Chin needs to gain weight

[mmcmindes]

My 11+ year old male chin-- Pina-- just returned from the vet where he had his teeth trimmed. He does have malocclusion (?spelling) and has worn his teeth down unevenly, so needs to have them trimmed. They weren't bad this time, just trimmed one of his incisors. BUT, he has lost 40g and the vet says we need to watch that. Anything that I can give Pina to help him gain some weight? He does eat a pelleted chin food, but it has treats in it (Charlie Chinchilla is the only one he'll eat) and he often pushes his timothy grass out of the cage. Ideas?

 

[Newt]

hmmm the treat rich food is probably contributing to his uneven teeth. You should try and switch him over to a pellet-only food. You could also offer him different kinds of hays, like some alfalfa hay, maybe offer dried herbs and dried dandelion leaves too.

For helping him gain some weight you could give him some Critical Care feeds; some chins will eat it off a spoon rather than needing to be syringe fed.

does he have lots of chew toys to help with his teeth? Lots of different woods and pumice and loofah would be good. Hope this helps

 

[ticklechin]

Does the chin eat a full ration of food? Often malo chins will eat some but not enough on their own to maintain weight. I would consider supplementing the diet with something like lifeline, 2 10ml doses a day and see if that helps. I also would consider giving a few pellets of calf manna twice a day to increase protein. Malo chins are tricky and you just have to try different things since the alternative is massive weight loss which is not only hard to get them to gain again it cause other serious issues. Loose alfalfa is also a malo chin favorite, that I would for sure use.

 

[Zoaea]

If you cold turkey the treat food he will start eating the healthy pellets.

I know my chins go crazy for apple wood sticks but dont like the ones from pet stores much. A few members on here sell home made ones. If he got addicted tho those he might keep his teeth trimmed a bit better on his own too.

My chin isnt sick (surgery) but she loves the flavored critical care and will eat it off the spoon if it's thick (not runny) so he might like that and would gain weight from the additional intake.

Good luck, I hope his teeth stay mild. =s

 

[ticklechin]

I would not cold turkey a malo chin, especially one that has lost 40gram and is 11 years old. There is not much info on this chin provided by the OP on the exact nature of the malo so we have to be careful on the advice so as to not cause more issues with this malo chin.

 

[6Dusters]

I'm surprised the vet didn't suggest Critical Care. I have added a tiny bit of organic baby stage one infant apple to it. I do know it comes in flavors now. Sometimes they eat it dry as well as mixed with water.

I know this is off topic.........but I have a senior here who has problems with her poo. So I switched her diet over to OXBOW feed and she improved greatly. I have used several feeds for all my chins in the past. However there is something about Oxbow that chins love. The rest of my herd can be conned into thinking its a treat. So making a switch to a better feed is a good piece of advice.

Slowly switch to a good diet a little at a time with less of the Charlie feed. Oxbow has some wonderful soft cut "Orchard Grass" that chins love.

I do agree with the person who posted above. Stay away from big box apple wood treats. Two of my chins a few years back became ill. Now I harvest my own. There are several people on the forum who sell them. Different hay blends can keep those teeth worn down as well. Mix up some soft Orchard along with Timothy.

Chin Blessings on your little one.

 

[ticklechin]

I think the advice given is fine for a normal chin on a cruddy diet, but this is a malo chin and without us knowing what stage malo, how long the chin has had it, is it just a chin who is a lazy chewer who gets points or is it truely malo, changing things up on a 11 year old malo chin who has lost weight, not knowing its current weight and without further info IMO has to be done carefully, making this chin choose between forcing itself to eat something it likes and not eating at all can cause some serious issues based on my experience-we want malo chins to eat on their own, this chin is 11 years old and if this chin has had malo for years I personally would not rock the boat at this stage in the chins life. But again, without the OP giving me more info I just have to assume its true malo and not points, if the chin just has points because it is not chewing then the advice is fine, chin can eat but won't.

 

[Zoaea]

=o Good to know Ticklechin, I definitely bow to your malo experience, I haven't had to deal with it yet.