Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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Does anyone have problems keeping weight on their tripods? Sonja's weight will go up and down but she just looks skinny to me. I don't know if she's just burning extra calories because she runs and plays so much. And she's SO picky about her food. I feed my dogs puppy chow during the day (since they're still technically puppies and for the extra protein) and wet food at night but she hardly looks at it (unless my other dog is interested. She can't have that). I've tried changing their food, but she does the same thing.
I guess I'm just wondering if it's normal for tripods to be thinner and if there's any advice I can get to put some weight on her. Thanks!
Alex, keeping a good weight on a Tripawd has always been a challenge for us too. You want your pup to be thinner than a four legged dog of her size, but not too thin of course. Any extra weight on a Tripawd can do a lot of damage to joins and effect long term health. If you check out this Staying Slim Nutrition blog post, you can visually see if she's under weight at all.
Another thing is that she may need to be eating adult dog food now. Not all dogs mature at the same rate and she could be burning too many calories for that food to be able to replace. I would move her to the best adult dog food you can afford to see if makes a difference.
Pickiness is pretty common among dogs too and is usually a sign that the food isn't rocking their world. How are your other dogs eating the food? Do they all eat together at the same time? If so, you might want to try moving her to another room to see if she will eat. Maybe it's a pack thing and she doesn't want to eat in front of them? Just a guess.
I hope this helps.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
That chart is perfect, thank you! She goes back and forth between a 3 and a 5, so I guess she's doing good overall. I'll try switching to an adult dog food soon.
My other dog, Lacy, isn't picky at all, she eats anything and EVERYTHING, literally. And they eat generally together. Sonja eats first, then Lacy eats. Sonja is very much the dominate of the two so if Lacy tries to eat first, Sonja gets a little snappy. So once Sonja eats what she wants, Lacy comes in and finishes it off.
I'll just be looking around for a higher calorie, adult food that Sonja will take an interest in.
Thank you so much!
alexwilson924 said
That chart is perfect, thank you! She goes back and forth between a 3 and a 5,
That's exactly like our Wyatt. It really takes some doing to get his food intake right but it happens and you'll definitely get there. Glad it helped!
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
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