Keeping your doodle at their ideal weight is an essential part of keeping your doodle happy and healthy. Maybe you need to help your doodle gain weight because your doodle is looking a little skinny. Identifying abnormalities in your doodle’s weight and being able to respond to their weight fluctuation can help to keep your doodle healthy. 👍

Identifying a Skinny Doodle

The weight of our doodles is one of the most important health components to pay attention to and weight fluctuation is definitely one of the easiest for us to control as owners. It can be fairly easy to tell if our doodles are underweight. Observing and feeling your doodle ribs and pelvic bones 🦴 near the base of the tail to see how prominent they are. If your doodle has a lot of fur and is really fluffy you may need to feel them or wet their fur to take a proper look. If these bones are prominent and there is a lack of fat in that area it is likely that your doodle is underweight. If you find that your doodle is underweight you will need to take action to get your doodle back to a healthy weight. 🥓

Reasons for not Eating

There are many reasons that a doodle may be underweight. Doodles can lose weight due to an illness or an injury. 🩺  They could also be a newly adopted doodle that was poorly cared for in their previous home. Doodles can lack the ideal weight due to the result of recent stress and anxiety or a change in environment. Also some doodles may not be food motivated and not very interested in eating. 

Risks for Underweight Doodles

Doodles that are overweight and underweight can have a negative impact on the overall health of your doodle. There can be many negative side effects for an underweight doodle which can include a weakened immune system making them more susceptible to infections. Some additional medical issues are slowed wound healing and shortened life expectancy to name a few. 🏥

Medical Specific Issues

Oftentimes doodle weight loss can be attributed to your doodle having a medical issue. If you suspect any medical issue your doodle needs to see your veterinarian 🧑‍⚕️ right away to see if there is a medical cause to their low weight. Your doodle may be dealing with an illness or injury that you are unaware of and changing their diet on your own may worsen their medical issue. 

There may also be weight loss related to age with older doodles. These older doodles need to be taken to the veterinarian to double check the cause of their weight loss. 

Oral health can also be a contributor to weight loss. 🦷 Dental issues and cavities can cause pain when eating which can lead to weight loss for your doodle. Brushing your doodle’s teeth once a week can help prevent oral problems for your doodle. You can also take your doodle to your veterinarian to have their teeth professionally cleaned just like when us humans go to the dental hygienist. 🪥

Weight Gain How to

Getting your doodle to gain weight is fairly simple but it may require a little bit of trial and error since each doodle is unique. Even small changes in what and how you are feeding your doodle could have a big impact. 👍

If you are only offering food to your doodle twice per day then you could try more frequent feedings. You could give them 3 or 4 small meals throughout the day or you could try free feeding until they are back up to a healthy weight. Of course free feeding will most likely only work in a single dog household where a second dog would not eat the underweight dog’s food unsupervised. In addition, feeding your dog prior to bed when they can’t burn off the calories that they have just eaten can help them gain more weight. 🛏️

The best food choice to help you doodle gain weight needs to be chosen according to their age (life stage), highly digestible, high levels of essential nutrients, high in protein and fats. Some human foods that can be added to their dog food to help them gain weight include rice, pumpkin and potatoes. One of the most beneficial foods to add is eggs 🥚 since they are high in protein and healthy fats. 

Increasing your doodles overall calorie consumption should cause gradual weight gain that will be visible in several weeks. At this point doodles may need to have their meal routine reevaluated so that your doodle doesn’t continue to gain weight and end up overweight. You may have to consider the type of food and the amount of food your doodle is eating. 🐕

Picky Doodle Issues

Some doodles are just pickier than others and they may not be very food motivated. 

There are some options that you can try out like adding a bit of water to your doodle’s dry food and letting it soften up. The water releases more of the scent and taste of the dry food and can encourage your doodle to eat. Or you can try mixing your dogs dry food with wet food to see if they like that more. Adding fresh meat 🥩 and doodle safe vegetables to your doodles food may also encourage them to eat more. 

If none of these ideas work you may need to completely switch to a different dog food that your doodle prefers. 

Conclusion

Keeping an eye on your doodle’s weight is an essential part to keeping them healthy and happy. If you have any questions about your doodle’s ideal weight or if you need any further information on helping your doodle gain weight don’t hesitate to contact your veterinarian. 🧑‍⚕️