Suggestions for low-calorie dog foods

[irotas]

Hi all,

I recently took my ~5 y/o yellow lab Manni to the vet to get him checked out for his recent extreme weight gain and also occasional "excitement urination".

The vet gave him a battery of tests to check for hypothyroidism, but the tests came back negative.

For the last few months we've been feeding him Innova Large Breed Adult Dry. When we first switched to Innova, Manni weight 88 pounds. I used the 'Feeding Profile Wizard' on Natura Pet's website, and they recommended 4.5 cups/day for inactive, 5 for moderate, and 5.5 for active.

We started him on 4.5 cups/day since he's anything but a high-energy dog. After a while, when our neighbors commented that he'd gained weight, we took him down to 3.5 cups/day, where we've been for probably 6 weeks or so.

On weekdays, we take him out for three 15-20 minute walks every day. On the weekend, we often go hiking or to the dog park. I could be wrong, but this seems like a healthy amount of exercise.

Unfortunately, as we found out at this last vet visit, his weight has ballooned to 105 pounds, which is a 17 pound gain since his previous visit 4-5 months ago. The vet said that it's probably caused by caloric imbalance. I was surprised at first, since we were following the recommended serving size, but according to the vet the recommended servings are usually larger than what they really should be.

Also, the vet said that his Ph is a little high (he should be at 6.5, but instead he's at 7.5). She said this is also diet-related, but that we can't address this at the same time as we address his weight.

So, I'm looking for some recommendations for healthy low-calorie dog foods for a big dog like Manni.

Thanks,
Adam

 

[showpug]

I wouldn't switch his food. I would just cut him back to 3 cups a day and see how he does. 1.5 cups in the morning and the same in the evening. Feeding wizards usually always recommend too much food. If I fed my dogs what it said to on the bag, they would be morbidly obese. My sister has an obese lab that only gets 2 cups total per day. Low calorie foods are usually loaded with grains and carbs and make the coat really suffer.

Innova makes a reduced fat formula, but it contains more calories than the Large breed adult formula that you are feeding. It's the calories that matter not the food!

 

[Zoom]

Yeah, I would just lower the amount you are feeding of the Innova. My fairly active Aussie is only eating 1 1/2 cups a day (3/4 cup at each feeding) and he weighs 52 pounds.

Slowly decrease the amount though, dont' suddenly cut him off or you're going to have a very slobbery Lab going "But I'm huuuuuungrryyy!" Adding some salt free canned or frozen green beans can help with this as well...it's low-calorie filler so he's still reduced in terms of calories but overal "bulk" is still about the same.

 

[irotas]

Thanks for the responses. I'm still weighing my options, but I certainly don't want to switch his food only to find another negative side effect.

One thing I was considering is trying the HealthWise Weight Control dog food, which is also made by Natura Pet:
http://www.naturapet.com/display.php?d=product-detail&pxsl=//product[@id='548']


The amount of fat is about half of the food I'm using now, and the calories are a little bit lower. To make sure he's getting enough Omega-3, I was considering supplementing his food with fish oil:
http://www.nordicnaturals.com/Petstore/order.asp


In any case, it's clear that his daily caloric intake needs to be reduced significantly, because I can't realistically see him getting much more exercise than he is now (at least not until it gets warmer outside).

Thanks again for the advice!

P.S. I'm not sure if directly linking to vendor websites is allowed here. If not, let me know and I'll remove them.

 

[showpug]

Thanks for the responses. I'm still weighing my options, but I certainly don't want to switch his food only to find another negative side effect.

One thing I was considering is trying the HealthWise Weight Control dog food, which is also made by Natura Pet:
http://www.naturapet.com/display.php?d=product-detail&pxsl=//product[@id='548']


The amount of fat is about half of the food I'm using now, and the calories are a little bit lower. To make sure he's getting enough Omega-3, I was considering supplementing his food with fish oil:
http://www.nordicnaturals.com/Petstore/order.asp


In any case, it's clear that his daily caloric intake needs to be reduced significantly, because I can't realistically see him getting much more exercise than he is now (at least not until it gets warmer outside).

Thanks again for the advice!

P.S. I'm not sure if directly linking to vendor websites is allowed here. If not, let me know and I'll remove them.

You can supply links, I do all the time.

Healthwise is a good food, but the "light" version is so low in fat and protein that I personally think your dog would do better just having his food cut back. 4.5 cups is a lot of food for most labs! Regardless of how much Omega 3 you may add, when you drastically cut back on fat and protein, the coat will suffer!

 

[Saje]

I was going to suggest switching to another of Innova's foods. If he ballooned up solely after putting him on Innova it might just be too rich for him. I wouldn't try a diet food. What about healthwise's regular dry food? It's more than 100 calories less per cup than Innova so he could still get bulk but not as many calories. Try 3 cups a day and see how he goes?

 

[BostonBanker]

Just another voice chiming in - my dog gets just over half the recommended amount on the back of the Innova bag, and she is insanely active (outside and on the go at the farm for 6 or so hours a day, plus additional hikes and agility). She not only got complimented on her weight today at the vets, but they were also amazed at the fact that her thigh muscles feel like rocks, and are visible even when she's just standing . I need to go on the Meg Exercise Plan.

 

[irotas]

OK, I think I have an idea of what we did that made him gain so much weight so quickly. When I first used Natura Pet's "Feeding Profile Wizard", I used it on their "Large Breed" dog food. However, of the 4 bags of Innova that I've purchased, I think 3 of them were just the regular "Adult Dog" food. This was completely by mistake.

Looking on Natura's website now, the "Large Breed" food is 350Kcals/cup, and the "Adult Dog" is 557Kcals/cup.

What I'm getting from the replies to this post is that the "Feeding Profile Wizard" will recommend about 1.5-2x more calories than a dog actually needs. When we first started, we were giving him the "recommended" amount, and with a much more calorie-dense food than what I thought I was feeding him.

So now, aside from feeling like a total dope, I need to quickly correct the problem. The replies on this thread have been quite informative, but I'm still not sure exactly how many calories per day to take him down to.

To recap:
Sex: Male
Breed: Yellow Labrador Retriever
Exercise: Three 15-20 minute walks per day, often 2-3 hour hikes on the weekend
Current weight: 105 pounds
Target weight: 85 pounds


Once I get a clear picture of how many calories/day to feed him, I can make a more informed choice of what food to start him on and how much to feed him per meal.

One thing that makes it difficult to take the "try it and see" approach is that I have no way to weigh him in the house, so I don't really know whether his weight is stable, increasing, or decreasing.

In any case, once I change his food, what is a healthy amount of weight to expect him to lose per week? I'm guessing 1-2 pounds/week, but I really have no idea.

Thanks again,
Adam

 

[Zoom]

1-2 pounds is good.

Without a scale, the easiest way to tell if your dog is slimming down is to look at him standing directly above him and see if you can discern an "hourglass" shape forming. Put your hands on his back, thumbs on the spine, fingers splayed over the rib cage and see how easily you can feel his ribs. Once you can easily feel his ribs without being able to see them when he's standing normally, he's at his ideal weight.

I've never gotten into calories/day...too much math for me, lol. I instead keep a mental tracking of what my dog feels like and adjust his food by 1/4 cup amounts as needed.

 

[Fran27]

My golden eats 2 cups a day, and he's a big boy (85lbs), although pretty l azy. I think you're just feeding too much of it.

 

[irotas]

My golden eats 2 cups a day, and he's a big boy (85lbs), although pretty l azy. I think you're just feeding too much of it.

Thanks for the reply. What kind of food? How many calories per cup is it?

P.S. Those are some seriously cute pics of Boris and Tips!

 

[BostonBanker]

I've never looked at calories, either. If Meg starts to look a little heavy (and she did when I started switching to raw), I feed her less. When she gets a bit ribby, I add some more protein to her diet for a week or two. I also don't have access to a scale, although I think most vets would let you bring your dog in once a week and toss them on the scale if you asked.

 

[darci]

I have a comment on the ph, I posted on your other thread.
I would consider changing to a lower ash food. Timberwolf Ocean blue or Eagle pack Fish formula.

ALso adding cranberry, and spring water.

 

[irotas]

WARNING: MATH ALERT!

OK, so this is what I've decided on:

I used 2 different metabolic energy requirements calculators to determine how many calories to feed a moderately exercised dog of 85 pounds (his target weight).

Both calculators can be found here:
http://www.mycockerspaniel.com/mer.htm

The first calculator, which uses the Maintenance Energy Requirement (MER) formula, returned 1636 Kcal/day.

The second calculator, which uses the Waltham Daily Energy Requirements formula, returned 1705 Kcal/day.

I decided to round off to 1650 Kcal/day.

Typically human dieticians recommend cutting 500 calories per day from your diet to lose weight at a healthy rate. I scaled this back to 350-400 calories, to account for the smaller size of a dog like Manni as compared to a typical human.

Therefore, our target calories per day for Manni is 1250-1300.

The Innova Large Breed Adult Dry seems to be the best for Manni, since its less calorically dense (350 Kcals/cup), doesn't contain common allergens, contains both Omega oils and glucosamine/chondroitin, and has a very low ash content (4.68%).

At 350 Kcals/cup, thats about 3.5-3.75 cups per day.

And yes, I am an engineer.

 

[Alex]

Someone recommended (and my vet agreed) that supplementing with frozen green beans would also help cut weight back. I am happy to say that my once 86 lb lab (who looked more like a pot belly at the time) is now down to a healthy 61 lbs in 5 months. I didn't increase his exercise, just cut his food back to 3 cups a day (of Canidae) and added one cup of frozen green beans to each meal. They are cheap, healthy, and fill him up. When I just cut back his food, he constantly acted like he was starving. Once I added in the green beans, his belly was full and he was happy, but still loosing weight.

 

[irotas]

Someone recommended (and my vet agreed) that supplementing with frozen green beans would also help cut weight back. I am happy to say that my once 86 lb lab (who looked more like a pot belly at the time) is now down to a healthy 61 lbs in 5 months. I didn't increase his exercise, just cut his food back to 3 cups a day (of Canidae) and added one cup of frozen green beans to each meal. They are cheap, healthy, and fill him up. When I just cut back his food, he constantly acted like he was starving. Once I added in the green beans, his belly was full and he was happy, but still loosing weight.

Yeah, someone earlier in this thread recommended adding green beans. We're going to pick some up on our grocery run this afternoon.

Which Canidae food are you using? How many calories per cup is it?

 

[Alex]

I'm feeding the ALS and it's 468 kcal/cup.

I went with this formula because of the mutiple protein sources.

Actually, on the site, it says if you want a 75-100 lb dog to loose weight, it should be around 1.5-3 cups a day. I went with the higher end of the scale and my boy looks great. No more love handles.

http://www.canidae.com/dogs/all_life_stages/dry.html

My only problem with this food is the kibble size. I have two large dogs (a lab and a newf) and the kibble is TINY. Other than that, I love it and the boys look great.

 

[Pomp]

Innova caused weight gain in my dog, and per the recommendation of others on this board, I reduced the amount I was giving him. He went from about 500 calories per day of kibble to 250.

 

[irotas]

Innova caused weight gain in my dog, and per the recommendation of others on this board, I reduced the amount I was giving him. He went from about 500 calories per day of kibble to 250.

How big is your dog?

 

[Pomp]

How big is your dog?

He's a beagle. He's at 35 pounds. I'd like to get him down to 28.