Dog nutrition...

mcrowe1016

Silly question:

Because of the holiday I just gave my two dogs each a large rawhide (8 inches long).

The girl (in my profile pic) gets two cups of food a day and the boy gets three. Should I adjust the food I feed them tonight?

Also, the girl is a little overweight....she weighs 70 lbs and should loose about 5lbs (She started at 75lbs...we are loosing together :-)

I am probably just going to give them all their food, as that is what I have done in the past, but I was curious what the mfp community's opinion would be.

Caitie1986

Feed them normally and then go for a run!

Justjoshin

I think what your asking is should you feed them their full dinners even though they had rawhide?

It really depends on how your dog eats raw hides.

Some of mine chew on them forever, others devour them and swallow them within minutes.

I think only you know your dog, and how he/she/they handle their food.

If you are looking at cutting back their food, its not a bad time to start after their belly is full of rawhide however.

wildkatt7

you could cut it down slightly, but rawhide is actually not great for dogs, as it can tear apart their innards... or so my vet told me... also, carrots are great things to feed dogs to help lose weight... My vet said my dog needed to lose like 7 pounds... I cut her food to a third and then gave her all the carrots she wanted... she lost the weight in no time... then I upped her food back up a bit but still give her carrots... she is doing great

sangelic

I've never cut back my dogs food just because I gave her a special treat (she is a dog that devours her bully sticks easily in an hour). Take 'em for a nice walk or run if you're worried

mcrowe1016

I would love a run, but I am doing a 5k in 12 hours and today is my rest day (also it is late where I am and I have 50 things to do for tomorrow still)

Also, my dogs devour rawhides in about 30 minutes.

My dogs normal diets are fine (Alice is loosing weight already), and they only get rawhides about once a month. Alice has been losing weight and Zane has always had trouble keeping weight on. I am just treating them because of the holidays and wasn't sure if I should feed them a full dinner.

Anyway, thanks for the responses!

MummaAimz

Exercise is the best way to get your mutts in shape. My bully was getting super fat so I started walking her twice a day and she cut down in no time. My saint bernard on the other hand is impossible for me to walk as he outweighs me but I play with him outside as much as possible to keep his big butt in shape!