WSJ Article on Fat Pets

[107barney]

Originally Posted by Lil Sis

Just as a funny story... I think I od my dogs on sweet potato!!

Some how I got it in my head that was a great food for them so I baked sweet potatoes and mashed them up with chicken and peas. Well... about two days later their poop looked like sweet potatoes.. they upchucked some sweet potatoes.. so I switched to plain chicken and rice for a few days.
I also think I was way over feeding them, because home cooking was new they were eating all that I offered. They are doing better now.

Oh man! Daisy eats sweet potatoes and I can relate... I'd avoid the peas, they are higher in carbs and they will get fat. Better veggies are squash, bell peppers, broccoli, green beans, carrots. Mine love bell peppers and we feed as snacks. They get about 20 grams of veggies a day so it is a very small amount. I usually feed veggies raw. Mine even have knock down fights over celery. Avoid spinach it is very high in oxalates and our breed is prone to stones...also in my experience, feeding spinach has thrown off kidney values and resulted in crystals in the urine after only a few days of feeding so I no longer give spinach or dark leafy greens to them.

[Lil Sis]

Originally Posted by 107barney

Oh man! Daisy eats sweet potatoes and I can relate... I'd avoid the peas, they are higher in carbs and they will get fat. Better veggies are squash, bell peppers, broccoli, green beans, carrots. Mine love bell peppers and we feed as snacks. They get about 20 grams of veggies a day so it is a very small amount. I usually feed veggies raw. Mine even have knock down fights over celery. Avoid spinach it is very high in oxalates and our breed is prone to stones...also in my experience, feeding spinach has thrown off kidney values and resulted in crystals in the urine after only a few days of feeding so I no longer give spinach or dark leafy greens to them.

oh no.. I fed them two bags of frozen spinach... I am going to kill my puppies!!

so.. rice is ok, chicken is ok.. lol

I started out with a cup of food... chicken, veggies and potatoes at each meal.
I think I have a better handle on it now....


On a very sad note, before I learned to research as much as I do now.. I fed one of my little shih tuz puppies a grape. She died of kidney failure, not totally sure of the cause but I am sure the grape did not help. It about killed me.. so now my middle name is ask questions.. research!!!!

[sugarmamma]

Originally Posted by 107barney

Two cups may not be too much depending on the calories in the food and such. Barney who is 8.5 lbs eats 1 cup of food a day on average plus snacks. He is an ideal weight and good body tone, etc, especially for his age (almost 11). He eats 262 kcal/day. In Barney's case, he is on 3% fat for the rest of his life because of his history of pancreatitis so the volume of other items make up the majority of his calories.

I bought the diet for teddy from Dr. Remillard's site Welcome to Pet Diets (not the BI site) for $25 and I like those diets better plus we treat with Dr. Remillard.

I agree with that. The recipes on the Balance It site (well some of them) are very strange. And I wasn't comfortable with the pork offerings even though you could chose from several protein sources.

[107barney]

Originally Posted by Lil Sis

oh no.. I fed them two bags of frozen spinach... I am going to kill my puppies!!

so.. rice is ok, chicken is ok.. lol

I started out with a cup of food... chicken, veggies and potatoes at each meal.
I think I have a better handle on it now....


On a very sad note, before I learned to research as much as I do now.. I fed one of my little shih tuz puppies a grape. She died of kidney failure, not totally sure of the cause but I am sure the grape did not help. It about killed me.. so now my middle name is ask questions.. research!!!!

Well spinach won't kill the dogs and i've fed it many times. I just never witnessed what it did to their blood chemistry until their blood work recently coordinated with spinach. It was very interesting. Not to scare anyone but here is what happened to them --
Daisy formed crystals in her bladder
Teddy had elevated creatinine and BUN kidney readings
Barney threw oxalate stones and had elevated BUN and creatinine.

These values all went to normal two weeks after spinach removal. My vet's advice: "Stay away from the spinach."

I can laugh now, but it was not funny at the time.

On a side note - for dogs, there are many foods they like and enjoy.
Here are some we use -
CARBS - sweet potatoes, brown rice, white rice, oatmeal, pasta, barley
MEATS - white meat chicken, white meat turkey, pork tenderloin, and on occasion, very lean beef like sirloin or eyeround
VEGGIES - broccoli, bell peppers, celery, carrots, zucchini, butternut squash, green beans, corn (i count as a carb)
FRUITS - blueberries, raspberries, pears, oranges & clementines, bananas, apples

[Lil Sis]

Originally Posted by 107barney

Two cups may not be too much depending on the calories in the food and such. Barney who is 8.5 lbs eats 1 cup of food a day on average plus snacks. He is an ideal weight and good body tone, etc, especially for his age (almost 11). He eats 262 kcal/day. In Barney's case, he is on 3% fat for the rest of his life because of his history of pancreatitis so the volume of other items make up the majority of his calories.

I bought the diet for teddy from Dr. Remillard's site Welcome to Pet Diets (not the BI site) for $25 and I like those diets better plus we treat with Dr. Remillard.

I did look at the site, I think I will buy one recipe for each dog to help get a good idea of how much to feed. I am a bit confused now, but that is normal for me

Like I said, missing the days of a bowl full of kibble..lol

[Maximo]

Originally Posted by 107barney

Oh man! Daisy eats sweet potatoes and I can relate... I'd avoid the peas, they are higher in carbs and they will get fat. Better veggies are squash, bell peppers, broccoli, green beans, carrots. Mine love bell peppers and we feed as snacks. They get about 20 grams of veggies a day so it is a very small amount. I usually feed veggies raw. Mine even have knock down fights over celery. Avoid spinach it is very high in oxalates and our breed is prone to stones...also in my experience, feeding spinach has thrown off kidney values and resulted in crystals in the urine after only a few days of feeding so I no longer give spinach or dark leafy greens to them.

Whenever I allow my father to serve too many meals in a row, Max quickly gains a few ounces from too many peas. Have to keep the peas in check.

I learned recently about the oxalates in spinach when I was reading diet info for myself. A bunch of my favorite foods are high on the list for oxalates. It is a wonder that I don't have kidney stones. I bet that was scary to see the effects of spinach on your babies. Yikes!

[sugarmamma]

Originally Posted by Lil Sis

I did look at the site, I think I will buy one recipe for each dog to help get a good idea of how much to feed. I am a bit confused now, but that is normal for me

Like I said, missing the days of a bowl full of kibble..lol

Sorry

[gemy]

I find this interesting. Razzle goes between 6.2 and 6.7 lbs, he does ( right now at least burns calories very easily). His normal daily diet is 3/8 lb of homecooked raw diet, I braise the ground chicken. Then he gets about 1/8 of a lb of kibble (origen,lamb). For training (low training days), he gets another 1/8 lb of various treats-loves carrots, peppers,fish, cheerios, and frozen sweet potatoe. On big days, training (1hr), plus swimming and walking another hour or so, he gets another 1/3 c of food. On those big days, what I try to do, is about 2hrs or so after supper, I feel his tuck up, if it "feels" too high, we do a few tricks with treats, and then it's usually bed time. It's amazing to me how quickly these wee ones can go up or down 1/2 a lb.

[yorkietalkjilly]

Could I ask how I can find the often-reffered-to "kibble" article on YT? I have searched and searched and cannot get anying to come up entitled that. I have been searching in the "Yorkie Health and Diet" forum, I think it is called. What am I doing wrong?

[Lil Sis]

Originally Posted by sugarmamma

Sorry

You KNOW it is all your fault!! Getting me started with home cooking!!

That's ok... with all the great advice I will work it out. I think the hard part is three dogs that are so different..

[Lil Sis]

Originally Posted by gemy

I find this interesting. Razzle goes between 6.2 and 6.7 lbs, he does ( right now at least burns calories very easily). His normal daily diet is 3/8 lb of homecooked raw diet, I braise the ground chicken. Then he gets about 1/8 of a lb of kibble (origen,lamb). For training (low training days), he gets another 1/8 lb of various treats-loves carrots, peppers,fish, cheerios, and frozen sweet potatoe. On big days, training (1hr), plus swimming and walking another hour or so, he gets another 1/3 c of food. On those big days, what I try to do, is about 2hrs or so after supper, I feel his tuck up, if it "feels" too high, we do a few tricks with treats, and then it's usually bed time. It's amazing to me how quickly these wee ones can go up or down 1/2 a lb.

So you think orgien kibble is a good back up food? I want a back up.. for just in case I can't cook for any reasons. I do prepare a couple of weeks of chicken at a time, but like to always have plan B

[sugarmamma]

Originally Posted by Lil Sis

So you think orgien kibble is a good back up food? I want a back up.. for just in case I can't cook for any reasons. I do prepare a couple of weeks of chicken at a time, but like to always have plan B

I cook a month's worth but Sugar will ONLY eat a back up if it is served from the bowl of another dog

[Ringo1]

Originally Posted by sugarmamma

I cook a month's worth but Sugar will ONLY eat a back up if it is served from the bowl of another dog

Ha! That's funny. Lucy will eat anything as long as it's out of Ringo's bowl.