Tina

[TinaMc]

Hey all! Just looking for information...I looove my corgi girl! She is 2 1/2 years and a bit on the plump side. keep exercising and eat better--my fault but she's so cute! Eats green beans! looking for good info on diet--she exercises daily! I was looking for a rollover on my back and give me belly rubs! Her name is Fyvie (after a castle in Scotland) Thanks, Tina

[Michael Romanos]

Hi Tina and welcome to you and Fyvie.
Lets start from the premise that if you starve a person or a dog they will very quickly lose weight. So less food daily should equate to less weight PROVIDED the exercise regime is kept up. A healthy Corgi should be well able to run/walkfast for an hour a day - perhaps you can gradually get to this state and even increase it as Fyvie gets fitter and less weightier. Once or rwice a week do a real blow out and give her a couple of hours or so of runningwalking around (off leash is best by far). Back to food, some foods are fattening or more fattening than others. I know that as far as premium kibble (dry food) goes, Royal Canin is excellent and not as fattening as most others.
If I was seriously weight reducing my Pem Taylor who is a little bigger in structure than the medium male Pem, I would reduce his food to three quarters of a standard cup of Hills Science Diet with no other supplements added. Taylor currently weighs 27 pounds and for agility, he should be at 25-26 pounds.

[Peggy]

Originally Posted by TinaMc

Hey all! Just looking for information...I looove my corgi girl! She is 2 1/2 years and a bit on the plump side. keep exercising and eat better--my fault but she's so cute! Eats green beans! looking for good info on diet--she exercises daily! I was looking for a rollover on my back and give me belly rubs! Her name is Fyvie (after a castle in Scotland) Thanks, Tina

Try things like baby carrots for treats. Or if you use biscuits, break them in half or into pieces and only give one half or one piece at a time instead of a whole biscuit.

What and how much do you feed her now? The trick with the green beans is to cut out some of her food and substitue the green beans for that food. Say you cut her total daily amount of food by 1/2 cup. You then add 1/2 cup of green beans so she feels full but is getting fewer calories.

If she's getting exercise then it could be you only need to cut her food some. However, if you can increase her exercise even a little bit that will help too.

I don't think you need to change foods but just cut back on the amount of the food she's getting now.

Peggy

[TinaMc]

Thanks so much for the info. I'm currently feeding her a cup a day(1/2 in am and 1/2 in pm) of her dry Nutro Sensitive stomach... and I guess I haven't been really measuring the gr. beans or watching the portions. but I should, huh? She just never seems "full". And she tried carrots and not so much, but she like apples(good?!) And yes, the exercise...an hour a day. could be split up possibly but that would be a good aim, right? She is current around 35 pounds, I am embarrassed to say. But I am hoping to get her around 30, if not less. She seems stockier than most Corgis I see but she seemed like a pudgy baby, too. We got her at 8 weeks and she was just a fur ball. I'll try to post some pictures soon! Any input is great! Tina Go Fyvie Go!

[Peggy]

Originally Posted by TinaMc

Thanks so much for the info. I'm currently feeding her a cup a day(1/2 in am and 1/2 in pm) of her dry Nutro Sensitive stomach... and I guess I haven't been really measuring the gr. beans or watching the portions. but I should, huh? She just never seems "full".

Ok, that should be a good food and I wouldn't switch. I'd just start measuring her food and the green beans. Give her the half cup at each meal and maybe a quarter to half cup of green beans.

As for never seeming to be full, well that's a corgi trait. Mine do that too, and if you give in they get fat.

but she like apples(good?!)

Apples are ok, for a treat. Just watch it as too much fruit can cause a loose stool.

And yes, the exercise...an hour a day. could be split up possibly but that would be a good aim, right?

Yes, she might not be able to do that much at once to start with. You might have to start out slower/less time and work up to that.

She is current around 35 pounds, I am embarrassed to say.

Well, yeah a bit much for a corgi girl!

But I am hoping to get her around 30, if not less.

Even if stockier than most corgis, yeah, I'd say 30 lbs or less. Somewhere between 25 and 30 lbs. Go by her ribs, you should be able to feel them without too much trouble. Not under a layer of fat and not your fingers falling between them. You should be able to see a waist line.

Peggy

[Michael Romanos]

From what you have said in your last post, Fyvie is simply being too well fed and to get her down to 30 (or preferably well under 30, say 26 pounds), she needs less of everything. I'd cut out inbetween food, treat food (apart from tiny pieces of treats when doing the reward thing) and supplements until she is at a weight where she has a definite waistline and you can easily feel her ribs and she looks more slim than having any bulges.

Two lots of 30 minutes exercising walks/runs daily is better than one of 60 minutes daily because it gives a Corgi double the real interesting stuff during a day.

[pmavrich]

Molsen got up to 34 lbs at one point, because of food consumption and lack of fribee playing. We changed his food to Iams weight control (1 cup a day) and gave him Carrots, Frozen Lima beans, & Cucumbers as his snacks. He actually prefered them over dog biscuts. We increased his play time to an hour a day. Which in the winter we had to get inventive, so we used a laser pointer ... he was obsessed. Now, Molsen weighs between 29-30 lbs. He is a larger corgi, so the vet thinks his healthiest weight would be 28-29 lbs.

[fogebotom]

Use a lot of variety in the vegetables you feed them. My vet and I were talking plus doing some online research and carrots are good for them but too many can have an effect of monkeying with the blood sugars.

Green beans, carrots, cukes, love tomatos, apples, pears, etc. But even that can put on weight. Our old home had a pear tree and when the windfalls were dropping, I had to cut back on the kibble because they would gain tons of weight on the sweet treats.

If a food change is in order, find one with lots of good proteins high in the ingredient lists. Lower the fat content and yes, still sub some other high fiber items--heck no one's mentioned pumpkin yet!

I make a weight watchers pumpkin spice muffin that my dogs drool for. I even caught the old collie on the table eating off the plate. It's a can of pumpkin with about 1-2 tsp of water, mix with a spice cake mix. Bake at 375 till done in the center. I will spread it out onto two cookie sheets, let it cool after baking and then cut. Set in the dehydrator for a few hours. They will be a little chewy then. Refrigerate.

Cindy and the crew

[Michael Romanos]

Yes sir, vary the raw veggies and never over feed on any one veggie - too much of any one veggie is to much. The greatest examples are broccoli and garlic. Several small pieces of Broc daily are excellent but any more would be adverse. A half teaspoon of garlic daily would be great - and a lot of dog food includes small amounts of garlic - but much more than that and we are in the realms of toxic poisoning.