Just got an underweight Great Dane. How can I help her gain weight?

Hi, thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Oh my Rogue is SO cute!! This is a hard question to answer because it all depends on the food you are feeding and the calories per cup and how Rogue grows. For a Great Dane I recommend a large breed puppy food and using the bag's recommendations for his weight to start. If he is too thin, increase the volume fed and if he is too heavy decrease it. I don't think a simple rule of increase by a cup per month is very accurate. It should be based on his weight, how he is growing and is body condition. It is hard to make a puppy fat and most owners do a good job without too much stress. I hope this helps and I wish you all the best!

What a gorgeous pup! Great Dane puppies have a massive requirement for nutrients so I recommend investing in feeding a really good quality food for giant breed puppies. Royal canin does a really good puppy food which I trust for my own dogs. Don't listen to things like not feeding puppy food, there is no evidence for that. It is actually really important to feed puppy food because a puppy has different needs to an adult. Energy level has more to do with the carbohydrate in the feed rather than protein.

I would recommend using a large breed puppy food. This type of diet will have the specific balance of minerals and vitamins needed for young, growing puppies. Since Danes are a giant breed, their nutrional needs are different than your typical puppy. Some of the brands I usually recommend include Hills, Purina, Royal Canin, Eukanuba, and Iams. Good luck with your pups!

Each bag of food has a different daily allotment, so read Chance's bag of puppy food to see how much to give him daily. Divide it into three equal portions to feed him three times a day, once in the morning, noon, and evening. I hope this helps!

Although its a little hard to tell from the photo both of your pups look to be lean with good muscle mass. To assess body condition what you want to look for are a waist behind the ribs when viewed from above, and that you can feel but not see the spine and ribs. Young active dogs are certainly apt to be a bit leaner. You could certainly consider a diet for active large breed dogs, especially for the Dane mix. To figure out how much to feed you need to know two things. First, you need to find out how many calories are in a cup of your current food. This is sometimes written on the bag or you can go online to the foods website and typically find it. It would be written kcal/cup for dry or kcal/can for canned. Second, you need to figure out what the energy requirements for your dogs are. This will be different for different weights of dogs and for dogs with different lifestyles. A good website to go to to help you with this is the Ohio State University Pet calorie calculator. If you Google OSU dog calorie calculator it should pop up. This will show you how to calculate the energy requirement for your dogs based on their weights, and let you know what factor to multiply by for their lifestyle. Then basically when you know how many calories they should be taking in per day you can figure out how much to feed. Keep in mind if you do this and change the amount you are feeding, if you are seeing weight loss or excessive weight gain you will have to adjust the plan as it's not a perfect system. I hope this helps and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach!

First, I would make sure you feed Dio a puppy food, not an adult food. Second, make sure you are feeding him enough cups of food. Third, make sure to feed a high quality large breed puppy food. A grain free brand like Merrick or Wellness or Taste of the Wild would be great. Even Science Diet Large Breed puppy would be ok. Last, make sure your puppy has had a fecal test run to make sure he doesn’t have worms. A monthly heartworm prevention, like Heartgard or Interceptor, treats parasites too. If your dog is still not gaining, they may need further testing or work up. In addition, adding a probiotic may help as well. I like Animal Essentials Plant Enzymes and Probiotics.

Most foods will have feeding instructions on the side of the bag according to your pet's weight and age, so you can use that as a starting gauge for how much to give. Puppies should generally be fed at least 2-3 times a day, and if your pup isn't gaining weight well, increasing the food amount and having your vet check for any issues such as parasites or illness which could impede weight gain is best.