my 10 month old boxer

Question
QUESTION: I weighed my pup today, shes 45 lbs and 10 1/2 months old.. Shes being very very picky with her food. Shes skinny, i can count her ribs.. Help!! what can i do to fatten her up and what should she weigh? I can email pic if needed.

ANSWER: Hi Char,

Puppies  grow at different rates, so it's hard to put a number on what she "should" weigh; general condition is a more reliable indicator of proper weight.  It's better for them to be a little thin than a little fat; you should be able to see the outline of the last few ribs.  If you're seeing all the ribs, she might only need to add a pound or two; if the spine and hips are prominent, she is definitely underweight.  In general to add weight, you feed more food, but in your case you'll need to address the pickiness first.

Has she always been picky with her food?  What are you feeding?  Is she spayed?  If the pickiness is a recent thing, and she's unspayed, she may be coming into season or (if she's recently been in) going through a false pregnancy.  If she's always been picky, it may be that she just doesn't like the food you're giving her.  You might try switching her food - there are several kibbles that are higher-quality and fairly readily available, like Canidae, Innova, Blue Buffalo, Solid Gold, etc.; not all foods will work for all dogs, and it's generally recommended that you rotate foods every 3-4 months (some people rotate every big (35-40 lb.) bag), so you might start with some smaller bags and see which ones work (she likes them and they don't cause her digestive issues) and which ones don't.  You do need to take some time when switching, generally about two weeks gradually replacing the old food with the new, to avoid digestive upset.  

You can add some healthy extras to her food, in reasonable amounts - eggs, yogurt, cottage cheese, hamburger, chicken are common additions - but you want to be careful not to a) upset the nutrient balances in her foods and b) crate a situation where she'll only eat if there's something 'extra' in her food.  Dogs won't starve themselves to death if they don't like their food, but they may go several days without eating.  Another thing to try, if you aren't already, is only allowing her a certain amount of time to eat.  When you feed her, put the food down for 15 minutes and then pick up the bowl - whatever she doesn't eat in 15 minutes is forfeited until the next meal.  (You'll need to evaluate your own food safety issues as to whether you can keep the food for next time or you need to dump it right away.)  Don't feed her extra at the next meal - she gets her regular amount each meal, and 15 minutes to eat it.  Often once a dog learns that the food is only available for a limited time, they eat with gusto.  

A search for "Whole Dog Journal Dry Foods" should bring up a fairly recent list of that publication's recommended kibbles.  As well, www.dogfoodanalysis.com has a wealth of information on many kibbles and ranks them according to their opinions on various ingredients.  (They do explain those opinions so that you can make your own evaluation as well.)

Good luck!

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: OK. She has gone thru 3 different kinds of food since i got her. Now i am feeding her ol roy kibbles and bits, half a can a of wet pedigree, one egg and a little water.. she will eat that and then later for dinner jsut dry and she wont eat it. She is Not spayed, she is season. Has been for a wk now. With that lately shes been very agressive towards me, biting when i pull her off my couch, she dont give kisses anymore. Today, she pooped and smeared poop all over her crate. A 80 dollar crate she destroyed in a week...

Answer
Being in season often brings with it some behavioral changes.  If she's not feeling well or has some discomfort, pulling her off the couch may aggravate things - you'd probably be better off training her a good "off" cue so that you only have to tell her to get off the couch, rather than pulling her.  Defecating in the crate may or may not be an issue - at her age she may still have the occasional accident.  I would certainly look into a different food; Ol' Roy is generally considered pretty low quality, with a lot of fillers (fillers mean undigested food; the more fillers going in, the more waste coming out!) - you'll also find you probably feed as much as twice the amount of Ol' Roy as you will a quality food like Canidae etc.  

Since she is in season now, she may put on some weight in any case because she won't be getting as much exercise as she usually gets, especially if you have a fenced yard where she can run when she's not in season.  Three weeks of limited exercise does tend to add a couple of pounds. :)  

You might also want to do some Nothing In Life Is Free (NILIF) work with her - even without being in season, she's approaching the age where she'll be testing her boundaries; NILIF is never a bad idea and may nip some inappropriate behaviors in the bud.

http://k9deb.com/nilif.htm