Snapshot: Just like humans, even dogs can become overweight. This can cause several problems, which will considerably deteriorate their quality of life and might even shorten it.
Is your dog becoming overweight? Worry no more. With various foods available in today’s market, controlling your dog’s weight isn’t too difficult.
All you need to do is ensure that it burns a few more calories than it intakes.
To do that, you need to feed her specific diets that can specially be designed for weight loss.
We have mentioned some of the best dog foods available in recent times that are meant for weight loss.
We have also discussed, why is losing weight important for your pet and how must you choose a proper diet for your dog. Continue reading below for more details.
Why make your dog lose weight?
Just like humans, even dogs suffer from various diseases due to weight gain. Some even transfer the diseases to their offsprings, negatively affecting their lives too.
Hence, it’s important to keep the weight of your pet in control. Keeping your pet’s weight in check is essential to reduce the following problems:
- Joint problems
Overweight dogs place extra wear and tear on their joints. Additional pressure can cause endless problems like arthritis, hip dysplasia, and increased susceptibility to strains and sprains.
- Diabetes Mellitus
When your pet is overweight, it contains more body tissues than it should have. This indicates that the pancreas fails to produce the necessary insulin for metabolizing the sugar in its blood. If this problem remains neglected, it’s sure to cause nerve problems and affect its kidneys, which will ultimately shorten your pet’s lifespan.
- Predisposition to Overheating
The more the number of body fats, the more body heat will your dog retain. This means, your pet would suffer from excessive body heating. If this continues, it will feel uncomfortable and suffer terribly.
- Skin problems
These are common problems seen among overweight dogs. Obesity can cause skin folds and trap dirt and oils, which will escalate other body problems.
- Reproductive Failure
Similar to most other animals, overweight increases the chances of failure of a dog’s reproductive system. If your pet is overweight, it’s sure to suffer from frequent disruptions of its hormonal cycles. Hence, the risk of miscarriages or difficult labour gets increased.
- Increased Cancer Risk
Though this isn’t fully established, scientists have concluded that being overweight also increases a dog’s risk of developing multiple tumours and blood cancer.
- Decreased Lifespan
Because of the above-mentioned body problems, your dog would experience poor quality of life. It would be deprived of energy, joy, and mirth. Obesity in certain cases has also been found to reduce a dog’s lifespan.
Best nutrients to weight loss in dogs
As you know, there are plenty of dog foods available in the market that are designed for fast weight loss. While you look for them, make sure they contain the following nutrients :
- Fibre
Fiber is a complex carbohydrate form that is derived from plants. Foods containing more fiber help your puppy to remain full and energetic for a longer duration. Fibre is also essential to keep the digestive system of your dog functioning properly. It eliminates unwanted remains from your dog’s body that might otherwise have caused problems and suffering. Hence, fibre helps in the healthy management of weight.
- Low Calories and Low Fat
Make sure the food you choose supplies minimum amounts of fats and calories to your pet. If your pet isn’t able to burn the calories it intakes, it will simply gain more and more weight.
Look for foods with high protein content. This will ensure that your puppy derives its required source of nutrients at the same time intaking decreased fat levels. The low-fat content will automatically reduce the calorie supply.
- L-Carnitine
This is a vitamin-like amino acid that boosts metabolism in your pet. It’s scientifically proven that this vitamin is essential in reducing weight in dogs. While looking for weight management foods, make sure to look for this specific nutrient.
- Probiotics
Probiotics help your dog’s gastrointestinal tract to function properly. When you select foods containing probiotics, your pet is expected to suffer less because probiotics would help her digest foods better.
Best Dog Foods for Weight Loss
If you are looking for what dog food is best for weight loss, we have you covered. The following few foods are specially designed for weight loss, are nutritious and tasty, and extremely effective. Let’s go through them in details:
Wellness Complete Healthy Weight
This product ranks the first in the list of best foods for weight loss because of the presence of impressive ingredients. It’s devoid of artificial additives, fillers, or poultry products. Also, manufacturers have included lesser amounts of fats in these recipes considering the feeding requirements of overweight dogs. It’s filled with premium proteins including whitefish, chicken meal, deboned chicken, etc. The recipe also contains several whole grains while enables your pup to remain energetic for the long term.
Wellness CORE Reduced Fat Grain-Free
This recipe is a grain-free formula developed by Wellness, especially meant to deal with weight management. It contains highly valuable nutrients at the same time containing fewer calories.
The main ingredients of this special dietary food are turkey, chicken meal, turkey meal, and chicken liver. It’s a US brand that sells the best quality food products for dogs which are extremely effective.
Keeping in mind the fooding requirements of most dog breeds, this formula is sure to cater to your dog’s nutritional needs.
Eagle Pack Reduced Fat Dog Food
Another effective weight reducing formula for dogs that is highly recommended by vets is the Eagle Pack’s Reduced Fat Recipe. It has a low-calorie content by containing extremely fewer amounts of fats.
However, despite having fewer fats and providing your dog with low calories, it delivers the most essential nutrients required for your dog’s healthy growth and development. In this recipe, pork meal is the primary protein source.
Apart from that, it also contains chicken meal, turkey meal, and dehullded barley, ground brown rice, pork meal, and oatmeal. These innumerable nutrients are enough to provide the bulk of carbohydrate content your dog needs.
Nutro Ultra Weight-Management Dog Food
Containing a mixture of three protein sources namely lamb, salmon, and chicken, this weight-reducing formula is a nutritious food that is most effective in enabling your dog to lose a few pounds while supplying essential nutrients at the same time.
Although it’s low in calories, it contains delicious ingredients, which is why dogs love to have this food. It’s sure to please your dog’s taste. Similar to the other premium-quality foods, this too contains important protein sources like real chicken, chicken meal, lamb meal, and salmon meal. Remember that it’s high on protein content but low on fats.
Dr. Tim’s Premium Weight Management Pet Food
This formula is designed to boost your pet’s metabolism, thereby increasing her calorie needs and intake. As her food intaking capacity increased, she can eat nutritious foods multiple times a day without gaining extra weight.
It contains low calories and is meant to be given to your pet in between meals along with various fibre sources.
This diet derives a major portion of protein from chicken. It also includes a few amounts of the chicken liver meal and salmon meal. The diet also contains vegetables like spinach, dried peas, parsley, celery besides whole oats, and brown rice to fulfill the carbohydrate requirement of your dog.
Fromm Gold Weight Management Recipe
Fromm Gold Weight Management Recipe is a highly recommended food for dogs. Similar to the other formulas, it too helps to reduce weight without causing side effects.
The diet is free of colours, flavours, and dyes. It only comprises nutritious ingredients like menhaden fish, chicken meal, duck, and lamb. With its high value and carbohydrate content, it’s sure to cater to your dog’s food requirements.
However, the food is slightly different than the other commercial weight management diets available in the market. Despite all, it’s one of the top-rated dog foods as stated by dog owners and vets.
Nulo Adult Weight-Management Cod and Lentils Recipe
Another grain-free, weight-reducing diet formula for dogs is the Nuro Weight Management Cod and Lentil recipe. It’s equally effective as the rest and is sure to help your puppy shed a few pounds. If your dog is prone to gaining weight this is one of the best foods for your pet. The recipe mostly contains deboned cod as the primary source of protein. It also contains amounts of salmon meal, turkey meal, deboned turkey, etc.
This recipe is free of grains. It mostly contains yellow peas, lentils, sweet potato, and chickpeas to supply your dog with high levels of carbohydrates. Besides, the diet also contains a few amounts of vegetables and fruits like carrots, tomatoes, apples, and blueberries.
All the above dog foods mentioned would supply your pet with its much-needed mineral, vitamin, and nutrient requirements in proper amounts. The foods are also rich in appropriate portions of major macromolecules like carbohydrates, proteins, and nucleic acid. Thus, by choosing any of these popular dog foods, you are providing your pet a healthy diet, keeping its weight in check at the same time.
