why must corgis get fat on air? And also a plea from Frankie's mom! :-P

Franklin went in for his annual exam about a week ago and the vet told me he was 3 to 4 pounds overweight. I knew this was coming but it is still so sad to hear your dog is fat. Especially Franklin who used to be REALLY hard to keep weight on! Currently he is getting 1/2 cup per day of kibble and 1/4 cup a day of peas. I give him 2 canine carryout treats a day broken up in his kong genius when I leave the house. I also mixed his kibble half and half with a light food for added weight loss. He gets two walks a day, both with off leash time playing fetch and both right around 1/2 hour. I feel so guilty decreasing his food more because I feel like he is already getting so little, what are some of your guys' ideas for some tasty weight loss treats and/or substitutions for some of his kibble? He doesnt' like green beans but he loves the peas.

 

 

And on a not corgi related note, a local radio station is having a pet costume contest to win a trip to Disneyland, I didn't know it was a voting contest when I entered so I entered a picture of my horse from a barn Halloween party, I would greatly appreciate your guys' votes! She is the farmer horse. Had I known it was a voting contest I would have entered Franklin so I could have the support of all of corgi nation! :-D You can sign in to vote using your facebook account. I would be forever greatful. I so need a vacation right now, work has been horrible lately and Frank is the only thing keeping me sane! Here is the link:

http://clique.classic931.com/app2/contest/adhvl4/ugc/viewentry?subm...

 

Thanks for any food advice and support!

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lol, no scamming anywhere. Cat food is kept up on a bookshelf where he can't reach and he doesn't eat out of the catbox, never has. I know his exercise has decreased a lot since i"ve moved and no longer have Kirby, but i did decrease his food at that time too but he decided to gain weight anyway!

We have peach trees in our backyard.  When the peaches start getting ripe & the limbs are bending close to the ground from the weight of the fruit, my dogs will actually pick the fruit off of the branches, LOL!!  When we come home from work, it's not uncommon to find a dozen peach pits picked clean of the fruit laying around in the yard!

I was going to recommend green beans, but then you said Franklin doesn't like them. I did for the first time last October cook pumpkin and rotated that with the green beans for Noodles dinner. Noods loved the pumpkin! I froze the pumpkin in ice cube trays and I only gave him 1 ice cube in his dinner. If he had 2, his stool wasn't firm, so I backed down to 1. Noodles has been on low fat/calorie food for the past 3 years and gets 1/2 cup dry in his Kong wobbler for breakfast, then 1/4 cup dry mixed with either green beans or pumpkin for his dinner. He gets about 1/2 cup of green beans for his dinner. Now for the snacks, he gets 1/2 stick of his lamb jerky treat and then 3 small milk bones while we eat dinner. He also will get a 1/2 baby carrot in the morning while I'm making lunches. He loves baby carrots, but they don't agree with him, so a 1/2 is all he gets. He is down to 35.8 pounds which is less than what his vet figured he would get down to. (I've been instructed to keep him right there because he is on the larger size for a corgi.) As for his exercise, we jog twice a day. The morning one is only for 15 minutes, but then the after work one is between 30-45 minutes. Most of the time he will get to be off his leash, so he can run free to stretch his legs. I realize everyone is different, but this is what has been working for Noods.  

Melissa, I would personally really lean towards the "is there any way he might be getting food you are not giving him" theory.  By my calculations, with the kibble + peas + treats he's getting about 200 calories per day.

My two get around 400 calories a day;  Jack gets a full cup of kibble that's around 340 cal/cup and Maddie gets a third of a cup in the morning and a half a cup in the evening.   And then they get some treats.   Mine are bigger Corgis, but Maddie goes about 28 pounds and Jack around 34, and at that weight he's super thin.  

I know all dogs are different, but it seems to be a ridiculously small amount of food.  I've heard of Corgis getting a half cup a day total, but it's usually one of the calorie-dense "premium" foods so they are still working out at around 300 per day just for kibble.    So I have to wonder if he's found a source of edibles somewhere.  Is it at all possible?

It really isn't. He's never ever ever eaten out of the litterbox and even if he did, I do clean it everyday. He can't reach the cat food, its up on top of a bookshelf. I  have no edible plants or fruits outside except bell peppers which there arent' any on the plant right now. There is no food anywhere in the house but in the pantry and cupboards that are high up. I was shocked to see how much he gained and the fact he's getting fed so little. I am the only person in the house so nobody else is feeding him. I'm trying to work more on increasing his exercise because really this is the only thing that has changed in his life, he's been on the same food and had the peas added recently, maybe the peas are adding the extra calories and I need to try something like carrots.

I did find another 70 calories each day that he gets. Makes me feel better that I know he is at least getting more of a "normal" calorie intake. When I was adding it all up I got around 200 calories as well and couldn't figure out how he survived on that. He does get fish oil tablets that add 20 calories a day as well as 6 pieces of dental kibble which I measured and will add about 50 calories. I added the lite food and increased the amount of peas and decreased the kibble fairly recently so I'm going to re-weigh him in a week or two (about 1 month after I started the diet) to see if its working. He really does look thinner to me and I think the vet's guess of 3-4 pounds was a bit high. I'm guessing he was already on a losing trend when I went in to the vet but since i hadn't weighed him in so long it seemed he was gaining. We will see in about a week!

Well, that makes more sense!   I was a bit worried by the original calculations...

Just out of curiosity, is it possible he has the beginnings of hypothyroidism or another issue that might be causing the weight gain?  Given that he gets his exercise and his diet is monitored (as opposed to free feeding), it's possible that the weight gain might be a medical thing.  I agree that he's already on a pretty reasonable amount of food, so just tossing that out there as a possibility, too.

nope, just had full blood panel done with his annual exam.

Gromit offers his 1/2 cup of sympathy but no shared food to Franklin.  When I informed Gromit that he was to go back on his diet again he angrily told me he is thinking about a Corgi class action lawsuit against veterinary scale manufacturers.  He's certain the vet's scale is biased against Corgis. 

I think the fact is that our furry pals simply don't need as much food to live and be well fed as we (and they) think they do.  Since they spend most of their day sleeping, even with exercise it just doesn't take much to keep their bodies well fed.  I'd be interested to hear from Scott Wiley how much he feeds  his working Corgis who really do lead busy, working dog lives.  For our city dogs I think the key is to give very nutritious food in smaller quantities and then low to zero call stuff like green beans or peas so they can feel full.

In a slightly related note, I've been dieting for about a year now and I am amazed at how little food I need to maintain my weight compared to what I would prefer to eat.  I must be part Corgi!

I've often wished someone would allow me only the correct portions of nutritious foods and make me exercise in an enjoyable fashion and rub my tummy.

ME TOO! :-)

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