Overweight Dog

If you are following my blog, you already know we adopted our Prince Harry, a Cavalier King Charles in August of 2019. If not, here is the story. https://arose4sharon.com/2019/08/20/healing-the-heart-after-the-loss-of-a-pet/

Our Prince Harry had his annual check up with the vet this week. He was around 20 pounds when we first brought him home. He is now tipping the scale at a whopping 26 pounds. As you can imagine our vet was concerned and suggested we put him on a calorie restriction along with more exercise.

How did he get that heavy? I didn’t even realize it as it happened over a period of 8 months. I looked back at pictures of him when we first got him and then picures of today. Huge difference. 6 pounds on a small dog is alot of weight.

I did some research on how to help your dog lose weight and all the sites are pretty much the same. Count the calories and exercise more. In order for Prince Harry to lose weight he needs to be on a 500 calorie diet per day for food and 50 calories for treats. Total calories 550. We will start measuring the food in a cup, counting calories and drastically reducing the homemade treats we feed him. He is especially fond of the pumpkin/peanut butter treats I make for him. I actually like them too. It’s flour, eggs, peanut butter, and pumpkin.

Today is day 1 of the “diet”. Previously I was just taking a hand full of kibble and topping it with a scoop of chicken. This morning I fed him 1/4 cup chicken and 1/2 cup of his kibble. He gobbled it down and looked at me with those beautiful eyes of his that were screaming at me that he was STARVING! I had to turn away and tell myself that he had enough food for now. Part of me wanted to give him a cookie because he looked sad but I knew better.

I will be writing an update in a few weeks to see how the new fitness regimine is going. Wish us luck!

First day with us

8 months later