Weight control for overweight labrador

[Peanutbutternutter419]

Hi,

My DL has put on a bit of weight over the winter due to me having a baby and DH working loads so she has only been on 1 walk a day and sometimes this has only been a short one (about 30 mins)

We will be upping this again now that im confident with her on lead with the buggy but need to get her weight down a bit as she has become a bit lazy and wont run as much.

So im asking for opinions on the best weight control food and/or routines you have found to help.

Thank you

The most important thing is to fed the amount of food for the weight of dog you want and to weigh/measure it out everytime. The guesstimate is the biggest reason dogs are overweight. I have had clients achieve good weight loss on just about every food in the market by sticking to these rules.

Apart from lots of chasing after a ball and retrieving type running about I suggest you look carefully at the food your dog is eating. Not all dog food is the same. Obviously the dog needs a certain amount of nutrition but less calories. The problem with that is if you feed less physical volume you get a constantly hungry dog. One way to tackle that is give them a good beef knuckle bone to chew between meals to keep them occupied.

I also suggest you have a look for a good quality food from a specialist provider like Eukanuba with less energy in it or one of their breed specific formulas.

Advice from a vet may be useful on diet too as Labradors are prone to fatness.

Thanks for responses. The thing is that we usually put her onto Bakers weight control food when she gets a bit porky but want to move away from this type of food and onto a more 'natural' food but have no idea which one is different to the Bakers type products.

She wont play catch...the only thing that makes her run is chasing squirrels and rabbits (poor things!)

Ive heard that CSJ food is a better quality food???

Bakers is a truly awful food containing added sugar, known carcinogens and so little meat content I wonder how they get away with putting 'with chicken' on the label. Eukanuba is not a great deal better - maize, wheat, sorghum, barley, beet pulp and only 14% meat. Some CSJ formulations are ok but the majority also contain lots of fillers.

If a raw/BARF diet isn't a consideration then my kibble of choice would be Fish4Dogs, followed by Skinners Field and Trial (the working salmon/turkey/duck and rice varieties, not any of the others, and ignore the 'working' label) as a half decent budget option. Weigh it out according to the weight she should be and stick to it, no extras - a part of the usual ration can be set aside to use as 'treats' throughout the day to get her working for her food. :)

Thanks toboldlygo the skinners is more my budget and looks very natural. What is the diffetence between pet food and working dogs food?

Generally only the label! Working dog formulations are sometimes higher in protein but I don't subscribe to the 'too much protein is bad' school of thought - I think it's more the quality of the protein that counts, better to have it from meat than processed vegetable protein, as with bloody Bakers.

Thank you. Ive been wanting to get her off bakers for a while but as i have new baby i havent been able to get out to the big suppliers, only to supermarkets so will give this food a go.

Thanks for the advice!

i buy our skinners online.

Oh didnt know you could, where from?

Hi I also have an over weigh dog she is on a diet (sort of) . I have found cutting her food into to feeds so she is fed morning and night helps. Also if she is not a ball chaser and you live close to the sea swimming is great for them .But I know i am lucky to live by the beach. 3 or 4 short walks a day are best as well but again I know that can be hard to do . Good luck with it I find it very difficult to say no to the sad eyes routine .

No treats (or healthy ones such as carrot slices or ice - my dog loves), weigh out food and stick to it. Diet makes more of a difference than exercise imo. Labrador specific diet may help as designed for greedy monkeys!

You can get Skinners on Amazon subscribe and save fir just over 20 pounds for 15 kg.

Skinners