Food for big dog on a diet

[Silver]

Hi all,

We just rescued a big lovable Rottie named Thunder. When I say big I mean big, he was 150 pounds when we picked him up today. He was 170 lbs and the shelter had him on a diet and between that and exercising, brought him down to 150.

Here is my dilemma and I need advice from the food experts.

They had him on Science Diet Light (Corn meal 1st ingredient). , I guess this food worked for them to get him down on some weight, but I REALLY want to switch him to a better food (I was feeding our last dog Canidae, but I wasn't sure if that would be good for dogs that need to lose weight and firm up.

Any good food suggestions for a dog on a diet?

Thanks in advance:D

[CarolineS]

The trick to putting a dog on a diet is the same as putting a person on a diet...cut the calories. You can do this with any food, so I see no reason why you shouldn't switch him to a better brand while he diets.

Do you know what the optimum weight for your dog would be? What you need to do is find out how many calories he would need to support that weight, then cut them in half. That's what I did with my dog when she needed to lose weight and she lost about 10 lbs in 2 months.

That doesn't usually leave a whole bunch of food for the dog, so what a lot of people do is feed three times a day, just to give him something to look forward to. I've also heard of people adding canned pumpkin (plain, not the pie kind) to the dog food. This will add some bulk to the diet to make him feel fuller without adding a lot of calories.

Cut out all commercial treats; dogs biscuits and other treats are loaded with calories. Feed veggies and fruit for treats. Most dogs like carrots.

Last, but not least, steel yourself to those pleading eyes that tell you he's starving to death.

[Homerhomer]

canidae would be jsut fine, just feed less and follow what Caroline suggested regarding treats and the diet.

[Barbara Surplus]

Silver, Caroline is our resident expert on calories (and poop :p ) so she just about covers it all. She KNOWS of what she speaks. Not a bad idea to switch foods though. Canidae may help him in that he won't be getting the extra fillers that are present in even the "light" foods.

You might want to introduce him to a regular exercise program as well. Amazing what a good diet and proper conditioning will do.

Bless your heart for taking in this big old lug. :D
Barbara

[Dagos-Dad]

As Barbara points out exercise would also help. That way you wouldn't have to cut his food intake drastically.

When I see Dago getting a little heavy we just play ball a little more and he gets to keep his food.

[DixieGrl113]

I also think exercise would help you shed those pounds. CarolineS, as always, right on the money. A proper diet with exercise will give you great results. The only problem I have with exercising a lot is, the more they run, the fitter they get. That means better endurance, which translates to a very tired arm when we're playing ball :D If your boy is that heavy I would start out slowly, gradually increasing as he builds fitness. You don't want to start out too heavy on the exercise and give the poor guy a heart attack. I've never had a dog that heavy but, if I did, I would start out with brisk walks/jogs for as long as he is tolerating it well. Does he like tennis balls? If so, then you could play "fetch" while outside for potty breaks. That way you squeeze in a little extra running. Now would be a great time to get his weight down as the weather is cooler so heat exhaustion isn't a big factor. Good Luck to you and your new baby! :)

[AngelBunny]

Silver:

"Any good food suggestions for a dog on a diet?"

1. Change foods. SD-anything are inferior foods.

2. Feed alot less than Thunder's been fed. All the Rotties I've ever had have been stomachs on legs masquerading as dogs--given the slightest chance, all of them would've eaten themselves to death.

3. Feed 2x/day.

4. Harden your heart to any soulful, pleading looks for food. Thunder has a long, long, long way to go before he even comes close to starving.

The fact of the matter is *any* healthy dog will lose weight on a good quality diet fed in sensible amounts. This lite-business--both for people and animals--is simply a way marketeers have figured out how to part us from our money.

[Silver]

I ordered the Canidae, should be here this Tuesday.

I was estimating feeding him whatever the package says for 100 lb dog. I don't have the food here so I can't look at their recommendations. But I figured if he's 150 and I feed him as he's 100 that should work. What do you think? Or is that not enough food?

I tried doing a search on the internet for the optimum weight of a Rott but couldn't find anything other the the "standard weight" and I don't think I could really go by that. 90-115 lbs?

We already feed him only twice a day. We started him on short walks twice a day. Basically 20-30 minutes twice a day, morning, evening.

I thought the same thing about the heart attack, that's why we thought we would start with the walks.

We tried the tennis ball to play fetch, but I don't think he played this game before, so we have to teach it too him. I think all the previous owners did was feed him, because when we threw the ball the first time, he ran for it, smelled it and came back, like "that's not food, give me food". Now that he knows that that yellow round thing is not food he doesn't go after it. So I figure we have to teach him and reward him with something healthy.

Thank you for all the advice. I love this website!
:D

[scoobyd03]

I don't know if Thunder is dog park material, but I've found that play is the best form of exercise. Che seems to have little interest in running with me, but has a mysterious burst of energy when we get near Dog Beach. Now, I take him to the park most mornings and hope for a playmate. My exercise will have to come without the dog.

[Homerhomer]

Originally posted by Silver

We already feed him only twice a day. We started him on short walks twice a day. Basically 20-30 minutes twice a day, morning, evening.

I thought the same thing about the heart attack, that's why we thought we would start with the walks.

Sounds like a plan, with all the extra weight he would probably injure himself if he started running like a mad cow, so take it easy and increase the activity gradually.

[CarolineS]

Thunder's ideal weight will be determined by his height and bone size. If he is a really tall dog, with big bones, his ideal weight may be around 120. Maybe if you could measure him and describe his body type, it would give us a general idea of what a good weight would be for him.

I checked the Canidae website for you and for dogs needing to lose weight, whose ideal weight is 100 lbs, they recommend feeding one to one and two-thirds cups of food a day. I think you can start out feeding a little more than that and see how it goes.

A 100 lb, moderately active dog needs about 2200 calories per day according to the tables in my reference book. I have found the daily calorie recommendations a little high for Rottweilers, but it is a good place to start. When a dog needs to lose the amount of weight yours does, you have to cut the calorie count for his "ideal" weight in half and feed that amount. That would make it about 1100 calories per day. A cup of Canidae has 466 calories. This is roughly 2 1/3 cups of food. I would feed half of this in the morning and half at night like you currently do.

Be forewarned, this will look like next to nothing in the bowl, but this is what you have to do. This should give you a weight loss of about one pound per week, which is a healthy weight loss. If you feed the amount recommended for a 100 lb dog, which is 3-4 cups, the weight loss will be very, very slow and you'll get very discouraged.

My Maggie is 23", big boned and her ideal weight is around 85 lbs. When she recently "blossomed" up to 92 lbs, I cut her back to 1,000 calories a day and she shed the weight in about 8 weeks. I very slowly adjusted her food upwards and found that around 1,200 calories keeps her where she should be.

If you can convince your dog that carrots are yummy, then you can feed him lots of "baby" peeled carrots for treats. Maggie eats so many carrots and apples when she's on a diet I swear she should neigh. ;)

[Silver]

Wow. Thank you for all the information. I tried giving him a carrot, a piece of apple and a piece of orange, all at different times. It was obvious he had not had those before. He tasted them and walked away from it and came back to me. I have not tried sweet potato yet.

Do you think if I cut them up into small pieces and put it along with the dog food that would be o.k.? As a healthy "filler"?

[CarolineS]

Cutting up some small bits of veggies or fruit and putting it in his kibble won't hurt, though he may not eat it since he doesn't think they're food. ;) This will be tough on you because he's going to try and convince you he's starving. I would almost bet that a lot of his weight gain came from having a whole bunch of between-meal treats. The size of milkbone that most people feed to a Rott has a couple of hundred calories in it. They don't take long to add up. Just keep in mind that this diet is for his own good and his long-term health.

I feed a home-made cooked diet and I tend to use veggies and fruit just as treats. The people here who feed a raw diet use a mix of raw, pureed vegetables, so maybe one of them could suggest quantities and types of veggies you could add to his food.

[AngelBunny]

Silver:

Is Thunder your only dog? Our 2 resident dogs are nuts for fruits & veggies (w/ the exception of our older girl not liking citrus). Fosters are fed last in our house, so by the time the foster gets his treat, he's seen our girls wolf down apples, carrots, broc, squash, etc. Foster usually starts to gobble what he's being offered because it *must* be good--2 other dogs ate it! None of our fosters have ever liked fruits & veggies rite off--they acquire a taste for them. By the time they leave for their forever homes, they too, eat fruits & veggies.

Be parepared that Thunder mite not like any new food you feed him because he's not used to the taste. Keep his bowl down for 10 minutes or so, then pick it up. Don't let him free-feed. He may not even eat for a couple of days til he figures out this is all he's getting & the bowl is only there for a couple of minutes.

When we adopted our 3 yo, she was 5 mo old at the time. She was fed supermarket kibble. I stopped that cold-turkey. Tula wouldn't eat for 3 days because she didn't like Wellness. On the 4th day she was so hungry she ate everything & that was the end of the Little Princess being snobby about food.

CarolineS is right about the amount of Thunder's kibble will look like nothing in his bowl, but don't let that feel you need to add more to his bowl! Canidae is a premium food, so a little bit goes a long way.

All our dogs--our 2 yo energizer bunny, our 3 yo, & our 4-5 yo 27" tall [very lazy] male foster do well on 4 cups of Wellness/day, divided into 2 meals. They also get lots of fruits & veggies as treats, & 1-2 times/week, each gets a frozen raw beef marrow bone as a special treat.

[Silver]

Yes he is our only pet.

We tried the veggies alone again, but no luck. I diced them up and put about a tbsp and a half of them into his bowl with his dinner and he ate it up. I put the rest of the veggies in this mornings food. Maybe if he eats them unknowningly he'll get used to the taste in his mouth???? If this is not a good idea please let me know.

I did buy some reduced fat small sized treats, for training purposes, until I can get him to eat his veggies (boys!) and I cut those in 3 so they are not very big at all. Plus I found a veggie based dentabone -95% fat free, and my husband cuts that into 3's also.

I did speak to a trainer about joining a class and just by mention she said that it takes about 2 weeks to wean a dog off of Science Diet. The Canidae should be here today some time. I'll start him off this evening, just to make sure, while I am around, there are no reactions/allergies, etc.