poodlefan Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 The best way to judge whether your dog is the right weight is to use your hands, not the scales. If you can't feel his/her ribs with the flat of your hand without applying pressure, your dog is overweight. With CCL rupture, excess weight is a significant factor so getting and keeping the weight off will help recovery and may prevent the other leg from going. DOL has has some real doggy weight watcher successes - good luck with it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cazxxz Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 I was just wondering about the quantity but I guess I will work that out eventually``Debbie~~ You could just reduce the amount of food heaps until you have an estimate of what she should weigh, and switch over to BARF. Then, as I said above, feed her 0.015 times her ideal weight (that's 1.5%). This amount should include the mass of a raw meaty bone daily. Of course, if your dog ends up matching poodlefan's description of a dog at correct weight before reaching what you estimated her ideal weight to be, you would just increase her food gradually until she maintains her correct weight. Please tell me if this doesn't make sense Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poodlefan Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 As I said above, if you want the weight off fast, halve the normal food intake. You can make up some of the bulk with boiled or juiced pumpkin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nillasdad Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 (edited) do you feed kibble as well? <groan> BARF= Bone And Raw Food or Biologically Appropriate Raw Food Whilst it's great that you're thinking of feeding BARF and asking for advise here, you really need to go out and buy the books and read up about. There is a lot more to it than throwing the dog a bone and running vegies through a blender. Btw, the blender will not work. Dogs are incapable of breaking down the vegies, the juicer will break them down at cell level, once that's done the dogs can make use of them. Edited January 31, 2008 by seagate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cazxxz Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 Btw, the blender will not work. Dogs are incapable of breaking down the vegies, the juicer will break them down at cell level, once that's done the dogs can make use of them. I think most blenders are fine for BARF, as long as you make sure you scrape the sides down regularly if required, and keep the motor running until it's a paste. I use the juicer for some things, but often have to put greens in the blender anyway. My regular Breville isn't close to perfect so I can't use it on its own. If I only used the blender, I'd probably feed the mix at least partially frozen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nillasdad Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 (edited) I think most blenders are fine for BARF... Maybe so, but your dogs will get more out of the vegies if they're run through the juicer, anything that's not broken down enough goes straight through. Edited January 31, 2008 by seagate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackdoggette Posted February 4, 2008 Share Posted February 4, 2008 As I said above, if you want the weight off fast, halve the normal food intake. You can make up some of the bulk with boiled or juiced pumpkin. Excellent - exactly what I have been wondering about.... Well its a few days down the track and Sally is mobile again - very quiet and not running. Just trots around. We have fenced in the yard with chicken wire so she only has a small area to be in. Lucy HATES IT Vet checked her on Saturday and said all was going well. She goes back again this Friday. My hubby took her on Saturday and forgot to ask how much weight she needed to lose. Not to worry I will check on Friday. Yes, meanwhile I have reduced her intake by half and am adding some ground veges and stuff. Meanwhile I have been doing lots of reading on Net and fully appreciate what everyone has said on this thread - basically that there is MUCH more to it than just brisket bones and a couple of other things.... I have kept this thread bookmarked - so will let you all know how things go with the cruciate ligament and the diet. Thank you all EVER so much.................. :D Debbie, Sally and Lucy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackdoggette Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 As I said above, if you want the weight off fast, halve the normal food intake. You can make up some of the bulk with boiled or juiced pumpkin. Excellent - exactly what I have been wondering about.... Well its a few days down the track and Sally is mobile again - very quiet and not running. Just trots around. We have fenced in the yard with chicken wire so she only has a small area to be in. Lucy HATES IT :D Vet checked her on Saturday and said all was going well. She goes back again this Friday. My hubby took her on Saturday and forgot to ask how much weight she needed to lose. Not to worry I will check on Friday. Yes, meanwhile I have reduced her intake by half and am adding some ground veges and stuff. Meanwhile I have been doing lots of reading on Net and fully appreciate what everyone has said on this thread - basically that there is MUCH more to it than just brisket bones and a couple of other things.... I have kept this thread bookmarked - so will let you all know how things go with the cruciate ligament and the diet. Thank you all EVER so much.................. :D Debbie, Sally ;) and Lucy As promised an update!!! Since I originally posted Sally has lost .7kg!! The mainly raw diet continues..... I have a chopper and in varying mixes I add carrot, pumpkin, beetroot, beans, a little low-fat natural yoghurt, a little olive oil, egg, swede zucchini. No fruit as yet... So basically,depending on what I have in fridge - I do a mix. Lasts Sally and Lucy probably 4 days. I add some REALLY lean mince (beef at the moment). I will venture into kangaroo (just noticed our supermarket sells it minus any preservatives). The veggie mix ends up being MOSTLY vegies with a little mince through it. Every now and then I give them a chicken wing each and thats it. Also every now and then I give them a small tin of sardines between them and just the vegies. Questions: Shredded coconut? Thoughts on that? They love it - but realise it might be too fattening at the moment while Sally is dieting?? Olive oil ok? :D I don't add much of that - just a trickle really... Lucy the Cav's coat is as SHINY as!! Sally is full of beans - they both are :D As someone suggested I asked the Vet how much weight he wanted Sally to lose. He wouldn't give me a kg amount. Just said he didn't want to feel all the 'fat' padding around her ribs!! He did say that he only wanted her to have a palmful of food per day. For Lucy he said slightly less. (Lucy is a two year old Cav but is tiny as she was the litter 'runt'.) Oh yes - almost forgot!! Sally finally got the bandage off her leg last Thursday. The wound is healing beautifully. Vet is very pleased but wants her to stay confined for another month. (We had to 'fence' her in out back with chicken wire etc. He doesn't want her running around like a mad thing. Well yes - this all went well in the first couple of weeks while she was recovering - but now she has all this new-found energy she HATES being in jail!! :D As before I am ever so grateful to all of you and please do not hesitate to give me new ideas or point me in the direction of other threads on this forum where I might get ideas.... Debbie, Sally :D and Lucy :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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