Expert: Have4Paws - 6/23/2010

Question
My girlfriend and I recently adopted a sweet two year old beagle Sunday night.  First of all, he is about 50 pounds from eating table food!  Second, he was already housebroken, but has yet to have a bowel movement.  How can we get him down in weight and off table food, and should we be worried that he has not had a bowel movement?

Answer
Hi, thanks for writing me. Congratulations on getting your new boy! Wow, 50# is morbidly obese, theproper wt for a beagle is 20-30 #. If he stillhasnt pooped by ow he needs to the vet IMMEDIATELY, i am hoping by now he has..... it could hasve just been frojm the new surroundings and upset about life beig changed up on him. You didnt mention if he was from a resuce or where he came from but appear to know he was given table scraps which is the silent killer for beagles. They are prone to obesity and will if allowed,eat until they explode...   :(   

He needs to be on a high quality dog food, I prefer the Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance limited ingredient diets for my beagles as beagles are also prone to allergies and this eliminates all grains which are a common allergic component and also add to wt gain. He needs high protein and low fat. He should also never be given any table scraps of any kind whatsoever unless he is ill and you are instructed to do so by the vet. Dogs just dont have the abilify to break down human food like humans.  Good dog foods have everything they will ever need in them and dogs really honestly dont care about variety.

It may be somewhat challenging in the beginning to get him to agree however if he has had alot ofhumanfood, He may turn his nose up to dog food but usually beagles have no cares about what they eat. If he does happen to seem to not like the food you get then you need to just stick with it. He will not starve or die from not eating a few meals and eventually he will give in and eat whatever you put down. So first of all he should be as I said on a high quality food, this also affects bowel movements, their consistency and the frequency, a good dog food will have less pooping and solid feces coming out. He should be fed twice a day and be given about 1/2 cup per feeding. That's right! A total of about a cup of dog food a day!! So he will be hungry in the beginning until his stomach clams down and he gets used to it. Put the food down, make him sit before he can eat it, release him & then pick up the bowls soon as he is done. Free feeding , (leaving food down all the time is not healthy and obviously leads to obesity).

Changing food must be done gradually so from what he came home on (unless it is already a really good food) must be mixed on with the new and slowly eliminated or it will cause stomach upset and/or diarrhea.

Hope this is helpful, let me know how it goes with the wt loss!