Not Keeping Weight Off As Easily?

[ilovetyson]

My girls were eating the Salmon version of TOTW, and only gettin 1 cup a day. They are roughly 55lbs.
Falise is holding her weight Well, and almost looks Chunky. Where as jade, is fit, and lean on that Amt. LOL So, Jade on active days gets closer to 1.5 cups a day, falise is now actually getting a bout 3/4 cup food. (They also get a little Evo Canned in there too) If I fed Jade what she wanted, she would be Super fat..And with her arthritis, I have to keep her on the lean side.

[FransterDoo]

FYI - a hotdog (ballpark Frank) is 180 calories per hot dog. This is the equivalent of 1/2 cup of average dry dog food.

You are essentially feeding 3 cups dry food per training session, thats a lot of calories!

We use hot dogs and sometimes if they are working on something that's hard for Levi he gets a lot of them. I start cutting back his food Sunday night, he gets basically nothing Monday morning. Training is Monday mid-day and he get a really, really small meal Monday night as well.

Hot Dogs are also high in sodium and can cause dogs to drink a lot of water and look "puffy" so he doesn't get kibble on the meals around training days. Even if I've totally f'ed up and forgotten to defrost food, I'll figure something out for him.

[randomroads]

I've fed TOTW High Prairie before and it actually made my dogs fat unless we doubled the exercise. These dogs were biking/treadmill at least four miles a day, swimming often, fetch, flirt pole, and lots of rough housing together. I cut down on the amount of kibble and they were able to maintain a better weight without having to increase exercise.

[Sarah]

Would you believe that Tess, at 32 pounds, eats almost 3 cups of TOTW a day? (in 2 feedings) Metabolisms vary so much. I tried to cut her food when she was spayed, she lost weight and started scavenging.

I would stay away from hot dogs as a training treat. I used to use them, but don't like my dogs getting all that sodium. Dakota doesn't look that bad to me, though, I think he's probably filled in some as he is maturing. I would expect a 2 yr old dog to still be putting on some bulk.

[Celesteandthebullies]

His ribs were easier to feel this morning, so I think the cutting back has helped. We feed High Prairie which has more fat and protein, that could've been a cause.

[Celesteandthebullies]

Just for an example, here's a picture of Dakota from a few months ago.


I'll upload one from today, I have room for 4 more pictures on my memorycard.

[Celesteandthebullies]

From moments ago already seeing improvement.

[Sarah]

His ribs were easier to feel this morning, so I think the cutting back has helped. We feed High Prairie which has more fat and protein, that could've been a cause.

High Prairie is what I feed, unless I'm feeding Wetlands, which has the same protein/fat profile. Tess has a crazy high metabolism. I feed her a bit more than Pirate, who is bigger and still filling in.

[Celesteandthebullies]

Alice is on High Prairie too and gets more than Dakota, she keeps weight off easily so I usually find myself adding just a bit more for her.

Also that second picture makes it look like he has more of a tuck that he really does. His fur does a funny thing in that area and it appears darker (so it looks more shaded... deeper)

[Sarah]

He's not going to have as much tuck as he did when he was an adolescent, that tends to fill in as a dog matures. Most dogs don't have a lot of tuck, and shouldn't.

[Celesteandthebullies]

That's what my friend said also, glad you confirmed it. (Partially why I mentioned that as well. Those tufts make him look more tucked there than he really is.)