Weight management question

Re: Weight management question

Rachel Jayne — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 20:11:34 GMT

I've gotta be honest, I haven't used the BER/MER calculations since college/portfolio...

I ditto the others, to just set a weight target a kilo or two below what they are now.

In my experience, with compliant owners, you would expect an overweight dog to lose around 500g per month, so setting a few kilos as a target motivates the owner more when they can see it coming down.

I use graphs too - owners like graphs

Re: Weight management question

Gemma Burden RVN — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 21:10:28 GMT

When I do weight clinics the feeding amounts I use depend a lot on the client and how much the dog supposedly eats. If i have a client that is going to be put off if the dog doesn't loose weight immediately then I tend to go for a more sever amount. I also usually do this for those dogs that supposedly don't eat anything but are still huge. If the amount to loose is huge and I don't predict any client problems then I usually go for an amount for an intermediate amount, then adjust the amount again when they are near that weight as long as there are no problems in between.

Re: Weight management question

Mark Hedberg — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:25:04 GMT

I generally set intermediate target weights, but I cheerfully admit that's anecdotal. If the dog is fed at target weight, he's constantly hungry and the owner hates starving him. Compliance is nonexistant, and the dog gains even more weight.

If I start at 36kg, I feed him for a 34kg dog; when he hits 34kg, he gets a 32kg target, and so on. I feel it lets him get used to slightly smaller portions, and you get a slower, safer, more gradual weight loss.

Cheers,

Mark