Putting weight on a puppy?

[Veesmart]

Our new tiny Chihuahua puppy (we've had her for about a month now) is doing well on her Puppy Royal Canin dry food. However, I've noticed in the last few weeks that she seems to be getting thinner. She's been to the vet regularly, has been dewormed and had her stool checked (twice because we switched vets), its negative for parasites.

I know that puppies can get lanky when they go through their growth spurts, but I'm wondering if adding a bit of wet food (or something) to her diet would also help (she's the runt and has always been a bit under weight) support her growth and weight. The vet did comment that she's a bit thinner then he'd like but nothing to be alarmed about.

Any suggestions?

[bendyfoot]

I'm guessing that you're going by the feeding guide on the bag? You should always go by the dog's body condition as a guide to figure out how much food your dog needs to eat. Toy breeds also generally burn calories faster and require more frequent feedings throughout the day.
I don't think you need to add a new kind of food, just MORE food, period, to increase the caloric intake.

[Veesmart]

Actually her food is out all the time. She has access to it all day long. The only time she isn't near it is when she is sleeping in her crate overnight.

She eats when she's hungry but that doesn't seem to be very often. I guess what I'm wondering is would some wet food at certain times encourage more eating? Or should I try feeding her meals instead of leaving the food down all the time? This is a bit of a problem because she goes to to the dogwalker on some days, and stays at home with the boyfriend on other days...and I worry a bit about consistency.

[bendyfoot]

I would strongly suggest that you only feed her at set times during the day...there's no way to properly monitor, and therefore be able to adjust when needed, her food intake. Measure out a meal's worth of food, put it down for her to eat, wait 15 minutes then remove. She'll get the idea quickly.

I'll point out, too, that the food you're feeding is really not great quality...it's choc-full of fillers and unnecessary ingredients. Her inappetance could be a sign that it's not an appropriate diet for her (as was the case with my german shepherd, who was skinnyskinny and pretty much refused to eat for two years until we switched her to a biologically appropriate diet - raw.) I suggest that you look at some of the other threads in this forum to get a sense of what kind of food would give your puppy the best start possible.