Overweight dog

[deste]

We have a Cavachon, Cavalier/Bichon cross. We keep being told he is heavy and he shouldn't put on any more weight. He gets a small tub of wet food in the morning and three quarters of a cup of dry food in the afternoon. He is not a greedy dog, he doesn't look for food and he doesn't beg. He weighs about two stone. How can we reduce his weight. We take him to the beach a couple of times a week where he runs free and he gets a long walk in the evening and a shorter walk in the morning.

Bakers food is very very bad, scoring an astonishing 0.1 out 5 in reviews. Even the weight control recipe contains cereals and sugar and other nasties that are not good for him at all. First step is to get him off that! Feeding only wet food and soft bakers wont be especially good for his teeth either.

Check out Allaboutdogfood and get him onto a decent food i.e. Millies Wolfheart/Canagan/Orijin etc. Check out your wet food rating too, if you want to feed a wet food with one meal it would be better to feed a shop bought prepared frozen raw. Most supermarket foods are crap. You'll probably need to get into a pet shop or order on line.

He doesn't look as bad as I expected but does look a wee bit heavy. Moving to a decent grain free food and weighing it for his correct weight will reduce carbs and sugars and his weight should reduce. The protein in a grain free food will keep him feeling full.

Sorry if post was a bit direct, I get a bit overly at the awful foods that are out there packaged in nice boxes and sold as good for your dog.

Here's the body shape you should be aiming for. You should be able to see a clearly defined waist, rather than a barrel look.

Weallhavewings, your dog looks lovely. I need to research dog food online and introduce some veg into his diet. I take it you get the dry food delivered or from Pets at Home.

I get our food from amazon

Canagan is available on Amazon or from Pets Corner, you cannot get it from Pets at Home.

not my dog we have a labrador, its just an internet picture to give you an idea what your dog should look like

We get Millies Wolfheart delivered, I usually buy about 6 months worth (3 x 14.5kg bags) in bulk to save money and it also means I don't have to wait in for the delivery very often.

Not sure which brands are available from shops as we locally only have supermarkets and pets at home and I cant remember seeing any decent food in either.

I have done a lot of research and been totally confused but I have now ordered Eden Multi-Meat and Fish Formula: hopefully he will like it and will soon see a difference. I feed him Monday to Friday so I can regulate what he eats. Thanks for all your help and advice. I am shocked at the contents of some of the brands and it never concerned to me that we were doing anything wrong.

I know I was the same, it's shocking isn't it? We saw a dog trainer who told us about 60% of the dogs he sees with difficult behaviour are on bakers, and that they usually improve dramatically when it's changed. Our dog has so much more energy now, is in much better condition and her behaviour is so different too (although that could be due to training ).

Make sure you introduce the food gradually so as not to upset his stomach.

Thank you I will do.

That should read occurred to me, not concerned to me.

Ok a week has gone past and I have been feeding him Eden multi fish formula. It's an 80/20 mix. When I first got he he loved it, now not so much but if I add cooked carrots and a weak gravy on it he will eat it. He has to, I have loads left and he will have to eat it. I have worked out he needs 120 grms a day so he gets 60 in the morning and 60 in the afternoon.

The only problem now is he is hungry. He is not getting treats or snacks but is there anything else I can give him that is not fattening to add to his food to stop him running to his bowl. If there is nothing in it he just goes away but I just think if we keep it up he will get used to it.

He doesn't look any different yet by the way but I will photograph him at the end of the month.

It's over a month since I posted and Dexter has been fed the Eden 80/20 bulked out with carrots or other veg and a small spoonful of tuna. The tuna is to disguise the Eden as he is not too keen on it. I carefully weigh it out and have stuck to it religiously. Today I weighed him and he has put on weight. I give him 60 grms in the morning and 60 in the evening, he would eat more if I gave it to him. Before he wasn't interested in food and now he seems to be looking for more. His exercise has been increased as well. Anything else I can do.

How have you worked out what he should be on? On his current weight or what he should be?

Also, food packet amounts are always high...my dog gets half the recommended amount for his weight.

I'd also stop adding things, he needs to lose weight anyway...what's the worst that'll happen if you are just really strict with the fussiness? He'll eat less, well that's what you want anyway.

For his weight he should be on 120 grm a day. There should be not many calories in carrots that's why I have bulked the food out with that or broccoli or cauliflower and a spoonful of tuna. The tin lasts about 4 days but it's really to disguise the Eden.

You need to feed him for the weight you want him to be...and genuinely probably less than that.

It will be less food than he's used to, that's because it's not packed with useless fillers, he'll adjust.

He'll also adjust to different food, feed him, leave him to it, if he doesn't finish it, after 10 minutes lift the bowl away. Repeat at he next mealtime, it usually takes at the most 3 days for them to get the idea that nothing better is going to be offered.

As tabulah says, you need to feed for the weight you want him to be, not the weight he is.

According to the Eden feeding guide 120g is the recommended amount for his current weight so you still need to cut down the amount he's getting.

Has your vet given you a weight you should be aiming for?

I'd be inclined to take him to the vet again. If you think you've been feeding him less yet he's still putting on weight there might be another reason.

I have weighed out all his food for the next week so I will go and take some out. I will give it another month and see what that brings, if there is still no weight loss then we will have to take him to the vet. I thought I was doing so well. The vet just said to not let him get any bigger.

If he's overweight (which he certainly appears to be in the pictures you've posted) and you're feeding for his current weight then he's not going to lose anything and will probably just keep putting weight on.

120g of Eden is the recommended amount for an 11kg dog, he should be getting the recommended amount for his ideal weight. Given his cross I'd probably start by aiming for 8-9kg, so that would mean feeding him 97-105g of food per day at most.

Also bear in mind that feeding guidelines are just that, only guidelines. You may find that to maintain a healthy weight he actually needs less than what the feeding guide say he should be getting.

Just repeating what Trionic said really. Feeding guidelines exist to give you an idea of the sort of amount your dog may need that you can then adjust up or down as required. For example, ddog (ideal weight 42 kg) gets two cups a day or around 450g. The manufacturer of his food would reccomend an extra 100g over that. Also if feedin any extras over and above the food you will need do feed less than reccomended (how much less depends on what the extras are).

My cavalier is 8 kg and ever so slightly overweight, but we're working on it. I order her food online from tails.com as I got a free trial and they tailor it to the dog's needs, I.e overweight, sensitive digestion. They tell you exactly how much to feed and provide a measuring cup.

Some dogs only get 1 meal a day

Bakers is the canine equivalent of feeding dog McDonalds! But you say you dropped it.

Just feed a bit less.

My dog is on Applaws which is also 80/20, she weighs 20kg and gets about 160g a day. When it's a good quality food it's surprising how little they need! One thing that has helped my dog is to make her work for her food, e.g. hiding it in boxes, putting in a treat toy or making her do training for it. Always seems more content then rather than just wolfing it down.

I appreciate all the replies as it's obvious I don't have a clue. I had all his food weighed for the week so have reduced it. It just doesn't look like a lot of food. I am splitting it in half and giving him twice a day. I am still giving him veg as he is not too keen on the Eden but will eat it mixed.

I will look into the Applaws and possibly get that next time.

I know it looks like nothing at all! When we changed to the applaws we overfed her because we couldn't believe it was enough! I think that's why making them work for it helps a bit. Also, we weighed out dog every couple of days to check her weight was going down. It sounds mean but I kept reducing her food slightly til she was losing weight. Not dramatically, but at least a bit. Now she is at ideal weight I still weigh her every couple of weeks just to check she's still a good weight (she's super hairy so hard to judge by eye, for me at least!).

It shouldn't look like a lot of food. He's a small dog so should be getting a small amount of food.

With the not being keen on eating thing, I'd suggest reading Sue Ailsby's 'teach you ddog to eat' article sue-eh.ca/page40/page39/

Not sure if the link will work, but it should be easy enough to find on google. Basically it teaches your dog that he has a choice of eating what's on his plate or not eating. This makes it easier to monitor what he's eating and his health. As a general rule the healthier brands do not taste as nice as the poorer ones, mainly because good quality food doesn't contain additives such as sugar.