# Feeding advice for a highly strung, but skinny Border Collie with no appetite?



## Girlracer (7 January 2013)

Just after a little bit of advice really. I've had Bonnie, my Border Collie for a year and a half (got her when she was three months old) and she's always struggled with weight. 

Her worming is fully up to date and the vet has never seemed all that worried, but she's just so bony! She weights about 15KG, and is very highly strung with absolutely NO appetite. 

I've tried loads of different things, but I have to be careful because high protein food just sends her mental, like seriously awful. Currently she has about 6 handfuls of biscuits and a can of meet, but rarely will she eat all of this. If I give her any more it just gets left. She won't eat it with oil, and is very fussy with biscuits too. To the point that my puppy was on very tasty james wellbeloved food and she wouldn't touch it, and same goes for a lot of foods.

I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to do really, i'd like her to put a little bit of weight on as I don't like feeling loads of ribs everytime I stroke her  I was wondering whether to get some proper meat from the butcher or similar, whether this may help her appetite?

Cost really doesn't bother me - I want her to be a healthier weight and am willing to try anything.


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## s4sugar (7 January 2013)

What biscuits & meat?

Have you tried tinned Chappie?


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## NeverSayNever (7 January 2013)

she must be a fairly big girlie at 15kg if she is skinny! One of mine is like this and Ive been through a lot different foods. Firstly, I cant recommend switching to raw more strongly. The one thing that has gradually put weight on my girl is a raw diet - lamb mince is ideal as it is high in fat, so is duck. If you are worried about making a balanced diet for her you can get pre-preared tubs from natural instinct which have everything in you need. Or you can order small packs of mince from various suppliers like durham animal feeds and berriwood. (google will bring up their websites). Secondly, try feeding her 3 to 4 smaller meals per day if you havent already.  Is she spayed yet? Once she is she will be more likely to gain weight anyway but the fact is some collies are just really hard to keep weight on and are particularly bad as youngsters - once they hit 2 or 3 they sometimes start to do better.

if cost is no object my strong recommendation would be natural instinct working dog duck and lamb varieties. Good luck.


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## Jools1234 (7 January 2013)

my lurcher was a bag of bones till she fully matured at about 2yrs old then he weight increased slightly.
how much physical excersise does she get? 
do you do anything to excersise her brain?
is she speyed?
what food are you feeding now?


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## Nicnac (7 January 2013)

How many times a day are you feeding her?  Would she be better with 3 small meals a day?

I'm assuming she's not been spayed.

My 15 year old girl is now at an ideal weight for her (22kgs) after being a mad, skinny ball of energy for the first 5 years.  She then got pyometra and was spayed which calmed her down and increased her appetite massively. She then got a bit porky.


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## Girlracer (7 January 2013)

Thanks for the replies.

She's actually quite a small dog, but weighs 15KG on the scales at the vets. But she is a bag of bones, not emaciated by any stretch of the imagination but just 'poor' I guess. She's healthy, bright and totally lovely but just bony. 

Exercise wise, down the yard AM & PM, we go hacking round the fields quite often and various other fun things . We do lot's of obedience training, and we had just started agility before she got a bit of kennel cough a few months ago. She seems happy enough and is a really lovely dog, very repetitive with throwing various items at you for you to throw for her but no different to any other young border collie I've dealt with. 

She has Pedigree meat, and for the life of me I can't remember the name of the biscuits - it has totally escaped me! But it's very low protein.

ETA : I was wondering whether having her spayed might help, so I will probably go ahead with that soon.


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## NeverSayNever (7 January 2013)

Girlracer said:



			Thanks for the replies.

She's actually quite a small dog, but weighs 15KG on the scales at the vets. But she is a bag of bones, not emaciated by any stretch of the imagination but just 'poor' I guess. She's healthy, bright and totally lovely but just bony. 

Exercise wise, down the yard AM & PM, we go hacking round the fields quite often and various other fun things . We do lot's of obedience training, and we had just started agility before she got a bit of kennel cough a few months ago. She seems happy enough and is a really lovely dog, very repetitive with throwing various items at you for you to throw for her but no different to any other young border collie I've dealt with. 

She has Pedigree meat, and for the life of me I can't remember the name of the biscuits - it has totally escaped me! But it's very low protein.

ETA : I was wondering whether having her spayed might help, so I will probably go ahead with that soon.
		
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pedigree is pants im afraid. Will you not consider NI and 3 small meals a day?

My bitches are small for the breed and in lean fit condition about 13-14kg. If you go down the raw route - ive found you will probably need to feed more than the recommended 3% of her ideal weight. To get my wee dog's weight up she was on near 6%


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## Girlracer (7 January 2013)

NeverSeenSanta said:



			pedigree is pants im afraid. Will you not consider NI and 3 small meals a day?

My bitches are small for the breed and in lean fit condition about 13-14kg. If you go down the raw route - ive found you will probably need to feed more than the recommended 3% of her ideal weight. To get my wee dog's weight up she was on near 6%
		
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I will have a look into it - thanks


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## NeverSayNever (7 January 2013)

Girlracer said:



			I will have a look into it - thanks 

Click to expand...

hope she picks up for you


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## windand rain (7 January 2013)

If she will eat it I would try the raw food too will she steal food I had a very over the top Golden retriever who had no appetite but would thieve food from the work surface for many years she had her food left up there for her to steal. She would also wolf down the cats food. If you are feeding pedigree I would try her with cat food. Cats cant eat dog food  exclusively but there is no reason not to feed a dog cat food
I would feed three or four very small meals too


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## Jools1234 (7 January 2013)

dogs can eat cat food yes but it is very high in protein


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## Adopter (7 January 2013)

One of my borders had a food allergy and it was only when through trial and error I found the right diet that his weight settled.

Generally I think young borders are thin, but do bulk up when spayed or neutured as they get older.  Because they are so on the go all the time I think they burn up loads of energy.

I feed my border 2 x a day with food which has rice and veg, plus mixer.  He was very thin, but in last 12 months has increased his muscle and looks bulkier but weight has not altered.


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## lexiedhb (7 January 2013)

What about tinned fish? mixed in with a decent quality kibble?


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## Oenoke (7 January 2013)

Yes, getting speyed will help, my oldest bitch (now 11 years old) was really difficult to keep weight on before she was speyed (at 4 years old).  Small meals more frequently are good for putting on weight, so 3 or 4 smaller meals.  Saying all that though my 3 BC bitches weigh 14 kgs, 15 kgs and 16 kgs, and my dog weighs 17 kgs so unless she is a big bitch I wouldn't of thought 16 kgs was too much under weight.


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## CorvusCorax (7 January 2013)

Pedigree isn't great. You say six handfuls? That sounds quite a lot to be honest, but I suppose depends on the size of your hands!!


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## Umbongo (7 January 2013)

15kg sounds about right for a small female. I have a large entire male who is quite heavily boned, he is 19-20kg and I can feel his ribs quite easily. A lot of collies I have known of, particularly females, are quite scrawny until they are at least a few years old when they start to fill out, neutering may help her.

Ditch the pedigree. I can't help you much on the food front I am afraid, we used to struggle with my boy when he was younger, particularly through winter but now he is 10 he has filled out a bit even though he still hoolies about like a puppy. I always found collies to not have much of an appetite, they will eat when they are hungery and not just because food is in front of them. My boy regularly only eats one small meal a day. If he isn't hungry he will walk away, and he gets a few odd bits throughout the day. They are just so damn energetic!

I always found he was more likely to eat after a good run, and he prefers the very smelly biscuits fish4dogs, fishmongers etc. Although he would rather have whatever we are eating.


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## Oenoke (7 January 2013)

You should be able to feel the ribs, but not see them.  Can you post a pic, so we can see if she looks underweight?

Here's a pic of my smooth coat, she is the easiest to see as she hasn't got a big thick coat, but as you can see, she has a really good tuck, you can feel her ribs, but not see them and her hip bones don't show.


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## Bourbons (7 January 2013)

http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-reviews/pedigree-dog-food-dry/

This link might be useful for you, it explains what is not so great about Pedigree dog food. That website in general is really helpful and explains things in a easyily understood way too 

Definitely ditch the pedigree and try her on raw, you'll probably find she wont be such a fuss bag when presented with raw meat


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## BWa (7 January 2013)

Mine has two feeds a day. Tinned meat with biscuits for tea and biscuits with a raw egg for breakfast. She never leaves food with an egg on it.


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## PorkChop (7 January 2013)

I had a skinny minny springer that had no appetite.

I switched all of mine onto raw, really because of her.  They all now look the picture of health and she always eats up her meals.


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## Girlracer (8 January 2013)

Thanks for all the advice, reading all these it sounds as if she's pretty normal and will probably bulk out. These are the only photos I have to hand!













It's quite hard to get her stood still!


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## NeverSayNever (8 January 2013)

she looks ideal to me hun - especially for a youngster. You should be able to feel but not see her ribs. Especially in the first pic the way she is twisting , if she was really thin you would see every rib and she doesn't look to have a huge coat either.


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## JeanetteM (8 January 2013)

she looks good to me

I have a collie, she's 15kg too, I can feel her ribs, her backbone, her hips, she is skin, bone and muscle, but weight wise, she's fine too


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## CorvusCorax (8 January 2013)

She looks fine to me too. Don't forget that loads of pet dogs are overweight, I wouldn't use most of the dogs I know as a benchmark


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## Oenoke (8 January 2013)

She looks good to me, I like to see fit athletic dogs rather than fat, overweight dogs.


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## Springy (8 January 2013)

How about a good complete food (ie not pedigree) and add tuna cooked chicken etc... the strong small of the tuna on the biscuits often gets them to eat it..

Again you dont want too much on her though


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## MurphysMinder (8 January 2013)

She looks fine to me, but if you do want to put weight on her , green tripe is great, if you can stand the smell.


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## Britestar (8 January 2013)

My BC is a tall guy and weighs 17.5kg on a good day. He is really skinny - you can get your fingers between his ribs, feel all his backbone and pop your hand between his hip bones!. However he is very fit and happy, and neutered.  He just never stops.
I feed him skinners field and trial working which keeps him at the weight he is. Other feeds make him drop weight. He get 2 meals a day plus some biscuits. Some days he leaves it other days gobble it up.


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