UPDATE IN POST 40
I had Miss Corgi clipped yesterday because she’d gotten into a struggle with burrs and thistles. (I think she was in pursuit of a rabbit or squirrell.) She’s obese. :eek:
Is there a commercial diet dog food that dogs like? And will eat? I know about replacing kibbles with green beans, but it’s been a long time since I’ve needed to reduce a doggy & there’s probably something new available now.
Thanks.
What is she eating right now? Recognizing she’s overweight is the biggest hurdle. Personally, I would keep her on the same food and scale back by 1/3 or even 1/2 (depending on how much she is eating now). Rinsed canned green beans are a great item to bulk up meals when you cut back on food. What’s her weight now vs. when she was at her ideal weight?
She should weigh between 25 & 35 lbs–she’s not one of the smaller of the breed, but when I put her into the car to go to the groomers, I could just barely lift her. I knew she was chubby, but since she’s not one to cuddle, I really didn’t realize what a porker she’d become until now. She looks like a manatee with foxy ears.
Our boy Corgi is not too heavy, but could join her in the diet without becoming emaciated, for sure. She is spayed and he is neutered, so I should have done a better monitoring job.
Thanks for the input.
what food is she on? It’ll give a better idea of how best to handle her new diet 
She gets one cup of Pedigree kibble and a quarter (big) can of the wet in the evening, and a CostCo dog biscuit in the morning. I tried cooking chicken for them, but it gave them diarreha. I tried raw food for a short time, but didn’t continue because it was too time consuming.
Also, I’ve had to cut way back on exercising the dogs (and riding the horses) because my mother is at the end of her life* and very needy at this point. I think if I just make time to take the dog for a mile walk every day, it’ll help.
*She is almost 98 and has dementia, so it isn’t as wrenching as it might be, but still takes lots of time from your own life.
That’s about the size range of my two dogs (26 lbs and 36 lbs), and both are moderately to highly active (10 miles or so of off leash hiking a week and agility training) and they eat 1/2 a cup a day (the older, less active 36 lb dog) and 2/3 cup a day (the smaller, more active 26 lb dog). Definitely don’t go off what the bag says for food amounts - they want to sell you more. I’d definitely look at decreasing the amount of food.
I’d also look at changing foods if you are willing. A lot of the lower quality foods like Pedigree are very carb heavy, which piles weight on. I’m not a huge fan of the “diet” dog foods (I looked into some recently for my older dog, who was heavier than I like - I wound up cutting her from 2/3 cup a day to the 1/2 a cup and upping her exercise rather than changing food); I couldn’t find any that met my preferences for quality of food.
Good luck. Recognizing the problem is definitely half the battle, but it’s never fun to take weight off your dog - as I said, I went through it recently!
Thanks. I don’t really know what “high quality” dog foods are. I certainly know that there are some that cost lots more than Pedigree, and lots that cost less. I’ve tried them on the Call of the Wild, and other brands that claim to be healthier, but either they won’t eat them or the “healthy” ones are vomited up, undigested.
If you, or anyone, has a recommendation* for a good dog food, I’d certainly give it a try.
*Probably should be a brand that I can find at PetSmart or other Big box stores. I live in a backwoods sort of location where most dogs are lucky to be fed at all.
A grain free, high protein diet will trim the carb induced weight gain without having to cut calories.
Moving from a high carb to a high protein diet (like TOTW) can cause stomach problems unless you do the switch super slow, like 2x the normal schedule of a week long time span.
Wellness Core and Innova Evo are high quality grain free kibbles. You have to switch over VERY SLOWLY. Pedigree is based on ground corn and these two are mostly meat so it’s an entirely different digestive process. Diarrhea is common if you don’t do the change very slowly.
For feeding reference, my highly active 45lb Border Collie gets 1 cup twice daily. THAT’S IT. My 115lb fit and active English Mastiff gets 2 cups twice daily.
1 cup twice daily of anything for a dog that should be 25 pounds is a lot of food.
I couldn’t get my mom to reliably pick up quality food for her dogs and they were both plagued with allergies and recurring ear infections. I had her put them on LiveSmart from SmartPak and they are doing well. 55lb Golden Retriever on 1 cup chicken and rice twice a day and 110lb Lab/Great Dane mix on 2 cups twice daily. Can’t beat the convenience of getting it delivered to the door!
Pumpkin is good for adding bulk without calories.
Thanks again to all of you. If I’m comprehending what you’re saying, you are feeding only the dry food and nothing in a can? Meat scraps? I’ve seen some frozen meat products at Pet Smart, but haven’t bought any. Yet.
I’ll see what’s available next time I go to town. Smart Pak is a great idea.
I feed my 80 pound lab 2.5 cups of dry food a day, no scraps or treats or canned food. He maintains well at that.
I’d cut the canned food and daily biscuit and wouldn’t replace it with any meat scraps. I’d also slowly transition to a better food that has meat as it’s first ingredient.
I do feed meat with dry dog food. I usually use ground meat like beef. i introduce it slowly and make sure it isn’t too fatty, but i think it is beneficial for them to eat some real food. I think that home prepared meat is better for them than canned or commercial food alone.
I would suggest Wellness CORE, which is available at Petco I believe. Switch very slowly. I think it is likely that you are just feeding too much. I don’t think reduced calorie food is necessary in most cases - just reduce the amount given.
Fall is also a great time to up your walks and fetch time.
stay far away from any of the “diet” kibbles- they use entirely the wrong strategy to trim weight off dogs. Dogs rapidly lose body fat if you cut out the carbohydrates and increase the protein; most diet kibbles replace the protein with carbs and fiber. Many a dog on diet kibble actually gets fatter, or loses body muscle instead of fat.
I’d ditch the Pedigree- it’s an extremely low quality food, with zero meat in it, that provides 44% of calories from carbohydrates. Pretty much guaranteed to make your dog fat and unhealthy.
Feeding a quality canned food mixed with green beans is an excellent way to help dogs lose weight- unlike dry food, canned food has water in it, which means more bulk per calorie. For the really fat-prone dogs, like corgis, I would probably avoid ever feeding dry food.
Here’s a list of good foods for weight loss, including many canned foods:
http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/best-dog-foods/weight-loss-dog-foods/
[QUOTE=Hermein;7225145]
Thanks again to all of you. If I’m comprehending what you’re saying, you are feeding only the dry food and nothing in a can? Meat scraps? I’ve seen some frozen meat products at Pet Smart, but haven’t bought any. Yet.
I’ll see what’s available next time I go to town. Smart Pak is a great idea.[/QUOTE]
What is your reasoning behind wanting to add something extra? I think adding canned food or scraps is useful for putting on weight or making it more palatable for a super picky eater. Otherwise, kibble contains everything a dog needs. I firmly believe any short legged-long backed dog needs to be kept very (very) lean. Being overweight can dramatically shorten their lifespan when arthritis or spine issues set in.
Personally, I would switch to a grain free food and transition over extremely slowly (2-3 weeks). On the grain free food I would go for 1/2 c twice a day and adjust as needed. I definitely would not feed canned food and I would cut the dog biscuit and switch to a small grain-free treat.
A food like Wellness is fantastic but considering that you are coming from Pedigree, there are a lot of cheaper options which might be easier on their system. While I would avoid corn and wheat, a food such as a lamb and rice or potato and beef might give them enough carbs to help them transition over. If you like the results you can always move towards a food that has a higher percentage of meat.
Probiotics are also helpful for keeping the stomach settled during food transitions.
Otherwise, kibble contains everything a dog needs.
you are very naïve. Kibble doesn’t contain everything a dog needs- how could it? many necessary nutrients are unstable and don’t survive the kibble- creation process. Plus we know very little about nutrition, certainly not enough to put “everything a dog needs for life” into some bag.
Plus it contains lots of things dogs don’t need, like carbs. Even the best kibble contains far more carbohydrates than any predator needs.
And then there is the problem of bloat- you realize bloat kills one third of dogs? it’s caused primarily by eating bowls of dry kibble. Easy enough to stop the deaths. Add table scraps and canned food to the dry kibble and stop the painful deaths. Criminal to feed nothing but dry kibble. Especially to dogs who need to lose weight. I suspect most dogs fed nothing but dry kibble suffer horrible hunger pains most their lives due their low-volume diets. Have you ever tried to live off dried meat and veg for a few days? you feel extremely hungry despite eating sufficient calories. That is what kibble-fed dogs feel day in and day out.
Dry kibble is very unnatural food. It’s easy for owners, but the dogs suffer.
Care to cite some references?
Welll…if you search some of Wendy’s past posts on pretty much anything related to animal care you’ll find others are always correcting her. She has her own special set of rules, facts and information that nobody else has ever heard of. 
Wendy I think you meant to say that bloat has a 33 per cent mortality rate, or that one third of dogs who get bloat die, not that it kills one third of dogs. And that’s a dire estimate.
[QUOTE=wendy;7226175]
you are very naïve. [/QUOTE]
Your post is full of a mix of unsubstantiated facts and personal opinion all presented as law.
Plenty of dogs live long and health lives on kibble and plenty of dogs lead long and health lives on raw or homecooked. However, the OP is trying to learn more about nutrition so that she can develop a plan to do right by her animals.
Given that the reference was towards an unknown canned food or unknown table scraps I stand by my statement. Those things are not inherently providing something that kibble is not.
Once a dog is at an ideal weight I do not think there is harm in adding variety if the dog can handle the change without getting sick but when you are trying to help a dog lose weight it is not the time for table scraps.
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