# WOW - the scale is tipping!



## Terri232 (Apr 30, 2014)

Got our poodle when she was 14 months old and she will be 2 in January. She weighed 6 pounds and she was looking soooo fat to me that I weighed her yesterday and she is 8.4 - I am in shock. Have been feeding her Hills Science Small & Toy Breed dry food 1/2 cup a day with only a few snacks. Coincidentally seeing the doctor today for a check up and hoping he will put her on a lo cal food. Anyone have any suggestions? I do not want her having loose stools to lose weight!
Thanks...


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

I am not convinced by low cal kibble - it is still mainly carbohydrate, after all! I would cut treats down by 50%, cut meals down by 10%, double the amount of exercise she gets, and weigh her every week. Weighing food etc out at the start of the day, and sticking rigorously to the controlled portions really helps, too. A few green beans can help to fill her up, without adding too many calories.


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## Terri232 (Apr 30, 2014)

You will laugh - Daily she gets:
2 soft liver treats Bil-Jac
1 Kong biscuit inside a small kong (1 for lunch)
1 small Mother Hubbard puppy biscuit (after last walk at night)
4 Cheerios in the morning from my husband when he is having breakfast (plain Cheerios)
Tiny little pieces of a cracker (maybe 6) when we are having wine before dinner and
that is it plus 1/4 cup kibble twice daily.....
But I can try your suggestion! 
Oh - cooked string beans? How many?


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## twyla (Apr 28, 2010)

Well make sure she is indeed fat/overweight you vet can tell you that. 

My toy poodles will eat everything you put down and still want more which is why I don't free feed and watch how much I feed them.


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## AngelAviary (Aug 12, 2014)

I remember them telling us In Tech school that a large milkbone biscuit was the calorie equivalent to us eating a big mac! So I recommended everyone who gave snacks for going out for potty and such to break them up in tiny pieces and give just a piece. The dog will never know its only getting a piece and not the whole thing and they are just as happy getting their treat. 

Adding canned food to the diet (mixing it with dry) is a way to cut waayyy back on calories. Canned food is 78-80% water so they feel full but are getting way less calories. Dry food is very calorie dense and it is hard to cut them back and not have them feeling hungry all the time. We used to tell clients that all the time at the Vet. They usually started feeding canned when they wanted the pet to gain weight. They thought that they were feeding meat and gravy and it would help it gain weight. When we explained the moisture content to them they saw that is why the pet continued to lose weight instead of gain. Canned food also helps the pet to eat more dry (it makes the food more yummy) if they need to eat more dry to gain weight. 
Hope this helps your little girl lose some if she has too.


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## Charmed (Aug 4, 2014)

I concur with Angel A about the treat business. My guys get a treat for coming back inside promptly after they potty. I shake a bowlful of kibble. They each get ONE piece of kibble... and their kibble is made up of tiny pieces. They don't care; it's getting something that matters, not how big the something is. I use the same kibble for training treats. Now for high value treats, I will up the ante, by giving them fingernail size bits of a tastier treat. If only I had as much will power when it came to dealing with my own diet.


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## N2Mischief (Dec 3, 2012)

I'm thinking 1/2 cup of kibble a day for a 6-8 pound dog is a lot. When I was measuring food for my chi's and poodle, they got a total of 1/3 cup a day and Pablo still wasn't losing weight. Now that Pablo passed on I free feed and Emilio has lost weight and Misha maintains.


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## itzmeigh (Apr 28, 2014)

Charmed said:


> I concur with Angel A about the treat business. My guys get a treat for coming back inside promptly after they potty. I shake a bowlful of kibble. They each get ONE piece of kibble... and their kibble is made up of tiny pieces. They don't care; it's getting something that matters, not how big the something is. I use the same kibble for training treats. Now for high value treats, I will up the ante, by giving them fingernail size bits of a tastier treat. If only I had as much will power when it came to dealing with my own diet.



Hazel gets one tiny cat food kibble as a treat for coming in through the door. Just one. And it is small, very small. She acts like it is the best treat EVER! When I do her training time I just use her regular kibble, nothing fancy. For a super treat I have some stinky alligator treats I hand out. They sometimes get one or 2 of those a day but they are small (for treats, about as big around as an American quarter and maybe 1/8 inch thick) and I break it into several pieces and feed it so they think they got a lot more.


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## Streetcar (Apr 13, 2014)

If this is the kibble she is fed Adult Small & Toy Breed - Dry , I might suggest going to a product that does not include sorghum, wheat, and soy (or corn), before considering a more carb-filled diet product .

A more meat-based kibble might help based on what I've learned from some friends more knowledgeable than I, as she may need so much of the Hills to get basic nutrients. You may find you can feed less if she gets a different food. Many here will have great suggestions if you're open to trying different foods. Vets don't study a lot of nutrition so may not have the most recent information, even if they are state of the art on the medical side.

In case some examples are of interest, my Tpoo didn't do well on a completely grain-free food, so the Nature's Variety Prairie lamb and oatmeal served us well. We are going to Great Life salmon now as a rotation, and will likely go back to Solid Gold's Wee Bits next, and then back to Nature's Variety.


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## AngelAviary (Aug 12, 2014)

Streetcar: actually my Border Collie eats Solid Gold's Just A Wee Bit! I know crazy that a 45 lb dog eats toy breed food, but she is so picky that after 2yrs of trying everything, that was the only food I could get her to eat more than once every 3 days! It has like 380 Kcal per cup so is pretty calorie dense. She get 1/2 cup per day and she is a great weight. She was on 1 cup before she was spayed and I decreased it to prevent the weight gain after the surgery. She is incredibly active and the food does well for her. I tried it on my Spoo Stella when I first got her (easier to feed one food to both dogs) but Stella got very bad gas (worse than just puppy gas) and had large stools on it. I knew it didnt agree with her, switch her to Nat. Bal Ultra and she is fantastic on it.


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## Terri232 (Apr 30, 2014)

*So - it's true!*

OK - so we went to the vet and she does indeed weigh 8.4 and is up more than 2 lbs since April 1 when we got her at 14 months of age.
The doctor felt that we should not change her food but cut down and add string beans and wants her on 160 calories a day.
Interesting because the 1/2 cup daily of the Hills Science Diet Small and Toy Breed dry is 183.5 just in the 1/2! So, this would mean substantially cutting down and using fewer treats, although our treats consist of only about 22 calories. I contacted him with the calorie readings and he did say I had a choice of staying with what I am using or switching to the same food that is lean/lower in calories. She would be eating more and might feel fuller but then it is a pain to change food because it takes a week or more introducing it a little at a time.
So - we are trying to cut down the portion, adding the string beans and exercising more as well as going to the dog park more than once a week. 
Any more ideas from you great poodle people? I am open to all!


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## Streetcar (Apr 13, 2014)

AngelAviary said:


> Streetcar: actually my Border Collie eats Solid Gold's Just A Wee Bit! I know crazy that a 45 lb dog eats toy breed food, but she is so picky that after 2yrs of trying everything, that was the only food I could get her to eat more than once every 3 days! It has like 380 Kcal per cup so is pretty calorie dense. She get 1/2 cup per day and she is a great weight. She was on 1 cup before she was spayed and I decreased it to prevent the weight gain after the surgery. She is incredibly active and the food does well for her. I tried it on my Spoo Stella when I first got her (easier to feed one food to both dogs) but Stella got very bad gas (worse than just puppy gas) and had large stools on it. I knew it didnt agree with her, switch her to Nat. Bal Ultra and she is fantastic on it.


How interesting, AngelAviary! It's just further proof Poodles and other dogs are just like people with regards to food: all individuals!

It took some real food trials here to find something that would work well for Oliver, but we got there, whew .


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## Streetcar (Apr 13, 2014)

Terri232, same thought here now the vet has confirmed your thoughts. A more meat-based and less grain heavy food may help a lot, and you might find you don't have to do a lot of dieting. That sort of food will need to be fed in a lower quantity, so green beans, broccoli, and other fiber-containing vegetables will help her feel her tummy is fuller . Two meals a day splitting a total day's nutrition in halves, not a single meal, is another helpful practice.

You'll get there .


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## twyla (Apr 28, 2010)

The thing about the diet food is it is most filling and less calories. I had to trim down my mini Fannie from 22 lbs to 14 lbs she was obese when I got her, so fat you could not see her tail it took a while for the weight to come off. I could not exercise her, not possible because she had no recall or leash manners so diet food was the best route.

That said precisely measuring the food goes a long way, I carefully measure out my Tpoo puppy's food using a tablespoon and a teaspoon, she gets fed three times a day 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon of dry kibble. 5.3 tablespoon = 1/3 cup. That's the amount I feed all the poodles daily. 

I had trouble with the girls being a little overweight, my elder toy poodles need to be at a good weight because its good for their arthritis.


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

I agree with measuring, preferably by weighing - it is surprisingly easy to add just a few more biscuits, but a few teaspoonfuls make a huge difference to a tiny dog! One of the reasons I feed mine a home made diet is that it makes it much easier to control their weight - if they start piling on the ounces I portion the same amount of meat into 12 freezer trays instead of 10, and add a few more green beans. In fact mine love the beans so much I can use them as treats, which also helps. But more exercise also makes a big difference - this summer we upped from around 15 miles a week to at least 30, and I actually had to increase the amount of food they got as they were getting a shade too thin! As I know to my own cost, weight gain is a vicious circle - you are heavier, so exercise is hard work, so you do less of it, and spend more time sitting in a chair eating biscuits, so you get heavier...


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## mom2Zoe (Jun 17, 2014)

Every time I read these food amount threads i get nervous. i give Zoe a 1/3 in the morning and in the evening. Everybody here said it is way too much , but my vet insists it is fine and she looks great. He even said i could give up to one cup daily.
I guess i never liked him and switched vets two months ago. I have not had to go yet thank g-d, I have no idea what Zoe weighs. She gets groomed tomorrow and i was hoping they have a scale to weigh her.


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## twyla (Apr 28, 2010)

you can always weigh her on a people scale, weigh self then you + dog and you will know. And a vet will be quick tell you they are fat/underweight etc.


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## Terri232 (Apr 30, 2014)

*Food Weighing - Need HELP!!!*

So - am trying to weigh her kibble and figured out that I should reduce it from 1/2 cup daily (2 feedings) to 1/3 cup daily (2 feedings)...

I understand that 1/3 cup = 2.6 oz so I would have to split it into 1.3 oz per serving. I don't have a weight scale but I do have a postage scale and I took 1/2 cup and it weighs only .1 3/4 not even an ounce, so how could this be? Is a food scale different than a postage scale? HELP!


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## twyla (Apr 28, 2010)

kinda why I did it in tablespoons, you might trying weighing it in a cup, you know weigh the cup then add the food and weigh again


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## mom2Zoe (Jun 17, 2014)

twyla said:


> you can always weigh her on a people scale, weigh self then you + dog and you will know. And a vet will be quick tell you they are fat/underweight etc.


My scale always tells me a few pounds off, good thing i am skinny or it would piss me off.


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