Aging Dog Diet

[Morch]

We don't know for sure how old our dog is - we hope 8-9, vet thinks maybe 10.

 

She's medium sized, weighs 20-25 kg, spayed (weight gain after that), and not super active (partly fault of owner).

 

Her dog food of choice is the SmartHeart brand (liver/chicken, thank you very much), sometimes the Pedigree brand canned meat too.

Tried other stuff, not interested much.

 

We also give her, quite often, pork leg bones (boiled, eats mostly knuckle and meat, gnaws and plays with the bone).

Seems like maybe getting harder for her to handle (though was perfectly able to maul neighbor's dog recently, kill rats and so on).

 

Noticeably slowing down in recent months - less alert, sleeps more, weight gain, and tires quicker than before.

 

Looking for some advice/input regarding diet change:

 

- saw packs of food for older dogs from same brand, but no idea if there's any significant difference.

- what meat would be a good substitute when wishing to give her something extra, reward or spoil her?

 

Will probably take her to the vet for a check up in a week or two, he's usually a sensible guy and loves our dog (was caring for her before she came to stay with us).

[cdemundo]

My first reaction was, that sounds cruel.

Then realized this was diet "for" aging dogs, not diet "of" aging dogs.

Edited November 8, 2023 by cdemundo

[KannikaP]

A couple of Mars or Bounty bars could sort it out. 

[Morch]

7 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

A couple of Mars or Bounty bars could sort it out. 

 

I was told no chocolate....much to the old girl's disappointment.

 

[Polar Bear]

If she is happy eating her current food, there's no real reason to change it. If you do want to make changes, older dogs benefit from more protein, more fibre and less fat. One option would be to supplement her current food with some chicken and brown rice. Boil the brown rice, when it's part done throw in the cubed chicken (boneless, but the skin is fine), and let it all boil down together until it's like sloppy stew or very thick soup. You could also substitute the chicken for fish but nothing too oily.

Chicken is the best option for treats. It's easiest for her to digest and most dogs love it. 

Get her bloodwork checked at the vet and see how her organs are doing generally. That will give you a better idea as to whether she has any specific issues you need to take into account. 

[Morch]

1 minute ago, Polar Bear said:

If she is happy eating her current food, there's no real reason to change it. If you do want to make changes, older dogs benefit from more protein, more fibre and less fat. One option would be to supplement her current food with some chicken and brown rice. Boil the brown rice, when it's part done throw in the cubed chicken (boneless, but the skin is fine), and let it all boil down together until it's like sloppy stew or very thick soup. You could also substitute the chicken for fish but nothing too oily.

Chicken is the best option for treats. It's easiest for her to digest and most dogs love it. 

Get her bloodwork checked at the vet and see how her organs are doing generally. That will give you a better idea as to whether she has any specific issues you need to take into account. 

 

 

Thank you.

 

She loves chicken. Preferably fried, but can't have everything.

 

Yeah, forgot to mention the digestion bit - a tad more troublesome them say a year back. That's another reason for this. Also the weight issue makes it less fun for her to do her #2's, though not really bad yet.

 

She's not miserable or anything, a happy dog - more me worrying, and preparing for the future.

[Polar Bear]

If she's already having digestive trouble, brown rice might be too much for her. In that case, use white rice or potatoes instead.

[Morch]

15 minutes ago, Polar Bear said:

If she's already having digestive trouble, brown rice might be too much for her. In that case, use white rice or potatoes instead.

 

Thanks. If we got that way guess we'll give her what we're having, which is a mix of both.

Potatoes she doesn't recognize as food.

 

Not quite digestive problems, but think heading that way, hence the topic.

 

Thanks again, good advice.

[jvs]

Remember it is always the owners fault if a dog is over weight!

Get her health checked and if she is ok put her on a diet.Less of all foods!

[Morch]

4 minutes ago, jvs said:

Remember it is always the owners fault if a dog is over weight!

Get her health checked and if she is ok put her on a diet.Less of all foods!

 

She doesn't really over eat, the weight gain thing came (slowly) after being spayed.

[Polar Bear]

Try her with the brown rice then. The extra fibre will help if she's OK with it. If you give her what you are having, make sure hers has NO added salt. It can cause them a lot of problems, especially as they get older. Bulking up her food but reducing the fat should help her shift some weight. 

If you cook the potatoes to a mush with chicken, she may well eat them. It just all becomes chicken flavoured slop.

If it helps, I usually cook for my dogs (for various reasons). This is my basic recipe:

(Based on 750 ml plastic tubs because that's what I usually have around.)

500g ground meat lightly fried/browned.
1 tub brown rice 
1/3 tub of lentils and/or split peas
1 tub green veg (broccoli, spinach, beans, etc.)
1 tub other veg (carrot, cauliflower, squash, etc.)

1 can sardines in oil or 2 eggs

Boil it all up, simmer it down, add a handful of quick-cook oats to thicken if needed. This makes around 6l or 8 x 750 ml tubs. 

My previous dog was 23kg, but she was older and sicker than yours. She ate 250 ml/day split over 3 or 4 smaller meals. She was already refusing to eat kibble at that stage. She had chicken or low-fat ground beef, and only got sardines occasionally. When that was getting too much for her, I cut the rice by 1/3, lentils by 1/2 and had one mixed tub of veg. That reduced the volume without decreasing the protein too much. It was already low fat, so there wasn't much to change there. She ate that happily until she died at about 15

My current young, active 14kg dog eats 1/2 tub for dinner, plus a good quality kibble during the day (approx half a recommended daily serving, but I don't really measure it.) I freeze the tubs and it lasts him ~2 weeks. When we were in Kazakhstan he was a lot more active, and it was insanely cold (he was getting 2 x 1 hour walks in -30c). He had the highest fat beef I could get, and I added extra oil. He had a full tub per day (1/2 for breakfast, 1/2 for dinner ) plus as much kibble as he wanted. In winter, he got snacks of butter, peanut butter and sardines, basically as much fat as he could handle to keep the weight on him. 

[Morch]

4 minutes ago, Polar Bear said:

Try her with the brown rice then. The extra fibre will help if she's OK with it. If you give her what you are having, make sure hers has NO added salt. It can cause them a lot of problems, especially as they get older. Bulking up her food but reducing the fat should help her shift some weight. 

If you cook the potatoes to a mush with chicken, she may well eat them. It just all becomes chicken flavoured slop.

If it helps, I usually cook for my dogs (for various reasons). This is my basic recipe:

(Based on 750 ml plastic tubs because that's what I usually have around.)

500g ground meat lightly fried/browned.
1 tub brown rice 
1/3 tub of lentils and/or split peas
1 tub green veg (broccoli, spinach, beans, etc.)
1 tub other veg (carrot, cauliflower, squash, etc.)

1 can sardines in oil or 2 eggs

Boil it all up, simmer it down, add a handful of quick-cook oats to thicken if needed. This makes around 6l or 8 x 750 ml tubs. 

My previous dog was 23kg, but she was older and sicker than yours. She ate 250 ml/day split over 3 or 4 smaller meals. She was already refusing to eat kibble at that stage. She had chicken or low-fat ground beef, and only got sardines occasionally. When that was getting too much for her, I cut the rice by 1/3, lentils by 1/2 and had one mixed tub of veg. That reduced the volume without decreasing the protein too much. It was already low fat, so there wasn't much to change there. She ate that happily until she died at about 15

My current young, active 14kg dog eats 1/2 tub for dinner, plus a good quality kibble during the day (approx half a recommended daily serving, but I don't really measure it.) I freeze the tubs and it lasts him ~2 weeks. When we were in Kazakhstan he was a lot more active, and it was insanely cold (he was getting 2 x 1 hour walks in -30c). He had the highest fat beef I could get, and I added extra oil. He had a full tub per day (1/2 for breakfast, 1/2 for dinner ) plus as much kibble as he wanted. In winter, he got snacks of butter, peanut butter and sardines, basically as much fat as he could handle to keep the weight on him. 

 

 

Thanks again, good stuff.

Keeping this for reference.

 

 

[Foxx]

12 hours ago, Morch said:

 

She doesn't really over eat, the weight gain thing came (slowly) after being spayed.

 

Which is why it's good practice to reduce the amount of food fed after neutering.

 

Anyway, better late than never.  You can cut back the amount you feed her gradually over a couple of weeks.  Probably best to stick with dry commercial food for now so you can know exactly how much you're giving her.  (With my dogs I weigh the food to the gram.)

[actonion]

Pork bones a big NO    if u care about the dog ,    pork  /chicken bones can splinter,  tear their stomach linings , there are plenty of beef marrow bones   available that don't splinter, uncooked,   and Marrow they will enjoy....other than that................ that dog has a very unhealthy diet...

[Morch]

Just an update -

 

Vet Vader (he's a Star Wars fan...) says dog is healthy and in good condition, and that I worry to much. She actually lost a bit of weight compared to last year. Teeth are great too.

 

That said, supported diet change to mostly kibble (warmly advised in favor of any quality old-age version), and a bit of chicken/rice (as posted above) to serve as an appetizer/treat. And split to smaller meals. 

 

So far working out fine - less 'quality' food from her perspective, but more instances of getting fed so balances out. A bit more active hunting down any animal showing itself, and a little extra aggro vs. neighboring dogs.

 

Thanks again for the helpful comments.

 

 

[Polar Bear]

On 11/8/2023 at 9:36 PM, Polar Bear said:

Try her with the brown rice then. The extra fibre will help if she's OK with it. If you give her what you are having, make sure hers has NO added salt. It can cause them a lot of problems, especially as they get older. Bulking up her food but reducing the fat should help her shift some weight. 

If you cook the potatoes to a mush with chicken, she may well eat them. It just all becomes chicken flavoured slop.

If it helps, I usually cook for my dogs (for various reasons). This is my basic recipe:

(Based on 750 ml plastic tubs because that's what I usually have around.)

500g ground meat lightly fried/browned.
1 tub brown rice 
1/3 tub of lentils and/or split peas
1 tub green veg (broccoli, spinach, beans, etc.)
1 tub other veg (carrot, cauliflower, squash, etc.)

1 can sardines in oil or 2 eggs

Boil it all up, simmer it down, add a handful of quick-cook oats to thicken if needed. This makes around 6l or 8 x 750 ml tubs. 

My previous dog was 23kg, but she was older and sicker than yours. She ate 250 ml/day split over 3 or 4 smaller meals. She was already refusing to eat kibble at that stage. She had chicken or low-fat ground beef, and only got sardines occasionally. When that was getting too much for her, I cut the rice by 1/3, lentils by 1/2 and had one mixed tub of veg. That reduced the volume without decreasing the protein too much. It was already low fat, so there wasn't much to change there. She ate that happily until she died at about 15

My current young, active 14kg dog eats 1/2 tub for dinner, plus a good quality kibble during the day (approx half a recommended daily serving, but I don't really measure it.) I freeze the tubs and it lasts him ~2 weeks. When we were in Kazakhstan he was a lot more active, and it was insanely cold (he was getting 2 x 1 hour walks in -30c). He had the highest fat beef I could get, and I added extra oil. He had a full tub per day (1/2 for breakfast, 1/2 for dinner ) plus as much kibble as he wanted. In winter, he got snacks of butter, peanut butter and sardines, basically as much fat as he could handle to keep the weight on him. 

 

It's too late to edit my post, but I realised there's an error in it. It is 500g of ground meat, but also another 250g of other meat. I use a mix of chunks of meat and offal, or sometimes a couple of frozen rounds of dog food from Sloanes butcher.