She's so skinny!

[shadowlk]

JadeHill - Like many people already mentioned, boxers are notoriously lean when they're young. Some show a few ribs, some more. It's good you got all the shots taken care of and deworming and your situation is almost identical to mine.

Before you start stuffing her with all sorts of food let me give you my take on it.
First of all, it's much better to have a pup a little bit on the skinny side than fat.
I got Layla when she was 8 weeks old and she had a bit of a pot belly (from worms) and you could see most of her ribs. We got the worms cleared up and started feeding her orijen and wellness puppy. I would weigh her in twice a week to mark her progress. She was consistently gaining 2 pounds a week while at the same time her ribs were still showing.

So I suggest you take her weight about twice a week as well since that is very important - for her to be showing signs of growth. Layla is now 16 weeks old and is 5 times the weight she was at 8 weeks. However, you can still see some of her ribs occasionally but i'm not too worried because she is getting that "boxer build" and look and her coat is looking healthy and she looks great. Some of us have these more petite boxers heh. Good luck with Daisy!

 

[OctoberGotti]

As far as the meatballs...so do you give it to them raw or cooked???

Gotti is going on 22 weeks on Friday, and he is showing all of his ribs. (He's probably closer to 40lbs now.) He eats about 4 cups a day, but he just doesn't seem to keep the weight on. He is growing for sure though, but I just wish I can get some "weight" on him. I hate to see him look so thin.

 

[shadowlk]

As far as the meatballs...so do you give it to them raw or cooked???

Gotti is going on 22 weeks on Friday, and he is showing all of his ribs. (He's probably closer to 40lbs now.) He eats about 4 cups a day, but he just doesn't seem to keep the weight on. He is growing for sure though, but I just wish I can get some "weight" on him. I hate to see him look so thin.

Have you ruled out giardia? If not, that is a common symptom of giardia - Eating but not gaining weight or even losing weight.

 

[OctoberGotti]

giardia...I really didn't even think about that. What things do I look for as a sign of it???

 

[Caney Creek]

Daisy will be 13 weeks old tomorrow.

I can see 4 ribs... So perhaps I should offer her another meal during the day, or wet food in addition to what I am giving her now. I know that Boxer's are lean dogs, but I think she is too skinny. I think she's recently gone through a growth spurt, so maybe that is what is causing her to be skinnier then what we are used to.

I wouldn't be too concerned about that. Caney was literally skin and bones from about 10 weeks up until 6 months, and she was still fairly lanky I'd say past a year old. When she was in that puppy stage though, people thought we starved her! We were feeding a little more than what you're feeding, BUT 1) we knew Caney was going to be over 60 lbs as an adult, and 2) we weren't feeding her great quality kibble back then (daily recommendations are usually less for higher quality food, such as Wellness ). She didn't always finish what we offered, but her energy level was just right for a puppy her age: lots of "go" followed by lots of sleep

A few pics of Caney when she was about 4 months old. Notice the awkwardness in her features: nose is a mile long, ears nearly as big as her head, so much extra skin, you could fit a second puppy in there and... all those ribs!!
http://photos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-sf2p/v118/153/123/23209853/n23209853_32442897_5605.jpg
http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-sf2p/v118/153/123/23209853/n23209853_32442894_4532.jpg

It took a while, but she turned out just fine!

 

[shadowlk]

Caney has a good point and yes boxers are known to be lanky as puppies but you still need to get a fecal exam done if you havn't done so already to make sure he doesn't have giardia since that is the only way to confirm it. It costs less than 40 dollars and you'll have the comfort of knowing your pet is safe. As for signs, there aren't that many but one is what I mentioned earlier - eating normally but not gaining weight or losing it. Another symptom could be mucus layered feces. Layla didn't show the latter symptom but was diagnosed with giardia nonetheless and we treated it with panacur for about a week and it disappeared.