Worried....too thin?

[jalexandra1]

Kobe will be 3 years old in June and only weighs 53 pounds. You can see his backbone and all of his ribs. He looks fairly healthy standing up but looks like a corpse when he is sleeping on the floor. I have fed him Canidae for a long time but just recently switched him to Innova EVO in the last couple of weeks. I haven't seen a difference yet. I have an awful time getting him to eat regularly. Is he going to get any bigger or is he old enough to have stopped filling out? The vet says there are no health problems with him and I get so tired of people asking me if he is supposed to be "that thin" or if I feed him. I'm just wondering what the latest is for him to stop growing. I'm hoping he still has some filling out to do.

 

[LolaGatorDad]

Hey, my girls are both over 60 pounds. They are both very big for girls. Normally, males should be about the size they are. However, there is no real set size for a boxer. The can range a little bit, but generally, females are in the 50 pound range and males are in the 60 punds range.

From my understanding, they quit filling out at around age 2. My older female was about 50 pounds until she got around 1 1/2 then she packed on 10 lbs of muscle. She weighs in at 63 usually. She is also about 22.5" tall. My baby, however, is huge. She is 10 months and weight about 62 pounds. She is also almost 24" tall. If she gains another 10 pounds it will be scary!

Generally with boxers, you should only be able to see their back ribs, if any. On mine, you can make out their figure, but cannot discernably see any ribs. Sounds like you might want to try feeding him a little more. If he wont take it, then dont worry about it. Its better than him eating way more than he needs and getting huge! Unfortunately, however, it doesnt look like your guy will be filling out any more, maybe just gaining another couple pounds if he eats a little more.

 

[SimonRN]

My boxer looks like that too, he is 11 months old and weighs maybe 40 pounds BUT we have had lots of issues with him (chronic diarrhea). I was able to get a little weight on him with regular cottage cheese added to his food.

 

[duketheboxer]

We had that problem with Duke. We switched him to AvoDerm (the BAKED kind) and it bulked him right up. He is still pretty thin, but he looks fed The lady who runs the holistic pet store we go to said she used it to put 30 pounds on a german shepard rescue. I highly suggest it, and Duke LOVES it!

 

[LaceyB]

I feed Ali Canidae as well and had that same problem. Everyone kept asking me if I fed him and he would only eat every once in awhile. Then my aunt suggested putting something on his food to get him to eat and make it more palatable for him. So I started making a type of gravy with the canned dog food (canidae or Merrick, Chicken Soup gave him diarrhea) You don't have to put much on and it works well if you mix it with water. 1 can lasts about 3 days. Once I started stirring in a bit of that on his food he ate it right up and you can't see his ribs and tail bone anymore. He loves it. So you may try that.