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Gaining weight on diet dog food

Discussion in 'Commercial Food' started by coopersmom, Apr 22, 2009.

  1. coopersmom

    coopersmom Forums Enthusiast

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    Dec 28, 2008
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    I must be doing something wrong. Randy is gaining weight on the Royal Canin High Fiber diet food. I believe it has 232 cal/cup. I'm feeding him two cups a day. When he gets treats he gets one or two pieces of diet dog food, except after he plays and at bedtime, when he get a low-fat treat.
    Maybe I'm feeding him too much, but two cups at 232 cals only comes to 464 cals, plus his treats which shouldn't put him much over 500 cals a day. He walks once or twice a day and plays for about 30 minutes each night. He's almost 8 now so his playing isn't a strenuous as it once was, but most nights he stays busy playing and barking at cats. We go for a mid-year physical Monday. The vet won't be pleased with his weight.
     
  2. Caro

    Caro Moderator

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    2 cups sounds a lot. Both my 6kg and 12kg shelties get 1/4 cup in the morning. When I got weight off my larger sheltie I didnt give them breakfast and instead gave them a small bone to gnaw on.
     
  3. mcguiregirl2248

    mcguiregirl2248 Forums Enthusiast

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    I think that I have to agree with Caro. 2 cups is a lot of food for a sheltie. Marlie weighs about 22 lbs. and only gets a half a cup of food a day mixed with a little bit of canned food. Rasha has a slightly bigger build and weighs about 24 lbs. so she gets 2/3's cup of food a day also with canned food mixed in. I think you need to cut back the amount of food that you are feeding him. I would start by cutting back to 3/4's cup twice a day for a few weeks and then down to 1/2 a cup a day moving forward. I think you will see that the weight will start coming off of him. How much does he weigh right now? Hope that is somewhat helpfull.
     
  4. GeeRome

    GeeRome Forums Enthusiast

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    "Weight loss" foods are often just made for marketing. The truth of the matter is that dogs are more likely to gain weight on "weight loss" foods than they would if they were eating a low carb/grain free maintenance food.

    "Weight loss" foods are high in carbohydrates and carnivores like our dogs cannot digest carbohydrates efficiently. They are broken down to glucose, where SOME is used for energy, but because carnivores are designed to get their energy from protein, not glucose, the excess glucose gets store in the form of fat. So the body is essentially having to work extra hard to get the energy it needs from a source that it cannot efficiently utilize. Plus, that source is in abundance in the food, so there is lots of excess that gets stored as fat.

    If you are wanting to promote weight loss, don't play into the marketing gimmicks. Rather, feed an appropriate amount of high quality, low grain or grain free food, and up your exercise routine.

    Think of canine weight loss foods as "fad diets". For people, there are a plethora of various dieting options available ... Atkins, South Beach, Cabbage, Candida, etc. etc. All claiming to be the best way to lose weight and be healthy. When in reality, the best way for a human to lose weight is to eat appropriate meal sizes of food that we were designed to eat (veggies and small amounts of meat), and increase our exercise. The only difference between us and dogs is that dogs were designed to eat something different, meat with small amounts of veggies, and very few if any carbs.
     
  5. coopersmom

    coopersmom Forums Enthusiast

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    randy is about 17", husky build, and this morning I weighed hiim at 42.8 lbs.
     
  6. HopeShelties

    HopeShelties Forums Enthusiast

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    I'd cut back on the amount of food you're giving him. 2 cups is a LOT of food. And, essentially, you're giving him as many calories in those 2 cups as you would 1 cup of the regular stuff. Cut him back to 1 cup. I think you'll see a difference.
     
  7. BarbV

    BarbV Forums Celebrity

    43 pounds is alot, even given his build. I would definitely start cutting him back.

    I don't know Canin at all, but the problem I noticed with most dog food feeding instructions is that they give you the amount to feed based upon the weight of the dog. Well, if the dog is already, overweight, then you will continuously overfeed.

    My one year olds both get 1 1/3 cup per day, and not alot of treats. Maybe 1 or 2 very small cookies and a fingernail size Zuke or two if they've been really good.

    And even at 1 year I'm starting to look at cutting them both back to 1 cup each (high protein diet).
     
  8. Caro

    Caro Moderator

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    He is a big boy. My bigger sheltie is currently 26.5lb and 16 3/4" tall - down from his heaviest of 29.5lb.

    I initially had the same problem in that the diet dry food made no difference. I switched him to this stuff called "Vets All Natural" which you mix with meat -plus only giving a lean bone in the morning instead of dry food, and he lost weight quickly after that. My dogs love pumpkin so I often replace some of their food with pumpkin on days they haven't had as much exercise.

    Have you tried the pumpkin diet? There is info on the internet about it - it is a popular dog diet with agility people and my vet also recommends it. For agility we are told to cut a dog's intake to 1/3 of what they are getting and replace it with 2/3 pumpkin. The other way of doing it is for every cup you replace you can substitute with twice as much pumpkin.
     
  9. sable

    sable Forums Enthusiast

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    A thyroid problem can cause weight gain. The only way the vet can tell is by a blood test of course. Just a possibility, and it can be corrected with meds.

    Shelties are proned to thyroid problems supposedly. ???????
     
  10. Crystal1

    Crystal1 Forums Enthusiast

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    Cutting back on what you feed your older sheltie is difficult, I know that from my last sheltie, FancyFace. She ate constantly and was never full, so I found a high fiber diet that she didn't really like. My husband wasn't happy that she didn't like her food. But she ate all she needed and didn't go around begging for more all day. That's how she lost her extra weight. I know we all want to spoil our furbabies, but it was difficult to exercise her because of severe arthritis. Good Luck!!
     

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