My dog is fat :o)

What food would u recommend to be the best for a dog.
We normally feed him dried mix in the morning and one of those pedagree pouches in the evening. Our vet told us straight away that the meaty stuff in gravy is very fattening so to take him off that ASAP.....
Dried stuff doesnt look that appetising though..... can anyone reccomend any certain brands etc...
is the pedagree dried food with meaty stuff in the middle just as fattening and bad as the pouches????
Our Cocker needs to lose 3 and half kilos, what would be best 4 him???

What ever you are feeding but less of it.

Ive recently converted to Aurtarky, and cant praise it enough, I mix a bit of butchers tripe in with it and they love it, clean bowls every time. Saying that, as long as you are happy and your dogs are healthy then whatever works for you really :)

Whatever you are feeding, if your Cocker is 3Kg to heavy you are feeding too much. It's as simple as that. Cut the amount down a bit and you will get the added bonus of reduced food bills!

Regards, John

hello,

it may not be the food you are giving him- but the amount.
do you feed him treats and leftovers also ?
Step up the exercise programme.
good luck xx

I agree with everyone else, its about feeding less and exercising more (and no tit-bits). My cocker has recently been speyed and so have reduced her dry complete food (she's on Pascoes gluten/GM free). Occasionally I soak it to give her some sort of variety. Don't be put off just because the dry food doesn't look that appetising to you—mine hated the change to their present food and wouldn't eat their first meal of the day so I removed it after 15 minutes and refed the same in the evening. Its amazing how my eldest cocker wil eat her food at every meal now. Cockers love their food and are very good about stealing what they can and making you feel guilty, but don't give in to it.

We dont overly feed him titbits as that would be pretty obvious why he is fat!! We have only had Ollie a month and give him treats as rewards while we train him.
He has always had loads of exersize. We take him on about 4 walks a day!!
I started to think he was having too much, thats why i was really worried about his weight as i thought there could be something else wrong with him.
We have now changed the food to Iams diet and our vet gave us good advise about treats,
basically we weigh out the entire days amount of food into a tuperware dish and any treats we give him comes out of that...
pretty obvious really, but i stupidly never thought about it like that!

Has your dog been neutered. If so you need to feed less than what it says on the dog food bag (I think its about a third less). Neutered dogs need less food unless they are working dogs.

wOW is that true?? that neutered dogs need about a third less than it says?? I never new that and certainly the weight loss vet we saw never mentioned that. He had been neutered when he was a pup and hes 4 now.

How come i was never advised on this??

Katy,

You were not advised that neutered dogs need less food because it is not true -- it just looks that way because of timing. Most dogs are neutered when they are just over their biggest period of growth. The amount of exercise remaining constant, all dogs need less food as they near or reach adulthood. Neutering sometimes slows the metabolism down, but it's not the typical reason dogs gain weight.

Healthy dogs only gain weight from one thing - eating too much.

What is true 99 percent of the time is that dog food manufacturers recommend you give a dog more food than it actually needs. I suppose they make the assumption that you will not provide any extra table scraps or treats -- but most companion dogs and house dogs are used to the "extras."

Stacey

Hi Kat, its always obvious when someone else points it out but when youre in the swamp etc....Ollie will be a happier dog for more walks and a measured amount of food.:)

I have two dogs silver lab and a blue weimi the lab is 8 months old and the blue is 3 months old, both beautiful and extremely intelligent
cannot however enter them in akc shows because of their colors, immediade disqualification but I didn't buy them to show.
In any case I've consulted many vets here in the States and they all agree that either Eukanuba, Nutro,and iams are great they do not contain preservatives like most other that might cause terrible deseases in the long run however be advised that are a bit costly unlike your average dog food I hope that this post will help you. You can also research the different types on line.

Parma5

Often food manufacturers dont add preservatives, but the ingredients that that manufacturer uses may have already had preservatives used on it. Hence manufacturers can legally say they have "no ADDED preservatives".

I use Naturediet and Nature's Menu, absolutely brilliant :) and also frozen tripe bought in blocks and fed defrosted with added mixer or a selection of brown rice and vegetables.

Lindsay

thanks 4 everyones replies.......very informative.
yeah i did start to worry about that third less bit :o)

I do very similar. Got a Staffie last year from Battersea and was feeding on the dry stuff they recommended to keep from upsetting his tummy. Well, his tummy stayed upset and hea had deadly 'wind' UNTIL I found the BARF diet ('bones and raw food' or 'bologically appropriate raw food').

He no longer smells, never has wind, eats as much as he wants without gaining wait. Also, has significantly reduced the amount of 'poo' coming out the other end. He has a beautifully shiny soft coat and is described as 'gorgeous' by just about every human that lays eyes on him.

Have friends who have done the same with similar amazing results. There are loads of websites about this, but to provide a few:

http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/animals.htm
http://www.holisticdog.org/Links/links.html
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=BARF+diet+dogs+veterinary
http://www.diamondpaws.com/health/barf.htm