Dog starving all the time since neutering!

[JBJ]

Dog was neutered 3 months ago, aged 2. Prior to this, he was very disinterested in food in general; picky and struggled to get enough into him so as he didn't look skinny.

Now, he's constantly looking for food and I've realised he's put a couple of kg on, which I've obviously got to nip in the bud before he gets tubby.

His usual routine was a bowl of good quality dry food left down in the bowl, which he's always picked at, then a bit of wet food after his last walk in the evening, which he ate probably 50% of the time.

He gets a chew treat (dried chicken foot or similar) once a day, pigs ears a couple of times a week, plus a few training treats on walks. He lives a raw carrot.

He's now emptying his bowl of dry food as soon as it's put down, so I've started weighing this out and splitting it into 2 meals, and I'm hoping I can drop the ridiculously expensive wet food altogether now he's eating dry, as he seems to be favouring the dry now anyway.

Apart from carrots, any recommendations for a low calorie food I can give him to help bulk his food out? He's constantly wanting food, which, for a dog that barely used to eat, is bizarre!

Thanks :)

This isn’t unusual! Neutering often causes an increase in appetite.

I’d recommend using brain games to feed him for one of his meals (or snuffle mats) to make it harder - also if you have a breed predisposed to bloat etc, you’d want to try this anyway if he’s wolfing it down!

If you’re desperate, get rid of all treats and just increase his dinner and breakfast portion - even ‘healthy’ treats like chicken feet are full of calories that could be better used elsewhere. But ultimately, I’d caution against extra low calorie treats like carrots as he just needs to learn to live with the food he gets…

He’ll settle down in a few months once his body adjusts!

What's the food you're giving him? What's the composition?

Ours gets her dry food mixed with a tablespoon of wet, then mixed with water and all her meds chucked in (arthritic). Same in the evening without her meds.

He has Scrumbles:
Ingredients

60% Chicken 28% Dehydrated Chicken, 26% Freshly Prepared Chicken, 4% Chicken Fat, 2% Chicken Stock, 20.3% Rice, 13.5% Oats, 2.5% Dried Alfalfa, 1.5% Salmon Oil, Vitamins & Minerals, 0.7% Whole Linseed, 0.4% Dried Carrot, 0.02% Yucca, Dried Spearmint.

It's the only dry food he's ever eaten, although now he's not as picky, he would probably eat something else to be fair.

One thing he won't touch is wet and dry mixed together! He seems to like the two textures separately.

Maybe tey a food for sterilised dogs if it doesn't settle, supposedly more filling but lower calorie content.

Yes, he has his dry in a snuffle mat. We just call it his fluffy bowl He can still eat it pretty quickly though

You could try a higher protein content food.

eg

Scrumbles calorie for 100g is 410 calories. About 50% of calories from protein 33%

Millies Wolfheart Turkey ad Veg is 359 calories per 100g but a much higher protein level 38% so would make him feel fuller for longer but less calories so could have a bit more food.

What is the food? Generally high protein and low carb is better for dogs and especially after neutering - it's not how much you feed it's what that for the most part determines weight management.

We've got this going on too! We mix his wet pouch meat with vegetables and water - carrots / green beans / broccoli / peas - whatever we've been having really. It bulks it out. When he's literally whimpering for food during the day, we give him porridge with goat milk.

We had this with our beagle too - it really does increase their appetite!

We started adding veggies to his meals to bulk them out a bit, and we also swapped to a low-fat kibble so that he could keep the same amount of food without the same number of calories.

Thanks for the input everyone. I'll look at higher protein kibble. I had a look at a couple of the foods marketed specifically for neutered dogs, but the ingredients lists were dreadful, so trying to avoid that. I've always stuck with Scrumbles as, up until recently, he's been really picky and that was the o to one he actually ate any of, but I think he'd be more open to trying other stuff now!

You are supposed to cut the amount of food quite drastically by a quarter to a third after neutering as they need less calories otherwise they will put on weight. My vet definitely advised that.

My ddog had little interest in food (and a lot of interest in humping) pre neutering and those were definitely reversed afterwards. He used to sometimes leave his food which he would never do now. Over time he has just got used to the lesser amount and his weight is good and stable now.

Ddog put on a few kg and cutting the amount didn't help but switching to a low fat high protein food did. He has AVA weight management kibble. He still has chews a few times a week but not pigs ears or trachea as those are high fat and he still has training treats on walks but now it's chicken rather than sausage or cheese.

On a plus side he was much easier to train after he developed an interest in food. His recall is much better now.

He does also have it spread in a variety of feeding devices. We change it up on different days. The AVA food comes as dry kibble or in a tin so sometimes I swop dry for the calorie equivalent amount of wet food.

• slow feeder bowl
• snuffle mat
• scatter fed in the garden
• Kong Wobbler
• wet food on a licky mat
• kibble/ wet food/ a mixture with veg frozen in a Kong.

Basically trying to make the pleasure of food last as long as possible

This happened almost overnight with my previous dog when he was neutered. Low calorie type dog food used to give him utterly poisonous farts, so I stopped that pretty quickly. What I found worked was spreading his food out over the day, and I still do this with my present dog.

So she gets a quarter of her daily ration (dry) in her bowl for breakfast. Later on in the morning I use another quarter for training recall and heel while out on her walk. In the afternoon she gets a licky mat with a tiny quantity of wet food or low fat philly cheese while I brush her and grind her nails. In the evening I use another quarter for training tricks and things like stay, then I ask her to stay in her bed while I hide the final quarter around the house for her to then find (she loves this game).

She’s been neutered coming up for a year and has maintained a healthy weight, is learning tons and isn’t too anxious about food because the next meal is never very far away.