Diet tips for fat dogs

Does anyone have any positive results to share on how they placed their fat dog/dogs on diets (what they fed) and how long it took for the outcome of success?

My dogs Cairo and Annabelle are fat. The funny thing? Both dogs were so emaciated when I got them. Obviously, I over compensated.
When Cairo was sick last May, he lost a ton of weight, it did not take long at all for him to gain weight again.
I don't feed a lot of treats either. I don't feed garbage food and I have a fenced in yard when they can run and play all day if they wish (which is what Annabelle does) My other dogs are not one bit overweight. They get exactly what the other two get
I just switched to weight reduction food. Annabelle runs around all day long. She gets so much exercise its amazing that she is overweight. She is around 3 1/2 years old.

Cairo is 6 1/2 years old. He does not get as much exercise as Annabelle does.

Both dogs are American Staffordshire Terrier's.

What I did beginning today was this:

Cut down the amount of dry food. They were getting 3 cups daily. (But they both weigh about 70 lbs).
Began more smaller portion feedings
Added vegetables 1 cup veggies to 1 cup dry. (I am going to feed them twice daily instead of once daily. They also were getting canned food mixed in). I know bad Idea!
I started Cairo on a exercise program and Began taking him out walking more often.

What else can I do? When will I see results?

 

Are they both spayed and neutered? When i spayed my dogs, Molly, Axel, and Malibu... they all blew up like blimps. Molly is not as active as she used to be. She's going on 13 years old. But Malibu and Axel are active freeks!!
Still they are a bit chunky...

All I can suggest is cut back on any treast, and exersize more.

 

I can adjust Nala's food and see results within a week. Bonnie is a different story. I kept cutting back on her food and she wasn't losing anything. Then she was boarded for a week and she got a TON of exercise and came back nice and trim. I don't think running in the backyard is really enough exercise to help with weight, unless you have several acres or something.

 

Yes, both are fixed. Annabelle was fixed last year.
Cairo was fixed over 4 years ago.
I also take both to the local park and we play agilty at least 3 times per week as well as the exercise in the yard.
I am an active queen. I am always out walking/exercising with my dogs. Obviously, not enough? So do you think they need more walking time?

 

The exercise sounds good. I would probably just wait a couple weeks and see if the new food and veggies are helping. If a person is only supposed to lose 1-2 pounds per week, then a dog probably should lose less, right? It may be slow going.

 

I think you are on the right track. canned food is very highly caloric so if you cant can cut that out altogether. but it soudn slikeyou are on theright track, maybe add a daily walk. I had a heart attack a few months ago when I took Jake to to vet they said he put on 6# since his last visit, its so hard, when its pouring 20 days out of teh month to get him excercised.

good luck, you should start to see an improvement in a few weeks

 

When Natalie was overweight I switched her to a food with fewer calories and fed her smaller meals 3x daily instead of her normal 2 meals. This seemed to work well. Smaller, more frequent meals help speed up metabolism.

Healthy weight loss occurs at a rate of 1% - 3% of the total body weight per week.

 

Both Duke and Freckles do not get all of the exercise they could use so I do feed them a lower fat complete kibble, real lamb and rice. Duke was 80 pounds and has slimmed down to a sleek 72. Freckles "slimmed" down from 62 pounds to solid 65 so we still have some work to do there. This has taken place over the last six months feeding them twice a day, one cup of the high quality food each at each feeding. I wet the kibble with a little water and add a fish oil supplement.
Duke is now at his ideal weight so I will have to add a little extra chow to his meals so he can maintain the 72 pounds.

 

You probably already thought about this but have they had thyroid tests done recently? Just a thought.

With my fat Whippet, Bonnie (now deceasd) she had a couple of accidents one after another and was on and off pred over about a year, she ballooned. I tried cutting back on the food, cut out the canned, cut out the snacks, she still ran around a lot, eventually I put her Hills RD and got her down from about 32# to about 22# (gradually, not too fast).

Then when she had to stay with a friend for a few months when I moved in 1999 she went up to over 36# (her ideal weight was around 22#) I brought her home and put her on RD again and got her down to about 24-26# once she'd lost the weight I 'weaned' her back on to her regular diet and she stayed at that weight.