We have a 2-year-old spayed female husky who weighs about 65 lbs (maybe more, we last weighed her about six months ago). She's VERY large, but mainly just tall. She's a rescue so we don't know anything about her pedigree other than that both her parents were fairly average-size huskies.

Imagine our surprise when the vet tells us she's UNDERWEIGHT for her size! She's just a bit thin and bony, and the vet says she could stand to gain 10 lbs or so.

The thing is, she's not particularly food motivated (unless it's people food, which she is not allowed to eat except when we use small bits of hot dog for training classes). We are vegetarians, so we don't cook meat, but are open to buying canned foods or pre-cooked meats. We're looking for a healthy way to add some protein and calories to her diet that she'll like. If anyone knows of a brand or if there's a precooked meat option we should be looking into, that advice would be appreciated!

My girl is on the lean side and also is not food motivated. So the problem is frustrating. My suggestions are not something that will make a vegetarian happy to deal with. I have issues with pre made food, simply because I have to trust someone other than myself to make sure the food is safe for my dog. If you are ok with cooking your own let me know and I can give you details, if not.....I would recommend going to local grocery store and buy the plain rotisserie chickens from the deli. Chicken is a little leaner than I would use, but, it is a great meat to start with, and being cooked, you may feel more comfy on preparing vs cooking from a raw state. Anyways, you will have to debone, mix fat, broth, meat, skin, (cut up in bite size pieces) and mix into her kibble. The key is added protein and fats to gain weight. If that causes you issues, then let me put my thinking cap on, and come up with an alternative. Good luck.

When Ami gets picky, I either hand feed him, fill his kong or strew his kibble all around the room or in the grass.

Also - scrambled eggs with cheese, raw fish (freeze it first for about a month to kill any parasites), canned salmon, tuna (but rinse these well or get sodium free versions), string cheese, peanut butter, yogurt. I don't call it supplementing but Ami regularly shares our dinner - I portion out 1/3 to 1/2 cup of rice or potatoes or noodles with either the protein we are eating (he will eat cannelini beans...actually he'll eat anything if its even scented with a whiff of butter )

We're not particularly squeamish vegetarians; obviously we'd never endanger our dogs' health by trying to force that diet on them or anything like that. Mostly it's just that we have no idea how to safely prepare meat! Perhaps the solution is to buy a separate pot or two that we can use for cooking meat. Rotisserie chicken is doable, though. I'd actually not mind purchasing ground beef or something like that, but I don't know how to prepare it, and my vet told me years ago with our older dog that they can get salmonella and other diseases from raw food just like people.

amymeme, I like the idea of eggs and fish! I don't know how Vegas feels about eggs, actually. She's always interested in whatever we're eating, which is strange because we've been very careful never to feed her human food unless we're "sneaky" about it (occasionally we scrape leftovers into dinner bowls when the dogs are outside, or use a piece of cheese as a treat while training, that kind of thing). Our other dog learned pretty quickly that we don't share our dinner with the dogs, but she seems convinced that if she sticks it out, we'll give in!

I wondered at perhaps using a bit of lard or shortening with their kibble. I occasionally slip in a tablespoon or so of coconut oil, which they don't love but will eat. Can anyone think of any reason she couldn't have a spoonful of Crisco a couple times a week (the non-veggie kind)?

You can buy 80/20 hamburger, besides eggs I believe is the best way to add weight. Fish is a great food, but even for us humans it is too lean, to add weight. Use the crisco in a frying pan, place about 6 ounces of hamburger and fry it up, don't make it crispy, and use a spatula to make the burger into pieces. Pour all of it over kibble and mix in. same with the chicken, that I mentioned. Just no bones, but everything else is totally safe. You can also buy turkey burger and do the same as hamburger. I think I would not give plain old crisco straight up, just too much grease at once.

Oh, cook until meat is no longer pink, haha, sorry forgot you are not familiar with cooking meats. Bacon and bacon grease are nice additions to. Just follow directions, can also buy precooked bacon and just nuke it according to package, just limit the bacon, too much salt, and nitrates, but as an occasional most dogs love it.

Oh, she's all about the bacon! She comes with us to our neighbor's house every once in a while and they give their dogs bacon as a treat now and again, so she loves it. They hunt, too, so she and my old boy have had venison a time or two. He loves it, but she's sort of neutral on it. My mom once brought home ham from a luncheon she had at work, and Vegas went NUTS over that. I've never seen her that interested in any food before, even hot dogs (that's what the dog training instructor had us use when she was in puppy class).

I'll try the chicken first; we started out with chicken broth and have been adding that to her food as well as the occasional hot dog, plus she gets to eat as much kibble as she wants at dinner time (the other dog does not...he is a pudgy guy). My goal is to find something that makes her want to eat ALL her food, including her kibble, which she doesn't always do right now.

I don't like the idea of crisco, particularly - it's sort of a manufactured fat.  The coconut oil if she eats it or a tablespoon of olive oil on her kibble.  If you're not vegan, maybe a tsp of melted butter added to a couple of tsp of olive oil or coconut oil for flavor.  Hamburger is good - I'm not really sure you have to worry about salmonella in your dog - their stomach environment is quite acid and the transit time from mouth to lawn is rather quick.  The problem for salmonella is more for people handling the meat - just use good kitchen hygiene, separate cutting boards for meat and raw veggies, wash your hands and utensils well with hot soapy water.  The ground turkey is usually as lean as fish - you can use fatty fish like salmon.  Also, a bit of canned catfood stirred into the kibble might tempt here.  You can use a bit of butter or oil to up the fat content of leaner fish or turkey.

If she likes the bacon, maybe your neighbors can save you the bacon fat and you can add a tbls of that to her kibble to tempt her (Ami is crazy about bacon - last winter when he was off his feed, I added a tbls to each serving.  Doggy says "num a num".

EDIT: Oh, and don't laugh, Ami loves whipped cream from the can - as a treat, while we are having dessert sometimes, I make a "kibble parfait" . I put a half cup of kibble in a custard cup, squirt a small amount of whipped cream, stir it up. He loves it!

Canned cat food might just do the trick...I'll try it tonight! I'll mix a bit of it in with her kibble. We keep some on hand for emergencies in case we run out of cat kibble for the kitties.

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, we might get some "donations" from friends and family of leftover turkey and other foods. I've got lots of new ideas to try now, though.

Thanks!