I have a 6month old Visla who my wife continues to say is too skinny. He is a very active dog who I feed the recommended amount of food per bag. You can see his ribs when he is in action and skin is stretched. Other than that, he looks lean and healthy to me. How should he look?
from the reading I have done and People I have talked to I have gathered that the dogs ribs shouldn't be visable but you should be able to feel them with your hand.
Remind your wife that he is young and is growing up right now and after about a year will start to broaden out and little bit. Also Such dogs are built lean and long a little bit like a grey hound. That coupled with the short hair make the dog look skinny. I would compare him to other dogs of the same or simulare breeds.
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from 0-9 months you will probably see the ribs when the dog is in action and there is nothing wrong with that at this point. If you overfeed now the dog will expect to be overfed later on when you don't want the extra weight. Best advice I ever got was just that.
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I have 1 1/2 year old pl, and I get the same thing from the old lady. She has never been one to over eat, and I have gotten to the point that I just leave food in her dish all the time, and she eats when she wants. Weight is not an issue right now, but if it becomes one I will stick to the recommended amounts.
i agree with duckstampede, if the dog has been wormed,by your vet, i think he's fine,some of my more active dogs are the same way,espically the younger ones
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From what my vet says and books I've read. You should be able to see the last two ribs. I own Pointing Labs I'am not sure about Vislas.
If the vet says hes healthy and you feed him the proper amout, I wouldn't worry. A 6 month old is still a puppy and probably still high energy. I am sure he burns fat at a high rate.
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HUNTER ROSE POINTING LABS
I have a two year old GSP that never seems to gain weight. I have done some experimenting with premium quality foods. I currently have him on Timberwolf(?) high performance food. It is designed for dogs that run a lot (or work). He has been at the same weight now for a few months. We hunt on a private club and our season goes to March/April. I'll put up a link if I can find their site. Remember, a light dog is healthier than a heavy dog.
this is what my vet said and is how I keep my dogs.
if you palm the dogs side you should not feel the ribs, but is stick your fingers into the side you should feel ribs
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Your dogs are only as good as what you put into them.
houtsdg & AJ Nav......one of my GSP's was ALWAYS very skinny no matter how much food we fed him. When he was a pup we always fed him the recommended amount and we thought he was too skinny. So we started increasing the amount of food we gave him and no matter how much (basically as much as he could eat) he was always skinny. And this went on when we were hunting him and even in the off season. He's now 4 years old and up until last year he was still "too skinny." Over the past year he has really filled out and now weighs around 80 lbs and is solid muscle and we basically feed him as much as he can eat (which is about a coffee can and a half plus a can of canned dog food)! However, we try to run our dogs for about 10 minutes every day to keep them in shaped when they're not hunting. Based on this experience I would say that it depends on the dog and its metablism and to just feed it as much as it will eat and if you notice the dog is gaining too much weight then just back off the amount of food you give it.
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How Skinny it too Skinny?
