the food in dry or canned formula.

Thanks for the tip. I was just reading about it and it does sound great. Is the cost a lot more than other high end dry foods that are already out there?

It costs around $45 for I think it's about a 16 lb bag. This seems high but you also feed them less of the good stuff compared to the cheaper food so it actually lasts about the same as a 40-50lb bag of the cheap stuff. We feed one of my dogs a different kind of Innova and we had to cut back on how much we fed him because he was getting fat. You'll have to check in your area to see if anywhere sells Innova. I'm not sure what places like Petco have but you could check somewhere like that. Around here we have Pet Giant and Pet Pantry and that's where I get my food. Places usually have samples that they will give you to try out! You could probably find something similar to Innova if you ask around.

The first thing I would try would be more of what you are feeding. Jumping around from one food to another can cause problems later. Also sudden changes can cause digestive upsets. Different dogs have different body chemistries. A few years ago I had to feed a small Lab 6 cups a day of Pro Plan compared to the 3-4 cups for most of my Labs. The charts on the food bags are only a starting place. The only reliable guide is the dogs ribs, see http://www.puppychow.com/products/po...condition.aspx

There is no reason to pay $45 for 16 pounds of dog food. I get a 37 pound bag of Pro Plan for about $30. I have seen over a thousand dogs that were thriving on it, fine, healthy, lean, young dogs. This is a picture of some of them plus some older dogs:

http://www.photolocker.net/images/La...thbirthday.jpg

Has he been checked for worms?

Do you not even look at the date, this is a 3 year old thread,

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