How much should I feed my overweight Corgi?
Hi all. I found out today that Heidi weighs 28lbs. This is not a total disaster, but it's still about 5 or 6 pounds heavier than she needs to be. I've known for awhile that she's chubby, and haven't been totally sure what to do about it. By necessity, she's mostly an outside dog. I know everyone here probably feels like that is an injustice, and believe me, I'd let her inside if I could. But I don't own the house I'm living in - it's sort of a unique situation - and it's not my choice. She has a nice pen with hay to absorb moisture, and it gets cleaned regularly so she isn't running around in her own waste. She has a dog house raised up off the ground, toys, food, water, shade, etc. I'm also going to see about getting her one of those baby wading pools, even though last summer I got her one and she didn't really like it much. Maybe she'll change her mind. :)
I had a baby 3 months ago (single mom) and so Heidi hasn't gotten as much exercise as usual since I've been taking care of the baby. Before that, we were walking several times a day. But I've had a teen helper to help take care of Heidi while I'm getting back in the swing of things and she's done well. Now it's late June in SW Tennessee, and HOT!!! So I'm not sure how to go about increasing her exercise when there's a heat advisory as it is. I can't take my baby out in those kind of temperatures. I plan to try to start walking a little at night if possible, but it's just difficult with trying to get the baby to bed and nurse every 2 hours, etc.
My main question is, how much do we need to be feeding her? That seems to be a little bit of the problem - she's getting too much food. The other part of the problem is the need for more exercise. I'll try to figure that out next. How much do you feed your Corgis?
I feed her Beneful's Healthy Weight formula. I live in a small town and they don't carry most specialty foods. Anybody have any suggestions? I've been told not to believe what it says on the bag.
I had a baby 3 months ago (single mom) and so Heidi hasn't gotten as much exercise as usual since I've been taking care of the baby. Before that, we were walking several times a day. But I've had a teen helper to help take care of Heidi while I'm getting back in the swing of things and she's done well. Now it's late June in SW Tennessee, and HOT!!! So I'm not sure how to go about increasing her exercise when there's a heat advisory as it is. I can't take my baby out in those kind of temperatures. I plan to try to start walking a little at night if possible, but it's just difficult with trying to get the baby to bed and nurse every 2 hours, etc.
My main question is, how much do we need to be feeding her? That seems to be a little bit of the problem - she's getting too much food. The other part of the problem is the need for more exercise. I'll try to figure that out next. How much do you feed your Corgis?
I feed her Beneful's Healthy Weight formula. I live in a small town and they don't carry most specialty foods. Anybody have any suggestions? I've been told not to believe what it says on the bag.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Judi, Dawn, Soffie & Griffyn on
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That's great news for Heidi!! Keep up the good work!
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Permalink Reply by Bax & Zigs & Rosie on
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It seems that everyone is on the green bean wagon! We always eat green beans at home and have left overs and I never thought to share them with the pup! I've done peanut butter as a snack, with some broccoli and baby carrots. But I will definitely try some green beans now.
I found this site that has 10 human foods dogs can eat. I was surprised to see melons on there.
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Permalink Reply by Carla on
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I guess that's a relief, cause I made Casey a fruit puree a few days ago with cantelope, honeydew and peach. Good thing I didn't kill her, lol.
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Permalink Reply by Allison Musick on
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I tried to find canned pumpkin last night at the store when I got Heidi's new food - Iam's is the only thing there was at our Wal-Mart that wasn't total trash - and I could not find it. I looked on the canned fruit/veggie aisle and the baking aisle but I guess it's out of season. But I'll keep looking for it.
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I don't know how much work you're really wanting to do, but squash has roughly the equivalent calories and fibre per serving of pumpkin. You could always just buy a squash, steam the cubes and process/blend it into a puree. It's probably cheaper (and easier to find it sounds like) than canned pumpkin too. Pumpkin and squash actually have a long, torrid, intertwined genetic history, and some people would argue that there is no real difference (other than aesthetics) between a pumpkin and a squash (particularly "summer squash"). So for what it's worth, you'd basically be feeding her the same thing.
Casey's not on a weight loss diet (she's actually a bit underweight - oops!) but I've recently begun pureeing old fruit and veg from my fridge and freezing them to add to her food/kong. Last batch I steamed a yam, an old red pepper and some misc browning cauliflower together, then pureed it. It cost me nothing (most of those veg would have just been thrown out once the mold set-in anyway). You could get a squash and then add some other low-fat veg items to bulk it up. You could actually probably throw in some green beans, as long as the ratio wasn't so high that it overwhelmed the flavour - Casey doesn't like cauliflower, but you can't taste it in the puree I described above, because the sweet from the pepper and yam overpowered it.
I froze mine in ice-cube trays, then take out one or two cubes the night before and throw them in her food dish - they defrost for the next morning.
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that's amazing! LOL. i prob don't have time for all that but it's a great idea. i'll remember it for a rainy day. :)
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Permalink Reply by Misti, Guinness and Finnegan on
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I feed both my dogs Beneful and they seem to be doing fine. Guinness put on some weight after we had him fixed last year, so we switched him to the Healthy Weight kind, feeding him half a cup in the morning and at night.
Beneful seems to be the only dog food that agrees with Guinness. We tried everything when he was a puppy, and it was a very unpleasant time for us all. From the very first day we switched him to Beneful, he hasn't had a single issue, so I personally don't think it's as bad as some people say it is.
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Permalink Reply by Atlas & Trinity on
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Corn, Food Coloring, animal fat, by products, Sugars, its pretty bad. Dogs like it cause its sweet and fatty just like we like sweet and fatty foods
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Permalink Reply by Jen on
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When we got Ginger I bought a bag of Beneful because we needed to get her food, we were at WalMart, and I was familiar with the brand. She was the brattiest, meanest little thing and I was seriously questioning my decision of getting her. She would snap at us, growl, whine, and be vicious for no apparent reason at 10 weeks. My husband did some research and found out that Beneful is little more than filler. Once we switched her to Kirkland puppy food she did a complete 180. We figured she was starving all the time on the Beneful. Plus we only have to feed her half as much of the Kirkland as we did the Beneful.
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