tips for a fat dog.....thining!

[bellylicious]

Hi all, over christmas my husband and i were asked if we would take hubbys grandads corgi as he could no longer look after her

we of course agreed (she is particularly lovely)

turns out she was being fed 3-4 cans of dog food everyday! poor man was forgetting he had fed her

so at 7yo she weighs in at 18.85kg

vets have checked her over and other than being overweight she is in very good health

we had been given Hills r/d prescription diet kibble..........which she hates!!!

so the point of my super long post is how do i convince her that dry food is good?

she will eat anything else to the point weve got to lock her out of the living room while were eating as shes so hungry she'll try and get the kids food and tip the bin over too

vet has sugested that her teeth may be giving her jip as they dont look in great shape, but they cant do anything till shes lost weight so they can put her under

so any sugestions please

Hills Science Diet isn't particularly good stuff. Vets push it because they get plenty of commission for selling it. There are loads of other, cheaper, "lite" dog foods on the market.

To convince her that dry food is good, make sure she doesn't get access to any other food. She's turning her nose up at it because she manages to find tastier stuff elsewhere. Make sure she gets NO other food. Put her ration down, leave it 10 minutes and if she doesn't eat it, take it up again and don't offer anything else until the next meal. If she's hungry, she'll eat. Dogs eat the shit of other animals, their own vomit and dead voles. They sniff and lick their own arseholes. How fussy, really, do you think they are?

That said, it might help to soak it in warm water so it softens slightly on the outside, thus a) Making it smell slightly more and b) Making it slightly easier for her to eat if her teeth are poorly.

Soak the dry food in warm (not boiling) water for 20 minutes or so before feeding. If her teeth are the problem, softening the food should help.

You don't have to feed that prescription diet stuff either. Just smaller quantities of any food will do. Don't be tempted to give her additional tit-bits and make sure the kids don't either. If she does get extra bits (intentionally or accidentally), reduce her food to compensate.

You could split her daily ration into smaller portions and feed more often...she's used to being fed 3-4 times a day so continuing to give her 3-4 smaller meals might help to stop with the scavenging.

Increase her exercise. you may need to do this gradually, depending on how much exercise she has been used to.

Exercise! Reduces boredom (which can result in over eating given a chance) and burns calories. If she's not use to walks then slowly build up the distance, ie frequent short walks.

Cut out all treats, use kibble from the daily ration of diet food (weigh it out and have it in a pot on the side so everyone in the family knows)

All of calamity's advice is great.

There are diet drugs from the vet now on the market, but it can be done much cheaper by increase exercise and reducing calorific intake.

Good luck! She'll be a happier dog for it!

All the other posters seem to say it!

If you need treats to reward her for good behaviour when out and about etc, chuck one of her biscuits - she will probably wolf it down before she realises she doesn't like it

thanks for the tips

we are gradually increasing the walks, she really does enjoy being out, its just her poor little body that cant keep up!

she is being kept out of foods way lol

we are getting somewhere with her as she wouldnt so much as look up when we got her harness out but now she wiggles her bum and really gets excited bless her

so going back to the diet food, i take it its not really needed, if thats the case what would you recomend?

I just have to share about my parents who used to dog sit an overweight lab, for the first 2 weeks they used to have to drag this young dog out for walks but then he dragged them on the way back

by the end of the 3rd week he used to quite like his walks then he'd go home again and he'd be allowed to get lazy again

So don't know which dog foods are "good"

Burns, James Wellbeloved, Orijen... good, higher-end dry foods.

Avoid Pedigree and Bakers crap.

HOWEVER - when it comes to food, it does depend on the dog. Some do very well on Chappie dry food, which is pretty much as cheap as you can get. I buy the odd bag of Chappie if I run out of their normal Autarkey and they absolutely ADORE it!

Theoretically, you could just give her less food, rather than a special diet food. However, depending on how much she's used to eating, that might end up being a tiny amount; especially if you're splitting it into several meals. A diet/lighter food would mean she was eating slightly more volume but with the same amount of calories, and not feeling on the edge of starvation lol!

You can usually get free samples from the manufacturers so you can try before you buy a huge bag and said corgi turn her nose up again!

thank you so much for your help

the vet was good but i really just got handed a £11.50 1.5kg bag of diet dog food shes not keen on lol

i think she will for the time being (until her stomach shrinks back to normal corgi size)think shes on the edge of starvation

Can I come and join in with her to make her feel less lonely on her diet/exercise plan

Are you reducing her portions or have you just gone straight down to what she 'should' have?

I agree that there are other brands to try. Hills do a refund if you take the food back and say she wont eat it.

you may find you have pristine floors that are polished after every meal time

Does she look like a barrel with legs on each corner?

You should find madamedeathstare and check out her profile of deathcat1 - I think there will be a similarity between her cat and your corgi

Hope link works

deathcat1

www.mumsnet.com/Profile?nick=MadamDeathstare

I took on a nearly 23 kg staff from rescue - my previous one was 26kg but slim at that - the one I have now was not!!!

I fed her the same stuff as my old dog - James Wellbeloved Senior (amount appropriate to the weight she should have been) mixed with a small amount of Nature diet senior wet food (I worked out what she should have of both and divvied it). I should point out I adopted a senior dog here - but I would have thought 7 years in a corgi classed as senior too?

Anyway - she has lost 4 kilos on an amount of food appropriate to her and an exercise regime (she too had had none) since October, and it sounds like you are doing all the right things for her weight loss.

James Wellbeloved costs £12 for 4 kilos from petsmart - or £7.49 for a 2 kilo bag. Nature diet is expensive, but an 84 pence carton lasts 3 days if added as a topping and dogs love it.

No tips for thinning but you can get Nature Diet cheaper if you shop around - I pay 75p in my local pet shop but if you buy on line here www.berriewoodwholesale.co.uk/pages/naturediet-pet-foods-1195 It starts at £11.24 for a case of 18 packs But I think you need to get four at a time. I do as was suggested above and give half ND and Half kibble.

No tips for thinning but you can get Nature Diet cheaper if you shop around - I pay 75p in my local pet shop but if you buy on line here www.berriewoodwholesale.co.uk/pages/naturediet-pet-foods-1195 It starts at £11.24 for a case of 18 packs But I think you need to get four at a time. I do as was suggested above and give half ND and Half kibble.

Whoops sorry. It was being very slow so I pressed twice thinking it hadn't worked

Personally as everyone else is saying I recommend just a lite version of the regular diet unless the weight is really not coming off. One tip I do have for helping the dog to feel fuller is plain steamed veggies mixed in.

the steamed veggies is a good tip i may try that
i tried the warm water thing and that has worked shes eating it when its softer so i think her teeth may give her gip

i wont continue with a diet food seems little point tbh not to mention the expence!

the walking is already so much better she gets super excited and can even jump up onto my sofa now (much to my disgust and husbands amusement)

we just gotta wait till she looses a significant amount of weight so that she can have some dentistry done cos cor blimey does her breath honk blurrgghhh

Does it have to be dry food? A BARF regime (raw meat with veg) often sorts out both digestion and rank doggy-breath. Plus you know what the dog is really eating. And exercise, obviously!

£11.50 for 1.5kg

Crumbs! YOu could be feeding prime steak for that amount!

We feed Burns to our 3. The pup eats loads, and our 12 yr old bitch eats much much less. She's getting a bit heavier, and the pup would do well to be a bit fatter, and our other dog is about right.

It must get pretty boring eating the same old dross all the time, but they don't seem to mind.

yer the expence is a bit much isnt it lol

i cant see why she couldnt go on to raw meat n veg, dunno about her digestion though

when she was on wet food she was pooping through the eye of a needle

now shes pooping quite well so dont really wanna mess with that side of things

she has a weigh in on monday but i wont be getting the dietfood from the vet again

ill just pick something with a vague chicken flavour up off the shelf

hope she has lost weve beeen super strict with excersise and diet and not letting the kids feed her or let her pick up their dinner droppings