Over Weight - HELP

[Diane Heller-Vaccaro]

During our move (1 month) Nero stayed with grandmom (my mom) even though I left her careful feeding instruction and what to feed him it seems she never measured his food and filled his bowl whenever it was empty and that he perferred Alpo to Eukanuba. Well he has been home for a month and now that he stopped itching and flaking from his poor diet he has gained an incrediable amount of weigh. He is between 10-15 pounds overweight. How do you rate the diet dog foods. I was thinking lamb/rice lite (eukanuba). I'm doing my best with walking but I'm not a cold weather person. Any suggestions?

[valstybaby]

Not an expert but I put Ty on a mixture of 1/2 lite food and 1/2 California Natural. Felt that the lite alone did not have enough protein for a 16 mo old dog. If you mix I'd be sure to use a very good brand of adult dog food to make sure the puppy gets all the nutrients it needs. Hope this helps.

[DNeff]

Try adding in canned pumpkin to his diet, and cutting back on dog food. If you cut back 1/2 cup kibble, add a 1/2 cup canned pumpkin. Make sure to use pure pumpkin with nothing else added (don't use the pie filling type). This really helps your dog feel full without adding too many calories. My rottie adores having it added to his food. To him it is more exciting then the kibble. All the people I know who have tried it, have been really happy with the results!
Good luck!
Dawn Neff
dawn.neff@jcnordt.com
http://members.aol.com/dplantier

[frontierrots]

I had a chubby rott come here to lose weight once http://www.rottweiler.net/rottie/smile.gif
He was 24 lbs overweight. in 7 weeks he lost 18 lbs!

I was feeding him 1 cup ProPlan Turkey and Barley twice a day
1000 mg vit c twice a day
multi vitamin pm

2 mile walk once a day and playtime in a fenced pen all day long

Also be sure if he does not start to lose weight after few weeks have his thyroid tested. Dogs that won't lose weight on the above diet have almost always turned out to have a thyroid problem

Good luck! http://www.rottweiler.net/rottie/smile.gif

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Diane
Frontier Rottweilers & Shiba Inu
www.frontierrots.com

[CarolineS]

Another thing to pay close attention to is how many little "treats" the dog gets. Maggie is on a special diet for a while because of suspected food allergies. She is only allowed turkey and potatoes, and I have to use these as snacks also.

I made sure the caloric content of the turkey and potatoes matched that of the kibble she was eating. In the past three weeks, she has visibly lost weight. Which is okay, she needed to lose a bit. I can only put it down to the fact that all those "little" cookies I used for treats and training had a lot more calories in them than the little pieces of cooked potato she gets now. http://www.rottweiler.net/rottie/smile.gif

[Diane Heller-Vaccaro]

Thanks guys. I know in a way I've caused some of the problem. When Nero was diagnosed with lymes he had to take his pills on a full stomach. He didn't feel well so he didn't always want to eat. So I started giving him anything to get him to eat so he could take his pills. That included canned dog food mixed with his kibble. Now if I don't give him his canned food, he walks away. I've been mixing canned in Nala's Eukanuba Large Breed Kibble, usually Nutro Puppy is this going to make for another overweight dog. She is 10 months now and weighs over 90lbs, but she is not overweight at all in fact she is looks lean just heavy boned.

[frontierrots]

It is not what youfeed it is how much you feed. High calorie foods need less food to be fed. Low calore foods need more to be fed

generally with a healthy dog if they walk away from their foodthey are consuming too many calories per day. Try feeding him less.If he walks away then pick up the food , do not add anything to it to make him eat. he will not starve if he does not eat for a few days. Honest http://www.rottweiler.net/rottie/smile.gif

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Diane
Frontier Rottweilers & Shiba Inu
www.frontierrots.com