I desperately need to get weight off one of my dachsies.  Been on Arden Grange light but not lost and I want to move to something different - she has been monitored by the vet and we did try Hills prescription without luck.  I won't go into why I think she has put on so much weight but suffice to say circumstances have changed and I hope to start shifting her towards a better weight.

Can anyone recommend another food to try for a long term weight loss (she is very big).

Swap part of her complete for tripe?
Also, is it possible to include some extra exercise for her, even if it's just an extra short walk every day or a few minutes of her chasing a ball, it will help.

You could try Burns normal dog food or they also do one for weight loss.  I find all of mine lose weight very quickly on Burns normal dog food, can't use it for that reason ;)

Another way of reducing calories would be to add grated carrot or cooked runner beans/cabbage to the normal diet.  I've seen this work with a really overweight dog.

Burns high oats, my boy lost weight on it and has maintained it, its the only food that has worked.

Hey,

Just a thought along with the previous poster is Burns. My friend purchased a bag as she thought it would help her boy gain weight, had the opposite effect and he rapidly lost weight.
Hope all goes well with your Dax,

yep agree try burns

its weird because I have my skinny boy on the active lamb burns and its the only food he puts on weight with.

Thanks folks - it was Burns that someone had previously recommended so will get some ordered.

Don't mean to be smart about it, but if your dogs are already on a light variety -  less food is most likely the answer, not changing the brand of food you use.

A change of diet has always prompted a loss - it just hasn't been sustained in the past because my DH would feed titbits. And I guess I have to say here that he has recently died so I want to change to a new food and start afresh with the weight loss programme.

My sincerest sympathies dachsie lad and big hugs.

My dogs stay quite lean on JWB, I haven't tried Burns but have often heard that it is good for keeping weight down.  I'm sure your little one will make good progress and get used to the new feeding regime.  I give all my dogs just 1 treat a day at bedtime as a reward for putting themselves in their beds at night but it's always a healthy one like the dried fish jerky and they really look forward to it.  Even when my Dobe was very overweight she had her 1 treat a day and she still lost weight. It's nice to give them a little something for being good. HTH

Mel

Really sorry to hear about your loss, big hugs x

Just my two pennies worth - Last year I rehomed a rescue Samoyed who was obese, she was fed on pedigree when she came to us. I changed her food to normal Lamb & rice AG with plenty of regular exercise and the weight dropped off her (lucky thing - why cant that happen to me, lol). She's now down to normal weight. Normal AG worked for my girl so I just thought I would share....

If she is keen on her food would it help to encourage her to work for it?  We used a Molecuball to give our pup another way of eating when he was little.  If she is used to titbits you could also keep a part of her food portion to use as rewards for exercises.  Makes sense to weigh her food each day and vary the way she gets it so she doesn't become fixated on meal times.  My Mum's elderly, portly, JR will just linger round her bowl if not shooed off to do something more energetic :)

Some fresh, raw vegetables may help with managing her appetite whilst you reduce her portions.  My boys would never scrounge for meat but it's funny how they appear when I'm chopping veg!!  I use carrots like bones and they both like the occasional bit of broccoli stalk.  If your girl has been eating the wrong sort of foods for a while she might benefit from the help that veg will give her bowel movements too!!

I remember reading an earlier post from you about your husband, I'm so sorry for your loss. 

xxx

>Don't mean to be smart about it, but if your dogs are already on a light variety -  less food is most likely the answer, not changing the brand of food you use.

I disagree, different foods suit different dogs, my boy went through loads of different so called "light" varieties but burns was the only one he lost weight on.  Less food doesnt always mean weight loss, I know at one point I cut one of my boys rations in half thinking I was doing him good but he was just permanently hungry and didnt lose any weight at all.

Our dachsie was on a permanent reducing diet of boiled lamb mince (with fat skimmed off), cooked with carrot and green beans and mixed with oatmeal. His coat was gorgeous, he never got fat or poorly in his old age and he lived to 15. Lucky us! I miss him every day.

The one unalterable fact is that if a dog consumes more kalories than it needs it will gain weight - less kalories and it will lose weight.

Dogs lose weight on foods like Burns because they are lower in kalories, fat, protein and higher in foods that dogs cannot digest (grains) as efficiently.  Burns Chicken & Rice is 63 percent rice and only 20% chicken.   The percentage of grains is even higher than 63% because there are also oats.   And because only "chicken" is listed it means that is fresh chicken and approximately 75% moisture - meaning the dry weight of the chicken is a much lower percentage and there is even less meat compared to grain.  

The Burns regular adult maintenance food is actually a "lite" food if you compare it to other brands, so no wonder many dogs lose weight on it.   As a comparison, check Arden Grange below - first regular Chicken with Rice and then the Lite variety.  The Burns regular is most similar to the Arden Grange lite - NOT the regular maintenance food.

Burns Chicken and Brown Rice: Brown Rice (min 63%), Chicken (min 20%), Oats, Peas, Chicken Oil, Sunflower Oil, Seaweed, Vitamins and Minerals 
Protein 18.5%, Oil 7.5%, Fibre 2.2%, Ash 7.0%, Vit A 8000 iu/kg, Vit D 1500 iu/kg, Vit E 50 iu/kg, Moisture 8%, Copper 15mg/kg, Sodium 0.51%, Calcium 1.1%, Phosphorus 0.63%, Magnesium 0.10%.

Arden Grange Adult: with fresh chicken & rice 

Chicken Meal* (min 27%), Whole Grain Rice (min 26%), Whole Grain Maize, Chicken Fat*, Beet Pulp, Fresh Chicken (min 5%), Dried Brewers Yeast, Egg Powder, Fish Meal*, Linseed, Fish Oil*, Minerals, Vitamins, Nucleotides, Prebiotic FOS, Prebiotic MOS, Cranberry Extract, Chondroitin Sulphate, Glucosamine Sulphate, MSM, Yucca Extract. * Preserved with mixed tocopherols and rosemary extract.
  
Adult: light with fresh chicken & rice 

Whole Grain Rice (min 31%), Whole Grain Maize (min 31%), Chicken Meal*, Beet Pulp, Chicken Fat*, Fresh Chicken (min 5%), Dried Brewers Yeast, Egg Powder, Fish Meal*, Linseed, Fish Oil*, Minerals, Vitamins, Nucleotides, Prebiotic FOS, Prebiotic MOS, Cranberry Extract, Chondroitin Sulphate, Glucosamine Sulphate, MSM, Yucca Extract, L- Carnitine. * Preserved with mixed tocopherols and rosemary extract.

Typical Analysis

Protein 18%, Oil 7.5%, Fibre 3.5%, Ash 6%, Moisture 8%, Omega6 1.76%, Omega3 0.27%, Vitamin A 15000 IU/kg, Vitamin D3 1000 IU/kg, Vitamin E 100 IU/kg, Calcium 0.9%, Phosphorous P 0.6%, Copper 15 mg/kg (as Cupric Sulphate). Light Kcal per 100 gms: 326.

Louise,

If you ever fancy a dog walk let me know and we can arrange to meet up, and to be honest i didn't think that your dax looked overweight, as it's coming across on here.
I'll see you on tuesday...

Sue

so you agree with me then, a different brand of food can make a difference.

I have never found the diet foods good for weight loss.  I keep mine on their good quality adult food, but give half.  I then give vegetables to make up the difference.

This could be carrot, green beans, marrow, etc.

This I find stops the scavenging that seems inevitable when the food is cut down.

Not agreeing with you Clairey.  :-)  The brand of food is irrelevant and so is whether it is a "lite" or regular variety - the only thing that matters when it comes to losing weight are kalories.  Feeding less of exactly the same food and all dogs will lose weight as long as the kalorie content is low enough.  It's just scientifically impossible to get away from that basic equation, much to my personal regret!

you could try giving her less and just add water to her food. there no calories in water and it it will expand the food which means she will eat less but still feel full. hope this helps. it did for the lab i had 20yrs ago and was sujested by his vet

hi just a quick question. i thought tripe put weight on dogs not took it off them.to help a dog loss weight u can replace a quarter of your dog food with veg. :-)

> hi just a quick question. i thought tripe put weight on dogs not took it off them

It depends how you use it :)
Anything can put weight on a dog if it is added to thier food, but if you substitute part of thier food with tripe it can be used to control/shift weight.

If Buster needs to loose some weight I would cut the complete back and replace that with tripe, if he needs to gain weight I add extra tripe (as he's still growing I still have to adjust feeding quantities depending on his needs). I couldn't substitute part of his meal with veg instead of tripe as he's still growing and needs the nutrition.

tha nks for the advice. i want to put a bit of weight on my boxer. the local kennels and PAH told me to replace 1 cup of biscuits with tripe(she has the tripe on its own in the evening, is this alright)it sounds like i should have added the tripe as extra too her normal rations.she has only been having tripe for 2wks and she seems to be more alert and playful. ps how much tripe a day do you think i could give her.

> i want to put a bit of weight on my boxer. the local kennels and PAH told me to replace 1 cup of biscuits with tripe

1 cup of tripe will have less calories than 1 cup of biscuits (tripe is raw so contains a lot of water), by replacing 1 cup of complete for 1 cup of tripe she will loose weight. If you add tripe to her food you will be increasing her calorie/nutritional intake so she can then gain weight.

>ps how much tripe a day do you think i could give her.

LOL, how long's a piece of string :-D
It depends on her nutritional demands. Personally I would add a small amount of tripe to her regular meals (eg, start with half a cup), then see what effect that has, you can then increase/decrease the amount of tripe untill it has the desired effect.
Weather you want to feed the tripe as a seperate meal is up to you, but I feed it together with complete,  it has a great effect on stool quality (as well as the dog LOVING the taste & smell of it). If Buster was to have tripe as a seperate meal he would do little pellets from the tripe and big sloppy messes from the complete

Bear in mind that Boxers can be thin looking while they are growing, you don't want to make her fat.

i started her of on mixing the two together but was told by other members that they digest at diffrent rates and should be fed seperatly.(not sure what rates.of digestion got to do with it) and she had a phantom pregnancy in dec and wasnt eating her full meals for around 5wks later.now shes eating i would like to get her back to normal weight.

> but was told by other members that they digest at diffrent rates and should be fed seperatly.(

I've read this too.
Busters breeder has over 30 years experience in the breed and swears by feeding complete with tripe (at the same time), so do a lot of people I've spoke to RE diet.
There is so much conflicting info/advice about regarding diet, it's a case of finding out as much you can and then going with the what you feel you should. I'm happy feeding tripe & complete at the same time (perhaps more importantly the dog is :) ), but if it doesn't suit you then that's your choice, you should do what you feel is best :)
I will recomend tripe & complete (fed at the same time) to anybody who will listen, LOL, but I respect that we all have to make our own minds up in the end :)

i for one will listen so im going back to feed tripe and complete together which jay and myself preferred.thanks again for advice we learn somthing new evryday if we listen.:-) :-) :-D

well i found my boy lost weight nicely and really toned up when we switched him to orijen, all i can guess at is it is the low carbs in the food. As most foods 40 to 60% carbs