See how spherical my dog has become? (The one in the foreground.) She had a minor injury a few months back, and while it restricted her activity level, there was no corresponding drop in her appetite. So now she’s alarmingly fat.
She’s 100% physically again — aside from being a big fat cow. We’re trying to up her exercise rate and curtail calorie intake, but damn. Any suggestions, aside from the obvious?
Open thread.
paulw
Treadmill walkies
Pogonip
Is that the one who sprained her tail? Everybody knows you can’t run without wagging your tail as fast as possible.
Violet
@paulw: Yeah, was going to say doggie treadmill. Or you guys could increase your walking or running and take the dogs along. Maybe beach trips? Do they like to frolic in the ocean?
RoonieRoo
It really is simply about calories. Does she like carrots? Carrots are the best treats for dogs. See if she will eat those and I would use those exclusively for treating and help her feel more full. If she will eat sweet potato, I would substitute some of her kibble for cooked sweet potato. I don’t feed kibble for exactly the reason you are experiencing – fat dog syndrome. Kibble can make weight control challenging since it is so extremely calorie dense and the “diet” kibble has so much junk filler in it, that it will eventually cause other issues.
Punchy
One of our greys got chubby (due to a mix-up with the Christmas dog sitter on meal amounts), and the wife suggy’d diet dog food. I almost choked laughing so hard. But apparently they actually make diet dog food. I suggested simply giving her less per meal.
So now we give her less per meal, and make her run ovals in the backyard. It takes time (months), but seems to work.
Violet
Since this is a dog thread, I’m reposting the story of Nya who had major health problems and the dog rescue needs some help covering her medical bills. Here’s the link to the fundraiser. Here’s her story:
Here’s a link to the original post by AL on Nya. There are some follow up comments by the rescue folks about her condition. She is coming along and looks like a total sweetie! Pictures of her in the fundraiser link.
shelley
Right now i’m just too distracted by the sight of BARE GRASS on the ground. (We had another six inches of the white stuff yesterday)
J R in WV
We rescued a kitten some years ago who was the size of a chipmunk – she turned out to be 6 months old when we first took her to the Vets. We fed her all she wanted, expecting her to be a small cat when grown – wrong! She was a sphere, and I named her Punkin’ for her shape.
Now we feed her seperately from all the other animals, in the bathroom, which we now cal the Imperial Dining Chamber. She gets less food, and lost weight to the point where she has a large flap of empty belly skin which flops around when she runs.
Punkin is actually capable of being quite active now that she’s lost most of that excess weight. This means she can jump from the back of the couch to the bar to the kitchen counters – where the food lives!
Cutting back on food will require feeding her seperately, and more exercise will mean running with her, perhaps younger daughter Cracker can help with that on a bike? Doing both exercise and dieting will make it happen faster, which will be good for her. I hate hungry critters, they make me feel guilty, even though I know it is good for them to be hungry at least part of the time.
Good luck!
PS and off topic: I have made my first PT appointment following my shoulder replacement 10 days ago. Modern medicine is really capable of amazing things. Now my sore shoulder is the left one – the one not yet replaced.
I’ll be seeing a therapist who I have seen before, very professional, patient with his clients, careful and deliberate. He was a lot of help last summer. I expect good results. Wish me luck, everybody.
Elizabelle
My beagles ate Hill’s Science Diet Reduced Calorie (r/d) their whole little lives. They thrived, and neither became fat.
Which is a beagle’s goal in life, apparently.
Had to buy it from the vet, but again — relatively sleek beagles.
John Cole +0
Why do all boxers look like they are about to say “Harumph?”
Violet
@J R in WV: Best of luck with the PT! Glad the shoulder is coming along.
Apparently it’s good for all of us to be hungry from time to time. Fasting kicks in certain processes that clean up cells and can keep us healthier.
Ruckus
Better food=more nutritious, less filler. Exercise. Works the same for pets as it does for us. Or any other carbon based life form.
@RoonieRoo: is correct, calories in/calories out. Fewer of the former, more of the latter. What you put in your pie hole determines how healthy you can be, how much you put in determines how much of you there will be.
Tenar Darell
Well you could bring her to NE to visit Anne Laurie and make her run figure 8’s in the snow… Hmm, now what’s the Florida equivalent of doing figure 8’s in deep snow? Oooh, is there a local doggie obstacle course you could bring her to?
Patricia Kayden
Halve her daily.intake. Worked for my fat Boxer.
J R in WV
I second the alternate feeding sweet potatoes idea, kind of. We fed Punkin meals with lots of pumpkin mixed with not much kibble and a decent portion of meaty bits with gravy. She got full, and pumpkin has like 2 calories – it worked great.
Eventually we stopped once she got to her target weight, and tapered off the filler. We feed her seperately because she will push a big dog out of her bowl, when hungry she knows no fear!
This really works for any animal, if you mix in some kibble and gravy they think it’s all meaty wonderfulness.
kindness
We have always had two dogs and had always been able to leave a big bowl out filled with kibble. When ever on of them got hungry they would wander over and eat some. Well, our 7 year old 100 lb shepard mutt has made it plain we can’t do that any more. We hate giving them separate bowls in the AM and then another in the PM but there isn’t any other way right now. Buddy just got to be too piggy. I guess we are lucky in that we’ve had many pairs over the years and this is the first time we have to do this. Us changing out patterns was hard.
Ruckus
@Violet:
Learned an old trick once. You want to lose weight, eat when you are hungry, stop eating when you are still hungry. It takes longer for your body to tell you it’s full than for you to fill it up. If you wait till you fill full, it’s too late. Now most dogs will eat whatever is in front of them so if you want them to eat less you have to put less in the bowl.
Ruckus
@kindness:
That really is unusual in my experience, a dog leaving food in a bowl. Cats are the opposite, they will nosh all day long.
Steeplejack
@J R in WV:
Good luck! A sore shoulder is no fun. I pinched a nerve in my neck/shoulder a month or so ago and have been dealing with some nagging discomfort, and it really affects your daily life. Nothing like a surgery-level problem, of course, but it gives you a little perspective. Just finding a comfortable sleeping position was a big deal—and almost impossible—for several weeks.
Josie
I second RonnieRoo’s suggestion of the carrots as a treat. My corgi (they get fat easily) gets the miniature organic carrots for his treats and thinks he has something wonderful. I also read about a woman who gives her corgis green beans with their food to cut down on calories, but Duncan was less than enthused about the green beans.
boatboy_srq
There are some excellent (albeit high-priced) foods available: IAMS, Science Diet and Blue Wilderness all have worthwhile low-cal options. If you have the time and energy, though, something home-cooked might work better: I grew up with a very picky Lhasa Apso for which Mum cooked constantly (there was always an extra pan with the dishes).
ETA: what Ruckus said works too, as long as you can resist the constant whine-and-beg routine between meals.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
Check with your vet to see what her rate of weight loss should be. The vet would like Charlotte to lose 1-2 pounds, but she’s supposed to lose something like 1/4 pound per month, because rapid weight loss is Bad.
PhoenixRising
Ah, feeding.
So here’s the thing: If the dog gained weight by eating her fill while laying about, the only way I’ve found to help her lose it is…eating fewer calories. While dashing about.
The Dane was underweight when we met, then we overcompensated a bit, and it took 9 months to take 10 lbs back off her frame. Lots of walks, lots of frozen carrot bits (almost no calories, minutes of entertainment, yes for the dog too). The Mrs dropped 10 pounds during this time also, and the vet refers to the 14 lb dog as ‘Buns of Steel’ now.
I still refer to him as The Margin Of Error, as his total mass is less than the weight gain on our primary dog since we met her…but I’m like that.
bemused
@John Cole +0:
That would be like asking why Jack Russell terriers have the stink eye look down pat.
Ruckus
@J R in WV:
Had shoulder surgery about a decade ago and like you now the other one is the painful one. PT took a while to get the shoulder back in usable condition but once through that it was and is good to go. Now the other side…..
Good luck with the PT hope things work out. Hard to carry the weight of the world when your shoulders are screwed.
mai naem mobile
One of my friend’s dog was overweight and the vet suggested feeding her green beans to replace some of the regular food and use it as a treat as well. With my old dogs, I initially fed.them expensive dog food as adults initially but I noticed they put on weight. I’ve always free fed my dogs unless.one of.thems sick. Anyhow, I looked at the nutritional info.and the difference was more fiber and less fat.and protein so i started feeding them the cheaper stuff (i don’t mean the cheap total garbage) ”””
They slowly lost weight and live to 15 a little over average for springers.
,
Dx
dexwood
Second the suggestion for carrots as treats. Steamed green beans, too. Cutting back on food portions is important. Our vet trained us long ago to never feed our dogs the recommended portions found on the kibble bags, it is just too much. We feed our 80 pound Golden Retriever mix half the bag’s suggested feeding portion. He thrives, maintains an excellent weight, and benefits from having less stress placed upon his joints. Same rules as for people – diet and exercise.
Ruckus
@Mnemosyne (iPhone):
because rapid weight loss is Bad.
Also just like us. Weight loss per month has to be proportional to the normal and big size of the animal. It didn’t take 15 minutes to put it on and it will take longer to take it off than to put it on. The chemistry works like that. Unless you bypass it with surgery. And that’s pretty barbaric.
PhoenixRising
As to diet dog food: Yeah. If you can get her to eat it, might work. We’ve tried it twice.
First, the extremely fit, well-muscled, daily exercised Golden whose pancreas blew out at 40 months of age. The vet said she needed diet food to keep her glucose even. Problem? It apparently tastes like cardboard. When a retriever dog won’t eat your kibble, and the bag it came it, it’s unpalatable. So she began lurking, digging, chewing rocks and stealing the cat’s food, just to get something that tasted like anything. The loaf of bread that damn near killed the best dog I’ve ever had? Stolen from the top of the fridge. Diet food didn’t work.
More recently, the Dane. She has food issues. Diet food leaves her unsatisfied, cranky and flatulent in a manner that had me considering setting the house on fire for a time.
Good luck, and maybe others have had better results with the low-cal plate. Breed might have a lot to do with results, too. What do boxers eat? Besides chicken…
trollhattan
@Betty Cracker
Not knowing how your doggies are fed–together/separately, twice daily/food always available, type of food–there might be simple changes that start Brunswick in the right direction automatically. Agree with the above that water play is a good way to get exercise without undue stress until some of that weight is off, at which point more opportunities to run will speed things up.
After we adopted our current dog it took the better part of a year to finally see there were hips behind a chunky midsection. It was only eight or nine pounds but that’s about 15% of her ideal weight and it took a good while to work it off. Nine years later unless she’s sick she NEVER misses breakfast or dinner and could not care less what brand is in the bowl, making her the polar opposite of the finicky eater. We’re finicky feeders though, because certain food brands give her life-threatening gas.
max
Giant hamster wheel.
max
[‘It’s either that or a seriously restricted diet.’]
trollhattan
Good news everybody, the planet added 181 billionaires last year. Are you feeling your boat rise? I’m feeling something rising (my blood pressure, you perverts). CPAC attendees agree: it’s Obama’s fault the total wasn’t 1,810.
Ruckus
I had really good luck with Froom dog food. Seems nutritious and well made, my dog loved it and he got to his ideal weight easily and stayed there. Several flavors, the biggest drawback is the price is not what you’d call all that inexpensive and finding it can be tough.
I don’t have a anything to do with them other than being a past and satisfied customer.
Ruckus
@trollhattan:
Nah, it’s Obama’s fault that you’re not one of them.
trollhattan
@Ruckus:
Good point. Damn you, Obama, damn you all to heck!
shelley
@John Cole +0: It’s that Winston Churchill look. All they need is to be chewing on a stogie.
elmo
@Josie:
I use green beans, and my dogs love ’em. Carrots I don’t use, because they tend to leave undigested tasty bits in the excrement, which can lead to coprophagia, which is a hard habit to break in a hungry dog.
Try canned pumpkin (not the pie filling, but the real 100% pumpkin) and green beans together.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
Today is G’s first Monday after being laid off last week. He got up early and went to the gym, and he’s trying to treat this first week as the staycation he hadn’t been able to take because his job sucked. I’m trying not to hover, but it’s tough.
(Financially we’ll be fine — he got 20 weeks of severence, plus his 4-week vacation payout — so it’s mostly the emotional fallout. 20 years is a long time at one place, even when that place sucks.)
Paul in KY
@John Cole +0: Also looking like they are missing a stogie in the side of their mouths!
Edit: See Shelley beat me to it.
Paul in KY
@Tenar Darell: Doing figure 8s in deep sand.
Roger Moore
@Ruckus:
I suspect this reflects their ancestral hunting habits. Dogs are descended from pack hunters that tended to go after prey that was larger than them. When they caught something, they had to compete with their pack mates for food; if they didn’t gorge themselves, somebody else would get some of their share. OTOH, cats are solo hunters that tend to catch animals that are much smaller than themselves. When they catch a mouse, they won’t usually get full by eating the whole thing. That gets them used to eating multiple small meals. When they do catch something big enough to last for several meals, they can hide the carcass and keep going back for snacks without having to worry about other cats eating it.
Arm The Homeless
We have had very good luck replacing some treats with frozen peas, sweet or otherwise. Our dog-friend seems to really enjoy them.
Violet
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): Sorry to hear about G’s layoff. It totally sucks to be laid off. Been there. Even if you get the severance and job hunt support, it still sucks. Blow to the ego. Or it can be. Hopefully he can look at it as the great opportunity he was hoping to have but now they’ve paid him for leaving rather than him just quitting.
Paul in KY
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): Just concentrate on the bright side stuff! Best wishes!
Botsplainer
An Open Letter to Hipsters of America:
Diners are totally awesome and we admire your commitment to slower food. There is a problem, however. People have limited time at lunch. Every minute spent in line behind indecisive hipster guys and girls ordering condiments a la carte, changing their minds about sandwich bread and discussing pricing with a cashier is a minute less spent eating. And having each order tended to by whoever’s spin it is at the register is maddening.
Menu items need to be inclusive, people should opt out on condiments. Register needs constant churn. Somebody needs to stand grill, one can handle drinks and expedite.
I watched $40 in lunch orders walk out the door in the 15 minutes I stood in line before I decided to try elsewhere, after seeing the line go stagnant while an employee/new owner struggled to put two go orders together.
Sad part is that this is a reboot of a place just across the street from my office – it’s so wrapped up in hipster slow food wonderfulness that they just can’t grasp the notion that people want to eat and roll on with life.
Ruckus
@Roger Moore:
Good points. Does that explain humans as well? I’m not so sure. Some of us are pack animals and some are not. Some of us are willing to work with others for the good of everyone and others are only willing to work for themselves. In other words there are variations. Even in dogs and cats. But in general I agree.
Nicole
Just coming off six months of the pooch recovering from CCL surgery, yeah, it’s hard to keep them from gaining weight. I second (third, fourth, fifth, whatever) veggies as snacks. Our Staffy mix hates carrots, but likes snap peas and butternut squash and things like that. I still look forward to being able to take her out for morning runs again, though, so she can drop what she put on.
Another thing you can do is put doggy kibble into a Kong or other treat that the dog will have to work at to get it out (you can also freeze it in a block of ice). It’s a good way to reduce the amount of food while upping the amount of time and effort the dog has to put in to get the food. It’s good for their brains as well as their waistlines.
And remember, dogs do not spell “love,” F-O-O-D. That’s a primate thing. And there will never be a drop in a dog’s appetite unless the dog is sick. I sometimes think a dog’s thought process is, “I don’t know what this is. I guess I’d better eat it.”
ThresherK
@Ruckus: I’d love to put on a cat-oriented video full of budgies which gives our two cats* the subliminal message that “You can leave food in the bowl. It will be replenished later.”
(*This was preceded by one of mine. Since 2003 we had one cat gobble everything down like a dog, and since 2006, both. Even when the original was replaced, the new cat did the gobbling thing. Beforehand we had a total of four cats, typically two at a time, which ate like cats.)
Paul in KY
@Botsplainer: That same goes for people out on a normal Mon – Fri, just lazily moseying down the road, not in a hurry to get anywhere…
Ruckus
@Violet:
After I had given my two week notice the CEO told me that he could still fire me. I begged him to do that. He looked at me like I was insane. Told him, I get a weeks pay for every year. That’s ten weeks pay and I could sure use that. And I’ve already decided to go so that’s not an issue. He declined. I don’t think he liked the feeling of having his balls in vise grips, even if the vise grips were metaphorical.
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): Good luck to G finding another job. At least this is a somewhat better time than say 5 yrs ago. People are hiring around here. Things may not be gangbusters but they are looking up.
jl
I think that rotund doggy in the foreground wants lots of walks. I can see it in its face. I know I can.
D58826
OT but latest from BIBI
It’s like when you say it isn’t about the money – it really is about the money. If you have to say the speech isn’t a snub THEN IT IS A SNUB.!
Botsplainer
@Paul in KY:
Oldsters in the bank line during lunchtime, arguing about their own math error (measured in dime increments) on checking account reconciliation.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
Gorgeous doggies. Some folks I know have subbed 1/2-2/3 of kibble with canned green beans. Dogs seem to eat them pretty happily and the caloric difference is substantial.
Heading out to our vet for examination/aspiration of the mass on the (9 year old) baby dog’s left flank. She’s the only dog now, but she was the baby when we brought her home from the shelter, so the baby dog she remains.
@J R in WV: That’s great post op news!
Ruckus
@Paul in KY:
You’ve followed me!
Although mainly I drive normal speeds not nascar speed because of the age/mileage vehicle I own and the fact that purchasing something else is not possible now.
Anonymous At Work
I will further the green beans advice. Canned green beans are low in calories yet dogs eat them up, usually, and regard them like an equal volume of normal food.
Violet
@Botsplainer: The last time I was in an inefficient line, when I finally got to the front of the line I asked what was going on and the poor harried worker told me three people had called in sick that day. I felt really bad for her because people were ticked off.
That doesn’t address the artisanal condiments and slow food issue. They’ll have to figure that out themselves. But sometimes there are things happening that we don’t know about but affect how the business is being run, at least that day.
Paul in KY
@Ruckus: I bet if you had upped the negotiations by crapping on his desk, he’d have fired you!
D58826
We added cooked rice to the basset hounds dinner while reducing the portions of meat and dry dog food when we had to put him on a diet.
Amir Khalid
@D58826:
But were the extra carbs okay for the dog?
Gindy51
@Ruckus: We feed my air fern Swissie Honest Kitchen Kindness and raw fish mixed with a raw egg, coconut and fish oil, and glucoasmine. She was 102 as a puppy and is now a slim, muscular 80 pound 2 year old. She also gets frozen green beans as in between meals, known as the Green Bean Diet. She isn’t keen on carrots but frozen vegetables are her LOVE. She also gets frozen broccoli which does not cause her gas, fresh does.
Gindy51
@Anonymous At Work: Our dog hated canned green beans, she loves frozen ones as they are like ice cream and ice cubes. She eats them up and no BHA or salt added means they are better for her.
dexwood
Pay attention to the sodium content in canned green beans, though, since it can be on the high side.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Violet:
Luckily, he was already seeing a career counselor and working on his exit strategy. This just moved up the timetable. Still, it’s a nasty blow to the ego, so that’s the part he has to deal with first.
He’s staying in touch with some people there because we’re both curious what’s going to happen. He was already doing two jobs because one of his employees retired in December, and we’re pretty sure his now ex-boss doesn’t know how to do what he did. Popcorn time!
Paul in KY
@Botsplainer: Oh man, have had that one happen too!
Paul in KY
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Was wondering about the salt content on canned green beans. Do you rinse them off or does it not matter?
Edit: See Dexwood was up on that already!
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@dexwood: The sodium is indeed the potential issue, and frozen have less.
raven
@Violet: I was in an “inefficient” line at the car rental at Miwday. Mouthy asshole wanted to keep fucking with the woman behind the counter until I asked him nicely to back off. He didn’t, then he wanted to cry “assault” when I threw it back in his face.
Paul in KY
@Ruckus: No problem if you at least go the speed limit (during normal working hours). After that, mose on!
dexwood
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):
One of the reasons we buy them, steam them, and freeze them for future use. These days you can pretty much find green beans in most produce sections where I live year round.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@raven: In other woods, an obnoxious pussy with a big mouth, also known as a loud douchecopter.
beth
My dog loves ice cubes. Thinks they’re the greatest treats in the world. We used to keep her treats in a container on the counter but she knew where they were and would sit in front of them and drool until she got one. Now we keep them hidden in the pantry and she lays down in front of the fridge until she gets an ice cube.
the Conster
@shelley:
This. OH LORDY THIS.
Tom Brady’s FB page is in my feed and he posted a picture of him kissing Gisele. As luscious and beautiful as the two of them are to look at, all I stared at was the grass and trees behind them, wondering how it must feel to be outside again. It’s pathetic.
Ruckus
@Paul in KY:
Oh yeah, at least the speed limit in the pos van. Around here, socal, much of the idea is that you go as fast as you can when you can because it’s for sure that you won’t be moving very fast in not too long a time. I get looks for speed limit to 5 over. Normal speed is 10-15 above the 65 limit with some way over that. Either that or avg 15-20 in stop and go and not much in between. But it’s rare to be stopped up like in Boston or Chicago where you can sit for what seems like hrs.
Drunken hausfrau
Do they swim? Swimming is great for slimming fat dogs.
brettvk
My dogs love carrot treats, to the extent that I, a single person, now buy carrots in 5 pound bags – I can’t start peeling them without being triangulated by three pairs of hopeful puppyeyes. They love apples, oranges and bananas, too, but I’m more restrictive of fruit because I presume that the higher sugar content is not so good for them.
Violet
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): Yeah, I read your post in the thread last week where you posted about it. I was so late to read it that I didn’t comment there. I’m glad he was already mentally down the road to leaving. If he can change his view from “they got rid of me” to “they facilitated me in finding a better job sooner!” then that may help. Not easy, I know.
It will definitely be interesting to see how they cope without him. He shouldn’t be surprised if they call him or even offer him temp or contract work there because they’re lost. He might even want to pre-decide his price should they call him asking for help. His rate is $X/minute for a phone conversation and $X/hour if he has to come in.
Paul in KY
@Ruckus: You live in a very different driving situation than I. Here in Central KY, 2 & 3 lane Interstates are biggest roads you generally encounter. Traffic crawling all day long does not happen around here. I would probably have already had a stroke if I was driving out in your area.
Paul in KY
@Drunken hausfrau: Good idea! Throw their toy out in the surf & then sit back with a beer & watch the fun.
dexwood
@brettvk:
Mine, too, like apple slices and pieces of bananas, but they go nuts over watermelon pieces.
Ruckus
@Paul in KY:
Yes, I lived in central OH for a decade and when people complained about traffic I would just laugh at them. Move to any really big city and see traffic, some worse some better. Overall LA is not as bad as some but there are spots that just suck. Around here it’s not how far something is, it’s how long it takes to get there.
Elizabelle
I watched Them! About Ants! And it was Good!
Leonard Nimoy had a 90 second long part; got more lines than most of the walk on parts.
TS. Top Secret.
PS: what would kill those characters in the long run, if the ants didn’t get them first: all the smoking. Everywhere. Lots of cigarettes and land yacht sized cars.
mtiffany
Adopt a kitten, slather it in bacon grease in front of dog. Release both into yard. Hilarity ensues. j/k
Loneoak
Does the Butterball eat wet food at all? My dog insists on having some mixed in with her kibble, which conveniently makes it a lot easier to hid her pills and supplements in her meals. We got her to lose quite a bit of weight over a few years by swapping in applesauce, oatmeal, cat tuna or The Honest Kitchen dehydrated stuff for one meal a day. She has a sensitive digestive track, but that wasn’t too much variety for her—probably because its all pretty whole, simple food.
brantl
Feed the dog less, feed it separately which means the other dog has sole acces to its own dog dish.
ixnay
@ThresherK: If you have only cats, here’s the solution to the cat food overload (and subsequent regurgitation) problem: Take a canister that once held 7 oz of grated Parmesan cheese – you know the kind I mean, lid has flip tops, 3 holes on one side, larger oval hole on the other. Take away all the bowls of kibble. Put the kibble into the Parmesan canister, open the 3-hole side. Your cats will now have to work for their food, and cannot simply gobble the entire contents.
Sadly, unless someone makes a similar thing out of steel, this will not work for dogs. They will simply chew up the thing. Kongs are good up to a point, but determined dogs can destroy even those. I like the idea of freezing kibble into ice blocks, but not every house has floors that will stand up to that. Oh, you meant for outdoors? Not a great idea here in Maine, in winter.
As far as dogs are concerned: yes, vegetable treats are good. Remember, no grapes, raisins, or onions. Keep in mind who is being trained here: those big, sad, yearning eyes are completely about controlling you (or, if you prefer, “social interaction”), and much less about real hunger.
muddy
When I make stock, I concentrate it and freeze it in cubes. Dogs like this as a meaty flavored pop. I make wet dog food as a by-product of stock as well. I take the bones and cook them down a second time. I usually fish out the cooked carrots and celery and add them back in as well. The crockpot works well for this. I cook it until I can break the bones with my fingers, and then I run the whole mess through the food processor. Looks just like canned dog food, and is basically free. I only eat local flesh, and doing this makes that more affordable. I often point out to the pups that most dogs don’t get to dine on farmer’s market meat.
Tim in SF
1st: make your own dog food. I do https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ddLSVtFLn6o
2nd: feed from stuffed kongs only. And freeze them solid, first.
3rd. Don’t feed your dogs so damn much. They didn’t evolve to be full all the time.
ixnay
@Gindy51: Please be aware that raw egg white contains avidin, which interferes with the absorption of biotin, a B-vitamin. Probably not a huge deal, since egg yolks contain enough biotin to make up the difference, but worth knowing.
SWMBO
@PhoenixRising: Our 13 year old dachshund had pancreatitis. His count (supposed to be under 100) was over 1100 the first test. The vet didn’t think he would make it. She told me that fats were the enemy (fat hurt him too. You could run your finger along his side and it would ripple in pain after eating fat). We found some kibble that was 10% fat (that was the most he could have without pain). The vet suggested making his food. Unsalted chicken broth, white rice (brown rice wasn’t as good for him painwise), ground chicken/turkey breast (93%lean 7% fat cooked and rinsed) just throw it in the crock pot and put it in the fridge. If you want to add veggies to cut back the calories this would work. We also made chicken jello. Boil unsalted chicken broth in a microwave cup and add unflavored gelatin (be careful! For whatever reason, it will want to foam over and burn you) and put it in an ice cube tray to set. He thought he was getting ice cream treats when we’d give him a cube of jello. Another thing we found that is low in fat was microwaved egg. No butter or oil and you can stir it in with kibble. Give a little at a time (half in morning half in evening) and he thinks he’s been given gravy on his food. This presumes that eggs don’t give your pet gas. But it does add flavor without a lot of fat and calories so that you can get them to eat the “good stuff ‘ easier.
Betty Cracker
Thanks, everyone. We’re walking her more to help her get back into shape, and I’ll try the vegetables as snacks. Neither dog would have been described as “skinny” before, but they were in decent shape until the fat doggy got injured awhile back. I think it’s mostly lack of exercise that packed the pounds on her, and I’m mad at myself for not noticing sooner how rotund she was becoming. Oh well. All I can do now is help her lose it…slow and steady.
gogol's wife
@Elizabelle:
It’s a great film. Edmund Gwenn is brilliant.
And when I was a child, I was spooked for weeks by the little girl at the beginning.
ThresherK
@ixnay: Thanks for the tip.
Considering how much cat food I’ve seen gobbled up in ~90 seconds over the last 12 years surprisingly little has been regurgitated.
Currently the younger gobbler has two golf balls in her bowl, a small hack on the knobby-bottomed dog food bowl. Licking the golf ball is normative. They are too big for her to swallow (or otherwise that would have happened by now). And I have seen her in the “I’m staaaaaarrrrrviiiiiiing” mode pick up a golf ball in her mouth and drop it outside the bowl so she could lick the molecules of cat food aroma in the bowl.
Violet
@Betty Cracker: You’re a good dog mom. I bet they’ll enjoy the extra attention and new treats!
Gus
Do your dogs have free access to kibble all day? They should be fed only once or twice a day in carefully measured amounts. That got my chubby mutts down to a healthier weight.
Lefty Lefty
We have a rescue beagle that would eat until dead if allowed. To make him feel fuller we add frozen peas to his kibble (yes still frozen). He hates thawed peas, but rips right through the frozen ones in his bowl. Zero added fat or calories, and it keeps him (somewhat) more sated between meals.
anotherMIldred
When my Newf had to have surgery on her right front carpus (wrist/ankle basically) due to congenital malformation and subsequent terrible arthritis, the ortho surgeon told me I had to get her weight way down, and keep it down while the repair was healing.
I put her on a slightly reduced quantity of good (i.e., no corn) weight control dry kibble, with a tiny little bit of tasty wet stuff added. Did the trick, and she’s kept her svelte ~115-120 lb figure for 3 years.
Kristin
Late, but this did wonders for my dog while she was with us (may she rest in peace): https://www.purinaveterinarydiets.com/pet-food-nutrition/canine/products/om-overweight-management/
Unfortunately, it’s prescription only, and it’s expensive. But, it works!
(Oh, and she lived to be about 15 or 16 [by the shelter’s estimate, she was over 18, but we’re not sure her exact age], and had that food for about 8 years.)
dexwood
@Gus:
There you go. Thanks. I forgot to mention the importance of a measuring cup. An essential tool in the weight loss fight for dogs. When I began using one it really helped me control the amount I was feeding them. Much better than simply eyeballing the quantity in a scoop.
yodecat
@RoonieRoo: You’re given the right prescription.
I spent much of my life with dachshunds, dogs that love food above all else (if you nut ’em). I learned that a perfect diet for them for weight control was beef kidneys and carrots. If they get a trend toward the rotund side of the spectrum, reduce the kidneys and bump up the carrots. It worked very well and no one was whining all the time.
Carol M
Adding canned pumpkin or green beans to their kibble helps to fill them up without the calories. Shouldn’t be any digestive upset.