Small dogs need more calories to maintain their body heat: they produce less heat than big dogs, and radiate more of their surface (skin).
Small dogs tend to be more pampered and some of them are less active than big dogs. Therefore they can be overfed easily and hence; will gain too much weight.
There are plenty of Papillons and other small dogs, who are active, playful, and where food is not so interesting to them than other things, hence their calorie output exceeds the intake.
You can feed your dog more often, and more of the “goodies”, but there comes the point, where you would create an upset stomach in your dog, and with that, the dog having diarrhea, you may have achieved the opposite of the spectrum: weight-loss, de-hydration, and possible hypoglycemia (low blood sugar).
Here are some ideas for a higher calorie, higher fat diet than regular dog food.
I would recommend following supplements to add to your good quality dog kibbles:
High fat hamburger meat
Oats
Molasses
Wheat germ
Eggs- the yolks carry all the fat!!
High fat cottage cheese
High fat Cream Cheese
All Natural Crunchy Peanut butter
Corn Oil, or any other vegetable oil, or olive oil
Of course, sprinkle these ingredients ever so lightly over your kibbles. Very small amounts, especially in the beginning, then build up.
There are some dogs, who just don’t want to eat, including treats, or any other goodies.
Here are some things you can try to tempt his taste buds:
Small amounts from chicken-, tuna-, and sardine cans.
Eggs, slightly scrambled with extra cream cheese, little veggie oil.
Chicken liver (cooked) sautéed in butter
Just hard boiled eggs over their kibbles
Whole wheat noodles with cheese and minced beef, or hamburger
If you have a dog recovering from any kind of sickness, or whelping, purred baby food, containing meat,(comes in glass jars), is a good source of food.
Keep these jars and “Nutri Cal”( is a high –calorie dietary supplement for dogs + puppies) handy at all times. They are life savers!!
