[labs2005]

She is 8 months old now she has always been a bit of a light eater... when we first got her sometimes she would want to eat more than what we gave her & so we would give her more... we got her at about 2 months old & we dewormed her because she had many tapeworms and gave her the 1st shots but for the last 3 months or so she has been eating less & I'm pretty sure she's hungry because you can literally hear her stomach growl but she still won't eat... she's still energetic, runs around, plays with my other 2 muts, loves her kiddie pool, we go out walking everyday... we have tried dry food alone, with can food, can food alone, we have tried ths roll of meat we got at petsmart... still light eater or nothing at all and what worry me is that u can hear her stomach growl what should I do... a friend also mentioned vitanimal b12 shots would increase her apetite... I mean she's skinny u can't see her ribs really but u can feel them... ms.concerned in tx..

[LadySam]

If she is energetic, not having problems with vomiting or diarrhea then you may not have a problem at all. The trick here would be to make sure she is fed a good quality diet so that she gets the most out of what she does eat. Dry food tends to stick to them a little better, while canned will move through the system a little quicker, so make sure her diet is primarily dry. At 8 months she should be still on puppy food. Make sure you check for a feeding guideline on the bag itself, she should be fed according to her weight. Stay away from the cheaper foods, they are mostly empty calories. Personally I have used Science Diet growth for the past 15 years with my pups and in general anybody I needed to put healthy weight on. They make a formula for large breed dogs which is formulated for the rate that their bones and joints develop. There are certainly other foods available that are just as good, that is just my experience. Without knowing firsthand of the others success I cannot recommend them I'll let someone else tell you about those. To add to that a good high quality food should result in less stomach noise and gassiness (if there is any) and result in a nice shiny coat.
Now the fact that you can feel her ribs doesn't neccasarily mean she is thin, you should be able to feel and slightly see her ribs, and when looking from above she should have a "waistline" when viewed from the side she should have a little tuck in her tummy.
Wow, sorry so long, hope this helps a little.

[labs2005]

Thank you very, very much this was definitely helpful and has put me at good ease... I had used iams with my other 2 dogs and I stop because they had stopped selling it at petsmart for a while and so I started using pedigree... and they took just fine but then I began to notice they no longer ate their food in one sitting... so I will try science diet I've heard a lot of good things.