Personally, i don't think it's too drastic though the dog will be uncomfortable at first. Just like you would be if all of a sudden your caloric intake was dropped. Keep in mind that this dogs need to lose weight is very important to his quality of life and that should make it easier. Vets will also tell you that a helpful food is canned pumpkin (pure pumpkin not the pie filling) is a good dieting aid. I've never had a dog that didn't love it.

I had to do this to a dog of mine. He was getting heavy due to age and overfeeding. I dropped his food way back and made sure he had no access to food. I'm sure he suffered some at first but now he's much thinner and will actually skip dry kibble sometimes if he accidentally finds some.

One great benefit to this was that he had a rear leg limp and we spent some money trying to diagnose it but then decided to just "wait and see." The limp is totally gone now and I think it's at least partially due to his new physique.

Also - you don't want all those jerks at the dog park whispering about how fat your dog is!! LOL Believe me, I (oops - I mean 'they') do make those comments.

vicky

When we adopted our sheltie, he was 11 years old and weighed about 30 lbs. The sheltie rescue lady said he was 40 lbs when he was dropped at her house. To lose weight, the sheltie lady was feeding him a 1/4 cup of kibble a day, and that was with a 1/3 mile exercise every day.

When we got him, he got at least a mile a day exercise, and we bumped up his food to 3/4 cup kibble. This got him down to 25 lbs.

Since the pet food scare, I've been feeding him lean raw ground meat (turkey, chicken, or beef, the stuff we eat) mixed with thawed frozen bagged veggies. He gets a little over a half pound of this (2 ounces meat, 6 ounces veggie) fed throughout the day, along with a slice of bread and maybe a piece of chicken jerky. He runs 10-20 minutes, chasing a tennis ball, almost every day. He's now 20 lbs, and I usually sneak him some more veggies, because I don't want him to lose anymore weight, and he's 13 years old. What I feed him now, it's a good amount of volume so he doesn't go hungry, but it's basically diet food.

I hope this helps!

Do you know the history of the dog and are sure he was being overfed instead of possibly having a thyroid problem? If that checks out normal then I would go ahead and stick with the program you outlined.

Lisa

Lisa makes a good point - always check for "underlyings" but he probably is just overweight.

Lisa, to check a thyroid is that a CBC or a special thyroid test?

i've always thought dobesrule has good information - she's more than just a "pet dog" owner it seems.

vicky

asheltiemom,

Are you feeding your dog any organ meat or bones? I would scrap the bread, myself. He doesn't need the grains, and I'm assuming you're using it just to add more volume. As another poster suggested, canned pumpkin serves as a good "filler" for dogs who need more volume without the extra calories. I'm glad you have decided to switch to raw food.

At least around here you have to either request a thyroid check or the Dr. may suggest one if he/she sees symptoms that may call for it. There are a couple test they can do. One is a "full panel" test that checks for t3 and t4 levels. Usually for a "maintenance" test if they do find a problem they monitor how well medication is working by testing t4 levels. Your vet can explain it better than I can if he thinks it might be something the pup needs.

Lisa

Thanks, all, for your help. The canned pumpkin sounds good. When I heard how he'd been eating while he lived with his "grandmother", I was very certain the weight is due to being overfed rather than thyroid. I'll give the diet a chance to work before I'll have the thyroid function tested.

Another sheltie person suggested to me last night that the food be cut back gradually so as to reduce the chance that he'll get tempermentally out-of-sorts until he adjusts to the new regime.

Sheltiemom, what you are feeding your dog is dangerously low in calcium, which can cause problems for your dog if continued. If you don't want to feed bones, (chicken necks would be ideal for your smaller dog), then put ground egg shells or calcium supplements in the food. I don't have time right now to suggest how much, but you can find a lot of information on the net.

Calcium and phosphorus (along with magnesium and fluoride, to a lesser extent) are the minerals most responsible for bone and tooth formation. Calcium is also important for nerves and blood clotting and phosphorus has other important functions. The balance of calcium and phosphorus in a diet is most crucial since these two elements interact with each other. Imbalance can cause disease.

An all-meat diet, or any diet deficient in calcium will cause the body to take calcium from the skeleton to supply to the blood. Signs of calcium deficiency are deformed thin bones and rickets in puppies. Tetany, a severe condition of low blood calcium, is a medical emergency. Symptoms of tetany include stiffness of gait, difficulty in breathing and a glazed stare.

Thanks for the tip about the calcium.... I was worried about vitamins for my dog, so I've been giving him a tsp of Missing Link supplement every day for the past couple months. I hope that's giving him enough calcium.

Oh, about the bread for my little guy, we just give it to him because we don't go through a loaf quickly enough, so he gets the slices that aren't so fresh. You're right, though, pumpkin is way better filler, particularly for dieting dogs.

Also, for calcium, our sheltie does get a couple ounces milk or yogurt every day in addition to the Missing Link, but if someone here knows of a website that has daily requirements for dogs, especially for different sizes of dogs, I'd love to see it so I don't miss out on anything. I've just been "winging" it, and so far the vet says my dog is really in great shape for a 13 year old, but the vet doesn't know I'm feeding raw.

When we move into the new house, giving him chicken necks will be an option..... here in the apartment, that'd be pretty messy. ^_^

Good luck, njtea, with your sheltie's diet! I do highly recommend switching to a raw diet, it's easier than you'd think, using food containers to freeze portions that are enough for a couple days each, and it'll make the diet & losing weight easier for your fluffy guy. My sheltie eats way better than I do!