Overweight dogs

I have 2 dogs Westie/Schanauzer & Yorkie/Dashound crosses
They are a bit overweight, I have tried different brands of food but they don't loose weight, I am thinking of cooking my own food has anyone tried this I would like some feedback please, the Westie X is 5years old the Yorkie X is 9 years old he suffers from arthritis needs to keep his weight down, I feed them james wellbeloved light but can't get a wet light food at a reasonable price that gives the exact ingredients so will have a go at cooking my own hopefully with your help

Hope to hear from you

Nellie d

This is a good site
http://www.dogaware.com/

How much are you feeding per meal and how much exercise do they get?

They have small amount of wet in the morning and dry with some veg in the evening if the Yorkie cross is still hungry he barks for more and keeps barking until we give him some more, but only dry, he now has James Wellbeloved light so hopefully that will help him, the Westie cross had 12 teeth out in Feburary so he has been on wet he has now started on dry, but I would like to cook my own so I know what they are eating some foods can be so expencive.


Thank You for your interest


Nellie d

Personally I would just feed less and if you can exercise more.

Feeding guidelines on the packets often seem to over estimate..I feed my dog half the recommended amount and she has still managed to sneak on 700grams in weight!

If your dogs are always hungry, a few things to try;
- feed them out of a treat ball or kong. This makes eating take longer and is more of a challenge.
- mix some liquid in to the dry food
- freeze some veggies. Offer these to your dog to eat. Veggies are low in calories and can't really be absorbed unless blended so should give the dog something to eat without gaining weight.
- offer the dog a stag bar or cow hoof (or similar). Dogs enjoy to chew so providing your dogs with something to chew on may prevent them from wanting to eat so much.

Good luck, I know it seems hard but unless there is a medical reason it shouldn't be too difficult for you to trim some weight off them. Weight management foods just contain less protein oils and fat I think which are what supply the dog with energy and they just fill it out with other things. Cutting the amount should do the job!

Exercise and cut back on the feed bill should do the trick.... I raw feed but have other dogs on dry grain free kibble that's high in protein and they usually run on the treadmill during the day if we don't have time to get out of the house.

Wainwrights (Pets at Home) do a good wet tray food which is "light/low fat" and the dogs enjoy it. It is also reasonably priced.

like others have said cut down on the ammount of food and up the ammount of exercise.

dont give into your dog barking for more food, giving in to him isnt going to help his weight problems.

My dogs are 11,13 & 15. They have never been overweight because I have always adjusted their food according to how they look and feel and to the excercise. An older dog will burn off less calories in an hours walk than a 2 yr old. I don't feed 'senior food' I think that is just a way for the food companies to make more money, I just give less if they put on a bit of weight, more if they start looking like a toast rack. Simple!

Same here! My dogs are all ideal weights now. Boo was overweight when I adopted him, but he has since lost that weight. I feed more when they're looking skinny, and less when they seem to be gaining. It's always changing. I also dont let my dogs dictate. they would eat constantly if they could.