Two Different Foods in Weight Loss

by Sheila Zevit
(Victoria, Canada)

Hi,
I have sent in questions before and you have been very helpful. I am in a bit of a quandry. My 2yr. old Norwich Terrier f/s is about 3.5lbs. overweight. She was to begin with 16.5lbs. and has lost 1lb. over the last month being on the Acana Light & Fit, minimal treats. and she does daily walks split into 3x day. I am happy with the weight loss and it should bring her down to the acceptable 11-12lb. range in 3-4 months , hopefully. I just don't know at this point in time how to balance out her diet if I want to add either some homecooked or canned. She presently gets 3/4 cup per day that is about 234 calories. Do you have any type of calculator/recommendations how to do 1/2 kibble and 1/2 canned. I would probably use Merrick canned as it's fairly low in calories.
Thanks in advance.
SZ

My Comment:

Hi Sheila

Congratulations!

Well done...you should be happy for being able to do what you have done.

I will answer your question, but I have to ask you something first.

I might be wrong but I am in doubt if you wish to change the food now.... or is it later?

The following is written from my understanding you wish to change the feeding at present (and if I am wrong and it is later you can skip this part and jump to the next one).

First answer:

I can understand you would like to supplement the dry food you are using with something else. But, now that you have proven what you are doing actually are working - why change this "recipe for success?"

Does she like Acana food or is her appetite very limited? Any stomach problems on the Acana food?

Why not continue what you are doing right now until you have reached your goal. Then, after you have reached your target weight, you can try other diets carefully and monitor her weight closely. while doing this

If you are mixing you might have a period where her weight loss will get lesser and you have to find the right amounts between the foods. You might also end up her only liking the homemade food (which is very usual) and you might have problem getting beck to the Acana again.

It could be be being negative, but I have seen owners giving up for all sorts of reasons. So, before you are changing anything just be care full about your reasons why to do so and be prepared on how you are going to react upon any possible difficulties doing so.

Sorry if I have been to hard or negative.

And.....

The sceond answer:

If you should mix different foods you just have to try it out. If you plan to do 50/50 then as a starting point spilt her present calorie content in two.

Give her this calorie amount Acana and the other amount Dog food X (in your case Merrick Canned food).

Then you have to test this combination and see in the coming weeks if her weight loss continues as before. Otherwise you have to change the rations or the totals again.

You can do all sorts of combinations of cause 70/30 or 80/20.

If you choose 70 / 30 then 70 percent of the total calories (at present 70 % of about 234cal) comes from Acana and 30 percent from Merrick. Then you just have to calculate this to the amount of dog food, which should be easy as most labels contains how much "energy the food contains pr. 100g or Oz of food"

In theory this should be OK but you have to try it out in real life to be sure.



So - Two answers to one question

All the best

Per Schonbeck