Too skinny?

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Baxter Tiberius

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Hi everybody! I just went to an English bulldog meet up, and Baxter looked like a chemotherapy patient compared to all the other dogs. I know most of them were horribly obese. But still. I think kibble food has tons of fillers, lots of carbohydrates, and that tends to make dogs fat.

Baxter has not been on kibble since his first couple weeks. Only whole foods. However he eats nearly 1.5lbs of it daily, and doesn't even poop very much. So I know its all getting absorbed! But he simply will not gain body plump-ness. At the meet up there was another five-month-old puppy there, pictured below, who in person, was literally twice the size of Baxter. Both in the torso barrel area, and overall. Baxter has always been at least 40% smaller than other dogs his age. But the body fat issue is separate.

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Here is the other dog, you really can't tell how much bigger he is than Baxter, but it was dramatic. His name is Lincoln and I couldn't stop jiggling his roles. He was so cute. You can follow him on Instagram at @meet_lincoln

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I finally found the Holy Grail of dog foods. Locally farm grown with incredible ingredients. You have to read it in a circle to see. But his poop has normalized and he eats literally 1.5 lbs of it per day. Still, I assume due to the lean nature of the food, he won't gain that normal bully chubbiness.

IMAGE_23.jpg


Kevin
 
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Pati Robins

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Hes a bit on a skinny side -but not that much -better skinny than fat ;-) Lily is a small bulldog compared to her litter mates ,bullies come in all shapes and sizes

I would up his food a bit and observe ,even if he put on weight he might be the way hes built , knowing that he have leg problems you would need to keep him on the leaner side
 
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Baxter Tiberius

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I wanted to up his food, but I am not sure. I spoke to the founder of the company of the food above (Farm Fresh), in person. He said 1lb per day is a lot of food. Baxter is doing 1.5lbs per day and still looks like the above. I suppose I could up him to 2lbs or 2.5lbs but that is literally 5x as much as the guy suggested. Baxter has huge huge huge paws for his body, so part of me wonders if he really does just need more food.

PS: he has been checked for giardia and worms at least 5 times since I got him, randomly by various vets. No abnormalities.
 

MommaLovesDEXTER

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Hi Kevin! Baxter looks like he is still a young pup. Dexter went thru the same skinny stage when he was getting taller. But after he turned 10 months he started filling sideways. He is now 65 lbs not obese we fed him Blue buffalo since we got him at 11 wks. And now eats only once a day. He is fine don't worry first they get tall and then they fill out sideways.
 

Pati Robins

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Sorry Kevin im not good will the pounds etc - if it is 5x more i wouldn't up it
 

Davidh

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He is on the skinny side, pups require more food than adult dogs, so I would up the intake for him and get some weight on him. I don't like overweight bullies as they are not that healthy and it can shorten their life, but a growing pups needs the extra food to develop the way they should. You should not be able to see their ribs, but they should still have a little waist. Plus the only reason bullies eating kibble are obese is because the owners feed them too much. Our bullies are kibble fed and they are not obese. We monitor their weight and adjust their intake accordingly. Here is a pic of Dive when she was 13 months old, kibble fed and no fat on her.

IMAG0202.jpg
 
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nycbullymama

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I agree that he could just be a smaller bullie, which is perfectly fine and works in his favor considering he has hip issues.

You said you're feeding him 1.5lbs per day ( @Pati Robins that's .68 kilos) of the above food. Thing is, it doesn't list the fat or protein percentage of either. I see you're pretty much guessing the amount as a 50lb adult dog should be getting 16oz (1 pound), but it doesn't mention what a pup should get.

I think without knowing the amount of protein and fat it actually has, it would be impossible to guess how much to feed.

Also, I gotta tell you, I'm not thrilled with the ingredient list. This food seems to have a much higher carb content that fat or protein which is not great for a growing pup.

But with the above said, it's a balancing act with growing bullies. You don't want him to grow too fast, but he still needs some fat to develop normally.
 
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aprilemari

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yes i agree with all above, your baby is still a puppy! you can even let him eat until he is full a few days, and take note of how much he is eating to start and calculate then modulate the next time he eats. I remember people feeding kibble mentioning that as a puppy, volume was almost doubled (3 cups / day puppy, 1.5 cups /day adult). Lola was the smallest of her litter and was very small growing up, i was also concerned because we couldn't get her to eat kibble, she just hated it. But in the end, she is now a great healthy weight, actually likes to eat (raw now), and i'm glad she wasn't overweight as a puppy.
 

aprilemari

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Just read the ingredient list too, We feed an all meat/bone/organ raw mix in patty form by NVI. I feed lola 1 pound of this food which is 2% of her body weight. You should feed 2-3% body weight of a food that only has meat/bone/organs in it. All that rice and veggie filler is not actual food for Baxter. Maybe he would do better on an all meat diet.
 

Redsmom

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image.jpgimage.jpgThis is my 5 month old, Shakespeare. He is also very "slender". How much does Baxter weigh? Shakespeare is approx. 20 pounds now. I was concerned about his weight but both vets that we've seen over the past month (to fix his cherry eye) have said that he is very fit and healthy. He is extremely active, and I feed him raw meaty bones (and add in organs, tripe, an occasional egg, yogurt, cottage cheese, Fish Oil, and a small amount of lightly steamed, puréed veggies). I'm thinking with the raw, he's just using everything I'm feeding him, and there's not a lot of extra fillers to add additional weight. I am happy to see another bulldog that looks similar in size to him! :)
 
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Baxter Tiberius

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[MENTION=9666]Redsmom[/MENTION]

Sorry im just now seeing this. Yes they look to be the exact same build. And yes we can both see ribs. Which means a little too lean. Honestly I got away from the raw / organ / bone thing because ... well I have a lot of mixed feelings. I am a believer in whole foods, but I am not convinced anyone has a clue exactly what we're supposed to be giving these dogs. If they did, Baxter should be thriving on that type of diet and he absolutely didn't. Tried lots of different diets and this Farm Fresh stuff is the only thing he has been 100% healthy on. No problems at all. But still even the breeder tells me "He is grossly underweight". He has pictures of baxters brother and sister from the other homes they were adopted out to. So that's his comparison. Im going to keep looking into this. I think a lot of people have a lot of opinions (sometimes very strong ones) but I am not convinced anyone truly holds the key. At this stage I am considering just mixing some fromms in with his current food. With the assumption that whatever it is in kibble which makes EB's obese so often ... maybe in smaller portions will just plump baxter up a little. Fingers crossed.
 

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