We own a three year-old male Border Collie.
We bought Karl as a two year-old from a trainer here in Ontario,
Canada.
We were feeding him about 1 1/3 cups of medium size Nutrience twice a
day.
When he weighed in at about 43 lbs at the vet about 6 months ago we cut
him down to 1 cups twice a day. Last week we cut him down to 2/3 cup
twice a day.
He is getting about a 1 hour run most mornings with other dogs and is
healthy and his height is small to medium (for a Border Collie).

We brought him to the farm where he was raised until he was 2 and the
trainer said that he was overweight and should be about 35 lbs.
I cannot see him getting more excerside or eating less than 2/3 cup
twice a day.
He is also holding his weight at about 43 lbs.
So, I was thinking about changing his kibble to one of the 'diet'
formulas.
We don't want to spend a small fortune on his food and on the other
hand we don't want to change over to the 'supermarket' variety of food.

All suggestions are appreciated.

wrote in message
ps.com...
We own a three year-old male Border Collie. He is getting about a 1 hour
run most mornings with other dogs and is
healthy and his height is small to medium (for a Border Collie).
He is also holding his weight at about 43 lbs.

..........nevermind what the breeder said, how does the dog look?

buglady
take out the dog before replying

The vet said that trainers like working dogs on the thin side.
He also said that we should try to get him down to about 38-39 lbs from
43.

NUTRO.



wrote in message
ps.com...
We own a three year-old male Border Collie.
We bought Karl as a two year-old from a trainer here in Ontario,
Canada.
We were feeding him about 1 1/3 cups of medium size Nutrience twice a
day.
When he weighed in at about 43 lbs at the vet about 6 months ago we cut
him down to 1 cups twice a day. Last week we cut him down to 2/3 cup
twice a day.
He is getting about a 1 hour run most mornings with other dogs and is
healthy and his height is small to medium (for a Border Collie).

We brought him to the farm where he was raised until he was 2 and the
trainer said that he was overweight and should be about 35 lbs.
I cannot see him getting more excerside or eating less than 2/3 cup
twice a day.
He is also holding his weight at about 43 lbs.
So, I was thinking about changing his kibble to one of the 'diet'
formulas.
We don't want to spend a small fortune on his food and on the other
hand we don't want to change over to the 'supermarket' variety of food.

All suggestions are appreciated.

Hi, I've an 11.5 year old Wicklow Collie who is deemed overwight.One
vet said he should idealy be 21 kg for his age and he is now 22.20 kg.

He has been put on Waltham Low Fat Digestive cans, one a day plus some
simple meat like turkey or chicken.

Two months ago he had gained 1 kg in a month but I think he is doing
fine.The special cans are a rip off at 2 euro each but he also has a
gastro entoritis problem so the cans are recommended for that too.

Ask your vet about your dog!

wrote:

We brought him to the farm where he was raised until he was 2 and the
trainer said that he was overweight and should be about 35 lbs.
I cannot see him getting more excerside or eating less than 2/3 cup
twice a day.

Sorry, but that's a lot of food for a border collie. How tall is he at
the shoulder? Border Collies should be on the thin side. When you look
down on him from above, you should see a very clear waist. From the
side, he should have quite a bit of tuck-up, the line from rib cage to
groin underneath. Take your hands and put them down against his skin,
with your thumbs on his spine and your fingers draped down his ribcage.
You should be able to feel ribs when *lightly* stroking your fingers
back and forth (no digging into the fat to try to locate them, that's
cheating!) Take your hand and pinch the area between the shoulder and
the neck, near the front point of the shoulder. Is there a glob of fat
there?

If you have any of these things, your dog is too heavy. And to give you
an example of food amounts, my dobermans get 2 cups a day and weigh 60
and 65 pounds. You're giving 1.5 cups a day to a dog which should weigh
about half that.

We don't want to spend a small fortune on his food and on the other
hand we don't want to change over to the 'supermarket' variety of food.

It sounds like he's getting decent exercise though BCs can always use
more. Leave his food the way it is. Cut it down to 1/2 cup 2 times a
day, and add a 1/2 cup of canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie spice, just
plain pumpkin) or 1/2 cup of green beans, canned or frozen. That will
give him food replacement without calories. You can also add a spoonful
of nonfat yogurt if you really want him to feel special.

And ... its readily available.
Thank you. I will check it out.

We will check for fat later today and post the results.

However, I checked the guidlines on the kibble bag.
Assuming that we want him to weigh about 35 lbs the bag suggests about
the amount that we are feeding or even a bit more.

One pet food store was recommending a kibble that is salmon based
(instead of chicken). They say that it does wonders for dogs. It is
also very expensive at about $55 (Canadian) for about 30 lbs or less.
The Nutrience is about $41 for 40 lbs.

We did (see previous post).
He thinks Karl should be about 38 lbs (from 43).

" wrote in
oups.com:

We will check for fat later today and post the results.

However, I checked the guidlines on the kibble bag.
Assuming that we want him to weigh about 35 lbs the bag suggests about
the amount that we are feeding or even a bit more.

The bag of what I'm feeding to my dogs suggests an amount that's about
twice what I'm actually feeding them. The smaller dog is still getting a
bit portly. If I fed the "recommended" amounts, the poor beasts would look
like furry beachballs with eyes.