# My boy needs to lose a few pounds



## AHARM (Mar 28, 2010)

I have a flat coat retriever mix who could stand to lose a few pounds. He is currently on Taste of the Wild and gets 3/4 cup 2x a day. He is 35 pounds and I would like him to be about 30-32. 

I really do not want to cut down his food intake anymore because he always seems so hungry when I feed him and gobbles down his food within about 15 seconds. Does anyone have any success getting their dog to lose weight? What food did you use? I walk him quite a bit as well as bikeride while he runs next to me for a few miles, so he is getting a lot of exercise.

If anyone has a high quality food they can recommend with success that would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks =)


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## luvMyBRT (Mar 8, 2010)

Hi. :smile:

For comparison, I have a 48-50 pound GSH Pointer that is currently on the Taste Of The Wild bison formula. She currently gets 3/4 of a cup 2 times a day. 

My Rottie that I recently lost was constantly acting hungry. He was 100 pounds and ate twice a day to maintain a healthy lean body weight. I think that if I fed him because he was constantly acting hungry he would have weighed 200 pounds! He was one of those dogs that if I left a bag of dog food open I think he would try to eat the entire bag at once! 

Don't let the "acting hungry" act fool you. Feed enough food to maintain a healthy lean weight. What I would do is just feed less for a couple weeks and then re-evaluate his weight. Adjust and go from there. :smile:


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## PUNKem733 (Jun 12, 2009)

saraj2878 said:


> Hi. :smile:
> 
> For comparison, I have a 48-50 pound GSH Pointer that is currently on the Taste Of The Wild bison formula. She currently gets 3/4 of a cup 2 times a day.
> 
> ...



BINGO! a dog with a high food drive will act hungry no matter how much you give then.


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

I couldn't have put it any better than Sara.

If you want your dog to lose weight, simply feed him less no matter if he acts hungry. Shoot, I act hungry all day but I don't eat every time I think about it LOL

There are things that you can give to "bulk up" their meal, but those are rather unhealthy and inappropriate. What you can do is soak the food in water for half hour to hour before feeding it so it gains a bit of bulk to fill him up a bit more. 

There are also the "diet" foods but those are compromising the overall health of your dog. The best thing you can do is to stick with a good, quality food and just feed less of it. Because calories are calories, and the better quality those calories are the better it is for your dog. 

Good luck!!!


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## AHARM (Mar 28, 2010)

Thank you everyone! 
I guess I will try cutting back his feeding a little bit because I definately do not want to put him on a low calorie food because those are full of fillers. 

I just need to get over the mental thing of feeding him such a small amount of food haha.


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## RawFedDogs (Jun 16, 2008)

Regardless of claims to the contrary there is only one way for a dog to loose weight. It's a 2 step program. 1. Eat less ... 2. Exercise more.


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## Unosmom (May 3, 2009)

agree, but you may want to get his thyroid checked to make sure theres no issues that cause weight gain.


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## kevin bradley (Aug 9, 2009)

My 60lb. boy eats all grain free and to not add extra lbs, I have him down to less than a cup and a half per day. 

And he's pretty active. 

I don't mean this to be insulting, but I do get a kick out of these posts saying "I don't want to starve my dog"....HUH? That doesn't make any sense. Either his weight is good or not. If he holds a healthy weight, how in the world is he "starving?" 

I get what you mean...he "seems" hungry? So what? Kids want candy all the time. Dogs would eat McDonald's french fries by the bucketloads if you let them. Does't mean you have to give in to them. 

Do whats right for your Dog. Feed him less.


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## wags (Jan 31, 2009)

What type of snacks are you feeding if any? I know I have a tendency to over do this but I have learned now that a low fat or dehydrated chicken or beef liver is better and just giving twice a day is ok! I have tow labs who could eat out of the bag all the time.My yellow lab now seems to think if the other two dogs leave anything in the bowl its hers. But a loud No cures that habit ha ha! I give my two labs right now weight management EVO 3/4 cup I went down to in the morning and evening but in the evening I do give a wet food a 1/4 can so all 4 dogs get a bit! I was on weight management wellness core and my two labs loved this food also! I walk them everyday and we have a pool they use in the back yard! Right now its raining so I will take them in the back yard with my raincoat on (yuck) throw the ball and they will chase! Also we live by a busy road (fenced yard) there is a walkway behind us and the dogs run by the fence everytime someone walks back there! That's good exercise for them but then the braking (UGH)! So walks great swimming great cutting back food great!
How about carrots for treats green beans low fat peanut butter in the Kong toy frozen or not, low fat or fat free cream cheese yogurt in the Kong frozen, low fat string cheese you could give these! the Kongs are great for them and then a nice bone for pup!!!


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## AHARM (Mar 28, 2010)

He gets the Zuck's training treats a few times a day. They are TINY in size so 4 or so a day are not going to make a difference in his weight. Other than that he doesn't really get any other snacks...I think it's just the retriever in him that is causing him to be prone to weight gain. I started today giving him a bit less than 3/4 cup 2x a day. I'm going to try this for a while and see how it works..if not, the next step will be 1/2 cup 2x.


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## RCTRIPLEFRESH5 (Feb 11, 2010)

kevin bradley said:


> My 60lb. boy eats all grain free and to not add extra lbs, I have him down to less than a cup and a half per day.
> 
> And he's pretty active.
> 
> ...


with my dog i used to TOTAL free feed. iwould fill a 3 qt bowl to the max with dog food and leave it out in the open for a week. my dog would be allowed to eat as much as he wanted. he ate around 3 cups by my calculations and stayed a healthy weight. now that im on grain free his stools are softer and ifeel like imstarving him by putting him on 2. hes obviously not one of tose dogs whos always hingry, because he had access to unlimited food, and chose to eat responsibily llol. so now that im putting him on 2 cups a day, i can tell he wants that third cup. the only reason im lowering the quantity, is because of the stool size..but his weight is perfect. i hope his stools harden up so ican og back to 2.5.


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