mydawgz

Daisy has only lost 4 pounds since the vet started her on Hills Perscription diet. She is down to a plump 71.4. She started the diet on March 20th. She is not eating drastically less than she did before, but she is eating healthier for sure. I am following his instructions by giving her 2 cups of dry perscription food and then 2 cans of the perscription wet food. (they are pretty small cans). I give it all to her at one time in the bowl. I put the wet food on top of the dry food. (She is funny, she eats the wet food at night and saves the dry for her breakfast!!)

She gets a few pee treats. but nothing excessive.

Also, She will not exercise. When Benny was alive she would at least walk around the block, but since he is gone, she wont leave the driveway. (she was attacked by a random loose pit bull when we were walking her in the neighborhood when she was a puppy and she has been scared to be by herself ever since.)

Any advice on the diet?

vb3

I would guess if it is diet only to lose weight it would be similar to people - it will take a long time and maybe not result in much weight loss. The walk part is kind of a bummer - will she fetch or play in the house?

Rusty Stickers Mom

What food did she put her on? The W/D? Also, replacing part of her food with fresh green beans is good. It has the crunch factor to satisfy her and fill her belly but not alot of calories. Or use the green beans for treats.

Yogi's Mom

I know a number of people will not agree with me on this but Science Diet food is one of the worst foods on the market. In my opinion it is just as bad as the grocery store foods (dads, cycle, kibbles n bits etc). Take a look at the ingredients and decide if that is something you would eat yourself.
If your vet put Daisy on Science Diet to lose weight, I would not feed it. Most vets don't know very much about nutrition. You can feed her any food you want, just make sure you feed less of it. Same thing goes for Reduced Fat or Lite foods, not necessary to feed them.
It does take time to get the extra weight off dogs, especially if they are not getting any exercise. We usually cut our dogs food back by a quarter cup a week and have them weighed at least every two weeks so we can see how they are doing.
For what you are probably paying for a bag of Science Diet, you can get a really good quality food like Innova, California Natural etc.
Just my two cents.

Houndsong

Green beans are great for weight loss. Pumpkin is also good, and the dogs love it. It is also good for firming up a loose stool and possibly helps with anal gland expression. All I add is about a tablespoon per meal. It is in short supply because of rot in last year's harvest. I have used sweet potato to the same effect. I think the adivce to feed less and to add green beans if necessary is good. Don't think your dog has to have a big bowl of food, especially if it is getting less exercise. Also, I feed twice a day. Sounds like your dog is doing this anyway by eating the canned first and the dry the next day.

I know nothing about Science Diet. I've fed my dogs 1/2 Canidae (lately) or Biljac (in the past) and 1/2 Purina Dog Chow for at least 10 years. Laugh at Purina if you like but it was one of the few popular dog foods not contaminated by melamine.

hig4s

I will agree with you.. check out this Dog Food Reviews - Main Index - Powered by ReviewPost

Hills and IAMS like all grocery store brands rate 1 star.. Diamond and their Kirkland brand, and Eukanuba rates 3 starts,, Origen, Wellness, and Blue Buffalo rate 6 stars. Right now I am using Kirkland mixed with Purina One (only because that is what they were being fed before we got them) Once I have then totally on Kirkland I will mix in some Wellness or Blue Buffalo. I can't afford to feed 100% expensive brands that only come in small bags, 15lbs is the largest Blue comes in and it is $30.

mydawgz

I wish I could get her to move around a little more. Since Benny died, she seems to like to ride in the car a little more for some reason, so the other night I put her in the car and we went to the local pet store. I got her big butt out of the car and grabbed her leash and we walked about 5 feet in the parking lot and she stopped. She planted her feet, sat down and that was the end of it. She would walk back to the car, she would walk around the parking lot a little bit, but no way could I get her to cross from the parking lot to the curb and go in the store. I can't even get her to walk into the vets office from the car.
I will try some other foods like all of you mentioned. I have never heard of giving them green beans... How do I do that? I wonder if she will actually eat a bean?

Rusty Stickers Mom

Publix sells them in a 1 pound bag in the produce dept. Just take out some of her kibble and replace it with some fresh green beans. They seem to love the crunch factor and they will fill her up but low in calories.

hig4s

Our last basset, when she was young, would eat anything we would eat. Of course macadamia nuts, grapes, avocados, onions and chocolate are bad for dogs, and tomatoes and garlic not really good either.. so we avoid those..

She loved most fruit, especially bananas. She would eat carrots, sweet peas, and sometimes green beans. She use to like brussel sprouts, but then my wife have her one with cheese sauce on it and after that she wouldn't eat them without.

Mikey T

A rating based on ingredients lisst are baised because the authors always have a bias against certain ingredient common in so called supermarket brand when infact these so so called "boogie man ingredients" are often superior to the counterpart use in superpremium brands.

i.e. grain free foods use tapioka, or potatoes to provide the need starch to make kibble. These ingredients are actual nutrional inferior to grains like corn, wheat and rice. By products are general a better quality more digestable and superior protein source that muscle meat.

See The Pet Food Ingredient Game

What Are The Most Healthy Grains, Legumes And Starches?
Critique Of Internet 'Rate Your Dog Food' List

The "Exotic Ingredients Mean Good Nutrition" Myth

Are By-Products Bad?
Corn and Soy
Corn and Soy
It should be noted that is virtually impossible to find any nutritional info on feeding dogs that is not biased. In the case of the articles provided the all come from one source that is also a manufacture of a super premium brand. They also have a bias which I have avoided in the quotes provided, and that bias is raw products are superior to cook products. While that may be true for some ingredient it is not true for all. And any studies sited by the company ast to the superiority of a "raw" diet are of poor quality and the result are in serious dispute as a result. Most of the so called benefits noted in the various studies can be accounted for by the lack of controls. The most famous being the cats feed raw sardines and milk, before it was known the requirement of cats, that is cat only not dog or humans for taurine, and estential fatty acid, which is destroyed by heat. Now all cats food cotain adequit levels of taurine but tht would not be the case in the study cited and this study because taurine is require in a cat diet but not a human nor a dog diet is not translateable. When doing any research on feeding dog food look for the bias first so then you can make reasonable evaluation of the content of the material.