My dogs are overweight. How can they lose weight on salmon food?

Hello. This is a great question! She should be eating about 500 -550 calories PER DAY which includes all food and treats. She can eat any food as long as she stays inside that calorie window. If you feed her a lower calorie diet then she will get to eat more food and be less hungry. Purina ProPlan Weight Management Dry Food is 337 calories per cup so if you feed her this food she can eat 1.5 cups per day with a little left over for a treat or two. http://www.petsmart.com/dog/food/dry-food/purina-pro-plan-weight-management-formula-adult-dog-food-5148013.html?gclid=CKrvp4aRkdQCFZBgfgodPccMzA If you don't like this food you can use any diet. Just check the bag, it will tell you how many calories per cup. Take the 525 (using the middle of her calorie range) and divide it by the number of calories in each cup of food and that will tell you how many cups of that food she can have PER DAY. Example as above 525 / 337 = 1.55 cups I hope this helps. Best wishes. Dr. Amber

You are correct that it is difficult to find a good quality weight loss diet. Good quality meats and fats are high in calories. At the end of the day, weight loss is about calories. So, a weight loss food is beneficial because they can eat the same amount of food. But you can achieve the same decrease in calories by feeding less of the Acana that you are currently feeding. A 10-20% decrease in daily calories is exactly what I recommend for weight loss, so you could simply decrease from a level 2/3 cup to heaping 1/2 cup for a month. If Chloe is losing weight, then continue at that amount. If she is not losing weight, then decrease to a level 1/2 cup. Since she is a small dog, it should take her a number of months to lose the weight, so don't be discouraged if she only loses a few ounces in that first month. Good luck! I hope that was helpful. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

Although its a little hard to tell from the photo both of your pups look to be lean with good muscle mass. To assess body condition what you want to look for are a waist behind the ribs when viewed from above, and that you can feel but not see the spine and ribs. Young active dogs are certainly apt to be a bit leaner. You could certainly consider a diet for active large breed dogs, especially for the Dane mix. To figure out how much to feed you need to know two things. First, you need to find out how many calories are in a cup of your current food. This is sometimes written on the bag or you can go online to the foods website and typically find it. It would be written kcal/cup for dry or kcal/can for canned. Second, you need to figure out what the energy requirements for your dogs are. This will be different for different weights of dogs and for dogs with different lifestyles. A good website to go to to help you with this is the Ohio State University Pet calorie calculator. If you Google OSU dog calorie calculator it should pop up. This will show you how to calculate the energy requirement for your dogs based on their weights, and let you know what factor to multiply by for their lifestyle. Then basically when you know how many calories they should be taking in per day you can figure out how much to feed. Keep in mind if you do this and change the amount you are feeding, if you are seeing weight loss or excessive weight gain you will have to adjust the plan as it's not a perfect system. I hope this helps and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach!

There is no evidence that grain free foods promote weight loss in dogs, and unless there is a medical reason to avoid grains I don't recommend feeding these diets. Reducing calorie intake is necessary for weight loss, although increasing exercise can help as well. You can either talk to your vet to help estimate Tasha's ideal body weight and calculate approximately how many calories she should be eating in a day to promote weight loss, or you can try reducing the total amount of food she is getting in a day by 25%. Remember treats and chews have calories too - think of every treat as a piece of candy and try to minimize them as much as possible or replace them with a healthier alternative like a frozen green bean.

I would consider putting them both on a prescription diet food if you can afford it. Science diet makes two that are really good - Science diet metabolic and R/D. Your vet can write you a written prescription for this. If you cannot afford this food, then I would look for a LIGHT diet NOT weight management. "Weight management" and "healthy weight" food usually just keep them at their current weight. Science diet also has an OTC light diet you could look into. I would feed less than what the bag recommends and if they seem hungry, you can give them some canned green beans to help fill them up. I would also make sure no one is giving them ANY human food besides the green beans and NO dog treats. If you want to give them treats, give them raw carrots, raw broccoli, or canned green beans. As far as increasing their exercise, this can be difficult in your situation. You can try to feeding balls that they push around to make the kibbles fall out. I have some clients that feed at least one full meal with one of these balls which helps them to stay more active. You can also purchase an indoor treadmill and train them to use that if you wanted to go all out. Finally, if you are staying on a strict diet and increasing their activity a little, but they are still not losing weight, I would have your vet check their thyroid. If their thyroid is low, it will be almost impossible for them to lose weight without thyroid supplements. I hope this helps! Feeding Ball suggestion: https://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/product/petsafe-busy-buddy-treat-dispensing-kibble-nibble-dog-toy-1586980?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&adpos=1o1&scid=scplp1586980&sc_intid=1586980&cm_mmc=PLA-GG-_-PTC_P_BND_PLA-GG_FY17_SCShopping-TM-_-Non+VIP+-+TM-_-92700027187667220&kwid=p27187667220&device=c&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI6J-3ipDJ2AIVWbnACh2YTQ_bEAQYASABEgKg9fD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Taste of the Wild is a great food, but it is what we call a premium food. Premium foods do not contain any fillers, so the food is more bio-available. What that means is that Luna will need to eat less of Taste of the Wild than Science Diet. Usually, I recommend starting on the low end of the feeding recommendation on the bag, but sometimes we have to go even lower than that depending on an individual dog's metabolism. So, be sure to monitor Luna's weight because keeping her lean is the best thing for her health. Good luck! I hope that was helpful and answered your question. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

I think cutting the food in half may be a bit drastic at first. You don't want the weight loss to happen too quickly. I suggest you start by cutting the food by 25%. So, give her 3/4 cup twice a day and then weigh her after 4-6 weeks to see if you are making any progress. Keep in mind that any treats will increase her caloric intake so be careful and don't give her too much (if any). This is where I would start. Hope this helps. Best wishes!