Fat Bottom Girl

[kel116]

Can you step up her exercise a bit as well?

She gets a couple hours a day of excersize now, definately less than in the summer when she will swim for that long plus running around through the day. I will try and pick it up a bit more but Bella sometimes has other ideas of how much excersize she wants.


Try reducing to 1 1/2 cups a day, add a digestive enzyme supplement, some green beans for fiber (not canned), and replace the milkbones with a something simple (maybe boil some skinless/boneless chicken or turkey and give some pieces of it as treats)


I live in Northern Alberta so I wish I could get green beens for me to eat let alone Bella but green beans are hardly ever available here, so most fresh veggys are not likely to happen untill spring or summer. What is an enzyme supplement Yogurt? or is there something else.

[xellil]

You can buy probiotics, or I gave my dogs plain yogurt. If I couldn't get fresh green beans, i bought the cans with no salt added.

Labs are notorious for always acting hungry.

When my Doberman weighed 115 pounds and was eating dry food, he got one cup a day. Very low metabolism. It didn't seem like very much but any more and he gained weight.

[Dude and Bucks Mamma]

It doesn't matter what you want. What matters is what she needs. I know what it's like to have a perpetually hungry dog. You don't know hungry until you have met my Buck. Hahaha.

I agree with cutting back her food a bit to see how she does. Acana is a high quality food so she needs less than if she were eating say, Iams, or something like that. Dude, on Pedigree (I know, don't shoot me) was eating 1.5 cups a day and he is 60 lbs. He WAS 70... He could gain a couple of pounds. But cutting back just a bit could make a HUGE difference in her weight.

I also think that you are spot on for feeding twice a day. It might make her FEEL like she is getting more food since she is eating twice. She is a pretty dog now but imagine how beautiful she is going to be after she loses a few pounds!

[westminsterthree]

Your Lab is no different than 90% of the spayed or neutered Labs running around the country. Your dog is eating too much fat. Sure you can cut her food to one cup from two and almost starve her but this is not a rational life-long approach. Your dog cannot survive on 40 grams of protein per day.

It is common knowledge that adult Labs need to eat foods with lower fat. 18% is too much for a spayed adult Lab. With Labs a calorie is not a calorie, dogs burn fat under a very specific process that your Lab is just not getting into. It is called Fat Oxidation. Labs run around in short bursts so she is not getting into that level of aerobic activity.

Look for something between 10 - 15% fat but with at least 25% protein.

The idea of cutting from 2 cups to 1 cup is barbaric and your dog will suffer from it.

So my advise is switch foods even if The Dog Food Police and the Orijen White Paper try to kill her.

No supplement will help. Lower calories from fat and more exercise will.

Can you find Canidae Single Grain Protein Plus where you live? That is 14% fat and might be a good choice. As she gets older this problem will be more difficult to deal with so get to work now. I am generally not a big Royal Canin fan, but they have a very logical Labrador formula and that might be a good option as well.