I got an old dog that is losing weight pretty fast. She is 16 and for the last 15 years she has been about 25-28 pounds, and she is currently sitting at like 12 pounds.
I have been alternating between hot dogs and bologna as she likes to eat them and doesn’t fuss about it. Most wet dog foods will work for about a week, then she turns her nose up at it.
I’ve soaked her dry food to get the volume up for her, which worked for a bit but now she pretty much refuses to eat dry food for about two days then nibbles.
I get that older dogs tend to lose their appetite as they get close to the end, but I’d prefer she not pass away from starvation over old age. I do still tend to hold off from straight up sugar/carbs, but a random peanut butter sandwich scrap or three has been passed over to her more than once.
So I am looking for ideas for high calorie food which can be purchased easily and preferably on the cheap.
Sugar free peanut butter should be fine. Chicken and rice are great, you can try asking at the shop for lungs, heart, tails, etc, same for any other meat.
Avoid lentils, they can cause respiratory issues.
Worth noting since “sugar-free” sometimes means “sugar substitute” in marketing parlance: some peanut butters use xylitol as a sweetener, and xylitol kills dogs.
So yeah, read the label. Some peanut butters have literally just peanuts as an ingredient and those are best!
Of course! I actually quit chewing gum because I worried about my fur babies getting into it.