Reducing Food

[Guest mowreyAZ]

Just got the phone call from the Vet this afternoon, our brindle Blair, is in awesome health with a good weight, platelet count, enzymes looking wonderful. But Amber, our five year old Tuxedo, does not have a thyroid condition, she is just ::sigh:: overweight. So we talked about reducing high calorie snacks, like Milkbones, how much exercise she gets- three walks a day, plus several play times and potty break with DH. But I wanted to reach out and ask if there is anyone else who feeds their greys Purnia One Pro Plan shreded blend? How much do you feed, and do you feed once a day or twice? Also because DH has physical disabilities I thought finding a good Dog walker might help. Any suggestions on who to look for, personality- wise? Or is there anyone in Livingston Parrish, Louisiana who could help with a playdate or two a week? I work from 1:30pm to 10:30pm Thursday through Monday the following week with Tuesday and Wednesday off.

[Guest isntitgreyt]

I cut my girls' back a 1/2 cup when I notice they are packing on the pounds. They usually do this in the winter. I feed 1 1/2 cup twice a day. Cutting back treats will help too.

[Hubcitypam]

You might think about the green bean diet -- replace 1/4 of her food with canned (no salt if you want) green beans or spinach. My guys have all love green beans, collards and spinach.

 

Natural Balance also makes a good food called Ultra Light. It doesn't have the crappy celluose most of the light foods have and Poodle really liked it.

[Guest greytkidsmom]

I second the vote for green beans. We use frozen.

[cleptogrey]

greem beans, a low calorie food, cut back, carrots(they are basically bulk) and ice cubes...good to crunch on. it takes time, but be strict!! i used to buy carrots instead of dog biskets, 5lb bags to keep my scottie trim. talk about a breed that literally inflates as they age!

[OwnedBySummer]

Summer is about 68 lbs. I feed her 2 cups of TOTW in the morning, half a can of meat in the evening (312g or, I believe, using an online conversation site, 11 oz.). At bedtime, she gets one wheat-free dog cookie. During the day, she'll get a piece of pig ear or maybe a small dentabone. For exercise, she runs with hounds once or twice every weekend and usually twice during the week. I have also made a lure pole and she gets to play with that every day or two, plus running around the back yard and playing "chase the Wubba" with me. Since she gets quite a bit of exercise, I don't walk her every day. Perhaps twice a week.

 

She maintains her weight beautifully.

Edited October 28, 2010 by OwnedBySummer

[Guest mowreyAZ]

Thank you all for the responses, Amber loves cooked carrots, and beans so I might stock up on those, rinse them before I go to work and DH can feed them with her regular diner. Blair is not a veggie fan, so it might take some work. I walk them twice before work and then before bed. Their morning walk includes a walk to the off- leash park, where they can play. I love the lure pole idea, Blair and Am are both serious prey drive girls. Blair though is small dog- safe, and smart to know the difference tween a stuffie and Chichuaua.

[Guest kydie]

I have an old 1/2 chow female,, is not as active as she used to be,, she too had to loose weight,, so all I did was cut everything in 1/2,, she gets the same as everyone else, just 1/2 ,,, she has lost 10lbs in 18 months,, I also added green beans and cooked carrots to her food,,, getting 1/2 a cup of kibble and 1/2 the addins as the others dogs,,, twice a day

[HoundHeavenAZ]

We had a seizure dog relinquished to our group about a month ago. He was having one almost weekly and the vet had been working with the mom to stabilize environmental contaminants, diet and meds for about a year. We consulted with the vet (she is also our vet) when we recieved him and she suggested that we introduce lots of veggies and stick to beef and Natural Balance venison and sweet potato to isolate his intake.

Since it is so much less complicated to feed everyone the same, we started preparing the same mix for all our dogs. We have one of those massive pressure cookers and spent most of one day last week cooking for the 6 dogs so we can freeze ahead. All get the same food but the seizure boy gets more of the veggie mix - about 1 1/2 cup of both kibble and veggies along with 3 or 4 nice raw 70/30 burger meat balls with his meds hidden inside twice daily. We're sitting at 31 days seizure free, he has lost 11 pounds and is now at 70 pounds and is doing fantastic.

If the goal is to lose weight you'll want to eliminated the high fat burger or substitute with some lower fat meat, or maybe even eliminate it. Perhaps you'll want to adjust the kibble to veggie ratio too.

Here is the mix of produce that we had available last week. We do shop for specials and were happy to find pumpkins on sale last week, but they sure do wear you out peeling, chopping and all.

1/2 fresh pumpkin chopped ( the previous week we used butternut squash)

8 - 10 carrots chopped

4-5 sweet potatoes chopped (mixed varieties)

2 russet potatoes chopped

6 cored and chopped apples

1 bag of cranberries

2 clumps of broccoli chopped

3 or so chopped zucchini

5 pounds high fat burger

I cook the harder veggies first with water to cover, then add the rest and let them simmer till soft then add the burger. As we transfer it to freezer containers we take a potato masher to it to break it all down into a mush.

So far no seizures, good weight loss on 3 round hounds and MIRACULOUS firm poop and not one cow patty in the yard! None of the dogs had a difficult adjustment period to this diet and all seem to love it. Canned veggies will work too but the fresh stuff probably has more nutrients and plus it makes the house smell so good as it cooks

Here's a shot of our beautiful seizure boy.

Good luck!

[Fudge]

I third the green beans. If you use canned try to find low salt otherwise the frozen beans probably would be salt free already.