While Neo has always been on the thin side, even at 65lbs he looks like skinny minny. He started looking really rough the last two weeks. His hip bones started sticking out a bit, and I could see his ribs. He wasnt eating his food hardly at all, and I was wondering if he was sick. His last vet workup was perfect, so I wasnt sure what could have been making him not want to eat and loose weight! Well, I think I figured out the culprit. I am a horrible mom. I stepped back and looked at the amount of treats I was feeding him, and the amount of cheese stuffed kongs he was getting. No wonder he wasnt eating. I was starving the poor dog by feeding him too many treats! So starting fresh, he only gets one treat a day, and a stuffed kong only if I or Brad will be gone for an extended period of time. I also switched him from the Blue Wilderness to the Wilderness puppy, because it has about 100 more calories per serving. I looked into calorie paste, but it only provided 10 calories per serving! Not worth the cost imo. He now gets 1/2 can of the wilderness puppy and 1/2 can of wilderness wet food in the morning, and in the afternoon he gets 1/2 can of wilderness puppy, 1/2 can od wilderness wet food, and either a chicken quarter or some pork neck and the occasi9onal liver thrown in. I hope he soon starts looking like a dog instead of a walking skeleton. He has always been thin, but the bones showing are too much for me. Wish us luck! He now gobbles up his food like a champ without the treats!


Ill add a before pic, and hopfully see a difference before too long!

heres some pics of his skinny butt

I hope this works for neo, and good job on catching the treats. I'm not a huge treat fan unless there is a reason for it. Right now its if we leave the house they get half a costco bone and we do a sweet potato treat before bed and that's it. They get what ever veggie I'm cutting up as well during dinner. Maybe the weekends they get a few more if were in and out of the house but they know that's when they get treats and don't beg me or sit infront of the treat door cause they know when they get something. Keep us posted

I'd agree to the limited treat idea, to me they are like candy bars for people.

Adobo & Biko receive a small biscuit when we leave for work and when we return home thats it.

Siku looked like that over the summer after she blew coat. I started feeding her about a half a cup more and she looked better after a few weeks. One thing you can do is to use his food as treats.

Oh geez, Kody weighed 47lbs at his last check up, but I think he should probably be about 50lbs now and he's a total SKINNY MINNY, but boy does this boy eat..lol. He has a cup and 1/2 of wellness core kibble in the morning and then either half a cup of THK and 2 raw drumsticks or 3 raw drumsticks and grean beans for dinner. Throw in baby carrots as treats (he probably has about 5 or them a day) and I think he definitely eats a lot. Still super skinny though...no tummy issues either I think he'll just fill out over time. He's only a year and 3 months old.

Good luck with Neo!!! It was so hard for me to cut out the treats for Mya when she went on her "diet", but now she's used to only baby carrots and doggie treat every now and then.

Good job on noticing and correcting the situation, Jill! I'm sure he'll start filling out before you know it.

Other measures that may help is making a Kong filling mix that includes his kibble in the mix. Satin balls (you can google recipes) are a great way to help put on weight as well. Another thing that can help is feeding heavier meat sources such as lamb, beef, or pork instead of the lighter meats like chicken, turkey, and fish for example. Feeding different treats can also be beneficial (depending on what treats you use). Using things like kibble or complete foods such as Stella & Chewy's freeze dried patties or Natural Balance meat rolls, both of which are complete foods, as a treat instead can help Neo get the nutrition he needs rather than filling up on empty calories. I also prefer meat treats (such as chicken, duck or pork fillets/jerky) or organ based treats (such as freeze dried beef/chicken liver or lamb lung) over vegetable or heavy grain based treats like a lot of biscuits are made of. It sounds like you're already on the right track but maybe some of the above suggestions could help in addition to what you're already doing.