New Grey owner: Weight worries- rib/vertebrae dilemma!

[windwhisperer]

Heya everyone,

First time poster, so please forgive me if this question has been asked to death! Having owned dogs for the past 13 years (both Goldies) nine weeks ago my partner and I decided to rescue a dog and ended up falling in love with our newly-rescued ex-racing greyhound, who we've named Brego. He's 28 inches tall to the shoulder and when last weighed 2 weeks ago he was 29.5kg, which I felt was a healthy weight for his size/breed. However I've noticed he shows a lot more than 3 sets of ribs (more like 6 when lying down) and I can see a long line of vertebrae at all times.

He has recently started shedding his kennel coat and is moulting a *lot* so I'm aware that he's likely to look thinner when he has less fur, and we are feeding him 200g twice a day as recommended by the rescue centre. He seems happy in himself, very playful and affectionate. Just do't like the thought of him being unintentionally kept underweight if we should be encouraging him to put on a few pounds.

Any advice is much appreciated! Thanks

xx

[kamkay]

Welcome to Gap- Brego ( interesting name BTW) sounds about the same size and weight to my lad Jet. I can see his vertebrae and ribs,but every time the vet sees him he comments on how well conditioned he is. I am not putting myself forward as an expert at all and I'm sure people with far more experience than I will be along soon to offer help and advice.

[Letty's Mum]

Hello, and welcome
Congrats on your new addition. All Greyhounds have different builds, just like other dogs. Try not to over think it. As long as he is happy and eating well, and has been wormed etc., I'm sure he's fine
Early days yet and he is probably still putting on condition after being in kennels, but you'll soon get to know what sort of weight suits him.
Nothing worse than a fat Greyhound

[julies]

Hiya

Welcome to Gap and greyhounds I went to a talk by an Aussie greyhound vet a while ago and he said greys lose weight when they first go into a home cos they get anxious and their metabolism burns up their food (if only that happened to me ) so we suggest to people they feed a bit more than the bag recommends in the first few weeks. I like to see only the last three ribs when they stand, a bit of their pin bones (on their back at their quarters), a little bit of vertebrae rising from about half way down their back and disappears before their pin bones and a nice line of muscle along either side of their spine along their back ... and a nice shiney coat so once he's stopped moulting you'll be able to check that too

They usually put on between 4 to 6 kgs I think once they've finished racing so check his race weight with the rescue centre but TBH I look at my dogs as a test Oily fish can help put on weight and a shine to the coat, just introduce it gradually

Julie X

[andywillow]

Hello and welcome to Gap, what are you feeding him and have you looked at the guidelines on the food? So many foods and so many guidelines, its mind boggling!
I always take a rough guide from the chart on the food I feed then go from there, if they gain too much weight feed less, if they lose weight feed more.
Mine always have something tasty added to their kibble so allow for added extras.

Let us know how you go on and don't be afraid to keep asking questions, we are all here to help and don't bite xx

[gazer]

Hi, welcome to the world of greyhounds, agree with everything that has been said already.  Brego is still settling in at this stage so he won't exactly be piling on the weight, also greyhounds, well any dog come to that will always lose weight alot faster than they put it on. See how it goes and if you still think he's a bit too skinny just top up his bowl with a little extra.
Could you post a picture of him, we love pictures here

[windwhisperer]

Hi everyone, thank you so much for all the welcomes and replies! Really helped ease my anxiety and reassure myself that we're not starving him!

In response to your Q qndywillow we're feeding him Harringtons (was recommended to us by the greyhound rescue charity we got him from as it was what they had been feeding him since rescue and we didn't want to change his diet too quickly). Will probably up his food a little bit just to see if he puts on enough to lose a vertebrae/ rib showing but am aware that he still needs to have some on display to be healthy!

Will try and post a pic of him at some stage, tried yesterday but the file size was too big - need to work out how to use my mac to downsize the file, we'll get there in the end!