# Green bean question



## Noey (Feb 26, 2009)

My vet said green beans are fine. 
I'm sure you don't over feed as they will eat what you give.

We freeze ours and hand them out like treats.


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## Elisabeth Kazup (Aug 23, 2008)

She likes them frozen. I usually give her one when I'm putting them in her bowl to thaw. I was afraid, though, that they might be bad for her like ice cubes. I think those can cause bloat.


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## fostermom (Sep 6, 2007)

Maybe you could cut back on her breakfast to 3/4 cup of food and add 1/2 of the green beans in the morning and then give her 1 1/4 cup of food and the rest of the green beans in the evening? Do you know how many calories are in the reduced calorie food you are feeding?


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## Elisabeth Kazup (Aug 23, 2008)

305 calories per cup. And yes, I can mix & match the bean/food combo in any way.


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## Penny & Maggie's Mom (Oct 4, 2007)

305 is REALLY low cal, so I would think letting her have an additional cup ON OCCASION won't hurt. I know when the girls were reducing, they lost weight at a slow gradual pace on 700 cals of food/day plus green beans. If she is losing at a moderate pace, and you feel is getting enough grams of protein to be healthy, then all is well. BTW, I think most of these golden babies could eat until they were gorged and still act starved. lol


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## Elisabeth Kazup (Aug 23, 2008)

Her weight problem didn't come from eating too much. A couple of years ago I switched her to Candidae, not realising that it was much higher in calories the the Premium Edge she had been on. She gained nearly 20 pounds in a year. We are working to get that 20 pounds off. She has about 5 to go.

Before that she was free fed. Anytime we noticed the bowl was empty we'd fill it up. She did just fine with that. I had to go mess things up by giving her what I THOUGHT was a better food.:doh::doh::doh:


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## fostermom (Sep 6, 2007)

I just wonder if she is hungrier in the evening since she has been somewhat active during the day. You may even want to feed her 3/4 cup in the morning with green beans and boost her up to 1 1/2 cups in the afternoon with green beans. 305 calories is really low, but I don't know what weight you are shooting for.


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## Elisabeth Kazup (Aug 23, 2008)

She's at 83 pounds. The vet would like to see her at 75-78 pounds. And it's quite possible that she does work up an appetite during the day. I always assumed she needed a boost in the morning. Maybe a little morning 'nudge' will suit her better.


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## fostermom (Sep 6, 2007)

I have always heard that if you are trying to take weight off from a dog, you should feed them the amount they should get at the weight you want them to be. In other words, Penny could probably still lose weight at 750-780 calories per day. Right now she is only getting 608 per day. I would bump her up a bit on the amount she is getting. That means she could possible have a 1/2 cup more food each day than she is getting. I would feed that additional amount in the evenings since that seems to be her hungry time.


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## RedDogs (Jan 30, 2010)

The other thing you can do is instead of feeding her from a bowl...feed all meals from food toys or through training. (..anyone tired of hearing this yet?)

For almost all dogs, there is -no- reason to use a food bowl. Feeding through toys will keep her occupied longer and provide more excitement and activity in her day. Tug a jug, kibble kibble, buster cube, and linkables are some options, there are quite a few available.


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## Elisabeth Kazup (Aug 23, 2008)

One more question, Fostermom. Does the rate at which they eat indicate hunger. I ask because we could fill her bowl and she wouldn't eat it all at once. Usually she ate nothing during the day but ate it all during the night. So when she goes right to her bowl and eats it up, does that mean she was really hungry? The vet said any dog that DOESN'T do that is being overfed. I think he's in the group that believes all dogs should be hungry all the time. That is their natural state in the wild because they don't always have a kill to eat from. That group believes that ribby dogs are closer to 'natural' dogs.



fostermom said:


> I have always heard that if you are trying to take weight off from a dog, you should feed them the amount they should get at the weight you want them to be. In other words, Penny could probably still lose weight at 750-780 calories per day. Right now she is only getting 608 per day. I would bump her up a bit on the amount she is getting. That means she could possible have a 1/2 cup more food each day than she is getting. I would feed that additional amount in the evenings since that seems to be her hungry time.


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## Penny & Maggie's Mom (Oct 4, 2007)

I think it's just an individual difference. I think our crew would be gobbling food as long as there was aything in the bowl, hunger or not.


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## fostermom (Sep 6, 2007)

A lot of people only feed once a day. If you want to try putting all of her food down at one time and see if she eats it all, you could try that. Then you would be "free feeding" with restrictions. She only gets the set amount each day, but if she doesn't eat it up at breakfast, she can snack on it all day long. I don't really have a problem with free feeding a single dog as long as you monitor the total amount for the day. Obviously I can't do that here with three dogs.

My dogs eat their food in a matter of less than 60 seconds. Each and every meal. None of them are overweight and we do give them treats each evening, and during the day if we have some activity that we might need to use treats for (training classes or counter conditioning). I also think that dogs that have more than one in the household tend to gobble their food down.

Any time my mom's dog stays with us, he eats his food right up. But when he's at home, he might eat a bit of his breakfast, he might not. He doesn't have any competition so he just plain doesn't eat unless he's really hungry.


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## Elisabeth Kazup (Aug 23, 2008)

Thanks for all your help, everyone. Today we walked for a mile...yay I made it a mile! When we got home at 1:30 I gave her about 3/4 cup. She ate it right down then was content until biscuit time at 5. I could swear she has a clock in her tummy. Then dinner at 6.

So I think I will try a mid-day meal/snack and see how she does.


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## GoldenOwner12 (Jun 18, 2008)

Shelley is on a diet too hehe, My girl weighs 88 pounds and isn't even 2 years old yet. I feel like a bad mum, But then my mum has to stop feeding Shelley table scraps etc. Shelley is only getting 1 cup of biscuits and 1 cup of beans a day, I forget how much calories Shelleys food is. I do remeber its 17% protein 6.5% fat. Right now i'm starting the exercise with Shelley in the morning she gets 1 hour maybe more onlead and in the afternoon 40 minutes offlead exercise. As Shelley and I lose more weight and get more active walks will be uped a bit more.


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## BayBeams (Jan 3, 2010)

Just curious...how many daily calories is recommended for a dog to maintain their weight.


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## fostermom (Sep 6, 2007)

It's normally 10 calories per pound of body weight, I believe. So a 70 lbs dog should be getting 700 calories. But it also depends on their activity level. My dogs are active and my 60 lbs golden and my 70 lbs lab mix each get about 770 calories a day and my 75 lbs golden gets just over 1000 calories per day.

I also think it has to do with the protein and fat levels in the food, too. That helps in how they convert the calories.


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## Penny & Maggie's Mom (Oct 4, 2007)

fostermom said:


> It's normally 10 calories per pound of body weight, I believe. So a 70 lbs dog should be getting 700 calories. But it also depends on their activity level. My dogs are active and my 60 lbs golden and my 70 lbs lab mix each get about 770 calories a day and my 75 lbs golden gets just over 1000 calories per day.
> 
> I also think it has to do with the protein and fat levels in the food, too. That helps in how they convert the calories.


The 10 cals/ pound of desired weight is for weight loss. Just like with humans, calorie requirements for maintenance vary by individual and activity level. Now that the girls are at a good weight, they need around 1000 cals/day.


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## fostermom (Sep 6, 2007)

Penny & Maggie's Mom said:


> The 10 cals/ pound of desired weight is for weight loss. Just like with humans, calorie requirements for maintenance vary by individual and activity level. Now that the girls are at a good weight, they need around 1000 cals/day.


Thanks for clearing that up. I thought you wanted to feed 10 calories per lb of body weight of the weight you wanted them to weigh. So you would feed an 80 lbs dog 700 calories if you wanted them to weigh 70 lbs. I misunderstood.


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## Penny & Maggie's Mom (Oct 4, 2007)

fostermom said:


> Thanks for clearing that up. I thought you wanted to feed 10 calories per lb of body weight of the weight you wanted them to weigh. So you would feed an 80 lbs dog 700 calories if you wanted them to weigh 70 lbs. I misunderstood.


 
You're right, but once they're at a good weight they need more. 10 cals/lb of ideal weight for weight loss, not maintenance.


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## fostermom (Sep 6, 2007)

Penny & Maggie's Mom said:


> You're right, but once they're at a good weight they need more. 10 cals/lb of ideal weight for weight loss, not maintenance.


I know for sure my dogs couldn't get by on 10 cals per lb. LOL


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## Elisabeth Kazup (Aug 23, 2008)

This is an interesting/informative thread. I'm glad I asked!


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## Elisabeth Kazup (Aug 23, 2008)

This probably accounts for why Penny could free feed before the Candidae when she was at a healthy weight. I'm sure dogs are like people in that the more they gain, the more sluggish they become, the more they gain, etc. etc. etc. 

I'm so happy it's getting a bit warmer now. It's amazing how nice 37 and sun felt yesterday. We'll be able to walk outside more. There are still some snow-covered sidewalks making it necessary to walk in the street (which I don't like) but they say the snow will be mostly gone in a few days.



Penny & Maggie's Mom said:


> You're right, but once they're at a good weight they need more. 10 cals/lb of ideal weight for weight loss, not maintenance.


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## Garfield (Apr 7, 2009)

While the 10cal/lb approach may be effective for weight loss in terms of averages, I'd urge caution on it as a blanket rule as each dog and food can vary greatly depending on the source of the calories (protein v fat v carbs) and the digestability of each as well as the metabolism and activity level of the dog.

Also, if you find you're _really_ having to skimp on the kibble for anything more than immediate short term (> 2-3 months), you may want to find a more suitable food to avoid risk of the dog becoming deficient in essential nutrients (I've also known people to use vitamin supplements in such cases). Also you want to be careful with major supplementing of other foods - if done regularly in signficant quantity, it can effect calcium/phos ratios and pH of the urine over time (which is not to say supplements can't be made, just that they should be done in proper balance which requires owners to be mindful of the nutrition of what they are feeding/supplementing).


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