Dog Pumpkin Diet

(by M. Christine Zink, D.V.M., Ph.D., and Julie Daniels in their book "Jumping from A to Z")

This is a good diet to help your dog lose those extra, unhealthy pounds. Extra weight on a dog causes hip and shoulder problems later down the road. The less your dog weighs the better he feels! The same with humans!

Stick to it, even if you don’t think it is working. I put my dog on it and she lost 20 pounds in 3 months! I did increase her (and my) exercise and I think that helped out a lot in the speed of her weight loss.

For every ½ cup of food you cut out of your dog’s diet, replace it with twice as much canned pumpkin

So, assuming you had been feeding one cup of food per feeding (twice a day), then you would give ½ cup of food and one cup of pumpkin at each feeding. This is the canned "Solid Pack Pumpkin" not the pumpkin pie filling mix.

You can also fill in your dog’s diet with other vegetables: carrots (cooked or raw), green beans, and peas. For treats you can use carrot pieces, bits of rice cakes and other tasty morsel.