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weight loss

Discussion in 'General Health' started by hodagsheltie, Feb 15, 2014.

  1. hodagsheltie

    hodagsheltie Forums Novice

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    Feb 15, 2014
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    My 4 year old Shellie is overweight by about 15 labs. We have tried weight loss foods, have had her thyroid checked and its normal. I am thinking of switching over to 96/4 ground beef instead of the food we have been feeding with. Just a little in the a.m. and a little in the p.m. I have also begun upping the exercise. Any other tips? Does anyone else feed with simply lean ground beef? Running out of ideas.
     
  2. corbinam

    corbinam Moderator

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    Can you tell is how tall she is and how much she weighs now? Would also help to know what you're feeding now and how much of it.
     
  3. Mom2Melli

    Mom2Melli Forums Enthusiast

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    I am sailing on the same ship as you! Melli is 16 inches and change and weighs 38 pounds. Labs are fine. Reduce food and she will kill and eat us or turn into Cujo to our boy who is twice her size. The problem for her is getting the calories lowered because too few bites per meal upset her.

    I did some research and found that Avoderm is one of the two lowest calorie diet foods at 298 kcal/cup -- most had as much or more than the TOTW I feed my other dog at 370 kcal/cup! She's doing well on the Avoderm and I am slowly reducing from 1-1/2 cups which she thinks she is entitled to 1 cup per day.

    I don't have accessibility to raw since I live an hour from town and only shop once every two weeks. I would suggest you look at dog food based on caloric value because I was very suprised at how many low calorie foods were not at all low calorie and then go from there.
     
  4. Mignarda

    Mignarda Forums Enthusiast

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    Jan 17, 2013
    Dover, Delaware
    I don't think there's anything wrong with ground beef alone in the short term; perhaps some kind of vitamin supplement would be in order as well. What you're talking about is essentially an Atkins Diet for dogs, and that works wonderfully in humans for weight loss.

    Dickens gets that kind of diet, and he's done very well on it, although he gets a small amount of dog food for fiber and added vitamins. However, he's not overweight at all, so I don't mind giving it to him.
     
  5. ClantyreSheltie

    ClantyreSheltie Forums Sage

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    Feb 24, 2010
    Baltimore
    First, weight loss foods make dogs fat. They are mostly grain and starch (plants), and usually not great quality. Dogs do not need low fat meals to lose weight, that's a human thing. Dogs need quality animal based proteins and not much more.

    Feeding just ground beef is a problem on several levels. First, you'd probably feel the need to cook it :) Second, a proper raw diet involves meat, bone, and organ meat fed as a variety of foods. So even raw ground beef is only a part of what she would need, and would probably quickly give her diarrhea because it lacks fiber (that raw bone provides). So while feeding actual meat is a great idea, you have to expand on it a little bit.

    I highly recommend Lew Olson's book "Raw and Natural Nutrition for Dogs" which explains a lot of these concepts, and even has recipes for raw and home cooked meals.
     
  6. Greenepony

    Greenepony Forums Enthusiast

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    Jul 2, 2012
    I've personally never used it but the rescue we adopted Olive from uses the "Green Bean Diet" for the overweight intake. The way I understand is that you mix in frozen or fresh green beans (no sodium added) with the dry food to add fiber and to bulk up the meal. Could that help?
     

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