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!

Views: 731

Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Hi Melissa, the vet said Tommy was 4 pounds overweight as well .. I too feel like he is getting so little food already! the "fat on air" rings true with us :(

Hahaha, I know this feeling SO well! It was impossible to put weight on Ace until he hit 14 months. I could feed him a half kilo of raw meaty bones, muscle and organ meat every day and he would still keep that "tube on stilts" look. But then, something changed. Now, he gets fat if I so much as look at him. I've had to decrease his rations to roughly 180g of muscle + RMBs, and 40g of organ every other day. And even then, he is trim, and not thin at ALL.

A fantastic treat that I have found is the Royal Canin Educ line. Each little treat is less than 3 kcal, and I can easily quarter each one to have tons for clicker training. I'm not sure if they are available in the U.S. but I can say that they have definitely helped! And now with Lady at our home, Ace burns calories like mad. Before, he'd only be really tuckered out if we went to the dog park. I stopped going there because I wasn't a fan of how things were developing, so Ace got a little hefty. But now, Ace snores like a log in the middle of the afternoon. Life is tiring when you have a little turd of a puppy clinging on to your neck skin and attacking your butt every other second. :-D

Izzy is a lazy little Princess so she gets only 1/3 cup of low fat kibble twice a day with about a 1/2 cup green beans with dinner. It keeps her from putting on too much weight although I would still say she is slightly heavy. Very few treats too. So far after 3 years of this she has yet to starve to death!

Becca goes in for shots and checkup on Thursday. I'm hoping she is back down to 25lbs. She was up to 27. She gets 2/3 cup Blue 1/3 cup Honest Kitchen split into two meals. I have a hard time figuring the calories from training treats in. I like Biscuit Buddies because they break up so tiny. Becca also gets two walks a day and canine play time with the neighbor a few times a week. She also now loves to play with the neighborhood kids. They can run faster than I can. I trained them before I let the play happen. We have class once a week as well.

The kids in the neighborhood have been a big factor in getting Becca slimmed back down. No official weight on her yet, but she has a waist again. One girl loves to run Becca around our agility set. Over and over and over...

Is it possible he's getting into any cat food and/or the litterbox?   I would hate to see you go below 1/2 cup a day of food; I'd be worried about nutritional deficits.

How many calories in his kibble?  

Peas are about 80 calories a cup, so you are getting about 20 calories from the quarter cup but little nutrition.  Instead of that, might you try rotating between a couple tablespoons of plain lowfat yogurt, a small amount of steamed or roasted white-meat chicken, canned sardines packed in water, or plain cottage cheese?   That way he's still getting fewer calories than the kibble, but getting protein and more nutrients out of it.  The peas are really just wasted calories.  Since my dogs are on such restricted diets, I have tried to make every treat mean something, and if I want something they can eat that's pretty much no calories I give carrots.  

For training treats I use one of the liver-type treats for small dogs that are around 3 calories each, or I might break up a stick of low-fat string cheese (70 calories per stick) in halves, then slice the halves into coins, about 15 treats per half-stick or just over 2 calories a treat.  They do get a crunchy treat at bedtime, usually something with breath-freshening ingredients of some sort.   I avoid anything with corn syrup or most sugars, though I'll allow some molasses or honey.

Have you had his thyroid checked?  

I do annual bloodwork since I get a crazy good discount and it all came back normal. He is on a blend of two different kibbles the normal kibble is 370 kcal/cup and the light food is 275 kcal/cup, so he's getting just about 1/4 cup of each type plus the 1/4 cup peas. I could definitely add some chicken or cottage cheese to his meals I just figured that cottage cheese is higher calorie (light is about 90 cal per 1/2 cup) and chicken is about 140 calories for 3 oz. He already is hardly getting any calories it seems and still he's pudgy!

I couldn't find the calories for the treats so will probably switch to a low cal brand just so I know approximately how many calories they are. I can't find info at all on the treats he gets. I used to make my own chicken jerky, maybe I'll go back to doing that for a lower cal treat.

I'm sorry, I don't have ideas, I just wanted to commiserate, oh us too!  Both Bertie and Ethel need to lose 3ish pounds.  And Ethel -- if I feed her less indoors, she eats dirt!  sticks! whatever....  But we're working on it.  And Bertie!  If I try to fool him with string beans for bulk, he sucks the meaty flavor off of them, and spits them out in a little circle around his bowl (Ethel loves to eat whatever she's given.  And then some.)   But we're trying...  We are exercising more -- for Ethel it means longer walks (she does not play fetch, thank you very much) and for Bertie, frisbee catch.  But it is hard!

Does he like carrots?  My parents' vet recommended carrots for their slightly overweight golden. 

Good morning Melissa!

If I were you, I would feed him carrots or green beans instead of the peas. Peas and corn are starches.  My Cardi, Magdalen gets 1/2 cup of kibble (Taste of the Wild) twice a day plus 1/4 cup of Grandma Lucy's twice a day (added to the kibble).  Magdalen has never had a weight problem.

Good luck!!

 

Franklin also gets TOTW kibble. I've always been told that you are better off feeding green veggies than carrots bc carrots have a lot more sugars but seems this applies more towards veggies like beans. Franklin doesn't like green beans so that's not an option. I'll try baby carrots though and see if he'll eat those.

Even if he's 45 lbs., your corgi will be waiting for you at the Pearly Gates, seeking justice. "Yes, Mr. Peter. That's her. That's the woman who starved me my entire life." So you might as well starve him. Nutritiously of course.
Treats can be very tiny.
Seasonal? Is he scamming something? Al grazes under the Italian Plum tree in late summer, turning into a plum jam dispenser.

jam dispenser - hahahahahahhaaa!!!!!!

I found that instead of measuring every single meal, I vary them! some days a light brkfst & heavier dinner. Another day the opposite. Maybe skip dinner & have a good bone throughout the day. I got that couple stubborn pounds off Bugsy that way. 

RSS

Rescue Store

Stay Connected

 

FDA Recall

Canadian Food Inspection Agency Recall

We support...

Badge

Loading…

© 2024   Created by Sam Tsang.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report a boo boo  |  Terms of Service