Animal And Company: Re: A fat doxie, help

I would think your best bet is your vet. Yours may not actually be supposed to weigh 9 lbs or less. Mine's ideal weight, according to the vet, is 12 1/2 lbs. That's great for her. We keep her between 12 and 13 lbs. With something that little, weight gain is really fast so you have to think about it all the time. We weigh her every time we have her bathed [about once a month--at least] and adjust our habits accordingly.

That does seem like a lot of food. We feed Lady twice a day about 8 or so and about 3. She gets 1/4 cup of doggie food at a time. She also gets treats [broken small] several times a day for different things [there's no free lunch at our house]. Because we love her, after we eat, most of the time she also gets a piece of microwaved chicken that is about 3/4 of an inch square. It's broken into tiny pieces and that is when we practice silly little tricks [and some not so silly] we've worked on. [With this practice she has never ever begged. If she did, she would get nothing. She will sit lying down in the next room for the next 3 days, but she will NOT beg.] If she begins to put on weight, we really cut back on those little doggie treats, making sure not to do it so often or give large pieces. It has worked for us.

The best thing that helped us was that we used to let her do things like lick out a plate if something was really good, etc. Then she got sick and the vet was pretty sure it was not pancreatitis, but he said it likely was related. He thought people food, especially anything greasy or spicy, would eventually make her really sick. He said that some dogs can take that and some just cannot, and he was pretty sure Lady was one that could not take it. So, obviously, we stopped doing that--no grease at all for her, etc. Makes her weight much easier. An interesting thing that I read was that little dogs under 10 lbs. for example need about 600 [yes, 600] calories and day. Just imagine that. Most of their stuff doesn't have calories on it, but look at your own food and you know that 600 calories can't be much!!!

Hope this helps.

On Fri, Jul 1, 2011 at 7:44 PM, Donna <crossone2003@yahoo.com> wrote:

I have a mini doxie almost two and and she is 17 pounds and I dont knowwhat to do. How much should she eat. I know I feed her too much and I dont know how much.I think I give her a cup a day . I feed he in the am, a hand full at lunch and then dinner( 6,1:30 and 6or7pm).Please help me,

Donnaand Dottie