doggie diet help

[typoqueen]

according to the vet our new rescue rottie of 15 months is overweight by about 10kg!!! he currently weighs in at 50kg we have had him 7 weeks and he has lost a fair bit since we had him due to previous owner never taking him out for a walk (was shut inside shed day and night) we can only walk him 30 mins slowly building up longer every few weeks each walk which he has 3 a day due to lacking in any form of muscle tone in his rear legs again from lack of exercise..i have halved his food intake (not sure if this is too much) but now he is a pain in the butt, scrounging food, trying to snatch food from us, jumping up the worktops in case we have left food out, had to put the bin outside and he raids it, he is obviously hungry as he never used to do this, should I increase his food by a 1/4 and/or feed him the same amount but spread it out into say 3 or 4 meals a day instead of 2, he is on a mixture of dry and wet food...never had to put a dog on a diet before its really hard and I refuse to buy the vets diet food at its over the top price it would cost me about 58.00 a week!!....

[tabulahrasa]

Is he tiny? 50kg is the bottom end of the breed standard...ok he won't have quite finished growing yet, but he'd have to be pretty short to want to be 40kg.

Food wise, you want to be feeding him the right amount for the weight you want him to be, so that would probably only be a fifth less rather than half. You could also bulk it out with some veg if you really needed to.

[typoqueen]

that's the thing tabulahrasa he is average height for a rottie at the moment 26" to the shoulders (not sure when they actually stop growing) and from what I have read adults are usually 50- 60kg depending on height and sex, although I have to say he does have a bit of a flabby belly, I think he is lacking in muscle tone but its hard to build him up on short walks no running jumping etc, I will increase his food intake and thank you did not think about bulking it out with veg, will start that tomorrow, just don't want his food scrounging to become habit, he is a fantastic dog, so loving and calmx

[tabulahrasa]

Calm? Mine is 10 months, it's like living with tigger...with ADHD, lol

I will give him loving though, he's very affectionate.

Mine is about 40kg, but he is mini (about 22-23") and lean. I suspect it might be a muscle tone thing rather than actual weight if he's not little, but then the thinner you can get him the better he'll be for it anyway.

[typoqueen]

lol @ ADHD tigger now that sounds like my 6 year old daughter :) Dillon thinks he is a little dog and constantly tries to sit on my lap at the moment he is sprawled across me and I have my laptop on his back and there he will stay until I have no feeling in my feet and legs or he snores himself away hahaha x

[tabulahrasa]

Oh yes, mine is also convinced he's a tiny dog - when he was a little puppy I introduced him to some lhasa apsos...I'm pretty sure he thinks he is one, or that size at least, lol.

[typoqueen]

thank you kibble, will have a look at that, we are in Norfolk bit far for home delivery lol xx
we have Dillon on james wellbeloved as it suits his tummy perfecty he had awful poops when we got him.

34DD my dd calls Dillon "dumpling" lol hubby calls him podge and I call him pudding hope we are not giving him a complex hahahaha..love him so much and obviously want to do the best for him, he is at the vets next week for a weigh in so fingers crossed...I have actually lost 12lb since I had him :) loving our walks out cant wait till the little pudding can go for longer walks :)