Weight management for healthy,long life for your dogs
"Palette has lost some weight and, you have been doing pretty good with her. What did you do? Did you feed less food? or..?"
That was what the vet has asked us when we recently took Palette to vet clinic for yearly checkup. It was the same vet clinic we have been going since beginning of her diet change 3 years plus ago, but the regular vet we normally see was on day off,so we saw another vet at the same clinic.
Since he has never met Palette before, he flipped through her medical records on file, reviewing her history with us and, decided to ask us the question.
Biggest change since the first time visit to their clinic to current time is obviously the diet. When we started going to the vet clinic was right around switching her diet to fresh diet a.k.a. raw diet from kibble. Another vet (regular vet of Palette) at the same clinic was worried about balance, and nutrition on raw diet.
However, seeing is believing. Second time we have visited her, she praised me I am doing pretty good with Palette and amazed about how she looks, white teeth etc and diet became not an issue with her.
Before we switch Palette's diet from kibble to fresh food diet a.k.a. raw diet, she was at about 36lb. For average 10"-12" tall female Corgi, average weight is said to be about 28lb.
Palette, by the way, is a giant Corgi. She was the biggest Corgi among her siblings and, grown to 14" tall. Even 2"- 4" taller than average female Corgi, I thought that 36lb was a little on heavy side, but rest assured, after the diet switch and some other changes, she has lost some weight and,she is currently weigh at 32lb. Over the years, she has lost 4 lb. The vet thinks, considering she is being a Giant Corgi, 32lb is a good weight.
Especially Palette is being a Pembroke Welsh Corgi, the long back dog, I am being careful of her weight.
According to one of the book I read "What every pet owner should know" by Doc Halligan, for 18 lb of dog that should weigh about 15lb of weight, extra 3lb weight is equivalent of 40 extra lb on average female.
In general, as I wrote in the previous entry titled " Weight management; Satin ball,Green bean diet, and weight management kibble " when dogs are with weight issue, people tend to try out Satin ball for weight gain, Green bean diet or weight management kibble for weight loss. However, I did not try out any of those for Palette.
So, what did I do for weight loss for Palette?
1. Switched the diet to fresh food diet a.k.a. raw food diet
For human or for dogs, I prefer to serve fresh food as diet. I feel that minimally processed simple food has a lot more nutrient in them, and better for us or for dogs.
I think after she is being on raw diet, her coat got shiny, and at the same time, I feel her body muscle is toned nicely.
Of course, changing diet to raw diet does not guarantee the weight loss for dogs, because all the other things such as dogs' life style, age, energy level, what to feed (Chicken? Beef? Elk? Rabbit?Salmon? etc) , how much is fed, etc also effects health in general. If dogs were fed poultry heavy meal day in,day out, that diet will be leaner, but pretty high in omega6 and lacks Omega3 fatty acids, which is good for skin and coat, and you would see the dull, dry, coat as oppose to shiny coat from diet menu with variety even if you see the loss of the weight from lesser kcal in the diet menu.
Over all, I think that eliminating grains,vegetables, all other fillers in her highly processed diet (kibbles) with varied diet menu worked nicely for Palette.
Her raw diet menu varies and, her menu is not heavy on anything special, but rather, various protein source is rotated. Some things are fed regularly such as Omega3 rich fish; Wild caught salmon,sardine,Mackerels.
This week, Palette's meal is based around Buffalo meat. Next week, her diet is based around Elk, and omega3 rich fish will change from sardine to wild caught salmon.
For those who are interested in her menu, I will list what is scheduled to be fed to her this week.
Monday; Buffalo,chicken liver, green tripe,sardine, chicken feet
Tuesday; Buffalo,chicken heart,green tripe, sardine, chicken feet
Wednesday; Whiting, Turkey heart,Egg, Duck neck
Thursday; Buffalo tongue,Buffalo, Goat liver, Egg, Chicken
Friday; Buffalo tongue,Buffalo, Pork liver,Pork kidney, Chicken
Saturday; Buffalo heart, Beef liver,Beef kidney, Pork ribs
Sunday; Buffalo heart,Duck heart, Pork ribs
The new vet asked a lot about raw diet that day. I wonder if more and more people are interested in the fresh food diet, and I wonder if they started seeing more raw-fed dogs.
He wondered whether I feed less food that before, but answer is simply we have switched the diet to fresh food diet a.k.a. raw diet.
If you were interested in raw diet, you can read my experience of raw diet with Palette's at the link bellow.
Raw feeding 911
Raw feeding 911 Part II
Raw feeding 911 Part III
Raw feeding 911 Part IV
Raw feeding 911 Part V
Raw feeding 911 VI
2. Eliminated all the sugary treats
Then, I started reading labels of treats and chose simple ingredient treat and give those to Palette instead of giving out sugar loaded,highly processed treats.
Whether it is biscuits treats or Jerky treats, or maybe Dental treats, they are so many sugary treats are on the market.
Some of the biscuits are dipped into sugary carob or sugary yogurt chips or maybe it has honey or molasses etc to add the sweetness to the treats while furry friends can enjoy the treats without.
Some so called "All natural" Jerky treats has more than meat itself. Salt, brown rice or rye or oat flour, garlic, sugar canes juice, sugar, maple syrup etc are popular ingredients in Jerky treats while our furry friends can enjoy just one simple ingredient "meat" to their heart content. People loves to add stuff to things that are perfectly fine without anything else..
You can read more on sugary treats in previous entry titled " Do you really know what's going into your dog's stomach?? Part II ".
3. Changed the frequency and amount of treats given to Palette
When she was puppy and through time she was on kibble, I wanted to make sure that she will associate us leaving for grocery shopping with yummy treats.
So,every week, we came back with store bought sugary,highly processed,colorful treats, which Palette loved. Even though she loved a lot, we stopped buying those on grocery shopping day.
Also, I used to have treat box,which I let Palette pick one treats everyday. Of course, she was so excited about the treat box in sight but, currently, she does not get treats daily, rather occasional, except daily training session time, and daily small snack before bed, and daily cool down treats after walk.
She sometimes get big piece of treats, but she does not get them daily as she used to.
4. Made about 4 kinds of daily walking route. And Palette and I added pace variety in walk routine and we probably jog lot more than before.
One is shortest distance, and some other medium distance walk route, and other is longest route. We go short one first, and next day we go little longer distance one and all the way to longest distance route and, next day to the day we go for longest distance route, we go back to shortest distance.
We start off slow walk, then brisk walk, and come home jogging. Palette loves to run with tongue hanging out and, she loves to beat me in the jog. It is so much fun running with her and,I am sure jogging is good for me too.
We go for walk daily unless weather is bad. Also, I am not sure if this is effecting her weight loss, but we tend to go to walk before meal.
Long time ago, when I was watching TV talk show, there was one Doc appeared on the show and said that walking before meal increase the metabolism and good for us.
5. Other than walk, Palette and I move around a lot more via hide and seek game, find it game, Frisbee, fetch ball, fetch and catch ball game etc etc..
Recent Palette's favorite game is "Fetch and catch squeaky egg toy" game.
Palette balancing the squeaky egg toy with smile..
I throw one squeaky egg aiming at something to bounce around. Palette goes after the squeaky egg, and come back squeaking and she tosses the squeaky egg to me and right at about when she release the squeaky egg, I toss another squeaky egg high in the air. She goes catch without letting the squeaky egg drops onto the floor.
She sometimes cat the squeaky egg after it landed to floor and bouncing around but that is ok,as long as we are having fun together.
The squeaky egg toy is actually from interactive toy Palette and I did not like the way it was made, but we are using the squeaky egg toy for good use
How can you tell whether your dog is at good weight?
To see whether Palette is at good weight or not, I was told to see and feel Palette.
One thing I learned is to see if you can feel ribs easily, and have waist line behind the ribs with tucked tummy line.
Peteducation.com website has illustrations of dogs with body scoring system numbers. You can see pictures and see where to look for.
To visit peteducation.com website,please click here .
No table scraps for furry friends..
I think we human are very weak when dogs give us "sad eyes", and we tend to think that the little tiny piece might not be much problems and feed from table sometimes. If the "feeding from table" were daily occurrence, the little tiny piece can add up so much calorie in the long run, and not only teaching them to beg for food, it adds weight in dogs too, and we are not doing any good for them.
I think that sometimes, tough love to self is required for our furry friends' long,healthy life.
Scale weekly..
When Palette's weight was at peek of 36lb, I wanted to have rough ideas as to how much she weigh weekly. Number is not the only indicator of good health but I wanted to have some rough ideas to refer how I am doing for her weight wise.
So, occasionally, we drove to pet supply store and took her to vet clinic area just to weigh. Palette loved the car ride, and loved walking through the aisles and loved to hop on scale because she got petting and all the attention she wanted. And of course,loved meeting new people and their furriends.
After a while, I have decided to purchase doggy scale so that I get to weigh her without holding her in my arms and stand on it together.
Palette's Doggy scale..
Turned out, it was most disappointing experience. I liked the size of the scale,shape of the scale, and the fact that it has non skid surface on scale and number was digital and shows bigger letters,which I liked.
However, it ate battery so quickly and, after a while, I made my routine to take the battery out after weigh-in. The battery was supported by metal strip, and to take the battery out, I had to bent some, and after putting the battery in, I had to straight the metal part out again. After about 2-3 time use with battery in and out routine, the metal strip part got broken off ..
Metal strip got broken off..
Since it was a bit big investment,I was very disappointed.. Wish the battery area design was different and use different kinds of battery that does not eat up so fast..
Palette still thinks the scale is working, and came hop on, and she wanted to be in the picture..
Pause with Doggy scale..
How much I weigh?
That is a secret between me and mom - Palette
Wish the scale still worked...-Mom
When we took Palette to vet the other day, vet tech has told us that Palette wanted to hop on to the scale again and again, even though her weigh in was over. She loves to be on scale because she gets to be pet and get all the attention from people..
Sometimes, weight gain can be the symptoms of other medical problems such as thyroid problem or cushion's disease for dogs, and it is important to eliminate the possibility of those too.
My question to you today is, how often do you go for walk?
That was what the vet has asked us when we recently took Palette to vet clinic for yearly checkup. It was the same vet clinic we have been going since beginning of her diet change 3 years plus ago, but the regular vet we normally see was on day off,so we saw another vet at the same clinic.
Since he has never met Palette before, he flipped through her medical records on file, reviewing her history with us and, decided to ask us the question.
Biggest change since the first time visit to their clinic to current time is obviously the diet. When we started going to the vet clinic was right around switching her diet to fresh diet a.k.a. raw diet from kibble. Another vet (regular vet of Palette) at the same clinic was worried about balance, and nutrition on raw diet.
However, seeing is believing. Second time we have visited her, she praised me I am doing pretty good with Palette and amazed about how she looks, white teeth etc and diet became not an issue with her.
Before we switch Palette's diet from kibble to fresh food diet a.k.a. raw diet, she was at about 36lb. For average 10"-12" tall female Corgi, average weight is said to be about 28lb.
Palette, by the way, is a giant Corgi. She was the biggest Corgi among her siblings and, grown to 14" tall. Even 2"- 4" taller than average female Corgi, I thought that 36lb was a little on heavy side, but rest assured, after the diet switch and some other changes, she has lost some weight and,she is currently weigh at 32lb. Over the years, she has lost 4 lb. The vet thinks, considering she is being a Giant Corgi, 32lb is a good weight.
Especially Palette is being a Pembroke Welsh Corgi, the long back dog, I am being careful of her weight.
According to one of the book I read "What every pet owner should know" by Doc Halligan, for 18 lb of dog that should weigh about 15lb of weight, extra 3lb weight is equivalent of 40 extra lb on average female.
In general, as I wrote in the previous entry titled " Weight management; Satin ball,Green bean diet, and weight management kibble " when dogs are with weight issue, people tend to try out Satin ball for weight gain, Green bean diet or weight management kibble for weight loss. However, I did not try out any of those for Palette.
So, what did I do for weight loss for Palette?
1. Switched the diet to fresh food diet a.k.a. raw food diet
For human or for dogs, I prefer to serve fresh food as diet. I feel that minimally processed simple food has a lot more nutrient in them, and better for us or for dogs.
I think after she is being on raw diet, her coat got shiny, and at the same time, I feel her body muscle is toned nicely.
Of course, changing diet to raw diet does not guarantee the weight loss for dogs, because all the other things such as dogs' life style, age, energy level, what to feed (Chicken? Beef? Elk? Rabbit?Salmon? etc) , how much is fed, etc also effects health in general. If dogs were fed poultry heavy meal day in,day out, that diet will be leaner, but pretty high in omega6 and lacks Omega3 fatty acids, which is good for skin and coat, and you would see the dull, dry, coat as oppose to shiny coat from diet menu with variety even if you see the loss of the weight from lesser kcal in the diet menu.
Over all, I think that eliminating grains,vegetables, all other fillers in her highly processed diet (kibbles) with varied diet menu worked nicely for Palette.
Her raw diet menu varies and, her menu is not heavy on anything special, but rather, various protein source is rotated. Some things are fed regularly such as Omega3 rich fish; Wild caught salmon,sardine,Mackerels.
This week, Palette's meal is based around Buffalo meat. Next week, her diet is based around Elk, and omega3 rich fish will change from sardine to wild caught salmon.
For those who are interested in her menu, I will list what is scheduled to be fed to her this week.
Monday; Buffalo,chicken liver, green tripe,sardine, chicken feet
Tuesday; Buffalo,chicken heart,green tripe, sardine, chicken feet
Wednesday; Whiting, Turkey heart,Egg, Duck neck
Thursday; Buffalo tongue,Buffalo, Goat liver, Egg, Chicken
Friday; Buffalo tongue,Buffalo, Pork liver,Pork kidney, Chicken
Saturday; Buffalo heart, Beef liver,Beef kidney, Pork ribs
Sunday; Buffalo heart,Duck heart, Pork ribs
The new vet asked a lot about raw diet that day. I wonder if more and more people are interested in the fresh food diet, and I wonder if they started seeing more raw-fed dogs.
He wondered whether I feed less food that before, but answer is simply we have switched the diet to fresh food diet a.k.a. raw diet.
If you were interested in raw diet, you can read my experience of raw diet with Palette's at the link bellow.
Raw feeding 911
Raw feeding 911 Part II
Raw feeding 911 Part III
Raw feeding 911 Part IV
Raw feeding 911 Part V
Raw feeding 911 VI
2. Eliminated all the sugary treats
Then, I started reading labels of treats and chose simple ingredient treat and give those to Palette instead of giving out sugar loaded,highly processed treats.
Whether it is biscuits treats or Jerky treats, or maybe Dental treats, they are so many sugary treats are on the market.
Some of the biscuits are dipped into sugary carob or sugary yogurt chips or maybe it has honey or molasses etc to add the sweetness to the treats while furry friends can enjoy the treats without.
Some so called "All natural" Jerky treats has more than meat itself. Salt, brown rice or rye or oat flour, garlic, sugar canes juice, sugar, maple syrup etc are popular ingredients in Jerky treats while our furry friends can enjoy just one simple ingredient "meat" to their heart content. People loves to add stuff to things that are perfectly fine without anything else..
You can read more on sugary treats in previous entry titled " Do you really know what's going into your dog's stomach?? Part II ".
3. Changed the frequency and amount of treats given to Palette
When she was puppy and through time she was on kibble, I wanted to make sure that she will associate us leaving for grocery shopping with yummy treats.
So,every week, we came back with store bought sugary,highly processed,colorful treats, which Palette loved. Even though she loved a lot, we stopped buying those on grocery shopping day.
Also, I used to have treat box,which I let Palette pick one treats everyday. Of course, she was so excited about the treat box in sight but, currently, she does not get treats daily, rather occasional, except daily training session time, and daily small snack before bed, and daily cool down treats after walk.
She sometimes get big piece of treats, but she does not get them daily as she used to.
4. Made about 4 kinds of daily walking route. And Palette and I added pace variety in walk routine and we probably jog lot more than before.
One is shortest distance, and some other medium distance walk route, and other is longest route. We go short one first, and next day we go little longer distance one and all the way to longest distance route and, next day to the day we go for longest distance route, we go back to shortest distance.
We start off slow walk, then brisk walk, and come home jogging. Palette loves to run with tongue hanging out and, she loves to beat me in the jog. It is so much fun running with her and,I am sure jogging is good for me too.
We go for walk daily unless weather is bad. Also, I am not sure if this is effecting her weight loss, but we tend to go to walk before meal.
Long time ago, when I was watching TV talk show, there was one Doc appeared on the show and said that walking before meal increase the metabolism and good for us.
5. Other than walk, Palette and I move around a lot more via hide and seek game, find it game, Frisbee, fetch ball, fetch and catch ball game etc etc..
Recent Palette's favorite game is "Fetch and catch squeaky egg toy" game.
Palette balancing the squeaky egg toy with smile..
I throw one squeaky egg aiming at something to bounce around. Palette goes after the squeaky egg, and come back squeaking and she tosses the squeaky egg to me and right at about when she release the squeaky egg, I toss another squeaky egg high in the air. She goes catch without letting the squeaky egg drops onto the floor.
She sometimes cat the squeaky egg after it landed to floor and bouncing around but that is ok,as long as we are having fun together.
The squeaky egg toy is actually from interactive toy Palette and I did not like the way it was made, but we are using the squeaky egg toy for good use
How can you tell whether your dog is at good weight?
To see whether Palette is at good weight or not, I was told to see and feel Palette.
One thing I learned is to see if you can feel ribs easily, and have waist line behind the ribs with tucked tummy line.
Peteducation.com website has illustrations of dogs with body scoring system numbers. You can see pictures and see where to look for.
To visit peteducation.com website,please click here .
No table scraps for furry friends..
I think we human are very weak when dogs give us "sad eyes", and we tend to think that the little tiny piece might not be much problems and feed from table sometimes. If the "feeding from table" were daily occurrence, the little tiny piece can add up so much calorie in the long run, and not only teaching them to beg for food, it adds weight in dogs too, and we are not doing any good for them.
I think that sometimes, tough love to self is required for our furry friends' long,healthy life.
Scale weekly..
When Palette's weight was at peek of 36lb, I wanted to have rough ideas as to how much she weigh weekly. Number is not the only indicator of good health but I wanted to have some rough ideas to refer how I am doing for her weight wise.
So, occasionally, we drove to pet supply store and took her to vet clinic area just to weigh. Palette loved the car ride, and loved walking through the aisles and loved to hop on scale because she got petting and all the attention she wanted. And of course,loved meeting new people and their furriends.
After a while, I have decided to purchase doggy scale so that I get to weigh her without holding her in my arms and stand on it together.
Palette's Doggy scale..
Turned out, it was most disappointing experience. I liked the size of the scale,shape of the scale, and the fact that it has non skid surface on scale and number was digital and shows bigger letters,which I liked.
However, it ate battery so quickly and, after a while, I made my routine to take the battery out after weigh-in. The battery was supported by metal strip, and to take the battery out, I had to bent some, and after putting the battery in, I had to straight the metal part out again. After about 2-3 time use with battery in and out routine, the metal strip part got broken off ..
Metal strip got broken off..
Since it was a bit big investment,I was very disappointed.. Wish the battery area design was different and use different kinds of battery that does not eat up so fast..
Palette still thinks the scale is working, and came hop on, and she wanted to be in the picture..
Pause with Doggy scale..
How much I weigh?
That is a secret between me and mom
- PaletteWish the scale still worked...-Mom
When we took Palette to vet the other day, vet tech has told us that Palette wanted to hop on to the scale again and again, even though her weigh in was over. She loves to be on scale because she gets to be pet and get all the attention from people..
Sometimes, weight gain can be the symptoms of other medical problems such as thyroid problem or cushion's disease for dogs, and it is important to eliminate the possibility of those too.
My question to you today is, how often do you go for walk?
Comments