Diet advice

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Mom2Melli

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Melody is about 16" tall, bigger girl. Came to me in Aug. at 39 pounds. We eat TOTW bison. We eat 3 times a day because the shepherd is really really prone to the grumbly tummy possible bloat and smaller meals are better. I gave her 1/2 what keeps my shepherd at a trim 52 pounds. Dropped Melli to 34 pounds over a couple months.

BUT! She became this monster, trying to take Shay's food, having to be fed in the bathroom but when she exits I have to put him in a stay UP on the couch where she can't kill him. I believe she blames him for her being hungry. Well, she blames him for everything from hunger to gunshots, poor fella. Rest of the time she gets along with him fine. She's back up to 37 pounds.

My question is how can I reduce her food without her killing and eating us in our sleep? I realize that she is currently eating about 150 pieces of food per meal. I am going to try actually reducing by 1 piece per meal per day and se if she can adapt that slowy. Counting is not THAT hard to do if you prepare 2 days' worth at a time.

Any other ideas? She WILL eat anything. Carrots, celery, onions, ice, crackers, pretzels, bread, bananas, anything that hits the floor so I imagine I can throw some carrots in and give her more to crunch per meal?
 
I (along with others) have been really successful with green beans (unsalted, of course). It ups the "intake" so the dogs feel fuller, but the calories are super low.
 
Wait wait wait.. you're counting the actual pieces? Geez that's gotta be time consuming! When I was feeding TOTW, I fed 2/3 cup a day. Missy is 16 inches and 25 lbs. I think people have mentioned feeding green beans as a low calorie filler.
 
I have a measuring cup I use for Shay. It comes out to about 1-1/2 cups a day if I remember. I have a scooper that is 1/2 that and I would give that to Melli. BUT is a beastie over anything less than what he gets, or about 3/4 of what he gets. No way does she need what maintains a 52 pound dog! Problem is if I notice there is less, so does she. Thinking if I have to I will reduce it by one lowsy kernel a day to try and pull one over on her. Once we get to the maintenance amount, it fits in that small scooper and there would be no counting. It would just be counting for the next 1-2 months while reducing really slowly. If I had a digi scale, I could do it that way. That would save time. Maybe I can pick one up. Hmmm.
 
Jess041 said:
Wait wait wait.. you're counting the actual pieces? Geez that's gotta be time consuming! When I was feeding TOTW, I fed 2/3 cup a day. Missy is 16 inches and 25 lbs. I think people have mentioned feeding green beans as a low calorie filler.
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LOL that's what I was thinking too. I'm no help to you though, we just reduced all of Honey's food. Although I think she can tell, she doesn't go after Ruutu's food at all. I don't give her anything added including treats. She gets a greenie maybe once a week, usually every other. I can now feel her ribs after 10 months of fighting with her weight. I cut her back from 2/3rd twice a day, to 1/2 twice a day to now 1/3rd twice a day. She complains earlier that she's hungry in the evening, but never complains a 2nd time that she's hungry. I feel Blue bluffalo longevity to her though.
 
Was wrong -- he gets 2/3 three times a day. Her scooper is 1/3 three times a day.

Tried the beans. She ate them along with the food and some chicken liver powder (at bottom of freeze dried chicken liver tub we got from Grandma at Christmas). I fear for my life, but oh well.

Maybe she will be happy with her bling collar arriving tomorrow! LOL.
 
I'm not brave enough to do the Atkins diet. Perhaps if I lived closer to a town rather that only going shopping once every 2-3 weeks.
 
Try replacing one whole meal with a mix of vegies.

I give Tully pumpkin (or sometimes sweet potato) with other vegies mixed in for one of her meals, then she gets her normal food for her other meal (the meal she takes her pills with). She loves pumpkin so is quite happy to have a vegie meal. I also sometimes mix in some meat broth with her vegies - dogs have a great sense of smell but they do not have a good a sense of taste as we do, so the smell of meat is often enough. I cook up a week or two's worth and freeze it.
 
Dinner looked great! 1/3 c TOTW, carrots, green beans, probiotic, and a bit of powder from the freeze dried chicken liver bucket.

She did not try to kill Shay when she finished with made us all happy. I really want her in the 29.something range so we shall see. Incidently, I have a two storey house so she has to deal with stairs and so less weight is better on the wiggly-piggly.
 
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