• If you're a past member of the board, but can't recall your password any more, you don't need to set up a new account (unless you wish to). As long as you recall your old login name, you can log in with that user name then select 'forgot password' and the board will email you at your registration email, to let you reset your password.

Kos is getting too skinny :S

arasara

Well-known member
Ugh.. I have decided my "little" boy is anorexic.. .. ..

I know everybody says dogs won't starve themselves and I believe that, but Kosmo keeps losing weight and if he loses anymore I will be worried about him.

Linda says her sacle is 2lbs off and he weighed in at 16.2 on Saturday - which would put him at 14.2.. coming from somebody that used to be a solid 16 (and looking good) that's a lot of weight.

He looks somewhere between the first cavalier picture and the second cavalier picture on Laura Lang's feeding page, but the first cavalier looks to have a broader chest than Kos - he's just thin all the way down.

I don't think he's really eating any less, but with Faith and the weather getting nice I think he's just exercising more.

We have a vet appt in about another month or so and I will ask her what she thinks then.. I don't think he's too skinny right now as we speak, but if he loses any more I think he's going to be on the line..

Typically he eats about 1/4 cup a day or every other day.. :yikes (yikes, I know) He's always offered 1/2 cup. (1/4 in the morning and 1/4 in the evening)

He doesn't like other kinds of dog food than Evo and God Forbid I even try that route right now with this recall going on.

HMM so what to do with a fussy borderline anorexic dog?! Should it come to that are there any good tips on getting Cavaliers to gain weight?

Thanks Guys :flwr:
 
Last edited:
I think I'd want to see a vet sooner rather than later with a dog that won't eat and is losing weight but also to get a proper weight taken, not relying on someone's home scales (often very inaccurate at low weights). Rapid weight loss is always a concern as is lack of appetite if the dog will not eat enough to thrive. There could be many reasons and if a vet has concerns as well, it would be wise to start to look for reasons as fast as possible.

A lot of dogs do fine on 1/4th a cup of dry food daily though (as Laura notes). That is what my mom's cavalier eats and she weighs about 13.5 lbs. Lily eats only a bit more than that and gets tons of exercise.
 
Thanks for your advice Karlin.

he's lost about 2lbs in the last 2 months.. (well since Faith came)

I think his shots can come a little early so when I get home I may pull them out and make an appt with the vet.. if it's only a matter of a couple of weeks then she should be able to advise me when I go there anyways, right?

he acts fine but he's just skinny.. when you pick him up he's very light compared to Faith who feels like a brick.

Is 1/4cup/day or every other day unusual for a cavalier? He will eat 1/2 cup but it's a rare occasion - like less than once a month kind of deal.
 
Sara, Would Kosmo eat more if you offered it regularly?

Geordie eats 2/3 cup a day of Evo, plus snacks - healthy biscuits, veg and fruit bits. He looks very lean with a defined waistline, but not skinny.

I feed my girls the equivalent to 1/2 cup of Evo a day.

Our breeder told us not to let them get too thin, so if I can feel their spines I feed them a little more. I don't want to feel spines or jutting hip bones on my cavs.
 
Thanks for your advice Karlin.

he's lost about 2lbs in the last 2 months.. (well since Faith came)


Is this the clue? has it knocked him off balance a bit, maybe he's running around more with Faith and losing weight?
 
Cathy,

I offer it to him all day long.. well i have been lately since he hasn't wanted to eat much.. since Faith is in her pen all day I will leave the food down while I'm at work and 9x out of 10 it's still there when I get home.. :s Then it goes back down when they get their evening meal.. I will see him go into the kitchen about 10:00 wanting food.. he's a weird guy.. he only wants to eat on his terms. Maybe I should wait till Faith crashes at night and then let him eat so he can eat in peace

He does eat his treats but he doesn't get those often - just when we leave in the morning for work *go to your bed treat* and if I take him to the field across the road and take off his leash I will take charlee bears and break them in half to work on recall. . .

Do they eat the full 1/2 cup Cathy? I think Kos was fine before Faith came into the picture but now he's exercising twice as much and still eating the same as he was - so he's losing weight.. :S

I am scared to death to try anything new from this food recall.. it's really scary..

I may see if I can get some freeze dried liver crunchies or something to sprinkle over the top of his food to get him to eat more.

maybe the vet will have a suggestion - but I will not switch to any kind of vet food right now with this crap going on :s
 
yes george that's exactly right

I know he's losing because he's exercising more and eating the same

I just don't want him to lose any more because then he'll be too thin.. .. ..

And the food I offer him now he doesn't even eat it all so I'm confused on how to make him maintain instead of keep losing
 
Sara--maybe you could put something yummy on his food like yogurt (regular, not fat free or low fat). Horizon makes a organic/natural yogurt that is vanilla flavored. My dogs LOVE it and it's pretty healthy, too--though you don't want to give them too much dairy. What about cheese cubes for treats or on his food? That would give him some extra fat in his diet...
 
Sara, I feed them twice a day, so they eat everything when I feed them, and I'm sure they'd eat more if they had the opportunity. When they get additional exercise, I adjust their food (add a little extra) the same day or the next day.

Has anyone noticed that the males need more food than the females, for the most part? Males tend to be a little bigger than the females. That's why Geordie gets 2/3 cup and the girls only get 1/2 cup per day to maintain their weight.
 
Good Idea Denise.. I'll give that a try.

Maybe I'll get some meat and put it in there with the cheese too??

I give them some yogurt drops in the morning as treats - they are supposed to be pretty high in vitamins and I know that the benefits of yogurt are fantastic so I've been giving them those regularly..

They get these:

http://www.animalworldnetwork.com/bvitchocdrop.html

Thanks for the idea.. I wonder what the vet will suggest?
 
Cathy I experience the opposite! yikes! lol

I have heard that boys are typically bigger than girls so they get more food becaues of that, but Faith would eat all day and all night if I let her.

Avi told me he was going to feed her until she stopped eating just to see how much she would eat :rolleyes: Men.. .. ..

Kos doesn't seem to be too picky about what treats he spits out since faith came home so I do have to be happy for that i suppose :)

He will now eat those yogurt drops (where he wouldn't before) and those wellness wellbites (which he wouldn't before either.) so at least we can add some variety to his treats :)
 
Shelby gets 1/3 cup and Jake gets 2/3 cup of CA Natural. Jake definitely needs more than Shelby but he's much bigger than her and much much more active. He would chase a ball until he collapses if I let him. Shelby actually neds to drop a little weight whereas Jake is perfect at his current weight.
 
If my husband has not been home all day, I'd have to be a fool to try and feed her within 1/2 of him coming in. Often its dinner time and she is hungry because as I start preparing she jumps about my feet - but if that door opens and in walks my husband, daugher or heavens forbid her boyfriend (who Kodee wants to run away with and marry) she will run from that food and want to only play with whoever arrived. People mean more to her than food that simple.

So on that note, maybe faith is not doing anything wrong, its not her fault but for whatever reason kosmo's eating has been disrupted with her appearance. perhaps feeding him like you mentioned when she is down for the night and he appears looking for food might get him started on eating more and in time he will fuss less over it.

Fussy eaters will find any excuse not to eat. I could one chicken breast a wk and cut up into 3 day portions (freeze 2) and use that to sprinkle on her food, or grated low fat cheddar or just a spoon dipped in plain low fat yogurt. For her the surprise of which keeps her interested enough to eat a little at her slow meal.
 
Do you feed Faith and Kos together? Perhaps he just wants his space when he eats. It could be territorial (Faith can be a bit dominating with her presence icon_whistling ) or just "First child syndrom"

Stewie is like this and is so stubborn that he wouldn't eat for days after we got Cody and Wesley. I would call him for dinner with the rest of the "lowly dogs" and it was like he was offended to be considered one of them and he refused to budge :rolleyes: . lol. I brought the food to him in a different room (he felt special again) and the problem was solved.
 
LOL Monica.. that's hilarious! thanks for giving me a chuckle.. maybe he feels "underneath" and would rather eat without her there.. he does want to eat about 10:00PM for some weird reason.. by that time Faith has already crashed .. I don't mind when he wants to eat - as long as he eats..

He doesn't eat the same food as her in the AM.. she eats NV RAW in the mornings and Evo in the evenings along with him.. .. He won't even look at the raw so I don't bother trying to give it to him in his bowl anymore.. I always take about a grape size on a fork and try to make him eat off of that but he hasn't accepted that even one time :sl*p: oh well
 
A friend of mine had a dog that lost too much weight while she had him kenneled for a few weeks. Her vet told her to add some high quality chicken broth to his food every day. You can buy some good quality broths in the organic section of the supermarket, in paper boxes that you can reclose and keep in the fridge. You might try adding a little of that to his dry food--it might make all the difference to his willingness to eat--my dogs love broth.
 
Last edited:
Fergus was very fussy about his food for about the first year and would barely eat anything dog food wise. I then started to cook food for him in big batches with meat and rice and vegies and his eating really improved. I would still get your little one checked by the vet but that was something that worked for us. After a year he started to eat much better but he's still by no means a big eater.
 
Sara

I do agree that Kosmo has lost weight, but as you said he is much more active now compared to when little Miss Faith arrived.

Whenever I have seen Kosmo and added chicken breast or stewing beef or even hamburger to his EVO he has always gobbled it up.

I would definetely try adding some to his kibble and some veggies too.

Giving his some cheese for treats is a good idea too, I would also give him a multivitamin.

Darby also looks thin, he is very long.
We have a Vet appointment next Saturday, I will ask if she thinks he is too thin. When Frank took him to be neutered in Dec she said he was perfect and he is heavier now. I also think he looks thinner because his coat has not come in yet either.
 
Wait a sec, am I feeding charlie too much? He's 6 months old and about 11 lbs and I feed him 1/2 a cup in the morning and night. His weight seems to be fine but I'm worried this is too much?
 
A friend of mine had a dog that lost too much weight while she had him kenneled for a few weeks. Her vet told her to add some high quality chicken broth to his food every day. You can buy some good quality broths in the organic section of the supermarket, in paper boxes that you can reclose and keep in the fridge. You might try adding a little of that to his dry food--it might make all the difference to his willingness to eat--my dogs love broth.
Oh I love this idea! Kodee weight is good the vet says but she can bounce to thin. But more important she is loosing teeth now and i noticed sometimes she works on one little piece and it pops out of her mouth and she picks it up again - its sad to watch. She didnt like the water softening it but your broth idea sounds more appealing! Sorry Sara for stealing the thread for a sec!
 
Back
Top