What dog weight loss supplements could be useful to your dog when dieting?

Supplementing your dog’s diet with Omega-3 acids (found in fish oils) will help your dog to burn fat by improving carbohydrate and fat metabolism. A diet high in omega-3 fatty acids is also essential to maintaining a healthy coat and skin during dieting. L-carnitine (an amino acid) is another dietary supplement that could help your dog lose more weight while dieting by increasing the chances that the body will use fat for energy as opposed to storing it. Both of the above supplements can be found in many weight management foods. Be sure to ask your veterinarian if these dietary supplements are appropriate for your dog and what dosages.

Which Diet Dog Food is Best for Your Dog?

When faced with the decision to choose which diet dog food would be best for your dog, always start with the label. The ideal diet dog food possesses 4 qualities to ensure optimal nutrition for dieting. So what qualities should your diet dog food have?

1)High levels of protein: Protein is necessary to maintain muscle mass. Diets high in protein help to minimize muscle loss caused from the reduction of calories during dieting. Muscles are the biggest burners of calories so losing muscle will also decrease the calories burned daily and will slow weight loss. Foods with 35-50% of their calories from protein are common for weight loss diets.

2)High levels of fiber: Dietary fiber is important for colon health. Higher levels of dietary fiber stimulate expansion in the stomach and intestines and signals satisfaction to the brain. This makes less food more satisfying and tends to decrease begging behavior in the dieting dog. Fiber content greater than 20% is common in diet foods

3)High levels of vitamins and minerals: Dieting dogs get fewer of the vitamins and minerals necessary due to the reduction in calories. Diet dog foods are fortified with extra vitamins and minerals to make up this difference. Dieting animals on non-diet food require vitamin and mineral supplementation. Your vet can help with the dosing.

4)Moderate to low levels of fat: The body needs fat for optimum cell, skin, and coat health; however, excess levels of fat are easily stored by the body and will reduce fat loss during dieting. A fat content of 8-10% will meet the body’s needs without adding extra calories

All of the veterinary weight loss diets of Hill’s, Purina and Royal Canin possess the important 4 qualities of an ideal diet dog food. Over-the-counter low calorie foods are typically high in fiber but fall short for the other requirements. Their feeding guidelines are often too generous for weight loss. There may not be a magic food for weight loss but there is a magic number of calories to feed and it can change during the diet. That number can be difficult to figure out and requires help from your veterinarian. Ask your veterinarian which brand they recommend from the names listed above and with help calculating the ideal number of calories for your dog for dieting.

Next Post: Feeding the thin dog inside – finding the magic number of calories that promotes weight loss.

Dr. T

Keeping Your Dog Food Fresh

Weekly Wellness Tip: After opening a bag of dry food, store it in a container that can be sealed from the air. Vitamins and fats are easily destroyed by room air. Plastic containers with tight fitting lids will do the trick.

Dr. T

Which dog food is best for your dog, Wet or Dry?

Welcome back, pack!

Which dog food to feed, wet or dry?


Most dog owners will answer dry because they have been told that dry is better for dog’s teeth. The belief is that dry food needs to be chewed and therefore cleans teeth. Actually this is not true. Anyone who has seen or stepped in dog vomit knows that it looks the same as dry food, just wetter. That is because like their wild ancestors, dog’s tear, crack and swallow without chewing. Chewing during a kill would limit food intake. Modern dogs still share the same wild eating behavior. Without chewing, food has no cleaning action. Dry or wet, it doesn’t matter to teeth.

The choice to feed wet or dry is really based on expense and lifestyle. Dry food is much cheaper per serving than wet or canned food. It is also easier to store and convenient to feed. That is why its popularity has grown steadily since WW II. Up to the war years, dogs were mostly fed table scraps. But with the men off to fight and women in the factories, dry food was a perfect choice for feeding Fido.

Most dogs love canned food. It is equally nutritious compared to dry food despite the high water content. Fur quality often improves after adding canned food to the diet. It is definitely more expensive per serving. The odor, inconvenience of the can (opening, storing partials, disposal) and not eaten food turns away many dog owners.

Feeding a combination of wet and dry is a great plan that most dogs readily eat and is more satisfying. Adding wet food to the diet often decreases grazing behavior like eating poop, sticks, leaves, toys, etc.

Remember, if you add wet food to the diet, you must subtract dry food from each meal. The number of calories from both wet and dry must add up to your dog’s daily calorie requirement!


Next Post: Picking a low calorie diet food


Dr. T

More great dog health tips at www.trimthepack.com