Need to get my fella on a diet

whippet

I have a 3 year old lab who has put on a fair bit of weight in the last 12 months.

The reason for the weight gain is probably due to a couple of factors, we have a toddler who just loves feeding him, every time I turn around she is handing him something and at this stage we have no idea how much he is eating. Coupled with the fact that my wife works from home now means he is getting extra snacks every day (even though she denies it ... I know !!!)

Exercise wise he gets plenty, she will take him out for 45 mins or so each afternoon and I generally get him out for an hour plus each evening. On weekends he generally spends a day with my fathers dogs running around for the day.

So in essense his diet is what has the weight adding up. He is on Royal Canine dry feed at the moment.

Is it practical just to cut his normal dry feed by about 25% every day on top of eliminating the additional snacks .. or can it be damaging to 'starve' him?


Or is there an alternative 'lite' food that we could switch him to?

I will probably have to handcuff my daughter to stop here from feeding him and lock away all the snacks that my wife feeds him !!!

lorebringer

Stopping the extras is definitely the first port of call - as hard as it is!

Reducing the amount of food is fine, as long as he is not hungry. Starving him will put his body into starvation mode and the minute he gets anything he will automatically store it as fat. It will also be a problem if he isn't getting enough vitamins, mineral and nutrients per day to run his body. So reducing portions is fine as long as you are careful he is getting enough of what he needs!

"Light" foods are designed so that the dog will not be hungry between meals by bulking them out. I have used them in the past and have found them very good. Royal Canin, Jame Wellbeloved and Arden Grange all do a good quality light food. The other option is switching him to a food that has less calories in it to start - Burns being the brand that comes to mind. They do a High Oats version designed for overweight dogs but the regular foods are generally lower in calories than most brands.

Labs, unfortunately, can be prone to a bit of a pudgy belly and because they are a breed prone to joint problems getting the weight down is very important. The trick is to get is off slowly but surely - and rapid weigh loss just results in rapid weigh gain once the diet is finished. Good luck!

tk123

Our retriever lost loads of weight on Burns over a few months. I gradually cut his portions back over a couple of weeks and he didn't seem to mind. At first all I gave him was his food and no treats - I took a handful or two out each day and put it into his treat jar and that was it - no extras - if it was coming from his treat jar he was delighted with it. Once the weight was off him I cut the food back more and reintroduced his treats so in now he'd get about 170g of dry food, 2 bonios (one after his 2 walks) and 3 or 4 gravy bones broken up I give him slices of veg too when I'm cooking and treat them as "free treats" eg peppers, carrot, green beans etc

suraheg

i second Burns! Am a Vet Nurse and we sell it all the time to dogs with a little bit of extra weight. Theres a flavour called high oats, low in calories and fat and makes them feel fuller. Try that. Find out what weight he is, and what is ideal weight should be (just pop into your local vets and any vet nurse can weigh him for free and tell you what they think his ideal weight should be)
then feed him the amount he should get if he was his ideal weight.
say hes 20kg and should be 17kg. It should say how many grams to give a 17kg dog on the back of the bag of food. And get a free measuring cup from the vets. if u find hes getting a lot of extras your could reduce his food intake more, depending on how quickly hes losing the weight