If you feed your dog once a day, add a second meal. If your dog is already fed morning and evening, add a meal during the middle of the day. Do not necessarily change the diet you are already feeding, simply add one more meal to the day to add calories. Keep in mind that by increasing your dog’s diet by a whole meal, you are also changing the bathroom habits of your dog, which may require altering your dog walking schedule.
 Dog food comes in a wide variety of quality. You should be sure that the food you are feeding your dog is providing an adequate number of calories and an appropriate balance of nutrition.


Checking the protein and fat content of the food you currently feed is easily done by checking the information provided on the side of the bag.
The calories per cup will not always be found on the package, so you may have to go to the manufacturer’s website or call the manufacturer to get that information.
You will also find an ingredient list on the side of the bag. Look for foods that begin the ingredient list with a protein, such as “beef” or “chicken” or “lamb” instead of a carbohydrate like corn or wheat.
You can check the quality of ingredients of your current dog food http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/ here.
Talk to your veterinarian regarding your pet’s nutritional needs including the recommended caloric intake per day for your dog. Additional information can be found at: http://vet.osu.edu/vmc/basic-calorie-calculator.
 Non-fat, no salt chicken broth, beef broth or vegetable broth is very tasty, especially if you warm it up before placing on top of the dog’s food. You can find non-fat no salt broths in the grocery store pretty inexpensively. A few tablespoons will add nice flavor to your dog’s food.


A few tablespoons of roasted chicken without the skin, boiled egg or plain sardines (or mackerel) will often help awaken the appetite of most dogs and are healthy sources of protein and calories.
Dogs can get sick if fed too much fat, so stick to protein and carbohydrates to add healthy calories to the diet.
Other foods to try are the water from canned tuna, non-fat cottage cheese, non-fat plain yogurt, or plain canned pumpkin.
Avoid human foods that can be dangerous to dogs’ health, such as chocolate, raisins, grapes, onions, garlic, and anything with mold on it., If your dog is not responding well to the food he is eating, try giving him a different (high quality) dry food, a high-quality canned (wet) food, or follow a respected homemade dog food diet. High quality pet foods generally list the first ingredient in their formulations as a protein, such as “beef” or “chicken.”


If you are home cooking the whole diet for a dog over a long period of time, it is extremely important that the diet is complete and balanced nutritionally. Using a reputable source from your veterinarian for your dog food recipes is recommended, and make sure that you don’t leave out any ingredients when you cook.
No one diet is “perfect” for every dog, so be sure to do some research with the help of your veterinarian before changing to a home-cooked only diet for your pet. A few resources to consider when starting your research are The Whole Pet Diet by Andi Brown and the Dr. Becker's Real Food for Healthy Dogs and Cats by Beth Taylor.
 If your dog is not enthusiastic about eating his dry food, try adding hot water to the dried food then letting it cool so that it's mushy. This often makes the food more appealing to dogs.
Add an extra meal into your dog's daily diet.
Assess the quality of your dog food.
Supplement the dog’s food with appropriate human food.Adding some yummy, safe “human” food to your dog’s diet can help increase a dog’s enthusiasm for eating.
Try a different kind of food.
Add water to your dog’s dry food.
{"src": "wikihow-all_validation", "title": "How to Get Dogs to Gain a Healthy Weight2"}