New to doxies and really, dogs all together! And as such, have a question:

[amnamch]

Hello, my name is Amanda and I'm from South Carolina, my doxie's name is Charlie Brown! I stumbled upon this site while searching for dachshunds being too skinny. We rescued him, and when we got him it was obvious that he was being starved. This was about 6 months ago, and he has bulked up since then, of course. I am, however, concerned that he is still too skinny. He eats plenty of dry food, and I feed him wet food(the chunky kind with gravy, not the nasty mushy stuff)every other day. He seems very healthy and happy, but like I said...you can see his little backbone and his chest sticks out very prominently. I tried to take some pictures while he was outside showing his side and top view. Also, glad to be a part of the site! Here is my baby!

 

[HilyBee]

WELCOME!! Charlie Brown seems to suit him well. He's a cutie!!

He looks a tad bit too skinny but not by much. If you can see that much of his spine he's a little too thin, in my opinion. Usually you don't want to see more than the last one or two ribs, and only a little bit at that. Check out Dachshund Nola - her owner is also part of the forum. She has pictures of when her doxie is too fat, too thin and ideal. She's roughly the same size as Charlie and same colors too. The link I added has pics of ideal weight. If you go back through her posts, you can see more about her weight too. Hope this helps!

 

[amnamch]

WELCOME!! Charlie Brown seems to suit him well. He's a cutie!!

He looks a tad bit too skinny but not by much. If you can see that much of his spine he's a little too thin, in my opinion. Usually you don't want to see more than the last one or two ribs, and only a little bit at that. Check out Dachshund Nola - her owner is also part of the forum. She has pictures of when her doxie is too fat, too thin and ideal. She's roughly the same size as Charlie and same colors too. The link I added has pics of ideal weight. If you go back through her posts, you can see more about her weight too. Hope this helps!

Thank you, that does help a lot! Now...how do I beef him up some? Maybe feed him a packet of the beefy wet food every day instead of every other day? Any tips for fattening him up some? Thanks, again, we're glad to be here!

 

[Penny]

Hello and Welcome! Thank you for rescuing! Just add a bit more kibble to his day. When it's hot during the summer, some dogs don't move around much and are more inclined to put on weight. Add some extra kibble, remove some if he begins to have extra weight. I guess I'm concerned that he might come to prefer wet and then not eat the dry stuff.

I'm curious, how much is 'plenty' when you say he eats plenty of the dry and what is his current weight?

 

[HilyBee]

I just add a little extra kibble to my doxie's bowl at each feeding when he needs to gain and take away a little when he needs to lose. I also try to keep his activity level as close to the same as possible so that is less of a factor.