feeding for healthy weight loss?

[betsyk]

In a thinly veiled effort to find a dog that’s as different as possible from the labs we’ve loved and lost, we are going to meet a border collie-beagle mix this weekend. There’s a lot about her story that makes her sound like a good potential fit for our household – including the fact that she’s quite overweight and needs a diet and exercise program. That’s a project I feel like I can take on!

Any good advice for safe, healthy weight loss for a dog who may need to lose approximately 25% of her ideal body weight? I’ll find out on Saturday what sort of program she’s been on with her foster family, and I may have the answers right there, but I’m always up for collecting data before making any decision.

We still have partial bags of several kinds of high end dog food from Kaley’s last weeks, when she got picky and we were buying all kinds of things to see what she would eat. I’m tempted to mix them all together and pre-measure a day’s food (how much?) into a tupperware, and make that the sum total of meals and treats to be distributed over 24 hours. Any thoughts on the relative contribution of wet food and dry food? The yorkie has pretty much switched over to canned food because she never did like kibble; I’m not going there with Dog #2 and I really can’t see the need for wet food at all if she’s a chow hound that needs to lose weight. thoughts on that? While I’m willing to buy really good dry food, I balk at the cost of high end cans.

Those of you who have dogs in the 40 lb ideal weight range - how much high end, dry dog food does it take to maintain a moderately active 40 lb dog?

[stargzng386]

I owned a border collie beagle mix dog for awhile and would NEVER do it again. He had the brain of the border collie but the stubbornness of a beagle. He could never be trusted off leash. I spent literally every waking second exercising him, training him etc. I was a full time dog walked and he went everywhere with me and to the dog park for a few hours a day. Even that wasn’t enough he was very destructive. This dog could be completely different but it’s a breed mix I won’t touch with a 20 foot pole it was heartbreaking.

[betsyk]

It’s funny, because those were exactly the sorts of concerns I had, and the person at the rescue said they were told she was a BC/beagle mix but she has the personality of neither – we’ll see. She’s been a serious couch potato for long enough to gain a bunch of weight, and we’re meeting them at a local off-leash dog park, so we’ll get to see recall in action as well as how much exercise tolerance she has at this point.

[kasjordan]

I would mix all the foods together unless the rescue has reason to believe she can’t tolerate a certain ingredient. I think I would feed her at the amount for what she would weigh if she was about 10lbs less than she is…then when you get down to that weight, feed her to the suggested amount for the next 10lbs down until you get her where you want her. Activity just may be all she really needs. My 100+lb GSD get 4 cups a day of his Merrick/Blue Buffalo whichever I have him on at the time…So you’re probably looking at 2 cups a day? I would spread it into three feedings if I could.

[stargzng386]

That’s good news that she seems to have the personality of neither! Mine had a great recall…unless there was a scent he had to follow. I could have a steak in my hands and call him and he knew he was supposed to come (I spent months training it on a long line and at the dog park) but…man whatever that scent trail was always won out. That is probably from a hound trait.

For feed I would go with grain free because the carbs of other foods put weight on. Feed about 1/4 less then the recommended amount on the bag for her weight and slowly decrease as she becomes more fit. I might stick her on a joint supplement too if her activity level is increasing and she’s been carrying around extra weight.

[betsyk]

My 60lb lab mix always ate 2 cups/day, her whole life, and weight was just about perfect. The 35 lb doggy houseguest we have gets 1/2 cup twice a day and is also obese; another 30 lb houseguest gets 1/2 cup of something different and is lean. 40 lb will probably be her ideal weight and she’s 50 lb now, so my instinct is to feed the amount that she would get if she was at her goal – whatever that is? Everything we have in the house is grain free or close to it.

Foster family is in love with her and I will, of course, ask them what they’ve been doing. Keep the ideas coming.

[Laurierace]

Lets say a dog weighs 35 pounds but their ideal weight is 30 pounds. Look on the bag of whatever you decide to feed the dog and feed the recommended amount for a 30 pound dog. If he acts like he is starving or eats it in two seconds you can add some green beans. I got a few pounds off my sheltie this way but his downfall is all the other stuff he manages to beg rather than his actual food.

[littlebaypony]

When I need to take weight off the dogs I substitute canned green beans for 1/4 to 1/3 of their normal quantity of dog food. This was recommended by my vet many years ago and I have found it to work very well. Straight out of the can green beans; healthy, adds fiber, the dog feels full (or they seems to). Has worked well for both large and small breeds. It does sometimes take a day or two for the dogs to decide to eat the beans.

[paulaedwina]

I have a beagle mix and I love the heck out of her. I agree, I don’t trust her off lead -she has found every gap in my fence. I’m going to run a livestock hot wire when the weather improves, but I doubt I’ll ever turn my back on her in the yard like I did my ridgebacks (they had run of the yard and the house through a dog door). However, we’ve adapted to that fine. I have a 50ft line attached to a counter leg in the kitchen and when she wants to go out I attach her to it. Otherwise she is a house dog (which she doesn’t mind at all) and we walk and go to the dog park. Essentially I live like we live in the city in an apartment.

Her personality is to die for. She’s the first empathetic dog I’ve ever owned.

Weight loss: I stay away from diet kibbles -they are usually carb heavy and the animal gets frantically hungry. I have successfully reduced dogs on fish and complex carb formulas. My challenge with Ginger was that it is so easy to make small dogs fat. I quit sharing all my snacks with her, I’ve stuck to a scant cup of fish/sweet potato grain free (moved from a higher fat protein to leaner fish) and 2 oz of cottage cheese. We also walk all the time now.

LOL! Ginger’s weight loss was facilitated by my eating better!

Paula