# Overweight Golden



## CAROLINA MOM (May 12, 2009)

Welcome to the forum. 

You may want to have her thyroid checked.... 

I've supplemented my girl with green beans several times throughout the years when she's gotten too heavy. I reduced her food down to 3/4 cup and added 1/4 cup of green beans at each feeding. She ate a total of one cup twice a day. 

How much are you feeding your girl? Take a look at the calories each cup contains of the BB you're feeding. I used either fresh, frozen, or canned, you want to be sure to use green beans that do not have any salt in them. The green beans act as a filler, it will fill her up. 

I am lucky, both of my goldens love fresh fruits and veggies, I give them basically whatever is in season. 

Try the green bean diet, increase the amount of exercise she gets-swimming, walking, running her-I play ball with my boy for about 20 minutes twice a day. I have a good size yard, so he gets a lot of running in. 

I would also have her thyroid checked first to make sure that is not the problem or any other medical issue is causing the weight gain.


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## Max's Dad (Apr 23, 2012)

A few years ago, Max was overweight. We learned that the best way to diet is to count calories. A good rule of thumb is 10 calories per pound of goal weight per day. Thus, if your dog has a goal weight of 70 pounds, he should be fed 700 calories per day. If your dog food is 350 calories per cup, feed him 2 cups per day. 

Using this formula, Max lost 23 pounds over about 8 months.


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## Altairss (Sep 7, 2012)

How much are you feeding her? Is she also getting treats as well? How much exercise. Some foods are very high calorie and can pack on pounds if it more then their body can reasonably use.


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## Valeryjmurguia (Feb 16, 2016)

I feed her once a day about 3 1/2 -4 cups. She stays home with my parents so they baby her alot and do give her alot of chicken as treats and dog jerky.
I excercise her daily. She walks daily/ runs. and every saturday she swims.


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## Altairss (Sep 7, 2012)

Okay that food is 378 Kcals/cup so that's a lot of food calories. It better to feed if you can feed two smaller meals a day. I would start by feeding about a 1 1/2 cups of food in the morning and a 1 1/2 cups in the afternoon. Get your parents to knock out the treats and give baby carrots in stead or give them a portion of her food for them to give as small treats. After a week or so you can take the food down another half cup a day and see how she goes. It best if they slowly and steadily loose the weight. Except during really heavy training I have never fed more then two cups a day for any of my adults but some dogs burn more calories.

So cut back as noted then go for there. Those big eyes sucker people in all the time but being over weight can cause a whole bunch of problems that can effect her long term. A happy golden is not a fat one but a healthy one  If you get down to 2 to 2 1/2 cups a day and she is not loosing weight then have the thyroid checked but with that much calories plus treats its no surprise she is packing on the pounds.


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## mylissyk (Feb 25, 2007)

Valeryjmurguia said:


> I feed her once a day about 3 1/2 -4 cups. She stays home with my parents so they baby her alot and do give her alot of chicken as treats and dog jerky.
> I excercise her daily. She walks daily/ runs. and every saturday she swims.


4 cups per day is about TWICE the amount of food an average Golden Retriever needs to eat. Just cut her back to no more than 2.5 cups a day and she will lose weight. If you think she is feeling hungry with the reduced volume, add about 1/2 a cup of unsalted green beans to her meal. Your parents need to stop giving her extra food during the day, but if they persist you need to cut even more food out of her meal.

Change her to 2 meals per day. Feeding only one time a day fills her belly too full at one time, and takes longer to digest. Feeding her twice a day will help increase her metabolism and that will also help her lose weight.

Keep in mind, dog food manufacturers want you to buy more food more often, so the amount of food they put in the instructions on the bag are always much more than a dog needs per day.


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## Max's Dad (Apr 23, 2012)

I would add the you need to watch the treats. We were giving Max Costco Kirkland Lamb/Rice dog biscuits. He was getting 4 or 5 per day, and it turned out each one was about 125 calories. Also, when feeding kibble, be sure to measure accurately. We have our measuring cup marked clearly at 1.5 cups. When we put Max on his diet, we switched to Blue Buffalo Salmon Biscuits, which are only 15 calories each.


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## Golden Pond (Nov 11, 2015)

Your girl is getting about twice the food an average adult Golden needs to be lean and healthy. Cut her back and divide the food into two meals. No dog should have four cups of food at one sitting....can increase chances of bloat! By feeding her twice she will have two meals to look forward to and keep her metabolism chugging all day. Add a tablespoon of no fat Greek yogurt daily...no salt green beans or cooked carrots. Canned pumpkin is low cal...mine love butternut squash! For treats...no salt small pretzels or no salt saltines are good substitutes for calorie rich dog treats. Add some exercise and your girl will soon be slim and trim! The extra weight causes stress on her joints and over all well being. Hard when they give you the mounful sad eyes but it is for her best interest and longevity! You can also cut calories by going to a "light" formula dog kibble. They are generally about twenty per cent less in calories!


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## jennretz (Jul 24, 2013)

Max's Dad said:


> A few years ago, Max was overweight. We learned that the best way to diet is to count calories. A good rule of thumb is 10 calories per pound of goal weight per day. Thus, if your dog has a goal weight of 70 pounds, he should be fed 700 calories per day. If your dog food is 350 calories per cup, feed him 2 cups per day.
> 
> Using this formula, Max lost 23 pounds over about 8 months.


This is exactly right! That's how I finally got Duke to lose weight (and Charlie too). Supplement with carrots, canned pumpkin and green beans. One call out on the green bean is to make sure that if they are fresh you have cooked them. I read on the forum in another thread that raw green beans can be toxic. I followed up with my vet to confirm and she agreed. Just boil them like you would to eat them and then freeze them and supplement meals or treats with them. Frozen ones are fine out of the bag because they are blanched prior to freezing.


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## Alaska7133 (May 26, 2011)

Canned unsalted green beans are easy to add to your dog's diet. 1/2 can per day. It fills them up. 

It's the treats that really can get them overweight also. Can your parents switch to giving carrots or fresh green beans as a treat? Lots of dogs love vegies. They are low calorie and easy to digest.

Now if I could only take some of my own advise for myself...


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