# Weight Gain



## shellbell (Sep 24, 2011)

Well, I have read that it is not an uncommon thing for dogs to gain a bit of weight when they are switched over to raw. I know it does take some practice at first with getting to know your dog and better understanding what size raw portions work best for them. And as people on here have said before…it is easy to overfeed, especially at first, b/c it is fun to watch them enjoy their food so much!

They boys looked a bit bulkier to me, so I decided to weight them last night. My method is to weigh myself, and then pick them up and stand on the scale with them and subtract…so I could tell when I hoisted them up that they felt a bit heftier, lol. Cabo has gained five lbs, and Tux has gained four. Cabo has been my dog where it is a struggle to get him to maintain a good weight, as he has a crazy fast metabolism and tends to burn things off super fast. On kibble, I could feed him four cups a day and couldn’t get him to reach the weight that I wanted. He was about 48 lbs prior to switching to raw 5 weeks ago. The vet told me he looked fine, but that it wouldn’t hurt him to gain five lbs. And now he has. I am pretty happy with his weight now, it would be kind of nice if he stayed at it and did not continue to gain though.

Tux has gained four lbs. He went from 52lbs to 56lbs. This seems to be an alright weight on him, I wouldn’t mind if he lost a couple of lbs though just b/c I like to have a bit of cushion room if that makes sense…and I would prefer that he not gain anymore. At his highest weight he was 60 lbs, this was a couple years ago and the vet said it would be a good idea for him to lose 5 lbs (putting him at 55lbs). 

I can still easily feel both boys ribs. Neither of them looks anything close to being overweight. They just look more solid. My question is, could they have gained some muscle from eating raw, and could that maybe account for some of the weight gain? I was just thinking how they are eating all protein and no carbs, as opposed to kibble which contains carbs. 

And now DH is referring to them as “piglets”….though they are far from fat


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## Caty M (Aug 13, 2010)

Both my dogs are very lean on raw (sheltie, Italian greyhound) but with a lot of muscle. They look muscly but not 'solid'. I tend to find them leaner than the majority of dogs I see.


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## shellbell (Sep 24, 2011)

Yeah, Cabo is definitely more muscely than solid looking, due to his activity...Tux is not as active, so to me he looks more solid. Still can very easily feel his ribs though.


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## kady05 (Jul 29, 2011)

I definitely think they gain more muscle when fed raw. I didn't think that was even possible with Piper, since she's always been our "muscle girl", but for example.. this was maybe 3wks. into raw (and taken in terrible lighting):










and this was taken a few days ago, like 10wks. into raw:










I can't find any good ones of her just standing before I started her on raw.

I wish she had the gaining weight problem though! It'd be easier for me to get it off than put it on her.. her metabolism is crazy fast.


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## Liz (Sep 27, 2010)

If they feel good to the touch it is probably muscle. My breeds are lean but they are muscly - on the smooth collies you can really see the muscles ont heir haunches and shoulders - even their ribs ripple with some muscle. In all my years with these breeds they have never had muscle tone like this. My one girl who tends to gain weight easily gets lener meats than the other as she iks now a great weight and I don't want her to get oto heavy again. She gets more fowl, lung and very lean cuts and the others get the fattier cuts and a little more heart not so much lung. It seems to manage her and she feels she is eating - we know cause she gets very, very cranky if she feels hungry.


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## IslandPaws4Raw (Sep 7, 2011)

I saw a big difference in Ari's overall weight distribution switching to raw. He has a fast metabolism too and I wasn't happy with his weight even on a good kibble. He now has good padding over his hip bones which were painfully obvious to the touch before. I think with playing around with the amount of food he gets at each meal depending on his activity level will go a long way in maintaining his weight as it is. For instance, on days that we just hang around the house with a normal activity level ( 3 runs a day) I'll give him 18oz for the day. When we have that on top of something taxing like agility class I'll up his intake for that day for the extra calories.


So to answer your question, yes I do think they gain more muscle on the diet as well as a more even distribution of fat.


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

muscle is more dense than fat. so if your dog feels good and looks good, it's not unusual for a dog to weigh more...


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## rory (Oct 4, 2011)

I'm 2 months in to raw feeding and I just weighed her and my pup has gained 5 lbs! Definitely some of that is muscle, but she is losing her waist, so now I am going to start really weighing her food properly. It was just such a joy to see her actually enjoying food! She started off at 45 lbs and is now 50 - I'd like to see her at 47 or 48. As I figure it, she should be getting 16 oz a day - is that correct?


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## sozzle (May 18, 2011)

Well my boy was looking decidedly 'sausagey' according to another more experienced greyhound owner (of ex racers) and yes I think I too was overfeeding him raw so have cut down a bit. You could still see his ribs which is not hard on a GH as they have very little bodyfat, but his waist was disappearing. So now I've cut down approx 200-300g of his total intake per day and it seems to be working.


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

rory said:


> I'm 2 months in to raw feeding and I just weighed her and my pup has gained 5 lbs! Definitely some of that is muscle, but she is losing her waist, so now I am going to start really weighing her food properly. It was just such a joy to see her actually enjoying food! She started off at 45 lbs and is now 50 - I'd like to see her at 47 or 48. As I figure it, she should be getting 16 oz a day - is that correct?


both my corgi mix and my pug started losing their waistlines....bubba was a little too thin but malia can't afford to gain weight.

we cut them back by an ounce a day and we stick to it. no extras....some dogs don't have the metabolism to handle more.

your dog, to weigh 45 pounds should be eating approximately 14.4 oz. a day....

so if you're feeding 16 ounces....and if that 16 ounces is not always on the money, you could be feeding more.

now i weigh because i suck at eyeballing.


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## leilaquinn (Sep 7, 2011)

rory said:


> I'm 2 months in to raw feeding and I just weighed her and my pup has gained 5 lbs! Definitely some of that is muscle, but she is losing her waist, so now I am going to start really weighing her food properly. It was just such a joy to see her actually enjoying food! She started off at 45 lbs and is now 50 - I'd like to see her at 47 or 48. As I figure it, she should be getting 16 oz a day - is that correct?


I am having a similar problem, I think Luigi's 'meals' were about right, but i was getting too much in the habit of multiple daily extras (I haven't watched a whole movie since we adopted the energizer bunny dog, until I discovered raw beef ribs... It gets tempting in the evening when I'm tired) I realize I can get the same satisfaction of spread out raw treats by just spreading out his meals more, he's still a chunky sausage, but the weight is coming off slowly. he was also just not that into kibble, so the amount I was feeding was not really what he was eating, I remember now that I think about it how often he left a quarter of his dinner in the bowl.


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