# Does spaying cause weight gain?



## Blondie (Oct 10, 2009)

I am wondering about my Maggie and her up and coming spay appointment May 25. She will be 5 1/2 months old. I have read many different conerns and opinions on the subject of spaying, at what age, to let them run a heat cycle etc. I'm concerned about afterwards and the overall health of the dog, both behaviorally and physically. I work with a girl who talks about her three year old dog having to wear diapers and such, which I am totally not up for. I absolutely do NOT want a fat golden. My neighbor up the street fed their golden female puppy food for a year and is now ten pounds over weight. I exercise my Maggie routinely and she is on the slim side of things currently. Also wondering does spaying calm them at all? I know that used to be a saying that spaying a female would calm them down.


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## amy22 (May 11, 2008)

I can say from experience that spaying does not calm them down....neither of my goldens calmed down after being spayed...they were puppy like till almost 3!


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## lovealways_jami (Apr 17, 2007)

_"Dogs do not get fat simply by being sterilized. Just like humans, dogs gain weight if they eat too much and exercise too little or if they are genetically programmed to be overweight. The weight gain that people may witness after sterilization is most likely caused by continuing to feed a high energy diet to a dog that is reducing its need for energy as it reaches adult size.
A dog’s basic personality is formed more by environment and genetics than by sex hormones, so sterilization will not change your dog’s basic personality, make your dog sluggish or affect its natural instinct to protect the pack. But it will give you a better behaved pet.
Neutered dogs have less desire to roam, mark territory (like your couch!) and exert dominance over the pack. Spayed dogs no longer experience the hormonal changes during heat cycles that turn your pet into a nervous dog that cries incessantly and attracts unwanted male dogs. Sterilized dogs are more affectionate and less likely to bite, run away, become aggressive, or get into a fight."
_
All of that said, your pup is young. I would wait for her to mature. Sorry for the edit but I missed her age. If you can keep your dog free from being unintentionally bred I would wait. Otherwise, better safe to end up fat for awhile and able to exercise and change diet to fix than her getting fat from being prego and bringing unwanted puppies into the world.

*Note:* Italizised text taken from Cesar Millan's site "Cesar's Way" (http://www.cesarsway.com/tips/basics/spay-and-neuter-myths#ixzz2CXvEy0Zo)


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## AquaClaraCanines (Mar 5, 2006)

They need fewer calories often. I'd also suggest waiting for your dog to mature.


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## Tahnee GR (Aug 26, 2006)

Many spayed bitches are overweight. I think it is a combination of the fact that spaying does change the body and its metabolic needs, plus the fact that most spays are done right at the age where the caloric needs of the dog are slowing down anyway and many owners do not recognize that.

Since I am a breeder, my girls are not spayed until they are older. The ones that live with me are not fat and are not allowed to be fat. I make sure they get the proper amount of food and exercise, so that they do not get fat.

It's not a foregone conclusion that your girl will get fat, you will simply have to watch her, what she eats and how much exercise she gets. It's a little different with males but my friend who neutered her 9 year old, very active boy has noticed a loss of muscle mass since the neutering and, even though his activity level has remained the same, the amount of food he requires has gone down. He is not as muscular as he was, but he is not fat.

I've not found that spaying calms them down-maturity does though


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## Willow52 (Aug 14, 2009)

Blondie said:


> I am wondering about my Maggie and her up and coming spay appointment May 25. She will be 5 1/2 months old. I have read many different conerns and opinions on the subject of spaying, at what age, to let them run a heat cycle etc. I'm concerned about afterwards and the overall health of the dog, both behaviorally and physically. I work with a girl who talks about her three year old dog having to wear diapers and such, which I am totally not up for. I absolutely do NOT want a fat golden. My neighbor up the street fed their golden female puppy food for a year and is now ten pounds over weight. I exercise my Maggie routinely and she is on the slim side of things currently. Also wondering does spaying calm them at all? I know that used to be a saying that spaying a female would calm them down.


Goldens, or any dog (or person) for that matter, get fat because they take in more calories than they burn. Period. If you continue to exercise her and keep her caloric intake down, spayed or not, she will stay slim. 

As for the diapers, yes there can be an incontinence issue due to hormonal imbalance in spayed females. None of my dogs had the problem but my BIL's lab did. It can easily be controlled with meds.

Your neighbors golden didn't get fat because they fed her puppy food for a year. She got fat because they overfed her. I just switched my 9.5 mo.old guy to adult food. I kept him on the LBpuppy formula longer than most because it was lower in calories than the adult. Now that he's on a higher calorie food I cut back his portions.


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## mullietucksmom (Mar 22, 2009)

My boss..thinks his Golden won't hunt as good if she's spayed... Give me a break..he is such a red neck, good old boy...lol


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## Jackson'sMom (Oct 13, 2007)

All of my female dogs have been spayed, and none of them was ever fat. I control how much they eat and make sure they are exercised every day. I won't let them get fat; that's part of my responsibility.


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## jwemt81 (Aug 20, 2008)

It's totally up to you to keep her slim by not overfeeding her and making sure that she continues to get plenty of exercise. Spaying has nothing to do with making a dog obese, but I also think that you should wait until she matures to get her spayed. At least let her go through one heat cycle. With our boys, we don't neuter until at least 18 months. We still have Tucker intact at 22 months, but he'll be getting neutered in a couple of weeks. We wanted to be 100% sure that he is fully mature before he has the procedure.


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## Jackson'sMom (Oct 13, 2007)

I have never let my dogs have one heat cycle before having them spayed. I couldn't stand to live with a bitch in heat.


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## JimS (Jan 2, 2007)

Willow52 said:


> Goldens, or any dog (or person) for that matter, get fat because they take in more calories than they burn. Period. If you continue to exercise her and keep her caloric intake down, spayed or not, she will stay slim.


Common sense would say that's correct. In practice, things aren't always so cut and dry. 

My Lab, Kali's metabolism changed dramatically once she was altered. She was the highest energy dog you can imagine, and the most driven hunting dog I've ever seen. Before her spaying, she ate five cups of dog food a day (If memory serves she was on Euk LB back then or maybe Flint River). Even at that amount, she was always skinny as a rail. 

After spaying, her energy level was the same. Her daily training and exercise were the same. However, she gained weight rapidly. We had to reduce her food consumption to just two cups a day to keep her steady. That gave us a dog who always thought she was starving (yeah, I know...she's a Lab). Green beans to the rescue. 

As she matured, she was actually getting more exercise, yet gained weight on substantially less food. Today, at nearly eleven, she's still very high energy. However, she has several lipomas and we still struggle to keep weight off of her.


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## Bender (Dec 30, 2008)

Feeding them too much causes them to gain. Their calorie needs change as they mature, and as they get older (just like ours). A dog who was thin as a rail will pack on the blubber out of the blue, and it's usually as they mature. In my girl's lines, it's around the 3 year old mark that it happens. 

I just watch their condition and adjust their food as needed, if they start to gain I cut back a bit, if they get too thin I add a bit more. They get different amounts all the time.

Lana


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## Nicole74 (May 30, 2009)

Exercise and keep the food down. Bailey eats 3 cups of food a day and she exercises a bit everyday and Bailey is perfect thin. I personally would never ever keep an intact animal.


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## Blondie (Oct 10, 2009)

I cannot keep her intact, because I signed a contract with the breeder to have her spayed by July. It's bad enough having one bitch in the house having a period, amongst three other boys. LOL. I had read that spaying too early is not good, at less than three months of age. Maggie will be 5 1/2 months old on her spay date. So I will have to take each day as it comes.


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