# diet food recommendations?



## GoldenJoyx'stwo (Feb 25, 2007)

I just use the 10/1 formula for helping dogs to lose weight. With that you can feed any food you'd like. It is sometimes too low for some dogs, but you need to adjust if you see the dog is losing too quickly. This formula worked very well for Tucker. We wanted him to weigh 73 pounds, so we feed him 730 calories. We adjust as needed. He's kept off the nearly 20 pounds lost for 5 years now.

We did feed him Canidae Plantium, but I now give him Eagle Pack Holistic Anchovy. I think the calories are pretty low and it's not a weight maintence food.

Our Tucker before and after. He came to us overweight.


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## Maggies mom (Jan 6, 2006)

My dogs have never been really over weight , but put on 5 pounds in the winter..I just cut there food back and add 1/2 cups of green beans to there meals


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## Cam's Mom (Apr 13, 2007)

How much does she weigh...that might give an indication of how much she should eat. If she's a small Golden perhaps even 2 cups is too much.

Over weight, even on reduced food, then shedding, even at her young age I'd recommend getting her thyroid tested. At a year old is a good start for a first test anyway.


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## Jo Ellen (Feb 25, 2007)

I do what Kimm does also. It's a great guide when you have a weight issue. I look for the quality foods that are lowest in calories so she can still get a decent amount of food. I have found Wellness CORE Reduced Fat works very well for Daisy It's grain free and she can have 2 cups/day.

I want to really encourage you to get this under control now. Too much weight can cause so many problems later on. Daisy was overweight for about 2 years before I could get her weight to where it needed to be. Unfortunately, by then she ruptured one of her ACL's and needed surgery. A year and a half later her other ACL ruptured and she needed surgery yet again, and this time she almost died from the anesthesia. We've been dealing with ACL issues for over 2 years now and it's so hard, I'm sure you can imagine.

The Hills food isn't going to hurt her in the short term. I put Daisy on that when she needed her ACL surgery because we needed to get the weight off quick and I couldn't mess around trying to figure out what works. But I wouldn't want to feed that food permanently.

How overweight is she and what do you want her to weigh? 

By the way, Wellness CORE Reduced Fat is very high in protein, I think it's like 33%.


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

Eagle Pack Holistic line has a moderate amount of calories.... around 350/cup. When we were reducing our girls, they got 1 1/2 cups/ day, plus about 150 cals of tripe/supps. Also, Wellness Core Reduced Fat has around 350 cals also. Many foods are well over 400 calories, so make sure you know the calories they are ingesting ...... and that it is a quality food. Reduced calories and increased exercise should help her shed the extra weight. Be sure to be aware of any treats thruout the day also. I used a share of their allotted food for any treats.


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## Jackson'sMom (Oct 13, 2007)

You can always add some unsalted green beans to help fill her up with few calories, and reduce her dog food consumption. My Mila is on Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover adult lite formula, as she has a chronic weight problem. Between that and a very low dose of thyroid medication, she is slowly losing some weight and actually has a waist again.


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## Ljilly28 (Jan 22, 2008)

Kimm said:


> I just use the 10/1 formula for helping dogs to lose weight. With that you can feed any food you'd like. It is sometimes too low for some dogs, but you need to adjust if you see the dog is losing too quickly. This formula worked very well for Tucker. We wanted him to weigh 73 pounds, so we feed him 730 calories. We adjust as needed. He's kept off the nearly 20 pounds lost for 5 years now.
> 
> We did feed him Canidae Plantium, but I now give him Eagle Pack Holistic Anchovy. I think the calories are pretty low and it's not a weight maintence food.
> 
> Wow-Nice work Kimm! I wish MY before and after photos were that dramatic. He looks great. I think Eagle Pack and Innova Large Breed both have relatively few calories.


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## marshab1 (Aug 28, 2006)

Wellness Core Reduced fat. We have been using this for Tinkerbell since May 2008. She gets 2 cups a day and some veggies. And is completely satisfied. She gets very little excercise so if Maggie is active you might need to give a bit more.

Tinkerbell has dropped from 82 pounds in April 2008 to just this week I took her in for a weigh in and she is 66 pounds.


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## GoldenJoyx'stwo (Feb 25, 2007)

Wow! Great job Marsha!


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## Angel Rose (Apr 14, 2008)

*Maggie weighs 83 lbs*

Kimm those before/after photos are incredible. I hope to be able to get Maggie to that point. 
Gosh I love this forum. You've all given me some great feedback. I'll let you know what we decide regarding the choice of diet food and keep you informed of how Maggie is doing. After seeing your responses, I want to get Maggie off of the HIll's. It sounds like there are better choices
We've also found an informal doggie play group to get her more outdoor exercise. 

PS Some of you asked how much Maggie weighs.
She weighs 83 pounds at 11 months. She is Nautilus golden, bred from show lines, so she is really big boned. But not very tall. 
Thanks again for your feedback. Any other suggestions, I'm listening.


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## Goldilocks (Jun 3, 2007)

I've used Wellness Large Breed Super5Mix in the past with Pippa. It's low calories at 336 calories per cup and 25% protein. She lost a couple pounds on it and I was very happy with her energy level. Wellness say they realize that obesity is a challenge for larger breeds and so designed the food lower in calories yet with good protein sources to maintain muscle. 
http://www.wellnesspetfood.com/dog_wellness_dry_super5mix_adult_health.html


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## Angel Rose (Apr 14, 2008)

Thank you Cam. You mentioned getting Maggie's thyroid tested, given that she is overweight and shedding like crazy. Is it abnormal for a Golden to shed so much in the winter months? I thought that she was just 'blowing her coat'. Although I'm not sure what exactly that means or what the norm is for that. Could you elaborate?


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## marshab1 (Aug 28, 2006)

Because the shedding started when you switched foods I'd be thinking it was food related and wouldn't worry about anything else until after I had tried another food.


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## GoldenOwner12 (Jun 18, 2008)

Einstein my 10 year old male weighs in at 88 pounds he is a large framed dog he looks fat but you can feel his ribs and a bit of his back bone. Shelley weighed in at 57.2 pounds couple of months ago don't know if she still weighs that or more. Both my dogs get supercoat working dog which has 26% protein 14% fat and 3.5% fibre in it. They get about 1 cup of that and 2 big tablespoons of raw meat. They get bones 2 times a week. And for a treat every so often they get beef and vegetable faloured bones. They get walked 1 and half to 2 hours a day there only onlead till we get where we are going then let off. So most of there exercise is off lead runing or swimming or both. My guys mainly get off lead swimming and runing but if weather isn't good for swimming they go to the oval for toy chasing and chase the human games. Here's what my 2 look like.
Einstein








Shelley


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## GoldenOwner12 (Jun 18, 2008)

Heres a bit better one of Shelley


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## Angel Rose (Apr 14, 2008)

Einstein and Shelly are gorgeous! It sounds like y ou are taking wonderful care of them. Your investment is paying off though..they are really healthy looking guys.


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## GoldenJoyx'stwo (Feb 25, 2007)

Well, Tucker is a Broadway/Pebwin Golden, which includes Nautilus I believe. I wonder if they are sometimes prone to gaining weight easily? I think Mulder was heavier, but not fat. I think I read an article which said he was around 80 pounds. I have that article somewhere. Nautilus is on his Mom's side...


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## TonyRay (Feb 5, 2008)

We had our girls on Canidae Platinum. 330 calories.

2cups each per day and they lost around 20 pounds combined......

we now have them on Taste of the Wild.. 375 calories per cup.


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## pb1221 (Nov 21, 2006)

If I'm reading this correctly then feeding the amount of calories per cup to get to the desired weight would mean that if I feed less than 2 cups per day of Cal Nat Lamb and Rice I could get Chauncey down to about 68 lbs.  I have been giving him one cup in the am and one in the pm and he is not loosing any weight. He is 72 lbs so about 4 lbs overweight. He already acts like he is starving so I feel really guilty about how little food I am feeding him. And he has started to try and eat his poop which he has never done before. Cal Nat has 430 calories per cup so I guess I could try switching to Wellness Reduced Fat-he has such trouble changing foods though.


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

pb1221 said:


> If I'm reading this correctly then feeding the amount of calories per cup to get to the desired weight would mean that if I feed less than 2 cups per day of Cal Nat Lamb and Rice I could get Chauncey down to about 68 lbs. I have been giving him one cup in the am and one in the pm and he is not loosing any weight. He is 72 lbs so about 4 lbs overweight. He already acts like he is starving so I feel really guilty about how little food I am feeding him. And he has started to try and eat his poop which he has never done before. Cal Nat has 430 calories per cup so I guess I could try switching to Wellness Reduced Fat-he has such trouble changing foods though.


To help him feel full, add green beans ( you can use fresh, frozen or even canned.... just make sure there is no sodium or salt added.). I'd start out with perhaps reducing his food by 1/4 c and adding that amount of gr beans. Also, as others have said, watch treats and up the exercise some. BTW, depending on how he does on this small switch, if needed you could up the gr beans to 1/2 c and reduce the food accordingly.


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## pb1221 (Nov 21, 2006)

Thank you. I will definitely try that tonight. I already have the green beans so that's a good start. I won't have to go out in this sub-zero weather today!


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## Ljilly28 (Jan 22, 2008)

Angel Rose said:


> Kimm those before/after photos are incredible. I hope to be able to get Maggie to that point.
> Gosh I love this forum. You've all given me some great feedback. I'll let you know what we decide regarding the choice of diet food and keep you informed of how Maggie is doing. After seeing your responses, I want to get Maggie off of the HIll's. It sounds like there are better choices
> We've also found an informal doggie play group to get her more outdoor exercise.
> 
> ...


Who are Maggie's parents? Those Nautilus coats just make you want to run your finger through and snuggle! My Tally is Striker/ Casanova/ Flirt.


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## Angel Rose (Apr 14, 2008)

Yes, the Nautilus line have beautiful coats...I can confirm that because Maggie's coat is all over my rugs right n ow. I think she's blowing her coat.
And I love those blocky Nautilus heads. To answer your question, Maggie's nautilus sire was Diamond Big as the Ritz. Her 'grandmom' was Flirt. So I guess that makes Tally and Maggie distant cousins. Tally is gorgeous.


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## GoldenJoyx'stwo (Feb 25, 2007)

When you get right down to it, most of our pups are related! LOL


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