canine health, reply to your info

Question
Hi! Thank you SO much for your reply. As for the dog food, Tammi gets Nutro aNatural Choice lamb/rice LITE for the older/inactive dog ...it is fairly new: 15% less calories & 50% less fat than regular, they say it provides "3090 kcal/kg of metabolizable energy on an as-fed basis" On each of 2 feedings pd, she gets about 1.5 cups dog food plus the veggies which I give as a filler. Maybe shes not getting enough dog food - the bag reads 4 3/4 cups max per day. Her "treat" for swallowing her pills is a chunk of pork lung. (we call'em "uglies") My goal for her is 67 lbs maximum  - the vet would be happy there. She is normally an extremely active girl & very mentally alert. TY for the reminder of stuffing Kongs, & I will look up Dr. Fox's books, drop some broccoli & add the Vitamin E as you suggested. Will also ask her vet re thyroid/broccoli connection: ty for THAT warning. Tam is a fruit-eater: loves melon,apple,oranges,pear. These are daily, but restricted quantity.
   I make dog cookies w/ lethicin, salmon, garlic, WWflour. Will get the dark turkey meat for her; occasionally she gets ground lamb.  Tam gets heat therapy every day plus 2, 3 massages/wk.
 I hope all this helps, & anticipate your new info. Thank you so much in advance, you've been wonderful

Answer
Hello April, and I'm very glad to have been of some help.

I'm pretty sure this is the correct food:
http://www.nutroproducts.com/ncdry-lite.shtml#analysis

So let's have a look at it and see about the amount you're using.

At 244 calories per cup, her 3 cups a day would total 732 calories. Now, if we look at a maintenance amount for her goal weight of 67 pounds, we get (for an inactive dog) 1164 calories. So to reduce it around the 10% mark I could see this dog losing at 950, 1000 calories - slowly, but that's easier on her anyway. If you're feeding 730 calories of food, that leaves  200 - 250 lets say to make up for.  You *could* add some more kibble, but I'm a bit concerned about this very low protein food. It's actually the lowest protein content I have seen yet in a kibble. And while this approach - high carb/low protein - can work for an active overweight dog, who is burning up a lot of fuel, it nearly always backfires with an inactive one. I sometimes wonder why dog food companies don't get wise to this. One of my favourite dog foods, Canidae, has three excellent lines and then a Senior Food I don't recommend for this very reason. Geriatrics actually require more, not less protein, and inactive overweight dogs tend to lose weight more efficiently if the protein is higher than the carb. So I would suggest one of two things here.
1) switch the food to a higher protein variety, or 2) supplement this one with 200 calories of protein daily. Add egg, turkey, lamb, salmon - which will provide a highly bioavailable source of energy and amino acids. Either of these approaches will improve the basic diet you're using now and hopefully offset some of her hunger pangs.

It's important when looking at these high fiber senior foods to remember that dogs have no nutritional requirement for carbohydrate at all. But this  doesn't mean we shouldn't feed any; the best research we have available suggests that  *some* fiber is indeed beneficial.  We just need to consider what type and how much for each individual dog. One of the first uses for carb in the diet is for fuel; if the dog isn't using up very much, it will tend to get stored as fat. I see the best results with my client's dogs when carb is kept to a lower level and protein and fats higher.

It really sounds to me like you're on top of things and very tuned in to your dog's needs. I'd love to hear how you're doing and what works to help your girl reduce. I'm wary of the lower protein food, but you are supplementing with fresh foods and protein, and every dog is an individual - I'm sure with some experimentation you'll get her weight to an optimal level. Just be wary of underfeeding protin and be aware too that chronic underfeeding of calories can cause the metabolism to slow down, thus making it even harder for her to lose.

Let me know if I can help more, and good luck!
Catherine