Overweight on Raw....

[Mrpuck]

Hello all. I have a 3 1/2 year old GSD and she is really starting to tip the scales near 100 pounds now. It's heavy for her, and I think I really realized we have a problem when the groomer said she couldn't even jump up onto the groomer table anymore.

I typically feed her the usual 3% of her body weight as I have done for her and her brother since they have been pups. Her brother is a lean slender 85 pounds, and she is just fat. They get the same size servings, same food. Pork, Chicken, Beef, Fish, Eggs, and 10% of organ meat.

I have since tried cutting back the food to her to about 2%, which 2 pounds to this GSD is like 3 Leg Quarters. I feel like I am starving her. Regardless I stuck with is for weeks. I am not noticing ANY difference.
The only thing I can think of is I do sometimes feed them a gorge meal once a week. A huge pork shoulder 6-7lbs. but I typically will not feed them the next day then. Maybe this is causing the issue, I dunno.
I also feed at night, when they are near bed time to avoid bloat from running around after they eat. Maybe I should only feed her in the morning?

I am at a loss on what else to do, I am at the point of taking her to the Vet. However the Vets in our area, none of them are happy with the RAW diet she is on. Pretty much blame that for anything even though she is healthy other then the weight. I am afraid if I go to the Vet she will be put on a weight control kibble formula.

I am just concerned if she keeps up this weight I may be looking at Elbow or Hip problems soon.

[Jax08]

Have you had her thyroid checked? How much exercise does she get? Mine gets pretty regular exercise and gets 1.75%. I would decrease to 2% at least and increase exercise. I would also stop the "gorge" meal until her weight is back under control.

[Mrpuck]

I did have her Thyroid checked months back, because she tires quickly on walks. Everything came back good, and the Dr. said they didn't see any problems. I contemplated going to a specialist after that but just didn't have the money to throw at it, when aside from being overweight and tiring easily, she is perfectly healthy.

I'm going to cut out the gorge meal for now. See if that helps, I can also try walking her more often.

We have a 2 acre lot, and she is outside pretty much all day running around with her ball, chasing deer, etc.

[Two]

I think walking her more often, casually over time, will help this problem. If you don't walk her at least once a day I could imagine the dog gaining unwanted weight.

[Jax08]

How tall is she? I don't know how much overweight she is but guessing 20 lbs because she's a female.

Definitely start with walks and low impact. Maybe swimming. I would make sure she got regular, structured, exercise. She's tiring easily because she's overweight.

[bocron]

Maybe you lucked out and have an "easy keeper". We had a DDR bitch a number of years back that lived on almost nothing compared to the other dogs. It was just the way she was and we fed her accordingly. Close to 100lbs for a bitch is ginormous! I wouldn't worry about the percent you are feeding her, just getting her back into a good weight. If you feel she needs a bit more food then give her some green beans as filler, just be sure to rinse if you use canned beans since they are usually pretty salty.

[Jax08]

Jax is an "easy keeper". Her ideal weight is 62-65 lbs and if she's not getting good exercise (45-60 minutes of running) every day then her food should be kicked back to 1.5% to 1.75% which is about 20 oz per day.

I forgot about the green beans!

[Freestep]

Originally Posted by bocron

Maybe you lucked out and have an "easy keeper". We had a DDR bitch a number of years back that lived on almost nothing compared to the other dogs. It was just the way she was and we fed her accordingly.

Yes--some dogs just do well on less food, and that's a good thing--it saves you money! To the OP, I would cut her food back by about 1/3 and continue the exercise. She's getting tired quickly because she's lugging an awful lot of extra weight around, all the time. With a third less food, you should start to notice a difference within a couple of weeks. If you don't, cut the food back further. I have not heard of "gorge feeding" with raw, but I would stop doing that with her. She obviously doesn't need it.

One of my dogs had the opposite problem--she couldn't keep weight ON with raw, so I switched her to kibble. This is the first I've heard of a dog that got too heavy on raw, but I think you're just feeding her way too much. Don't feel like you're "starving" her if she only gets three chicken quarters a day--that's way more than any of my dogs are eating, and they are not underweight or starving to death. Of course they are hungry all the time--most dogs are--and most dogs will eat as much as you put in front of them, because that's what they're wired to do. In the wild, you never were sure where your next meal was coming from, so when you got food, you ate as much as you could possibly hold in your belly. Modern dogs are fed regularly, but their evolutionary wiring doesn't know that, so many (if not most) American dogs get waaaay too fat. A well-meaning owner thinks that if a dog acts like it's starving all the time, he's not getting enough nutrition, so he overfeeds. It's terrible for the dog, causes all kinds of joint and organ issues, but somehow people manage to overlook this. Glad you haven't!

[martemchik]

I feed premade raw and kibble. My 1 year old gets about 2.5 cups of good kibble in the morning and about 1.5 cups of premade raw at night (its like ground up chicken and vegies/other vitamins). He is a slender 75 lbs. Three chicken leg quarters a day seems like way too much. He would get more when he was a growing puppy but we have cut back in the past few months and he looks great. I've heard of the 3% rule but I don't think that it works for all dogs (just like 2000 calories doesn't work for all humans). I would really cut back, and if you don't see any bile throw up then your dog is fine. Let her burn through all that extra weight, you have her brother (I'm guessing litter mate) and if they are the same height he should still be a little heavier than her. If she is smaller, she should weigh less than him.

[dawnandjr]

You dont have to put her on a kibble just because the vet 'reccomends' it. You do what you want with your pet, the vet is just there to help and guide. I have found most dogs carry more weight on a raw diet, but it is more solid weight. Just cut back on her current diet. I try to evaluate how my adult dog looks about every six months and adjust accordingly (unless I notice something needs to be changed sooner).