Best food for bully that needs to lose weight?
Submitted by Lindsey on May 6, 2011 - 5:44pmWhat is a good food to help with weight loss? Hopefully grain free because thats what she is on now. Currently she is on blue buffalo wilderness the salmon but had planned on switching her off of it anyways because of the 34 % protein. She has had 2 really bad urinary tract infections within the past 2 months. She has never had any until now so I would think maybe the food is causing that? I took my bully to the vet today and she is way way overweight(didn't realize she weighed so much but knew she was overweight). The vet thought it might be her thyroid so he tested it and we will see possibly monday if that is the reason for being so overweight. As I told the vet she doesn't eat a ton of food , 1 cup in the morning and 1 cup at night and sometimes she doesn't even eat all of that. She is very lazy and doesn't get much exercise (if you walk her even for a few minutes she sounds like she is going to have a heat stroke and die). I have other bullies too as I posted a message below about my one having head tremors so I would like to find a good food for all of them to be on. This girl is the only one that is really overweight so i'm hoping its her thyroid and when starting her on meds she can lose some weight. Any suggestions on a food? I was looking at natural balance new food(the alpha) but don't know about it because I didn't have success with their other grain free foods.
Most dog foods that are advertised as 'diet food' are...
full of fillers such as peanut hulls that will not really be good for her. My recommendation would be to find a good food, feed her a little less of it and make up the remainder with cooked green beans which are filling and very low calorie. Taste of the WIld Pacific Stream (salmon) has only 25% protein as does their lamb variety. I went to our local feed store to find a low calorie food for Chester and found out that the salmon was as low calorie as anything.
weight loss
sounds like it might be a Thyroid issue with no more than what she is eating. But the best weight loss food I know of is to substitute 1/2 of her kibble with green beans. Use the frozen or canned low-salt variety, she doesn't need the excess salt to flare up her UTI again.
For a food recommendation for her, I really like the Solid Gold Holistic Blendz. It isn't grain free but the grains it has are very high quality and not commonly used in dog food. I found this food many years ago in a quest to find a kibble my Bullie with Pancreatitis could eat and do well on.
Green Beans
Is there anything else I can substitute in? She is pretty picky and will not touch green beans.
Pumpkin
Most dogs like pumpkin and it is low calorie and filling. Buy the plain canned pumpkin, NOT the pie filling that has sugar & spices already in it.
If you have a GFS food store nearby you can buy a case of 6# cans for about $45. When you open the giant can, immediately pack most of it into Gladware freezer tubs and put them in your freezer. If you leave the pumpkin in the big can it will turn brown and probably go bad before you can use it all up.
my bully lost 8 pounds in 9 months from using...
royal canin calorie control dry food... it makes them poo like crazy, like goes straight thru! but it worked... not sure if its grain free or not, our vet perscribed it for us. good luck
sincerely, christine
Carrots
Both mine LOVE raw carrots. I thought our vet was crazy when she told me to give Maggie carrots instead of treats because Maggie was overweight (she also told us to cut 1/4 cup from her food twice a day). We use the shredded carrots or the petite baby carrots and she absolutely loves them! Sadie does too. Might be an option.