My little man is overweight
 

So I just found out from my Vet that my little boy Dinky is overweight and that I need to put him on a diet. Since I have two little ones, does anyone have any ideas on how I can try to start feeding him less and make sure that my little girl Roxy gets plenty of food? I started giving only one treat a day instead of giving like 20 :D oops yeah probably too many! Thanks!

You can add some green beans to his diet -- feed them to him before he eats his real meal -- green beans are good for him and they fill up his tummy so he doesn't overeat. Hope this helps, it worked for our porky yorky

I agree. Frozen greens slightly thawed are a real treat for most dogs. Go figure!

They are high in fiber so they fill them up, too.

I am so glad you are putting him on a diet. My Lady got too fat (two pounds overweight which is a lot on a small dog) and ended up with diabetes. Just like with humans, obesity and genetics are the main causes of canine diabetes. Trust me, you don't want to have to give him insulin shots twice a day for the rest of his life and deal with the constant infections diabetics get.

Obesity is also very hard on their knees and other joints.

I had to learn portion control on treats, too. Just a bite of a biscuit rather than the whole biscuit, etc.

My little Tatum is too chubby too :( One thing that you can do is to feed your baby the amount of food that a dog should eat that weighs what he is SUPPOSED to weigh. Just for example - if he weighs 7 lbs now, don't feed him what a 7 lb dog should eat. Feed him the amount that a 4 or 5 lb dog should get if that is what he is supposed to weigh. I would feed him twice a day. I would not recommend free feeding if he is over weight.

Also, as the other 2 posters have already mentioned, Green Beans are GREAT as they are good for them and they are fillers so it will help him to actually feel full and not hungry since he will be getting a lesser amount of food. I give these to Tatum and she absolutely loves them. She gets Organic Green Beans with NO Salt added.

Another thing is exercise, exercise, exercise! Take him for at least 2 walks a day...start off slow, about 10 or 15 minute walks each until he gets used to it, and then you can increase the length of time that you walk him for. If he isn't used to being walked, he will probably tire very easily.

Another thing that you can easily do at home to get him moving and give him exercise is just to play with him. Play fetch and tug of war - just sitting down on the floor with him and playing with him actively will give him exercise.

I also forgot to mention, be very careful and go EASY on the treats. If you DO give him treats, give him good quality treats that are not fattening - read the ingredients :thumbup: My Tatum actually hasn't even been getting treats lately - Green Beans are her treats for now :p She loves them though, and they are good for her and they help keep her full.

What food are you feeding?

charlee bears
 

i love the charlee bear snacks, low cal and crunchy...:aimeeyork:animal36:animal-pa:aimeeyork:animal36

Hmmm....I have never heard of those before, I will have to look into them! :)

Lucky was just at the vet on Friday for his shots & check up. He is 3+ years old and at 8 lbs, is at least 2 lbs over his ideal weight. While checking his knees, the vet asked me if he gets around okay & I told her he was. She said that she could feel signs of knee problems & that it was very important to get the weight off. I have been cutting way back on his food intake feeding him only what is recomended of his weight maintenance dog food. Snacks are few and only itty bitty pieces (like yorkie yummies), or frzn green beans, carrot pieces, or celery pieces. Now that the weather is starting to get spring like (finally), we WILL be going for walks every evening and maybe twice a day on the weekends.

i tried them at petsmart, then they stopped selling them, and i couldnt find them, so i got a case of them online.. i have 5 dogs.. i also decided to switch from royal canin to the blue wolf dogfood,,.. so far, they are liking it,,
so many of the snacks are fattening or too big.. i also heard some good things about wellness dogfood... :aimeeyork:aimeeyork:animal36:animal-pa:animal-pa:animal-pa

Wow I would have never thought to do green beans. How much should I give him? He is 9 ptwo pounds overweight and he has bad knees so they told me that its probably hurting him since he is overweight. I feel so bad :( I want to try the green bean thing and hopefully it will help him out, are canned beans okay or are the frozen ones better to use? I bought some healthy treats, so I am starting to give him those, but I would love some recommendations. :D

Thanks!

Boy, the green beans idea is great. I have the 6 dogs now and only my Mandy is getting over weight. Mandy weights 6 lbs 13 oz now and was always less than 5 lbs before. The vet said she is maybe a lb over weight. I cut back on her treats by giving her small amounts but I am going to try the green beans.

My two stick their nose up on green beans, havent tried them frozen yet :confused:

I never would have believed how much dogs like green beans either! It's really helped since being diabetic, I have to be careful with Lady's snacks.

Lady likes her green beans slightly thawed and cut into smaller pieces. For a treat, I put them in her Busy Buddy Twist and Treat so she gets to "hunt" for them.

Besides Charlee Bear, Mother Hubbard Just Veggin mini biscuits are a good low cal snack. So are Buddy Biscuits Itty Bitty sweet potato biscuits. Portion control, the mini size biscuits, are the key. Lady was my first small dog and that was my big problem. I was giving her whole biscuits supposedly for small dogs, but they were still really huge.

overweight yorkie?
 

Wow, I am getting scared hearing about some puppies that are over weight. My yorkie is going to be 8 months tom. and he is 9.5 pounds, however he is 12 inches long from base of neck to the beginning of the tail. In total he must be about 16 or 17 inches. Would this be considered overweight? My vet hasn't told me anything.

Eight month old puppies usually aren't overweight. He is probably just going to be a big boy. Did you see his parents?

overweight yorkie?
 

Thanks for your response? Yes, I saw his parents, neither of them weights over 5 lbs, his older brother is 4 and a half pounds. However, my little Chewy does not look fat by any means.

My yorkie was always 4.4 ... Now she's 5.4 but feels even heavier. She's become less active and just laying around. I see a major difference. I have her on evp weight management. 1/2 cup per day. Will let you know how it works out. She's not a fussy eater.

Made a typo. Evo weight management.

Mine too were a couple pounds overweight...almost 7lbs....I started him on Stella and Chewy raw....and he current weight is 5.2lbs.....he has more energy and his skin and coat has never looked better. I don't give a lot of treats...just one piece of dried food or raw veggies, but only when I put them into their crates for the night or when I go to work. My other two were never overweight...Gus also weighs 5.2 and Zoey, 4.2...just took all three to the store to buy their food and weighed them at the store. Good luck!!

Cassie is 5.4. Weighed today by the vet. He's going to test her for a thyroid problem. The extra pound has definitely slowed her down. She used to jump up on the sofa and now can't do it. She's also panting which she never did. I hope the Evo Weight Mgt dry food will work out. 1/2 cup per day. Will let you know.

Hi everyone,
Skeeter is STILL overweight and now his knees are acting up. With 6 animals eating everymorning we put the food down at 6 am and pick it up at 10am. Everyone has eaten bey then. We feed Healthy Weight by Blue Buffalo. We give bites of Science Diet Dental Care for treats about three times a day. All of them except Gracie need to loose weigh but Skeeter is really obese.
After reading all of this - here is my plan and I would love comments and suggestions:
Food down for 2 hours instead of 4. Feed Skeeter green beans first. (1/2 cup?) Then maybe confine him with a little food for that two hours.

Smash the dental care food so that they get about 1/4 of a piece instead of 3 whole ones. Give Skeeter his piece last so he doesn't get more than one if he steals.

The big problem I with Skeeter is that he is so greedy he steals everyone elses food and if he is hungry enough he will trail around behind someone waiting for them to poop then he snatches it up.

Maybe feed him separately. I would put measured food out for him. I would also not leave the food down that long.

If I'm understanding correctly, you are still essentially 'free feeding' just leaving the bowl down for shorter period of time? IMO, that's just not going to work. If you're trying to get a dog to lose weight, and you have 6 animals, and don't see EXACTLY how much each one is eating... it's just not going to work.

You need to feed them all separately, at once, and pick it right up. In other words, the food gets put down in separate bowls in front of each of them, and then they eat, and then it gets picked up. Do you not want to do wet food? If you put a dab of wet food in there and mix it in, it should make them eat it right away. At my dads house, we have 3 dogs and at dinner time, they all eat right next to each other without messing with the others bowls. It took a few times of standing right next to them and reminding them, but now they're good. They get dry/wet mixed. If you don't want to do wet, believe me... they're learn very quickly that the food gets placed in front of them... give them 30 seconds or so, make it exciting, enticing, and if they don't eat. Pick it up. Try again later. After a day, they'll realize that's all their getting.

Ditch the treats all together for Skeeter, except use something like green beans if he likes them as his treat. I dogsit a Golden Retriever who needed to lose weight and they actually use peas as a treat (like peas in a pod) and she loooovesss them. I'm not sure how many calories each SD treat has? But they're like nugget sized right? I would get Zuke's or something -- pieces are so tiny and like 1 calorie per treat.

Exercise? How much exercise are they getting? VERY important in losing weight obviously.

Like I said skeeters knees are really bad so he is not walking with the others. He never has enjoyed it anyway. I do think that the two hour limit on the food will help as they all eat seperately. They don't eat at the same time. I am going to put Skeeter in a separate room while it is down though.

The biggest issue I think is my dh who feeds them food from his plate but I finally convinced hin that it is doing damage and he has stopped as of two days ago. Skeeter LOVES green beans so that is going to work out really well. I will probably mix them with his food but how much should a dog that should weigh 7lbs eat? He would eat as much as a horse if I let him.

It is difficult to put one on a diet when you are free feeding. You may have to start feeding them in separate rooms. Make sure your chubby one gets as much as he as supposed to have but take your others to another area to feed them.

My girl gained some weight last winter so I had to watch her intake more closely and we stated going for more walks. She loved it but me not so much. I think exercise is really important for these little dogs. They can't eat much to begin with so if we can get the weight off with exercise then they can at least continue to eat normal meals. It's good for their heart and lungs anyway.

Ian also loves fresh string beans!! I'll give him about three or four of them for his afternoon snack/lunch. Also, I make his treats so I know exactly what he is eating, and I don't have to worry about China. The last treats that I made were wheat germ and pure pumpkin. That's it...only two ingredients. I mix them well, and bake until crunchy, about an hour on 320. Turn once after about 40 minutes, and leave in the oven (with the oven off) for another hour. I use a pizza stone to bake his. I also use a cookie press to make different designs/shapes.This treat guarantees a nice poop in the morning!:)

I just have to say that that is such a cool idea with the cookie press!

:)Thank you!!:)

My little girl is definitely fat
 

I am not sure what to do with my Chloé she keep on getting weight I brought her to the vet and he said that she needed to go on a diet and exercise alot. But as she seems so cute with her puppy eyes everyone keeps on giving her food and even treats for no reason and even though I have told my family she needs to go on a diet next thing I know she is more fat than before. Why? Because my mom and siblings keep on giving her food and treats.... I don't know what to do please help

Just like us, humans, dogs that eat more calories than they burn tend to be overweight. I suggest you to put him on a high-protein diet, exercise him more, limit the treats you give him (as tempting as it may be, just limit it). You can find a lot of high-protein recipes that dogs would love.