Hills prescription metabolic Vs Royal canine light

texas star

HI I have a **** tzu cross and she a little over weight.The vet recommended Hills prescription metabolic advance weight solution.She was on royal canine light mini.I started her on this on Wednesday mixed in with her royal canine she picked out the royal canine nuts and left the other stuff.Now ive ran out since Friday and she very depressed and wont eat the new stuff.I know people are going to say hunger is good sauce but I don't want my dog starving she cant help herself to the press.Im at breaking point thinking of getting her the old food she enjoyed but I dont want to life cut her life short on me,thats what vet said :eek: at least she was happy eating the other stuff.Any advise please.

tk123

Assuming she's not massively overweight can you not just cut back on the food she likes or increase her exercise?

DBB

Any low-fat food is fine op, you want to aim for 10% fat or less. If the RC was working for you, and has that sort of level of fat in it, then stick with it.
I hope, I really hope that your vet meant that she needs to lose weight in order to prevent health problems and early death, rather than telling you that not feeding Hill's (which he sells for a nice profit) is threatening your dog's life?
To be honest, I wouldn't rate either Royal Canin or Hill's as being particularly great. But if your dog likes it, and it's not too fatty, go for it. Though I'd suggest trying a better quality food like Barking Heads (the one for dieting dogs), Eden, or Taste of the Wild, see how she likes them.
Make sure that you weigh out her daily allowance every day... Do not rely on a measuring cup, which can cause a discrepancy of up to 20% in amounts fed!

texas star

Thanks for the replys ive never heard of the other brands so ill do some homework on them.tk123 she does get exercise every day just she just a little chubby.Id prefer to keep her on rc as she enjoys it.Ill leave her one more day and then we see.Thanks again

aonb

Texas Star, you know that at the end of the day, getting your dogs weight down, so that she is healthier is ALL that matters - it doesnt matter what brand of food that you give her, as long as its good quality, and she is not putting on weight. If she likes the RC best and wont eat another, stick with the RC. Life is too short to be stressing about brands if your dog is miserable. And you are miserable looking at her! Start to reduce the amounts of the RC as the others have said, and she will loose weight.

One of my dogs will NOT eat some foods - when he was younger, he would refuse a brand of kibble for DAYS! Now, he is elderly, we know he has a pretty serious gastric issue, so maybe that was why he wouldnt eat those foods. He is food obsessed, but still wont eat lovely foods like Burns, Naturediet etc etc! Who knows with these pets!!

Do your research and if you look on the web, you can get the ingredients for just about every dog food. You should aim for the first ingredient to be meat. LYou should aim for fat being low - what 10%? The brands that were listed earlier, are VERY good. Look on this site, there are tons of recommendations for excellent brands of dry food, that you can order online if you cant get them locally.

Your dogs health and longetivity will definitely be enhanced by the quality of the food you give her. RC is not rated by the knowlegable folks on this site, but they have plenty of other suggestions that are easily available and probably definitely cheaper than RC.

texas star

My goodness i didn't realize there was so much low fat diet food for dogs im more confused now then ever the reason we started on RC was it was recommended by staff in maxi zoo.Then the vet sold us that other stuff.She loves fish so I might try taste of the wild if she turns her nose up at this then its back to RC she will be costing me a small fortune at this rate:rolleyes:

texas star

Molly weights 13.5 and vet said she should be in around 10kilo.She not a pure breed and we dont know who the father was so does that not count for anything.She bigger then the average shih tzu in height.

DBB

Here's a guide to show you what sort of shape your dog should be: don't worry about weight especially in a crossbred dog... it's her shape that's important.
A rule of thumb that I was always told is that you should be able to feel the ribs, but not see them. Though this is harder in a shaggy-coated dog, a light feel of the area should give you a good indicator too. And no cheating... a light feel, don't dig in and then say you can feel her ribs :P

There's nothing to stop you feeding her with fresh, low fat food like chicken and fish. You might also find it beneficial to feed her from activity toys like Kong Toys, Kong Wobblers, or activity balls, so that she's exercising whilst she's eating. Scatter-feeding is also a good way to prmote exercise around food.
If you're feeding treats, you must cut down on the dry food, and you should try to only feed low-fat treats. Most dog treats you buy in supermarkets and pet shops are very calorific (pork products are seriously fatty), probably the lowest fat of all meaty chews are dried beef products: www.zooplus.ie have a great range of dried meat chews, tripe has about 4% fat, lung about the same. These are nice, manageable chews for Shih Tsus, others like lips and scalp are very hard.
You could also give her raw carrot, apple etc to chew on, or boil some carrots, parsnips, sweet potato or real potato to mush up and add to her dinner, to help make her feel a little bit fuller, but with very few calories.

texas star

Thanks DBB your very knowledgeable she would be over weigh going by the pictures.Molly does munch on raw carrots and apple so thats all good and I do put food in a ball that she kicks around the kitchen.I will try that site for few new tasty treats for her

texas star

Hi Nichola I can't seem to send PM so Mollys details she's weights 13.5kilos vet said she's to be 10 she's on RC mini light 130grs a day.Thanks