I just adopted 2 dogs at the shelter and they are obese. I am wondering what and how much I should be feeding them? Home cooked food? Raw Food? Canned? Kibble? How many times a day? Any tips would be great! They are Bichon Frise mix, ages 7 & 9.
Any quality less active/senior formula would be fine. Just be warned that little white dogs sometimes have allergies to certain ingredients – mine are allergic to corn and I have to feed them a lamb and rice formula. I also supplement with a fish oil capsule to keep their skin healthy – they tend to itch a lot. You’ll know that they have allergies after 2 weeks they will start to kick their paws and/or chew the fur on their hind legs. Be careful – most treats also contain corn!
Be sure to walk them several times a day. They need exercise to slim down – start with a walk around the block 3 times a day and work up to 20-30 minutes three times a day or if this isn’t possible then work up to an hour once a day. It’ll help you work off those Oreos you might have snacked on around 3:00 today too!
I also only feed twice a day. I set their bowls down for 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the evening. If they mess around and don’t eat – they’ll be hungry at the next feeding time. It also helps me to know when they’re going to poop. If you are feeding a quality food they should be pooping twice a day – solid poops too (easy to pick up).
Good luck and thanks for adopting rather than buying a puppy from a petstore.
Tags: Bichon Frise, bichon frise dog, bichon frise dogs, bichon frise mix
Do the normal feeding..your choice of dog food (a high quality brand) i feed natural balance, but w/e you like to go with…
Twice a day…
but make sure they get alot of exercise..lots of walks and such..
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http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com. Make your decision.
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they actually have a diet dog food you could feed them until they get back to their normal weight. just look on the back of the bag and feed them the amount for the weight they SHOULD be not what they weigh now. after they lose the pounds you can put them on a dog food for the older dogs and just follow the instructions on the back of the bag for the weight they are. science diet has the diet food. check with your vet before changing anything.
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A high quality kibble and a lot more exercise is all they need. Pick anything with 5 or more stars from this site: http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com
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Any quality less active/senior formula would be fine. Just be warned that little white dogs sometimes have allergies to certain ingredients – mine are allergic to corn and I have to feed them a lamb and rice formula. I also supplement with a fish oil capsule to keep their skin healthy – they tend to itch a lot. You’ll know that they have allergies after 2 weeks they will start to kick their paws and/or chew the fur on their hind legs. Be careful – most treats also contain corn!
Be sure to walk them several times a day. They need exercise to slim down – start with a walk around the block 3 times a day and work up to 20-30 minutes three times a day or if this isn’t possible then work up to an hour once a day. It’ll help you work off those Oreos you might have snacked on around 3:00 today too!
I also only feed twice a day. I set their bowls down for 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the evening. If they mess around and don’t eat – they’ll be hungry at the next feeding time. It also helps me to know when they’re going to poop. If you are feeding a quality food they should be pooping twice a day – solid poops too (easy to pick up).
Good luck and thanks for adopting rather than buying a puppy from a petstore.
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I adopted my min pin at an astounding 23 pounds. The breed standard is 8. Within 2 years, she was down to 13, and she is presently at 11. I just fed her normal adult food, twice a day, and made sure she got lots of exercise: walks, off-leash parks, doggie play dates.
She was also untrained when I adopted her, and extremely food-possessive. I made my own dog biscuits out of healthy ingredients (vegetable purees, mostly) and cut them into tiny pieces as training aids. I also taught her to sit and stay for any food, waiting for my command to go ahead and eat.
This worked for me. Good luck
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you can ask the pet store people also i think the diet food for dogs **** Remember to let them get alot of exercise
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Get them a senior/lite version of a good lamb & rice kibble, and some frozen green beans – yes, green beans.
They can each have 1/3 of a cup of the kibble along with a few green beans that you have cooked – they can be cold. They can have that twice a day. You can soak the kibble for now, so they get plenty of water in with their food, and it will also seem like more.
Make sure you don’t give them any treats in between meals – rawhides, pig ears, dog cookies, nothing…
They should have a series of short walks – in their current condition, they will probably only make it out to the sidewalk, but thats Ok – just take it slowly, and don’t take them anymore than half as far as they can really walk. You don’t want them going into cardiac arrest because you made them do too much at first. Work up to a bit longer, but start out slooowly.
By the way, the first thing I would do before this (you can still feed them, it’s perfectly safe) – would be to have a fecal test done on them. Are you sure it isn’t wormy bellies you are seeing, or are they really obese? They should also have their thyroids tested as well.
Anyway, good for you for adopting them – what lucky dogs. I’m sure they’ll be looking much more fit before you know it.
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