Poppys Diet not progressing

[Brian M]

Hi
Our Poppy has now been on a diet for a couple of months with some slight loss but not a lot and totally the same over the last 2/3 weeks ,i am now concerned about underfeeding and poss damaging her she is certainly what we can say is a big boned girl and i now feed her as follows

27 grms of R canin light or Burns high oats
10 grms of a quality wet food
5/6 green beans
2 small pces of broccoli
3/4 very small carrots
squirt of Kronch salmon oil

this i give in the morning and again at tea and only 4 or 5 mini barker and barker treats and thats it ,the girls are exercised fri pm and twice on sat and sun but i cant in the week due to fixed commitments.

Pls what do i do i am scared to feed less as its not much now but i dearly for her long term health want her down from 13.5 kg to 10 kg or near ,any comments or suggestions greatly appreciated

Thanks in advance

Kind Regards
Brian and Poppy

[MishathePooh]

This is what you do for humans in the same situation - it wouldn't hurt to try for a dog.

If a human is losing weight and then stops despite continuing efforts, their metabolism has probably slowed way down in response to the small amount of food. They should then eat a larger amount for a day (or 2) to try to jumpstart the metabolism to start losing weight again.

I can't easily convert your amounts of food so can't help you there. Make sure you actually measure the salmon oil if she's on a diet. Don't give up hope, it just takes time and patience

[Davy]

I feed SiânE Burns high oats and from what I have read the reason for using it as a weight lost program is because it contains lest protein and higher fibre levels.

John Burns site

So for a start I would cut the wet food as you are just adding protein and that kind of defeats the object of using the light food. I would bump up the light food a bit to counter for the lost of the wet food.

Also the treats are a big no no as well. If you need to give her something along with your other dogs just use some of the food you have set aside for her dinner or try some veg. I have a friend with a diabetic dog who uses broccoli as treats.

I know its hard but you really do have to be cruel to be kind.

[Jasperxxgabby]

Hi
A couple of weeks ago when my Gabby went to the vets she was 11kg at the time she was coming up to 8 months, the vet didn't say nothing about her weight She is that bit taller then my Jasper and a couple of inches longer (Jasper changes from just under 8kg to just over 8kg) and she is defo bigger boned then him, so I guess this is the reason she is that much heavier (I think she is slim enough).

So if Poppy is that bit taller and longer then average and you say she is bigger boned perhaps this is the reason she is this weight.

Also my vet surgery offers free nurse health checks where my dogs weight is checked and noted on their computer file and the nurse seems very clued up to give advice, I hope that if your vet surgery offers this maybe the nurse could advise you to give you peace of mind.

My two likes raw carrots as a treat. Good luck.

[chloe92us]

Brian- I'm in the US, so I have a problem with the conversions, but it sounds like she's still eating quite a bit of food. I wouldn't worry that you're underfeeding her. If you were, she would still be losing.

Casey is also on a diet and has been steadily losing. At the advice of this site, I ditched the low calorie food and just fed her regular food (Orijen adult, very high protein!) but a much smaller amount (1/4 c twice a day). She only gets treats probably once or twice a WEEK. And once a week, they get a stuffed Kong that I stuff with kibble and a little bit of peanut butter (very high calorie). The morning after the Kong, she gets a little less food. Sometimes I put some veggies in with her food, but most of the time not.

Yes, you have to be cruel to be kind. Just tonight she decided to play ball in the living room- you don't understand how odd this is for her! She feels so much better, has more energy and looks amazing. It's definitely worth the effort!

[Karlin]

First: 80 grams of food a day is very small -- less than 3 ounces. The fruit and veg will carry minimal to no calories for a dog -- just fibre, and are good for dogs. So this isn't a large amount of food. Most cavaliers would be eating twice to three times that amount of caloric intake from the main meal. I'd want to make sure that is an appropriate amount of calories for Poppy (diets should really be done in consultation with a vet ).

The treats are probably not helping though -- not sure how large Barker treats are, but I would guess 4-5 a day might be a lot. If those are the Barker and Barker liver treats though, those are pretty small.

So main question for me would be -- have you actually discussed whether there is a need for weight loss and what you are feeding with your vet? Does your vet feel she is overweight and needs to be losing? Have you discussed the difficulty of her losing even on this amount of food? If a dog cannot lose weight even on a small amount of food then the vet will probably want to be testing thyroid function etc.

That's a pretty minimal amount of exercise -- maybe it would be worth getting someone to walk the dogs once a day. Dogs really need at least about 30-45 minutes of continuous, vigorous walks or playtime daily. Exercise is actually more important that a minimal diet and brings far more benefits, physically and psychologically. Small meals will do little for heart health for example. Daily exercise will add more quality and time to your dogs' lives.

[merlinsmum]

Brian,

On the exercise front, I know you have commitments and are unable to walk the dogs on a daily basis but how about getting a frisbe/one of those ball chucker things - a good half hour in the garden chasing balls etc will burn some extra calories - you don't have to have a big garden - you just have to throw more in a small one! (I know)

Failing that, if the weather is rubbish (as it has been) - play ball - up the stairs, that will burn a few calories (don't do it down the stairs as Poppy may not be able to stop and crash into a wall or something..)

[chloe92us]

Okay, I did the conversions and her weight sounds exactly like my Casey. She started at the equivalent of 14.5 kg and is now down to 11.4 after about 4 or 5 months. My goal with her is to get to the equiv. of 10 kg (about 22 pounds) as well.

I also did the food conversions, and I am NOT correct in saying "it still sounds like you're feeding her a lot of food". It sounds like you are feeding her very little food, and I would suggest NOT to feed her any less. How much has she lost in how long?