animallover12 Posted December 1, 2006 Share Posted December 1, 2006 Hi everyone i have an 8 year old male golden retriever named Einstein he weighs 45kgs at the moment, I've just started him on a diet he is getting fed hills science diet light adult about 1 cup in the morning, And at night he gets 2 cups of vip meat. He gets exercised for about an hour a day 30 minutes in the morning before breakfast and 30 minutes in the afternoon before dinner, Some days he also goes to the lake for a swim or walked around down town. Is there anything else i can do. I've only just started this diet 2 days ago and was wandering if it sounds good enough. I want to at least get him down to 38kgs but the most he went down was 40kgs then he gains weight again. Its only been 2 days since his been on the hills science diet light adult and i'm already finding a change in his energy, He has alot more energy and seems to love the hills science diet light adult. Any help on this would be great as i want to do the best for my dogs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bridgie_cat Posted December 1, 2006 Share Posted December 1, 2006 read the back of the food packs for recommended amounts and then feed a bit less to get him losing weight. Im not great on actual amounts but you can bulk out the meal with rice or some vegies. Start a diet and then try it for a week or 2 and see if he loses any weight - if he does and it is a balanced diet - continue... if not you need to reduce the amt of food or replace with something with less calories like the rice etc... Goodluck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scales of Justice Posted December 1, 2006 Share Posted December 1, 2006 3 cups of food a day still sounds like a fairly decent portion for a Golden. My GSD get 3 cups a day and she is quite well covered. My neighbours have a golden on a diet and she gets 1 cup of dry food and about 1 cup of meat with grated carrot to bulk it up and she is still fat. I would have thought perhaps a little less than 3 cups if you are trying to shed kgs. and also think 38kgs is still very heavy for a Golden. I would have thought 35 kg or less. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carla2 Posted December 1, 2006 Share Posted December 1, 2006 HI, Is he actually overweight ? golden retrievers do you have a lot of fur and they are a heavy framed breed, he may not be as overweight as you think, but if you feel he could do with losing some weight, I would cook him up a stew with chicken or fish and fill it with low carbohydrate veges. If you are going to cook up a weeks meals and freeze them into daily portions, allow 750g of protein per meal with liberal amounts of veges, ie. cabbage, broccoli, green beans, celery, tomatoes, capsicum. Continue his exercise, give a marrowbone it will take his mind of his diet. I feel that you are always going to have a problem with weight with your dog, they are not all that different to adults when it comes to ageing, the metabolism slows down, and the weight packs on, if you are in any doubt, see your vet he can judge if the dog is really overweight. Hope this helps.. Carla... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nekhbet Posted December 2, 2006 Share Posted December 2, 2006 I wouldnt be giving him 2 cups of meat. Give him skinned chicken necks, or chicken frames instead and some cooked veges. The meat has fat and not much calcium in it. 45kg for a golden though sounds excessive. Can you feel his ribs at all? How is the covering along his spine? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TashaBailey Posted December 2, 2006 Share Posted December 2, 2006 I have 2 dogs who I have to constantly watch their weight as they blow up overnight if I am not constantly on top of it. I have found a workable solution for me at the moment while I am trying to strip some more weight off is to reduce the meat and the dried food portion and replace what I have reduced with boiled pumpkin that has been mixed with the smallest amount of lean pet mince ( ie pobably 80% pumpkin and 20% mince at most). This fills them up and they love it. I have also put them on a restricted calorie dry food ( available from your vet although I source mine online) as this has even less fat than the light version. Once I have them down to a comfortable weight I will probably switch back to the light food as it should be OK to maintain the weight. Mine at the moment are on about a 50/50 ration of the restricted calorie premium dry food and the Pumpkin/mince mixture. I have had other breeders recommend grated carrot ( have tried this and it does work) but mine seem to like the pumpkin mix better. If your dog is quite overweight then you may need to consider what the fat content is in your VIP meat and consider changing or reducing accordingly. It is probably easier to control calorie intake with the dry food than with prepackaged meat as you dog is probably getting most of its calories/fat from the meat you are feeding rather than the dry food. Also I have found that most times the feeding ratios on the food bags are too high for my dogs given their size and weight. I have reduced by at least a 3rd. Also if you are training your dog and giving treats you need to reduce this amount off the dogs meal. Good luck with the diet. It is very much a trial and error situation as what works for some dogs will not work for others. Michelle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sas Posted December 3, 2006 Share Posted December 3, 2006 (edited) I loved my girl too much in the first year of her arriving.....skinny rescue girl, for some reason I just couldn't help myself spoling her with food....leason learned! She has lost 10 kg's over the last 12 months. She gets mashed veggies only on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday. Other days she gets BARF. In the mash we have a high ratio of pumpkin (good for weight loss) and no carrot as it has a high sugar content. In incorporation with this, free running also did wonders instead of just onlead walking. Edited December 3, 2006 by sas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
animallover12 Posted December 3, 2006 Author Share Posted December 3, 2006 he does get alot of free runing at the park and beach. I was told i should be able to run my hand along his ribs and at least feel 4 ribs without having to push my hand in to feel them. He is overweight his chest area flops around when he runs, And his belly hangs down low in a round kind of way. Heres a picture of him that was taken not long ago. This last picture was last year but he still looks same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldielover Posted December 3, 2006 Share Posted December 3, 2006 He is overweight, but he's also quite a big boy by the look of the pics. I'd ditch the mince and just give him dry and some bones (not anything too fatty) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
animallover12 Posted December 3, 2006 Author Share Posted December 3, 2006 yes he is quite tall his taller then all the golden retrievers in town here. A friend of mine has a male goldie and my guy is much taller then him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sas Posted December 3, 2006 Share Posted December 3, 2006 mmmm 4 ribs? Really? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milkshake Posted December 15, 2006 Share Posted December 15, 2006 i have the same problem with my golden,she only gets fed at night and has two long walks a day but since was spayed it's like nothing will shift it. but i'll try some of the tips from this thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carla2 Posted December 15, 2006 Share Posted December 15, 2006 yes he is quite tall his taller then all the golden retrievers in town here. A friend of mine has a male goldie and my guy is much taller then him. He is a gorgeous dog, and yes he could stand to loose a bit of weight, cut his fat content of his diet down, give more veges, no rice or pasta, and free running if you can, swimming is probably the best exercise for an ageing dog less stress on his bones, muscles, and ligaments. Good luck .. Carla... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
witheverythingiam Posted December 15, 2006 Share Posted December 15, 2006 Our New Years Resolution this year was to get our Lab's weight down from 38KG's - she's now nice & healthy around 30KG's! She looks great, and has muscle tone now, from all the exercise she's done (mostly swimming with a bit of walking & fetch play in the backyard). You need to get the weight off ASAP, or they may develope Arthritis Symptoms like my girl has now - she limps whilst running/walking. We had her on Hills Perscription r/d diet, and it worked AMAZINGLY, and can not speak highly enough of it, and recommend it to all n sundry with fat dogs! -WithEverythingIAm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shihspaniel Posted December 16, 2006 Share Posted December 16, 2006 i too would highly recommend the Hills RD, I had a foster cavalier that was grossly overweight when he arrived and he lost 5 kilos in 3 months! Admittedly we were very strict with him and didn't give into his pleading for treats Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
White Shepherd mom Posted December 16, 2006 Share Posted December 16, 2006 give a marrowbone it will take his mind of his diet. Gees, wish I could try that...does gnawing on a chocolate have the same effect on humans Actually it's time for mother (me) and daughter (Bella) to get serious about some weight loss. We're like the two-fat-ladies when we go for a walk/run! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christina77 Posted December 16, 2006 Share Posted December 16, 2006 HI, Is he actually overweight ? golden retrievers do you have a lot of fur and they are a heavy framed breed, he may not be as overweight as you think, but if you feel he could do with losing some weight, I would cook him up a stew with chicken or fish and fill it with low carbohydrate veges. If you are going to cook up a weeks meals and freeze them into daily portions, allow 750g of protein per meal with liberal amounts of veges, ie. cabbage, broccoli, green beans, celery, tomatoes, capsicum. Continue his exercise, give a marrowbone it will take his mind of his diet. I feel that you are always going to have a problem with weight with your dog, they are not all that different to adults when it comes to ageing, the metabolism slows down, and the weight packs on, if you are in any doubt, see your vet he can judge if the dog is really overweight. Hope this helps.. Carla... Forgive me if I'm wrong and if so maybe someone can tell me why BUT I thought Tomatoes , Capsicum and the Cabbage type family of vegies are not good for dogs ? I've always been told not to give my dog tomatoes or brocoli/cauliflower/cabage . My dog also needs to loose about 2 kg so I'm following this thread to get ideas etc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rachiie Posted December 16, 2006 Share Posted December 16, 2006 (edited) A couple of years ago, my ex and I inherited a VERY overweight English Springer Spaniel. Her name is Summer and she weighed 44kg - she was supposed to be about 20kg. We put her straight on a diet. Hills Science Diet Adult Light. She got half a cup in the morning and half a cup at night with one or two chicken necks. After about a year of this she was down to 24kg, and she was a much happier and energetic dog.. especially considering she was 14 at the time! A link to the thread I made about her is here... with before and after shots. http://forums.dogzonline.com.au/index.php?...c=48197&hl= Edited December 16, 2006 by rachiie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milkshake Posted December 17, 2006 Share Posted December 17, 2006 We had her on Hills Perscription r/d diet, and it worked AMAZINGLY, and can not speak highly enough of it, and recommend it to all n sundry with fat dogs! is that stuff easy to find? get it at vets? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
witheverythingiam Posted December 17, 2006 Share Posted December 17, 2006 We had her on Hills Perscription r/d diet, and it worked AMAZINGLY, and can not speak highly enough of it, and recommend it to all n sundry with fat dogs! is that stuff easy to find? get it at vets? Yes it's available at all vets - If they don't have it in stock, they can order it in for you. -WithEverythingIAm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now