Overweight Border Terrier

Hi,
I am posting this for my mum, she has a 7 year old border terrior, who unfortunatley has become very overweight. Mum went away for 3 months and Bella (mums border) went to stay with mums father in law. Mum came back just before Xmas and when Bella was collected my mum was horrified to see that Bella was twice the size that she was when she left. It seems that she has been completley spoilt and fed tit bits constantley aswell as way more of her normal dog food. She currently weighs in at 22 lbs when she left she was roughly 12lbs!
Mum put Bella on a diet at xmas using Bakers weight control (Bella was on normal adult bakers) she gets the recommend amount on the packet. She lost 3 lbs in the first 10 days but since then has gone up and down by a 1lb so has got no thinner! She is regularly walked but due to being so big just waddles along even off lead, panting the whole time, so she isnt able to burn much of that way either.
Im hoping someone might be able to give some advise as to what to do to try and get her weight down as she has obviously lost her bounce and just looks very unhealthy at the moment. Needless to say the father in law has been struck off of dog sitting duties!

Hi

Poor Bella she has been spoilt. I would say that Bakers on the whole is not a good choice of food either for weight loss or a normal diet...sorry hun, but it is full of nasties

I would try changing the food to a better quality, and maybe a trip to the vet because sometimes the vet can prescribe a weight loss food, although these can be expensive. Try looking for something high in protein and low in carbs.

.good luck. At least your are addressing the problem which is a good thing!!!

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How horrible to leave a perfectly healthy dog with someone and come back to find this.

I would recommend coming off the Bakers as well. I raw feed mine, but know it's not for everyone. Autarky or Burns are decent brands without much of the rubbish added to other brands.

It's gonna take time to shift the weight. Less going in and a bit more exercise. It will take time, but even if your Mum goes back to the routine she had before going away the weight should gradually shift.

Try just feeding a little less of the Bakers than you are. If that doesn't give a consistant weight loss, you may need to go to a higher protein food. I have seen a study showing if a dog food has too high of carbohydrates, no matter how little you feed, weight loss will level off. I don't know how well that study was done or if other studies have confirmed it. It may be a propaganda piece. So few in today's society seemed constrained by the truth.

Zephyr was out of my daughter's care from a year old until almost 4. While gone, he went from 67 pounds to 92 or more. While continuing to eat Pro Plan, just less of it over 4 months, he has dropped to 70 pounds and is nearing ideal body condition. The Pro Plan is fairly heavy in carbohydrates, so that study may not be valid.

as an independant nutritional advisor i recommend burns. john burns philosophy is to keep dogs lean, which is why they have a high percentage of rice. this is a bulk food, so the dog does not feel hungry, but has little nutritional value, so will not put weight on. it also contains meat and veggies, so required vits and mins are included in the diet.

someone above, sorry cant remember who mentions avoiding carbs and aiming for high protein, unfortuately, this is the wrong way round. this is what humans require to do on a diet, but dogs metabolism does not process carbs as efficiently as people. people store the bi products of carbs, but dogs have little need for these as naturally they have little carbs within their diets, so there body doesnt "understand" how to process them so mainly they are pooped out. on the other hand, a dogs natural diet is mainly protein based in the form of meat (dog food ratio should be 70% meat + 20% fruit and veg + 10% roughage) so dogs naturally need to get as much goodness out the meat as possible, which is why they have develpoed ways of storing large quantities of bi products of proteins.

but yes i agree with everyone, bakers is a very bad food, i do not know how they are allowed to sell it... full of dreadful dreadful ingredients

With no experiance of this food how the heck do you feel qualified to comment on feeding this cr@p in a bag?

It's junk, end of!

Hi Louise I agree with LHLeos and Evie and would certainly change from Bakers.

I think if this was my dog I would feed a small amount of a good quality food like Burns /Fish4dogs moistened and add finely chopped vegetables (broccoli/cabbage) and white fish eg coley or lean meat like rabbit or chicken ( with the skin removed and cooked in liquid/allowed to cool then remove the fat leaving just the meat and jelly ) scrambled egg, low fat cottage cheese .

For treats I would buy the dried fish skins (fish jerky) from Fish4dogs which is virtually fat free and will clean the teeth.

This should get her weight down and be healthy .

If those that have never done more than read the ingredient list refrained from posting, all the food threads would be shorter.

bakers is so cr@p that although many pigs are fed on dry complete dog food, if a pig is fed bakers it cannot enter the human food chain as it is full of E numbers and preservatives that should not be fed to people

That was me I was told this by my vet to lower the carbs when my little Cocker put on some weight due to ill health. So aren't you saying the same then? more protein...less carb?
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