Any advice on low calorie treats/chews?

Grab an inexpensive food dehydrator  cut Sweet potatoes into circles and dry them up ... YUM.... same with Chicken breasts, cut them into strips and make chicken jerky NO salt no sugar  just lean and low fat chicken... if you boil liver you can do the same with it, organ meat is tricky to dehydrate. But dogs LOVE it.... Ice cubes filled with low sodium beef or chicken broth.    Baby carrots are good if they were not raised to love them then start slowly by nuking them briefly in the Microwave with a hint of sweetner, honey, maple syrup, even a sprinkle of brown sugar you are talking less than 30 calories per treat as opposed to most dog cookies that run 50 + w/o fiber , or any nutritional offering. I go Grain free 100%    You can take Zuchinni and dice it into BIG chinks and barely glaze it with some simple No sugar spaghettie sauce..... Yeah People FOOD !!

Cut each meal back by 1/2 by putting french cut green beans sprinkled with a dash of garlic powder and or a dash of boullion granules. Just enough for scent. I love the green bean trick my hounds have used it for years and they "Know" they are eatting a bowl full but some how haven't figured out why they have fewer carbs and calories.

If you want the MOST awesome cookies that you acn break as small as you want and use even the crumbs to dress up evry meal let me know, Mine have supplements in them for infalmation, jointsm and tumor retardation, the boost the immune system liek you would NOT believe, I make them for very , very high priced dogs belonging to very wealthy folks, they make the dog eat and every bite is GOOD  for them.  No empty calories...just things that can be crumbled broken and really adored by the dogs.

Having dogs of ALL ages and health status I figured if I can't ask enough questions I I can't as a retired RN figure out how to make things healthy than shame on me....

Big hugs from one who understands...

Bonita Of Bwana

get her off that Nutro Lite stuff. I've heard of many a dog actually gaining weight on it. Try feeding her high-quality canned foods stuffed into a kong and frozen. And forget the treats, dogs DON'T NEED SNACKS. The only reason you should ever give a dog a treat is for training purposes. Any other treat-giving only benefits the human psychology not the dog.

Thanks for all the great tips Bonita..I really appreciate it...and I would love your recipe if you dont mind sharing it.

Janet

Her vet doesnt really want me to give her canned food at all...I'm not really sure why but he did say he felt my giving her canned food would make her fatter and give her alot of tartar on her teeth. He told me to either feed her the lite Nutro, or he would prescribe the Science Diet weight management kibble...no way am I giving her that. I dont really have much faith in my vet's nutritional advice because as I said, I have been concerned about my dogs weight since she was 12 weeks old and he basically kept blowing off my concerns and telling me she was "fine" and just a growing puppy. Here it is a year later and she has belly fat...not puppy fat. I have tried many brands of food with Callie...she has tried pretty much all the "high quality" foods..canidae, California natural, Solid Gold....she just couldn't really tolerate them well and always had very bad diarreah, hot spots and anal glad problems. The only food she and my other dog Buster have never have any issues with is Nutro. Thats why I switched her to the Nutro Lite...but if that food doesnt help dogs lose weight, I guess I need to find a better way. I would love to give her each meal in a kong because that would force her to eat much slower which I think she really needs to do... but I have no idea how much to put in there if it's canned food. None of the cans list the calories and she is restricted to 500 per day and I have no idea what sort of canned food I can give her that would be good for weight management. She has never gotten snacks during the day except for when she was training.....her training is still on going, but now she is so limited on what she can have.

Thanks for the advice.

Janet

Have you tried her on any grain free foods? I really really am against "lite" or "weight control" foods. They're just chalked full of more fillers (which equals more carbs) and less meat/protein. Just looking at the Nutro Lite ingredients makes me want to cringe:

Rice Flour, Lamb Meal, Ground Rice, Rice Bran, Dried Plain Beet Pulp, Powdered Fiber, Natural Flavors, Soybean Oil (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), Poultry Fat (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), Yeast Culture, Calcium Carbonate, Sunflower Oil (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), Potassium Chloride, Monocalcium Phosphate, Taurine, Dried Kelp Meal, Choline Chloride, Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Sulfate, Vitamin E Supplement, Ascorbic Acid (source of Vitamin C), Manganous Oxide, Biotin, Garlic Flavor, Calcium Pantothenate, Niacin, Copper Sulfate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement (source of Vitamin B2), Glucosamine Hydrochloride, Vitamin A Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (source of Vitamin B6), Thiamine Mononitrate (source of Vitamin B1), Chondroitin Sulfate, Calcium Iodate, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (source of Vitamin K activity), Sodium Selenite, Folic Acid.

 The very FIRST ingredient is rice! That is wayyy to much carbs and useless fillers! Where is the meat?! The protein content is 14.00%, which I find RIDICULOUSLY low. I think that's the lowest I have ever seen in any food, actually. I find the nutrient analysis on the food absulotely shocking. No wonder she can't loose weight on this. That's pretty much like putting an obese human on a diet of rice, french fries and white bread and expecting them to loose weight. I really do wonder about vets sometimes. I also don't follow any of their nutritional advice. You're right about Science Diet, it's even worse.

My suggestion is to find a grain free, low carb and high protein food for her. Something like EVO, Orijen, Wellness CORE, etc. I think you'll find a big difference. It's all lean meat, high protein. For example, here are the ingredients to Innova EVO:

Turkey, Chicken, Turkey Meal, Chicken Meal, Potatoes, Herring Meal, Chicken Fat, Natural Flavors, Egg,Apples, Carrots, Tomatoes, Cottage Cheese, Alfalfa Sprouts, Dried Chicory Root, Taurine, Lecithin, Rosemary Extract, Vitamins/Minerals, Viable Naturally Occurring Microorganisms

 Also, about the vet's comment on canned food, I think that's totally bogus. Neither canned or dry food do anything for dog's teeth at all. Although, I personally find canned food much healthier than kibble for the following reasons; a) higher moisture content b) usually more meat and less grains c) not as processed. The only thing that helps dog's teeth are things like raw meaty bones, not dry nuggets.

Good luck with your pup! Hopefully she'll be recovered and at a healthy weight soon!

4mutts

The protein content is 14.00%, which I find RIDICULOUSLY low. I think that's the lowest I have ever seen in any food, actually. I find the nutrient analysis on the food absulotely shocking.

I think the idea with the low percentage in protein is that most overweight dogs (not all, but most) are fed way to much to begin with, so they are already eating a lot more than they should be.  The total amount of protein consumed ends up being about the same for a dog eating the appropriate amount on a food with higher protein %.  However, I do believe recent studies show that low carb diets work best for dogs that need to lose weight.  I know a lot of people have success with homecooked or raw diets.  That is an option if you are comfortable with it.  How much exercise is she getting?

Thanks...I guess I need to start over with her. Off to the pet store to return the Nutro Lite cans. I'll pick something else out and just keep her on the kibble and add the new canned food slowly. I'll have to do some research to figure out how much food to give her if switching cans. It's just all so confusing to me. I really think its the carbs keeping her overweight. Thank God for you guys and all the great advice here.

Gonna get my girl lean if it kills me lol

I'll send you the recipie for Bwana Bars later this week as we are driving to the Ridgeback Rodeo... Right now I am scrambling trying to get the RV packed and ready to drive out tomorrow... I love these cookies, they are grain free, low carb and full of supplements that boost the immune system and help with other issues so they can be altered to your dog's age and weight etc.. No sugar, no salt  no grain  love them to death !! They are a mess to make but I make them for my kids and three other kennels right now...

Bonita of Bwana     

Jenns...she's not getting any exercise at all..that's the problem. She just had knee surgery on both knees and needs another 8 weeks recovery. Before that, she was lame for 5 weeks, the vet thought it was a torn ligament but after 4 weeks of her not improving he diagnosed luxating patellas...AFTER I researched her symptoms in this forum and suggested it to him. Ugh.  She has always gotten the minimum amount of food her vet told me to give her, even when she was active.She was spayed very young at the shelter...I brought her home when she was 8 weeks old and she had just been spayed. She started gaining weight very quickly after that, and she wasn't even much of an eater the first few months of her life.That's why I kept bringing her to the vet and showing pictures of her here as a pup...she had a belly at 14 weeks old and I was really concerned. The vet told me not to decrease her food, she needed to grow. Well, she grew. and grew. Rounder. Never got very tall...just long and like a barrel around the middle. Since she has such a thick double coat, that makes her look even wider. After her surgery, it was her surgeon that strongly suggested that I decrease her food even more...her vet said 2 cups per day..her surgeon said that was too much and to decrease it to 1/2 cup morning and 3/4 for dinner. When I told my vet last week that I really want Callie to lose about 10 pounds, he rolled his eyeballs at me! He STILL doesn't see her weight as the problem it is...or at least not as serious an issue as I see it and he has not once come up with a single suggestion on feeding her. This dog  MUST be leaner to avoid any future problems with her knees and hips. I'm just trying to find the best possible diet for her. Once her knees are better and I can get her out and running and playing again, she can burn off alot of what she takes in. Right now, she can't. She seems so hungry all the time on such little portions. I would love to be able to feed her something that will satisy her hunger but still allow her to lose the weight she needs to lose. I just dont want her to be miserable in the process. I just would love to be told what exactly to feed her, and how much of it. My vet is no help. I'll take a picture of her and post it here tonight. She's so precious.

Thanks again for listening and for trying to help.

Janet

Thanks Bonita! The Rodeo sounds like fun! I have never actually been to one. Have a safe trip!

 This is her when she was 12 weeks old..she was wide in the middle and the chest

Here are a few pictures I just took of her..

Easy treats --

Go to the baby aisle -- Gerber has dried bananas & strawberries (good crunch but tiny bits -- but my bunch thinks they are 'high value' treats!)

Mine also really like Puffins (a cereal in the healthy aisle that is by a company named "Barbara" -- strange but true).  They are wheat-free and mine LOVE them.  Small bites again so great for training.

Her vet doesnt really want me to give her canned food at all...I'm not really sure why but he did say he felt my giving her canned food would make her fatter and give her alot of tartar on her teeth. He told me to either feed her the lite Nutro, or he would prescribe the Science Diet weight management kibble..

I think you need a new vet. Any vet who knows anything knows its even more important to keep a puppy thin than to keep an adult dog thin. The "canned food makes the teeth dirty" is myth that all vets should know is not true, and how on earth would canned food, which is mostly water, has more protein and less calories per cup than kibble make a dog fatter? high-carb foods like Nutro lite and well, most kibbles, promote deposition of body fat. I think you need to stop worrying about whether your dog feels hungry. Frankly, all dogs fed dry kibble are almost certainly very hungry at all times- dogs stomachs are designed to eat well, rabbits, which are mostly water. You put 1000 kcal of rabbit next to 1000 kcal of dry kibble and you see the kibble-fed dog's stomach won't get much into it.

caveninit

My Aussie mix 1 year old pup needs to lose about 7or 8  pounds. Problem is, she just had double knee surgery for luxating patellas and is not allowed any excercise for at least 8 more weeks! She's always weighed more than I felt she should, even at 12 weeks old I was concerned about her weight and kept posting her pics here asking for advice. I always gave her a little bit less food than the vet recommended because she just kept getting fatter and she was never a highly active puppy...

Thyroid problems?