GREAT DANE WEIGHT GAIN

Question
MY GREAT DANE IS THE RUNT OF THE LITTLE, SHE IS VERY SKINNY, WHAT CAN I GIVE HER TO BEEF HER UP AND NOT LOOK LIKE A DALMATION!! SHE EATS A LOT BUT YOU CAN SEE HER RIBS ABD SHE HAS ALWAYS BEEN THAT WAY SHE IS 8 MOS. OLD AND IM GUESSING 65LBS. WE WANT HER TO BE BIG AND STAUCKEY. ANY IDEAS. PLEASE CALL ME I WOULD LIKE TO TALK
THANKS RENEE

Answer

Max and Gentry While it is not unusual for an 8 mo old great dane to be on the thinner side,especially a female, I cant' tell you without looking at her whether she is too skinny. If you are concerned take her to the vet if you haven't already to rule out medical problems, if she had worms that could cause her to be skinnier.
Make sure you are feeding her a super premium dog food as opposed to store brands like purina,pedigree or Ol Roy to name three. Super premium dog foods are more nutritious and you will feed them less while giving them more nutrition/food at the same time. Store brands have alot of fillers in them which are not nutritious and you end up feeding them alot more to try and get them satisfied. Make sure it is a large breed formula-that is very important because large breed dogs have different nutritional needs than smaller breeds.
Go to this website-http://www.5stardog.com/dog-food.asp- so you can make informed decisions about what food you feed your dog, it tells you about pet food standards,understanding pet food labels,and tells you what ingredients such as meat products,grain products and fats are. It will help you find a good food for your dog that will keep it healthy and give it a longer life. Also, female danes tend to be leaner and less stocky than males so if you're going for big and stocky you may not have her as big and stocky as you want! Keep in mind that great danes continue to grow and fill out for the first 3 yeras of their life so she's got a long ways to go before she's fullgrown, until her growing upward slows down she probably won't fill out as much.I attached a picture of my great dane, we heard danes grow upward until they are 1 yr and then between 1 and 2 yrs they grow outward...He grew upward until he was well past two and filled out and gained weight until now and he's 4, he gained 100 lbs in the time between this last summer's vet visit and the summer before's vet visit. Have faith, yours will get bigger!!!