Lou I would agree with Elle Mae. If I free fed my three dog would be a bag of bones, Doodlebug would be battling Pebbles and the Princess Pebbles would be a 50 pound basketball.
You really need to just put their food out twice a day. For Cassie and Gracie you could give them about 1/4 cup. The other two you really need to cut back on the amount you give them until they drop the weight. I would not give any treat until they are all at their ideal weight.
Dave needs to understand that feeding them from his plate could cause a medical crisis. Tom would also love to slip these three a scrap from his plate but I insist that this could cause them harm. Occassionally, if I am cooking pasta they might get a couple of pieces and I will give them veggies and fruits but NOT while I was trying to lower Bogey's weight.
When Bogey was on his diet I literally counted the pieces that I would give him in his bowl for each meal. You should also take a look at the fat content in the BB. I had tried feeding Natural Balance Reduced Calorie food but then just decided that reducing the amount was a better choice for us.
I'm not sure what variety you feed but here is the Small Breed Chicken and Brown Rice
Quote:
Crude Protein 26.0% min
Crude Fat 15.0% min
Crude Fiber 4.0% max
Moisture 10.0% max
Calcium 1.0% min
Phosphorus 0.9% min
Omega 3 Fatty Acids* 0.25% min
Omega 6 Fatty Acids* 3.5% min
Glucosamine* 400 mg/kg min
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Here is NB Brown Rice and Lamb
Quote:
Crude Protein 21.0% minimum
Crude Fat 12.0% minimum
Crude Fiber 4.0% maximum
Moisture 10.0% maximum
Calcium 1.2% minimum
Phosphorus 1.0% minimum
Omega-3 Fatty Acids 0.3% minimum
Omega-6 Fatty Acids 1.7% minimum
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Does BB have a reduced calorie food?
Here is the NB Reduced Calorie
Quote:
Crude Protein 18.0% minimum
Crude Fat 8.0% minimum
Crude Fiber 8.0% maximum
Moisture 10.0% maximum
Omega-3 Fatty Acids 0.3% minimum
Omega-6 Fatty Acids 1.7% minimum
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Since I'm not an expert by any means I looked at the fat content in the food and decided for us that instead of feeding the same amount of the reduced calorie food I would just cut back on the amount. But maybe a reduced calorie food would be better for you since the example that I am showing is the fat content if about HALF from the BB to the NB "diet"
My other thought on your situation is that you would need to buy 2 different types of food if you were to go the low cal route vs cutting back on the amount of food. I also was not able to feed the Low Cal food since the reason I am using NB is that it's has the Limited Ingredients which I used because of Pebbles allergies.
If this were me and I was worried about weight issues I would
1. Stop free feeding
2. Switch to a food with lower fat content as well as cut back the amount
3. Cut out all treats and scraps
4. Threaten the husband and
insist that he needs to stop giving table scraps
Wait!! I just found a BB food that has lower fat content:
Blue Longevity Formula
Quote:
Crude Protein 22.0% min
Crude Fat 8.0% min
Crude Fiber 6.5% max
Moisture 10.0% max
Calcium 1.0% min
Phosphorus 0.90% min
L-Carnitine* 100mg/kg min
Glucosamine* 400mg/kg min
Omega 3 Fatty Acids* 0.50% min
Omega 6 Fatty Acids* 1.50% min
Beta-Carotene* 5.0mg/kg min
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Like I said earlier, I am not an expert of nutrition but this is what worked for me to help Bogey drop the weight and keep the other two at a healthy weight.