My puppy is so skinny, I can feel his bones. How to help him gain weight?

Most puppies should be proper weight if they are getting fed puppy food, and in his case large breed puppy food. If you are concerned about his weight, then I would recommend getting him checked to ensure he isn't losing nutrition due to intestinal parasites, which is the #`1 cause for weight loss in puppies. Otherwise, he may just be naturally lean. I can see his ribs there but he is laying down, if he stands and his ribs are still readily pronounced, then he may be a tad bit underweight. Also if he has any loose stool, this can indicate other internal organ issues that should be checked by your vet. If he has an underlying issue that is not treated, then no matter what you feed him, he will continue to be undersized. I hope that things work out well for your pet Thunder and that his weight normalizes soon! Best wishes and take care.

If your vet has deemed him underweight, then he could have intestinal parasites, Addison's disease or even cancer has to be considered if he is an older dog. I would recommend starting with a vet visit for a fecal exam and baseline bloodwork to get things checked out and determine his current health status. I hope this helps and I also hope that Teddy is overall ok. Here is a website link also for a guide on determining your pets body conditon score. https://www.wsava.org/sites/default/files/Body%20condition%20score%20chart%20dogs.pdf Best wishes and take care.

Hi, thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Poor Teddy! Since you are describing him as skinny I worry about medical causes for his anorexia. I would deworm him even if the stool is negative and have a stool sample checked. I have blood work ran to check his kidneys. If all the blood work comes back normal I would do a maldigestion/malabsorption profile (B12, folate, TLI, PLI), a bile acid to test liver function and test him for Addison's disease. Then I would ultrasound him to look for enlarged lymph nodes and thickened intestines that would suggest Inflammatory Bowel disease. I hope this helps and I wish you and Teddy the best!

Hi, thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! I would have his stool checked for intestinal parasites and be sure he has been dewormed a few times. You can increase the volume of food at each meal by 25%. And see if that improves his weight in 2 weeks. Be sure he is seeing a vet for vaccines. Good luck!

Finn is a very cute boy! At this point I would recommend to feed a high-quality and easy to digest dog food brand such as Royal Canin, Science Diet or Purina Pro Plan. Since he is not yet one year old, make sure to buy the large breed puppy formula. I would also recommend to increase his food intake to 4 cups a day and monitor him closely that he does not get too much weight gain. Once he is an adult dog, you can change him to an adult large breed formula. Make sure he’s up-to-date on his deworming as well. I think at this point, give him time to gain weight with a high-quality food and an increase food content. Then go from there if needed. I hope this helps and please post again with any further questions.

If you can’t increase the volume of food the pups will eat, try to increase the calorie content. Also making sure you feed a high quality food will ensure that the pups absorb the nutrients appropriately. I like Royal Canin and Purina Pro Plan. You will find information about the calories on the side of the package. They are called Kcalories in dog food. I hope this is helpful and please feel free to post any additional questions.

I would recommend a really good deworming since he is young. However it would be best to take a fecal to the vet to determine if he has parasites and if so what kind. If he does not have any parasites I would recommend a food change. I would try a basic diet like purina, royal canine, or science diet puppy food.