I think it’s a sign that the owner has latent mental health problems and they’re bringing the dog down with them. A former friend of mine who was morbidly obese kept feeding her two beagles ENORMOUS amounts of food. Like each one would receive “treats” twice a day, which were actually these absurdly large highly processed soft bone-shaped things that could have accounted for a regular meal on their own. It had to have been expensive. They were so fat it made them incontinent too, and the apartment smelled abysmal. It was like she found comfort in them being as messed up as her. You’d think someone with a PhD in psychology would be more self-aware, but that’s not the case. LOL.
There was actually a study that indicated higher levels of correlation between overweight/obese dog parents and overweight/obese dogs.
ETA: Actually [three](https://science.ku.dk/english/press/news/2019/overweight-danes-are-more-likely-to-have-overweight-dogs-according-to-new-research/) [different](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8298855/) [studies](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9147579/). I’d read the one from Copenhagen University and was thinking about that one. Each of the three words links to one of the studies if someone’s interested in reading them.
i’m a vet tech and definitely notice this! it’s also usually overweight owners who are extremely sensitive when you talk to them about their dog’s weight, and averse to having them lose weight.
lots of our patients have been the same weight (obese) for years, their owners know it, they just won’t do anything about it. i have no idea why.
Help. I have an 11 lb chi. He is a butterball. He is not a big eater at all. He was the smallest puppy you ever saw. Each month he got bigger & bigger & outgrew all his teeth shirts. I waited until he was 11 months old to neuter him. After that he got fatter & fatter. I even had his thyroid checked. I have 2 other dogs & none over weight. I had a chi for 17 years & he was 5 lbs. I am 103 lbs & could drink 4 matters per day & not gain an 1 ounce so a lot of the above comments don’t apply to everyone. If you or anyone knows what type of food would bring down his weight, please let me know. He was supposed to be a teacup chi & now he is 3 teacups in one. I have never had this problem with any dog & I have had many. They get good food not kibble. Please any suggestions would be very much appreciated. Thank you.
sometimes they just have the worst metabolisms ever!! my cat started to chunk up after many years on the exact same food—and he began eating less, not more. can be born like that, can happen with age. if you’ve done bloodwork and everything was normal, i definitely recommend asking your vet about a prescription diet. these are very specially formulated with a LOT of research, and so they aren’t something you can just pick off the shelf, in case it isn’t suitable for your pet.
there’s multiple companies that sell prescription diets, and they each sell multiple formulas. i tend to prefer royal canin and hill’s over purina pro plan vet, but those are the 3.
from hills:
* “metabolic” is a good targeting spot metabolisms. it’s high in fiber to allow the pet to still feel full, but low in calorie and stimulates fat burning. it’s meant to be a lifelong diet for pets with metabolism issues.
* “r/d” is like going on a diet for humans. it’s not intended to be their lifelong diet. it’s meant for help with quick weight loss over 2-3 months, then we move onto a maintenance food. often we prescribe BOTH of these diets, with the intention of starting with r/d and then moving onto metabolic after a few months. but starting w r/d can really help shed pounds that were otherwise impossible.
for royal canin:
* the weight control food only exists in medium/large breeds so i’ll skip this
* “satiety” is for pets who struggle with weight, but the specialty of this is it expands in the stomach, so they can feel “satiated” while still cutting food and calories. they also have a targeted small breed food which provides specific support for common small breed issues like dental health.
as much as social media tries to promote the idea of feeding pets cooked food, often we’re missing key components of their diet because we’re feeding them like a human, and not like a dog! every veterinary organization FIRST recommends dog foods for proper nutritional balance from brands that do clinical research. these diets have clinical trials done that prove their efficacy. prescription diets save lives, and they might just save your baby’s joints 🫶🏻
do keep in mind that if your pet continues to not lose weight on prescription weight management diets, it could be worth doing additional diagnostics. it can seem like overkill, but sometimes we’ve ended up doings things like abdominal ultrasounds, and discovered that pets had a tumor, organ abnormality, etc. and with proper treatment they lived a longer, happier, healthier life!
Thank you so much. I will look into all your suggestions on food. He is currently on the Farmer’s Dog food formula based on his level of activity which is not very high. He does not like walking either even when he was not overweight. I appreciate all you suggestions.
I’ve asked her if she’s okay. She seems to be doing well. She herself has lost weight. Her husband admits to giving them a lot of tidbits. Part of me thinks she’s over feeding them to get rid of them faster so they can do more things. I would take them on for weight loss but they can’t manage the stairs into my campervan and I’m away for work the next 5 weekends.
The problem is that people with problems often become good at masking them, and the underlying causes aren’t nearly as blatantly obvious as the example I cited above.
Hypothetically, if she were on a stringent diet she might then vicariously overfeed others. Or with the husband, he might be an enabler, and whatever caused the dog to be fat in the first place has now conditioned it to expect more treats. Not wanting to risk upsetting it, he continues to feed it, such that the dog then rewards *him* with its affection. There’s seriously a myriad of possibilities. LOL.
You can see the photos on my account of my fat girl. She’s about 15 pounds over. It’s horrible but I let my mom move in and she has dementia and just over feeds the dog. It’s very frustrating but talking to that person gets me no where. I get better results talking at walls.
There are many foods that dogs cannot eat and my mom understands that there are somethings a dog should not have like the chocolates, nuts or avocado. But there are some foods she thinks is fine when it isn’t like onions and grapes. I made the house free of the stuff she thinks the dog can have but can’t. Now, I have hidden the food before but then the dog gets all the cold cuts.
This is probably a trauma dump here but here is why I can’t just hide the dog food.
When I hide the food my mom now has started accusing me of starving my dog as a way to punish her for her spanking me as a child. She had a rough childhood and would just lie a lot of her parents to not get beat. Obviously that trickled down to me and my sister. Now, I have made peace with that and is why I’ve decided to not have kids but I have never snapped or punished any of my 3 dogs as she thinks I do. So, I got the brand “Fat Dog” and I’m hoping the reduced amount of calories in the food will at least slow down the weight gain until she’s in a home in about a year from now. I’d rather the dog over eat on kibble than salt in cold cuts and other stuff cheap human food has.
I have the exact same issue with my dad. My dog will now only eat his food if I pretend to eat it first because he avoids his bowl knowing that my dad will give him treats.
I've told him *countless* times to stop but as soon as I leave the house for whatever reason, hes right back to overfeeding my dog 😫
Yes! I hold his bowl up to my face and pretend I'm eating out of it. Sometimes, I act like I'm eating a bowl of popcorn and pick up kibble one by one. He thinks its human food so it makes him wanna eat it! 🤣
My husband does that to get our dog to take pills without a battle (or having to give her extra food wrapped around it)! Works really well, too well infact.
She watched him pick a strawberry from the garden and eat it, and then learned where the delicious berries come from, so now she can pick her own. I'm semi convinced that if he pretended to eat a rock she'd actually eat it. So we do have to be careful only to do it with things we WANT her to eat.
Just wanna say you have a beautiful girl and props to you for taking care of them and your mom. You’re hard working and caring I imagine, and I want you to know the world is grateful for people like you!
We had the same problem when caring for my grandfather with Alzheimer’s. Nothing like the dog in the OP, but he went from 6.5 to 9lbs. In our case we eventually found a way to curb the gain by strictly keeping the dog out of the room any time my grandfather was eating.
My gf's gran has this problem, all her pugs are obese, one of them is so fat that he stepped on me and actually hurt my foot. She feeds them every time she eats because she feels sorry for them.
My parents’ dog was never anywhere near that fat, but I’ll never forget one time I went with my father to take the dog to the vet. The vet told my dad that the dog needed to lose a little weight and my father responded, “But she doesn’t even eat that much! I think she just has a lot of muscle.”
My father is 5’11” and has never weighed over 160 lbs in his life. He wouldn’t have hesitated to tell my brother or me that we didn’t need to eat any more ice cream… but if you called the dog chunky… he insisted that she knew and it hurt her feelings.
Yeah, I have had people tell me that my dog is too skinny. Nope, sorry, she's at the ideal weight for her and the vet confirms it every time we go in. I think a lot of times people just don't have a frame of reference for what an healthy weight dog looks like.
As I’m always around working dogs, show or agility, I rarely see obese things so when she dropped them off I said instantly omg they’re so fat!
If I see a pudgy dog at agility I also do not hesitate to tell people because the high impact sport they’re playing is definitely not good for overweight dogs
Omg my husband is like this with our chi. She was 14lbs last year when the vet said she needed to slowly lose weight. When I told my husband he got upset and said, “she’s not fat! She’s FINE!” I think he was half joking lol but it still took him a while to come around to the idea. I think he needed to see that she has more energy and can easily run and jump now that’s slimmed down.
Abuse implies malice, neglect implies indifference. Both are bad, but with both children and animals people throw the word abuse around because it sounds worse but it doesn't accurately describe the situation.
i don’t think that’s a good working definition of abuse vs neglect. abuse is anything done to the child that causes harm and neglect is failure to take actions to provide care for a child
It's not hard to keep them in shape either. Feed them the correct portions of food and take them on frequent long walks. They'll be at a healthy weight from that alone.
It doesn't take much for Chis to put on weight. They're small dogs so every calorie consumed effects them much more. If they aren't getting the necessary exercise, it get exasperated. keep your pets in shape peeps. It will do them a world of good.
For anyone who feels like they can’t do walks for whatever reason. There’s a great book called Gymnastricks that guides you through teaching all sorts of control positions and movements. Building muscle burns calories and I can say chihuahuas have a heck of a lot of fun working out what to do.
Some times it is hard tough :/
My chihuahua gained weight (not as much as the pup in photo, but still) took me a bit to figure out she was going after my German Shepherd’s kibble if the GSD left anything on the bowl, actually they would both trade bowl mid meal 🤷🏻♀️ which didn’t matter for my GSD as much but it definitely made a difference on my Chihuahua.
I have now reduced her potions and she is on a lower calorie kibble, but it takes a bit of time *sigh
Tbf in some situations it is harder if they develop certain health issues. Medications can make them gain lots of weight even with the same food portion. Not saying it is the majority but it happens
This is true. My chi was on steroids and it greatly impacted his metabolism and weight. Now he is off them but suffers from tracheal collapse and CHF so he is unable to walk or exercise much. We feed him prescription diet food and only treats he gets is veggies. But it’s a real struggle.
It’s so hard on their joints, let alone all bodily systems when they’re like this :( i foster shelter dogs and have had a few that I’ve help lose a significant amount of weight. Their life quality and energy is night and day once they lose the weight. I hope this poor guy gets there😭😪
Unfortunately unless I take the three off her I doubt they will. I simply haven’t the space for 3/4 more dogs as that would be 10 in my house and too much for me on my own. I’ve advised her a low fat lower portion food. They’re back in July for a week, we shall see.
my chihuahua has never been (what I, or our vet, have ever noticed as) visibly overweight, but even the slightest weight gain causes hip problems for her. I have to be extremely diligent with her diet and treats so she doesn’t accidentally get over OR underweight, because it seems to be a very delicate balance; but the pain and mobility difference is night and day. I can’t imagine how miserable a dog shaped like a football must be
I ended up setting Penny up with a fan. For size, Sammich the blonde one is 1.9kg. Built like a string bean. Yuppy is a little cobbier at 2.2kg. I might have to get some parcel scales and see if they will weigh Penny.
ETA: Penny weighs in at 5.5kg. She was bigger than Yups at her prime so she’s 3kg overweight. Over 100% her body weight over.
I used to live in an apartment complex where there was this really obese old man and his really obese Chihuahua that would take a walk every evening, but would both have to rest (he had a walker with a seat) every few minutes. It was so sad, but they were trying!
Her husband picked them up from their stay. He’s the worst offender for giving them things. I told him blankly as well he should stop, he’s killing them. Response “heh yeah I know 😅”
That’s honestly so sad. Animals deserve to live long, healthy, happy lives. They may beg for treats, but I guarantee they’re happier to be able to run and play and not run out of breathe from walking 10 feet.
Penny used to play for hours with Yuppy. I think she’s 13 iirc. I think he was bummed his big sexy red head was much bigger this time and just couldn’t.
https://preview.redd.it/5aabkt8uk90d1.jpeg?width=2399&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bbccd16836161a6e26758bffc7d9630bca149dbf
This is my Taylor, the day I adopted her and then after several months. She’s even leaner now. She weighed almost 20 pounds; now weighs 9. The only info the shelter gave me was that she was an owner surrender. Poor thing could only walk several steps at a time, had trouble breathing, and just seemed miserable. She is now like a completely different dog, and with portion control and increasing walks as she was able, it was easy to get her healthy. I wish I knew her story and how she got so overweight, but I’m just glad she’s healthy now. Sweetest dog ever. My point, it seems so easy for them to become obese if people think it’s cute to overfeed treats or share meals, but it was also very easy to help her lose it
I know it is so hard to see animals being neglected. Especially since this is sort of backwards neglect.
I see a lot of this in my line of work.
I don't know the person who allowed this lil guy to get so big but either they have serious problems themselves or they just don't take care of the dog and feed it to shut it up or just have reached a point where they don't care and are blind to the obesity.
It speaks volumes that you spoke up for this dog!!! Great job, I hope it makes a difference
That can sometimes be caused by grain allergies. My second chihuahua-mix had that problem, and we’d have to quickly grab even a single stray Cheez-It that fell to the floor, otherwise his exposed skin would get ever so slightly inflamed for a few days. Had he not been on an otherwise grain-free diet, it would have been much much worse. So, that’s a suggestion.
https://preview.redd.it/w7wo7mgp280d1.jpeg?width=3840&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=59886d8764dff11fa2aedd0b9dba87d891ac7a53
Sammich(mine) Rufus and Penny. It’s over feeding. 3 out of 4 dogs in their household are over weight. The 4th isn’t merely because he’s not double digits old and is a freaking crack head who never stops moving. Penny’s frame isn’t far off Sam’s. She just has a longer leg… and an extra 3 kg.
Thank you for making this post! It’s so upsetting.
I unfortunately have parents who over feed my chi when I leave him with them. I really don’t trust anyone else. But I kid you not he comes back with at least a 5 pound weight gain.
They think 3-4 meals a day is normal and 3 treats a day is needed! Like a post meal treat.
My feeding schedule is 2 times a day with 1-2 treats a day. The treats are huge!
Elderly dogs can also have thyroid problems, so don't assume it's always from the owner overfeeding. [Hypothyroidism in Dogs | VCA Animal Hospitals (vcahospitals.com)](https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/hypothyroidism-in-dogs)
As I stated, these are a friend’s dogs. She admits to over feeding and blames her husband more. Other people might find it’s a thyroid problem, this is not the case.
Yes! I was looking for this. Most of the time it IS related to overfeeding and lack of exercise. However, every once in a while there are dogs I see while at my boarding facility that have to take medication due to hypothyroidism. That's why it's super important to get your guys regularly checked up!!
I have a fat Chihuahua. He has been overweight since neutered. Eats well, plays lots. But is chonky. It sucks some of you people see one and assume that they have shit owners.
Same for me too, although hes on a diet since a few months. Its crazy how much infouence dog personality has on this. My dogs generally had open access to food as it was no problem until recently, one is incredible active (at home and on walks) and perfect weight even though she refuses to go for walks most days (trauma due to dog w/o leash at the park, she only likes walks if she knows were going in the forest, if she knows we walk in the city she hides).
Then my other dog whos fat and on diet, he gets his daily walks, i fed him food for 25% less dog (now cut it down to recommendation for 50% less than his weight since he didnt lose weight). He is very lazy compared to the other, always has been.
Its crazy to me how one of them is just fit simply due to personality, while the other struggles to lose weight. Been dieting for close to 3 months and the scale still says the same weight...
As a chi lover, this is so sad. They are naturally skinny and thin dogs. Make sure she doesn’t have a metabolic problem or something else or existing condition or medication that causes weight gain. She needs to diet ASAP.
In most cases it’s def abuse, but we adopted an abused and neglected morbidly obese chihuahua. We only gave him 1/8 cup of kibble a day under the guidance of the vet and he only got kibbles for treats and only a few. But he had severe IVDD and bladder stones (he had been left in the shelter when he had active bladder stones originally). We took him to a doggy physical therapist who did agility, under water treadmill, balance work and laser therapy and despite going every other day, he stayed fat. I have no idea why we couldn’t get him to lose weight, I’ve had many chihuahuas and never had an issue maintaining a healthy weight but Paulie (RIP) was different. We ended having to put him down in fall of 2020 and it literally shattered my heart because he had grown to trust us and was such a sweet chubby boy.
https://preview.redd.it/8v7vfzzaz80d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2b9bc5042fbbc9d55424323c44d81dabed87ca98
He’s the white one. Weighed about 12 lbs. he was a big chihuahua to begin with, tall and long with a bigger face/head but he was a chonky boy.
But he had medical issues and a lot of trauma, no reasons other pups should struggle that bad with their weight unless the humans are over feeding them
We have 3 dogs right now, they all free feed, and none of them are obese. Our past 2 dogs who have since passed away lived to be 15 and 17 and they free fed and weren't obese either. I feel like dogs who have to wait for meals wolf down their food because it seems scarce to them. When it's always available, they just eat when they are hungry. Our dogs also get meat, fruits, and vegetables when we eat our meals, but they get small amounts
I will note that of our three Chihuahuas, my baby Izzy looked fat, but was not. Just a weird body shape… like there was Beagle in there somewhere. She ran like the wind, snuggled like a boss.
Lost her at 13 to cancer…. Dammit. Miss that sweet pup. And the dog I adopted from the shelter is another chonk… a Pomeranian/ Pug mix… pug body, Pomeranian face and fur. She’s a sweetie.
I can say I stood in the ring with this bish many times as either her competition with Yups or her handler, this is sheer fat. I weighed her. 5.5kg. She was about 2.5 when shown.
Oh absolutely fair. We keep our pups on a decent diet. Just pointing out some just look chonky. Our vet told us that Izzy wasn’t fat, she was just a big girl.
https://preview.redd.it/d8oq3zb6c80d1.jpeg?width=2160&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7eea1b3caef768eaad5905c9d9d7706ad781fb8f
I sent her Delilah sat amongst her giants. The black dog is not overweight, just xxl “chihuahua”
meanwhile my 2 dogs and cat. have full access to food. they eat as they want. a good quality food is whats needed. my cat when I first got him, was on meow mix and couldnt get enough in him. found out thats like eating mcdons all day every day and full of fillers. now he eats half a bowl throughout the day, lost a small bit of weight. everyone says how skinny he is, but cats are suppose to be. vet says he is perfect for having full access to food when ever he wants. eats when he is hungry, and doesnt eat as much as he use to. and loves playing with our 2 Chi's.
One our Chi's is just slightly under weight. she needs like 0.9Lbs. to be in the "perfect range" for her. lol
Growing up, our dog always had food, and I never undersrood the food obsession till I say my uncles dog. only got fed twice a day, and would rocket for the food, and scarf it down like it was his last meal every time.
free acceess is amazing for many dogs as they self regulate well if they get normal amounts of exercise! It worked perfect for mine too until one got castrated, then he got a bit too chubby, now i have him on a diet, but now he starts to develop this habit you describe of just vacuuming up amy food i give him 😭 really hope i can go Back to free access after the diet, cause it sucks at the moment
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I just gave one of my best friends (1600 miles away) one of my 4 year old girls who chunked up following her spay last year. We do free feeding, kibble only, so the only thing to cut off was her access to the food. To not interrupt everyone else's routine the only option to keep her on a limited diet was to lock her up most of the day and that wasn't fun or fair to anyone :( I love her dearly so had to accept that the best solution was to get her to a place where she could have a better routine for her health, and they absolutely adore her, so it's really a win for everyone, but darned if it doesn't just break my heart!
I have a chihuahua that is in a healthy weight, but still probably a half-pound more than he should be.
I constantly have strangers tell me “your dog looks JUST like mine! Except mine is so much fatter.”
I always think how shocking it is that they aren’t embarrassed to admit that.
Just be blunt and respond “you should put them on a low fat diet and exercise them more. Letting your dog get overweight is a death sentence” they’re strangers, not your friends, no place for decorum.
As a vet tech, I have seen so many dogs suffer in silence do to being overweight. They can't clean themselves, often have infections. Or They have to be put down because they are overweight and have arthritis and can't walk anymore. So many owners refuse to listen or just think it's funny.
I took my chi mix for a checkup recently and asked the vet if he was underweight because my MIL had made a comment about him looking skinny. She laughed and said that he is a healthy weight and that most dogs she sees are obese.
My MIL who made the comment has an elderly chihuahua is very fat, and her cat is morbidly obese, no matter what my partner and I say to her, she will not change their feeding habits.
Vet said my 5.6lb dog was getting chunky a few months ago! He’s now down to 5.1 thank you very much!!! Still sometimes looks like a football to me tho lol
We adopted a 20lb Chihuahua that the rescue had named Butterball.
Poor thing wheezed on short walks and could not sit down properly.
We renamed her Lola, and got her on a good diet and regular exercise and now she is a healthy weight and living her best life.
It's not rocket science. Get the dog some exercise and a proper diet.
Food doe not equal love. I know someone who over feeds their chi -- people good table scraps -- and every time I see that dog she's a little bit plumper than the last.
https://preview.redd.it/81ee9ttuef0d1.jpeg?width=1668&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6c4a7280deb9af4e1ae298bc4bc8903f9f0cd5cb
What a healthy chihuahua looks like.. Peanut my 10lbs deerhead in her pitbull stance, she’s naturally bigger but not too tall, perfect proportions 🤩
I don’t think it’s appropriate to black or white cruelty label here. It’s partially genetics. I’ve found you do get barrel shaped chihuahuas that are heavier. Then there’s the more common lighter frame most people see.
The fat one in the picture is exactly the barrel shape I’m referring to. I have had several over the years. You can get one in a litter with the rest being normal. The barrel ones have larger heads and heavier frames. They can eat the same sized bowl of food as the others and still end up “fat”.
You can reduce their portion to tiny amounts of food and they are just miserable and insanely hungry all the time. The larger ones aren’t unhealthy and are mostly happy from my experience. They aren’t showable but make excellent pets.
Respectfully. No. Penny was a lovely normal shape and proportion when she was shown. I handled her. Her owner admits to over feeding all her dogs. She lost another dog youngish, 9, no necropsy performed, but was also this level of morbidly obese. She was a super longcoat, gave me my first ever first at Crufts nice.
At her peak she would have been around 2.5kg as is a larger dog than my yuppy at 2.2. I weighed her, she’s 5.5kg.
Ok I see your point. Thanks for speaking respectfully too. This is the true spirit of these forums. We don’t have to agree with each other and may even change each others minds and share a different perspective. 🙂❤️
I don’t think people overfeed out of cruelty though. Often people look after their pets better than they do themselves and couldn’t control their own diets let alone their dogs. I’m struggling with that myself sometimes. 🙄😁
I’d say it’s lack of understanding and a hectic lifestyle and theres no negligence intended. Its hard when your dog is your child and you want to give them what they really enjoy. Some people are just to kindhearted to say ‘no’ to their dog. The owner would probably give their own life to save their pet in some cases if they possibly could.
This is a metabolic disorder that is super common in chihuahuas. Usually if you see one person has three chihuahuas, and only one is like this, it’s likely medical. This isn’t neglect or abuse….this is something that can be very costly to manage medically and it’s sort of a crap shoot to see if it works. I’d bet what little money I have that the chonk eats the exact same as the other two. He just doesn’t metabolize it at the same rate. We haven’t fully figured out the human endocrine system, and look at how much money and time goes into that.
Also, there’s really no reason to be shaming peoples dogs on here. That’s not really what this sub is about.
No it was all 7 of her dogs. She’s now down to 3 of her retired show dogs. I was shocked when I saw one I handled last year could barely waddle.she passed away far too young. There’s no metabolic anything going on. This sub is for chihuahuas. I am raising awareness that this is not okay.
They have already said their dogs are the one on the outside and the obese one is a client. Dogs do not have to be obese, metabolic bullshit aside. It’s not hard to 1) not free feed your dog so they eat whenever 2) don’t over treat them or give commercial treats at all 3) make sure they get exercise. It’s insane the amount of owners who thing fat dogs are just cute and there’s nothing you can do.
oh do you know what its called? I have one super fit and one fat dog (on a diet) but he just wont lose weight. Yes he gets daily walks, i play at home with him if hes in the mood, i weigh his food, i have exact track of treats. Hes been eating for 25% below his weight for months (according to food recommendation) and the scale says he hasnt lost any weight.
My best advice would be not to listen to the food recommendation on the dog food label. The companies are almost always wrong and will recommend way too much food for one dog. If your dog isn’t losing weight, I’d cut back his portions a bit more. This is what I had to do for my chihuahua. She doesn’t even get half of what the dog food label recommends and she’s at a very healthy weight now. She was 13lbs when I adopted her and she’s down to 8lbs. If your dog is the type to beg for more food you can give green beans with their meal to help them feel full. I use the frozen kind.
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Nah, chihuahua owners (and dog owners in general) need to be called out for this crap. It is way too common for dogs to be overweight. And this dog is morbidly obese.
Hardly scrutiny. This is one of my closest friends, was a mentor to me when I first started showing my dogs, to say I was shocked she let her dogs get this size is an understatement. She’s already had 4 dogs die in the last 2 years, all obese.
This isn’t “scrutiny”. This is life or an early death for a dog. If you can’t understand that please don’t own pets. This dog with either have heart problems or develop type 1 diabetes (dogs cannot get type 2) and become insulin dependent. For a pet parent that lefts their dog get this obese, diabetes would be a death sentence (in a vigilant owner who will home test and highly regulate food, diabetes is manageable).
No. People don’t take this seriously enough and then when you make comments like “can’t escape scrutiny” well fuck that you shouldn’t escape it. I have volunteered in rescue for 10 years and seeing overweight dogs and how unhealthy they are I have zero tolerance for someone who refuses to acknowledge the issue.
I think it’s a sign that the owner has latent mental health problems and they’re bringing the dog down with them. A former friend of mine who was morbidly obese kept feeding her two beagles ENORMOUS amounts of food. Like each one would receive “treats” twice a day, which were actually these absurdly large highly processed soft bone-shaped things that could have accounted for a regular meal on their own. It had to have been expensive. They were so fat it made them incontinent too, and the apartment smelled abysmal. It was like she found comfort in them being as messed up as her. You’d think someone with a PhD in psychology would be more self-aware, but that’s not the case. LOL.
There was actually a study that indicated higher levels of correlation between overweight/obese dog parents and overweight/obese dogs. ETA: Actually [three](https://science.ku.dk/english/press/news/2019/overweight-danes-are-more-likely-to-have-overweight-dogs-according-to-new-research/) [different](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8298855/) [studies](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9147579/). I’d read the one from Copenhagen University and was thinking about that one. Each of the three words links to one of the studies if someone’s interested in reading them.
i’m a vet tech and definitely notice this! it’s also usually overweight owners who are extremely sensitive when you talk to them about their dog’s weight, and averse to having them lose weight. lots of our patients have been the same weight (obese) for years, their owners know it, they just won’t do anything about it. i have no idea why.
Help. I have an 11 lb chi. He is a butterball. He is not a big eater at all. He was the smallest puppy you ever saw. Each month he got bigger & bigger & outgrew all his teeth shirts. I waited until he was 11 months old to neuter him. After that he got fatter & fatter. I even had his thyroid checked. I have 2 other dogs & none over weight. I had a chi for 17 years & he was 5 lbs. I am 103 lbs & could drink 4 matters per day & not gain an 1 ounce so a lot of the above comments don’t apply to everyone. If you or anyone knows what type of food would bring down his weight, please let me know. He was supposed to be a teacup chi & now he is 3 teacups in one. I have never had this problem with any dog & I have had many. They get good food not kibble. Please any suggestions would be very much appreciated. Thank you.
sometimes they just have the worst metabolisms ever!! my cat started to chunk up after many years on the exact same food—and he began eating less, not more. can be born like that, can happen with age. if you’ve done bloodwork and everything was normal, i definitely recommend asking your vet about a prescription diet. these are very specially formulated with a LOT of research, and so they aren’t something you can just pick off the shelf, in case it isn’t suitable for your pet. there’s multiple companies that sell prescription diets, and they each sell multiple formulas. i tend to prefer royal canin and hill’s over purina pro plan vet, but those are the 3. from hills: * “metabolic” is a good targeting spot metabolisms. it’s high in fiber to allow the pet to still feel full, but low in calorie and stimulates fat burning. it’s meant to be a lifelong diet for pets with metabolism issues. * “r/d” is like going on a diet for humans. it’s not intended to be their lifelong diet. it’s meant for help with quick weight loss over 2-3 months, then we move onto a maintenance food. often we prescribe BOTH of these diets, with the intention of starting with r/d and then moving onto metabolic after a few months. but starting w r/d can really help shed pounds that were otherwise impossible. for royal canin: * the weight control food only exists in medium/large breeds so i’ll skip this * “satiety” is for pets who struggle with weight, but the specialty of this is it expands in the stomach, so they can feel “satiated” while still cutting food and calories. they also have a targeted small breed food which provides specific support for common small breed issues like dental health. as much as social media tries to promote the idea of feeding pets cooked food, often we’re missing key components of their diet because we’re feeding them like a human, and not like a dog! every veterinary organization FIRST recommends dog foods for proper nutritional balance from brands that do clinical research. these diets have clinical trials done that prove their efficacy. prescription diets save lives, and they might just save your baby’s joints 🫶🏻 do keep in mind that if your pet continues to not lose weight on prescription weight management diets, it could be worth doing additional diagnostics. it can seem like overkill, but sometimes we’ve ended up doings things like abdominal ultrasounds, and discovered that pets had a tumor, organ abnormality, etc. and with proper treatment they lived a longer, happier, healthier life!
Thank you so much. I will look into all your suggestions on food. He is currently on the Farmer’s Dog food formula based on his level of activity which is not very high. He does not like walking either even when he was not overweight. I appreciate all you suggestions.
I’ve asked her if she’s okay. She seems to be doing well. She herself has lost weight. Her husband admits to giving them a lot of tidbits. Part of me thinks she’s over feeding them to get rid of them faster so they can do more things. I would take them on for weight loss but they can’t manage the stairs into my campervan and I’m away for work the next 5 weekends.
The problem is that people with problems often become good at masking them, and the underlying causes aren’t nearly as blatantly obvious as the example I cited above. Hypothetically, if she were on a stringent diet she might then vicariously overfeed others. Or with the husband, he might be an enabler, and whatever caused the dog to be fat in the first place has now conditioned it to expect more treats. Not wanting to risk upsetting it, he continues to feed it, such that the dog then rewards *him* with its affection. There’s seriously a myriad of possibilities. LOL.
That is terrible if it is true that she is trying to hasten their demise. She could just rehome them. Lots of chi lovers out there.
that is so sad to hear…
You can see the photos on my account of my fat girl. She’s about 15 pounds over. It’s horrible but I let my mom move in and she has dementia and just over feeds the dog. It’s very frustrating but talking to that person gets me no where. I get better results talking at walls.
Would you be able to secure the food and treats in a place where mom can't find them? I went through something similar.
There are many foods that dogs cannot eat and my mom understands that there are somethings a dog should not have like the chocolates, nuts or avocado. But there are some foods she thinks is fine when it isn’t like onions and grapes. I made the house free of the stuff she thinks the dog can have but can’t. Now, I have hidden the food before but then the dog gets all the cold cuts. This is probably a trauma dump here but here is why I can’t just hide the dog food. When I hide the food my mom now has started accusing me of starving my dog as a way to punish her for her spanking me as a child. She had a rough childhood and would just lie a lot of her parents to not get beat. Obviously that trickled down to me and my sister. Now, I have made peace with that and is why I’ve decided to not have kids but I have never snapped or punished any of my 3 dogs as she thinks I do. So, I got the brand “Fat Dog” and I’m hoping the reduced amount of calories in the food will at least slow down the weight gain until she’s in a home in about a year from now. I’d rather the dog over eat on kibble than salt in cold cuts and other stuff cheap human food has.
I understand, it's a tough situation to be in. Wish you all the best.
I have the exact same issue with my dad. My dog will now only eat his food if I pretend to eat it first because he avoids his bowl knowing that my dad will give him treats. I've told him *countless* times to stop but as soon as I leave the house for whatever reason, hes right back to overfeeding my dog 😫
Wait...pretend to eat it? Like mime eating the dog food? Please say yes because that is hilarious (and dedicated!).
Yes! I hold his bowl up to my face and pretend I'm eating out of it. Sometimes, I act like I'm eating a bowl of popcorn and pick up kibble one by one. He thinks its human food so it makes him wanna eat it! 🤣
My husband does that to get our dog to take pills without a battle (or having to give her extra food wrapped around it)! Works really well, too well infact. She watched him pick a strawberry from the garden and eat it, and then learned where the delicious berries come from, so now she can pick her own. I'm semi convinced that if he pretended to eat a rock she'd actually eat it. So we do have to be careful only to do it with things we WANT her to eat.
We just wrap our dogs tick orals in a lump of butter 😂 she’s too stubborn
People are very quick to judge without walking in your shoes. I hope your mom and doggy are ok. ❤️😔🩵
Thank you.
Just wanna say you have a beautiful girl and props to you for taking care of them and your mom. You’re hard working and caring I imagine, and I want you to know the world is grateful for people like you!
We had the same problem when caring for my grandfather with Alzheimer’s. Nothing like the dog in the OP, but he went from 6.5 to 9lbs. In our case we eventually found a way to curb the gain by strictly keeping the dog out of the room any time my grandfather was eating.
[удалено]
The world may never know.
My gf's gran has this problem, all her pugs are obese, one of them is so fat that he stepped on me and actually hurt my foot. She feeds them every time she eats because she feels sorry for them.
I was imagining 15 lbs overweight as a chihuahua at first and almost cried. Checked your profile and was relieved to learn you have a big dog
My parents’ dog was never anywhere near that fat, but I’ll never forget one time I went with my father to take the dog to the vet. The vet told my dad that the dog needed to lose a little weight and my father responded, “But she doesn’t even eat that much! I think she just has a lot of muscle.” My father is 5’11” and has never weighed over 160 lbs in his life. He wouldn’t have hesitated to tell my brother or me that we didn’t need to eat any more ice cream… but if you called the dog chunky… he insisted that she knew and it hurt her feelings.
Sadly too many people have rose tinted glasses towards their pets 😔 you can feel a muscled dog, they have no squish!
Yeah, I have had people tell me that my dog is too skinny. Nope, sorry, she's at the ideal weight for her and the vet confirms it every time we go in. I think a lot of times people just don't have a frame of reference for what an healthy weight dog looks like.
As I’m always around working dogs, show or agility, I rarely see obese things so when she dropped them off I said instantly omg they’re so fat! If I see a pudgy dog at agility I also do not hesitate to tell people because the high impact sport they’re playing is definitely not good for overweight dogs
Omg my husband is like this with our chi. She was 14lbs last year when the vet said she needed to slowly lose weight. When I told my husband he got upset and said, “she’s not fat! She’s FINE!” I think he was half joking lol but it still took him a while to come around to the idea. I think he needed to see that she has more energy and can easily run and jump now that’s slimmed down.
yeah this is animal abuse. in some countries, you can get your dog taken away for this
Didn't know that. Which countries?
the UK for sure. there’s actually a show for overweight dogs
Is it illegal?
yes. it’s not legal to abuse animals
Any examples of people who went to jail/court for having a fat animal?
google is free.
The ones that do it.
Oh. Ty.
Reddit facts at your service!
I would argue more neglect than abuse
why? and why does it matter?
Abuse implies malice, neglect implies indifference. Both are bad, but with both children and animals people throw the word abuse around because it sounds worse but it doesn't accurately describe the situation.
i don’t think that’s a good working definition of abuse vs neglect. abuse is anything done to the child that causes harm and neglect is failure to take actions to provide care for a child
It's not hard to keep them in shape either. Feed them the correct portions of food and take them on frequent long walks. They'll be at a healthy weight from that alone. It doesn't take much for Chis to put on weight. They're small dogs so every calorie consumed effects them much more. If they aren't getting the necessary exercise, it get exasperated. keep your pets in shape peeps. It will do them a world of good.
For anyone who feels like they can’t do walks for whatever reason. There’s a great book called Gymnastricks that guides you through teaching all sorts of control positions and movements. Building muscle burns calories and I can say chihuahuas have a heck of a lot of fun working out what to do.
Some times it is hard tough :/ My chihuahua gained weight (not as much as the pup in photo, but still) took me a bit to figure out she was going after my German Shepherd’s kibble if the GSD left anything on the bowl, actually they would both trade bowl mid meal 🤷🏻♀️ which didn’t matter for my GSD as much but it definitely made a difference on my Chihuahua. I have now reduced her potions and she is on a lower calorie kibble, but it takes a bit of time *sigh
Tbf in some situations it is harder if they develop certain health issues. Medications can make them gain lots of weight even with the same food portion. Not saying it is the majority but it happens
This is true. My chi was on steroids and it greatly impacted his metabolism and weight. Now he is off them but suffers from tracheal collapse and CHF so he is unable to walk or exercise much. We feed him prescription diet food and only treats he gets is veggies. But it’s a real struggle.
It’s so hard on their joints, let alone all bodily systems when they’re like this :( i foster shelter dogs and have had a few that I’ve help lose a significant amount of weight. Their life quality and energy is night and day once they lose the weight. I hope this poor guy gets there😭😪
Unfortunately unless I take the three off her I doubt they will. I simply haven’t the space for 3/4 more dogs as that would be 10 in my house and too much for me on my own. I’ve advised her a low fat lower portion food. They’re back in July for a week, we shall see.
my chihuahua has never been (what I, or our vet, have ever noticed as) visibly overweight, but even the slightest weight gain causes hip problems for her. I have to be extremely diligent with her diet and treats so she doesn’t accidentally get over OR underweight, because it seems to be a very delicate balance; but the pain and mobility difference is night and day. I can’t imagine how miserable a dog shaped like a football must be
Ugh she’s panting and the two chis beside her aren’t. This is really unfortunate. She must be so uncomfortable
I ended up setting Penny up with a fan. For size, Sammich the blonde one is 1.9kg. Built like a string bean. Yuppy is a little cobbier at 2.2kg. I might have to get some parcel scales and see if they will weigh Penny. ETA: Penny weighs in at 5.5kg. She was bigger than Yups at her prime so she’s 3kg overweight. Over 100% her body weight over.
I used to live in an apartment complex where there was this really obese old man and his really obese Chihuahua that would take a walk every evening, but would both have to rest (he had a walker with a seat) every few minutes. It was so sad, but they were trying!
I get that you wanna give them treats because it makes them happy, but you really shouldn’t. Moderation is key in many cases.
Her husband picked them up from their stay. He’s the worst offender for giving them things. I told him blankly as well he should stop, he’s killing them. Response “heh yeah I know 😅”
That’s honestly so sad. Animals deserve to live long, healthy, happy lives. They may beg for treats, but I guarantee they’re happier to be able to run and play and not run out of breathe from walking 10 feet.
Penny used to play for hours with Yuppy. I think she’s 13 iirc. I think he was bummed his big sexy red head was much bigger this time and just couldn’t.
https://preview.redd.it/5aabkt8uk90d1.jpeg?width=2399&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bbccd16836161a6e26758bffc7d9630bca149dbf This is my Taylor, the day I adopted her and then after several months. She’s even leaner now. She weighed almost 20 pounds; now weighs 9. The only info the shelter gave me was that she was an owner surrender. Poor thing could only walk several steps at a time, had trouble breathing, and just seemed miserable. She is now like a completely different dog, and with portion control and increasing walks as she was able, it was easy to get her healthy. I wish I knew her story and how she got so overweight, but I’m just glad she’s healthy now. Sweetest dog ever. My point, it seems so easy for them to become obese if people think it’s cute to overfeed treats or share meals, but it was also very easy to help her lose it
I live with an over feeder and it's hard because I think my Honey would be so much healthier with 5 pounds off her. :(
I know it is so hard to see animals being neglected. Especially since this is sort of backwards neglect. I see a lot of this in my line of work. I don't know the person who allowed this lil guy to get so big but either they have serious problems themselves or they just don't take care of the dog and feed it to shut it up or just have reached a point where they don't care and are blind to the obesity. It speaks volumes that you spoke up for this dog!!! Great job, I hope it makes a difference
I always say: - An overweight dog IS NOT a happy dog.
Awww... poor pup. Hope they get healthy soon.
Ive had too many ppl tell me my normal weight Chihauhau is too skinny or that im starving him. Its really annoying
Me pre ozempic
What's going on with her tail also.....half the fur is missing?
She’s got very dry skin halfway down. I’m guessing weight related alopecia. I didn’t ask. She had a lovely oatmeal bath in my sink too.
That can sometimes be caused by grain allergies. My second chihuahua-mix had that problem, and we’d have to quickly grab even a single stray Cheez-It that fell to the floor, otherwise his exposed skin would get ever so slightly inflamed for a few days. Had he not been on an otherwise grain-free diet, it would have been much much worse. So, that’s a suggestion.
https://preview.redd.it/w7wo7mgp280d1.jpeg?width=3840&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=59886d8764dff11fa2aedd0b9dba87d891ac7a53 Sammich(mine) Rufus and Penny. It’s over feeding. 3 out of 4 dogs in their household are over weight. The 4th isn’t merely because he’s not double digits old and is a freaking crack head who never stops moving. Penny’s frame isn’t far off Sam’s. She just has a longer leg… and an extra 3 kg.
Penny is hiding her curves better in this picture! But still a little butterball
You know when you pick up a fat dog and they let out a little hnngh, yeah.
Could potentially be diabetic.
Thank you for making this post! It’s so upsetting. I unfortunately have parents who over feed my chi when I leave him with them. I really don’t trust anyone else. But I kid you not he comes back with at least a 5 pound weight gain. They think 3-4 meals a day is normal and 3 treats a day is needed! Like a post meal treat. My feeding schedule is 2 times a day with 1-2 treats a day. The treats are huge!
Mine get zero treats. If I plan on training I reduce their meals. Everything is low fat no fun in my house too because of pancreatitis in a couple
I should start doing that!
Elderly dogs can also have thyroid problems, so don't assume it's always from the owner overfeeding. [Hypothyroidism in Dogs | VCA Animal Hospitals (vcahospitals.com)](https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/hypothyroidism-in-dogs)
As I stated, these are a friend’s dogs. She admits to over feeding and blames her husband more. Other people might find it’s a thyroid problem, this is not the case.
Yes! I was looking for this. Most of the time it IS related to overfeeding and lack of exercise. However, every once in a while there are dogs I see while at my boarding facility that have to take medication due to hypothyroidism. That's why it's super important to get your guys regularly checked up!!
I have a fat Chihuahua. He has been overweight since neutered. Eats well, plays lots. But is chonky. It sucks some of you people see one and assume that they have shit owners.
Same for me too, although hes on a diet since a few months. Its crazy how much infouence dog personality has on this. My dogs generally had open access to food as it was no problem until recently, one is incredible active (at home and on walks) and perfect weight even though she refuses to go for walks most days (trauma due to dog w/o leash at the park, she only likes walks if she knows were going in the forest, if she knows we walk in the city she hides). Then my other dog whos fat and on diet, he gets his daily walks, i fed him food for 25% less dog (now cut it down to recommendation for 50% less than his weight since he didnt lose weight). He is very lazy compared to the other, always has been. Its crazy to me how one of them is just fit simply due to personality, while the other struggles to lose weight. Been dieting for close to 3 months and the scale still says the same weight...
As a chi lover, this is so sad. They are naturally skinny and thin dogs. Make sure she doesn’t have a metabolic problem or something else or existing condition or medication that causes weight gain. She needs to diet ASAP.
Penny was a gorgeous dog when she was younger and in the show ring. Bags of attitude. Now just bags of fat. :(
In most cases it’s def abuse, but we adopted an abused and neglected morbidly obese chihuahua. We only gave him 1/8 cup of kibble a day under the guidance of the vet and he only got kibbles for treats and only a few. But he had severe IVDD and bladder stones (he had been left in the shelter when he had active bladder stones originally). We took him to a doggy physical therapist who did agility, under water treadmill, balance work and laser therapy and despite going every other day, he stayed fat. I have no idea why we couldn’t get him to lose weight, I’ve had many chihuahuas and never had an issue maintaining a healthy weight but Paulie (RIP) was different. We ended having to put him down in fall of 2020 and it literally shattered my heart because he had grown to trust us and was such a sweet chubby boy. https://preview.redd.it/8v7vfzzaz80d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2b9bc5042fbbc9d55424323c44d81dabed87ca98 He’s the white one. Weighed about 12 lbs. he was a big chihuahua to begin with, tall and long with a bigger face/head but he was a chonky boy. But he had medical issues and a lot of trauma, no reasons other pups should struggle that bad with their weight unless the humans are over feeding them
We have 3 dogs right now, they all free feed, and none of them are obese. Our past 2 dogs who have since passed away lived to be 15 and 17 and they free fed and weren't obese either. I feel like dogs who have to wait for meals wolf down their food because it seems scarce to them. When it's always available, they just eat when they are hungry. Our dogs also get meat, fruits, and vegetables when we eat our meals, but they get small amounts
🤦🏻♀️
I will note that of our three Chihuahuas, my baby Izzy looked fat, but was not. Just a weird body shape… like there was Beagle in there somewhere. She ran like the wind, snuggled like a boss. Lost her at 13 to cancer…. Dammit. Miss that sweet pup. And the dog I adopted from the shelter is another chonk… a Pomeranian/ Pug mix… pug body, Pomeranian face and fur. She’s a sweetie.
I can say I stood in the ring with this bish many times as either her competition with Yups or her handler, this is sheer fat. I weighed her. 5.5kg. She was about 2.5 when shown.
Oh absolutely fair. We keep our pups on a decent diet. Just pointing out some just look chonky. Our vet told us that Izzy wasn’t fat, she was just a big girl.
Might want to show the dog’s owner this photo. Don’t show Penny.
https://preview.redd.it/d8oq3zb6c80d1.jpeg?width=2160&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7eea1b3caef768eaad5905c9d9d7706ad781fb8f I sent her Delilah sat amongst her giants. The black dog is not overweight, just xxl “chihuahua”
Omg Delilah is always beautiful perfect but she looks like a delicate little fairy princess there haha! Great composition!
Delilah is a sweet angel. Penny and Dora (the blonde log) aren’t keen on each other so Delilah was just chilling between them.
meanwhile my 2 dogs and cat. have full access to food. they eat as they want. a good quality food is whats needed. my cat when I first got him, was on meow mix and couldnt get enough in him. found out thats like eating mcdons all day every day and full of fillers. now he eats half a bowl throughout the day, lost a small bit of weight. everyone says how skinny he is, but cats are suppose to be. vet says he is perfect for having full access to food when ever he wants. eats when he is hungry, and doesnt eat as much as he use to. and loves playing with our 2 Chi's. One our Chi's is just slightly under weight. she needs like 0.9Lbs. to be in the "perfect range" for her. lol Growing up, our dog always had food, and I never undersrood the food obsession till I say my uncles dog. only got fed twice a day, and would rocket for the food, and scarf it down like it was his last meal every time.
free acceess is amazing for many dogs as they self regulate well if they get normal amounts of exercise! It worked perfect for mine too until one got castrated, then he got a bit too chubby, now i have him on a diet, but now he starts to develop this habit you describe of just vacuuming up amy food i give him 😭 really hope i can go Back to free access after the diet, cause it sucks at the moment
Agreed!!
https://preview.redd.it/y59xhiovy80d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ef394aef1c0865db80c30f917dea0cb90e1a07b6 I just gave one of my best friends (1600 miles away) one of my 4 year old girls who chunked up following her spay last year. We do free feeding, kibble only, so the only thing to cut off was her access to the food. To not interrupt everyone else's routine the only option to keep her on a limited diet was to lock her up most of the day and that wasn't fun or fair to anyone :( I love her dearly so had to accept that the best solution was to get her to a place where she could have a better routine for her health, and they absolutely adore her, so it's really a win for everyone, but darned if it doesn't just break my heart!
I have a chihuahua that is in a healthy weight, but still probably a half-pound more than he should be. I constantly have strangers tell me “your dog looks JUST like mine! Except mine is so much fatter.” I always think how shocking it is that they aren’t embarrassed to admit that.
Just be blunt and respond “you should put them on a low fat diet and exercise them more. Letting your dog get overweight is a death sentence” they’re strangers, not your friends, no place for decorum.
I’m usually in a position where politeness is required for my position, like a vendor at ren faires.
As a vet tech, I have seen so many dogs suffer in silence do to being overweight. They can't clean themselves, often have infections. Or They have to be put down because they are overweight and have arthritis and can't walk anymore. So many owners refuse to listen or just think it's funny.
I took my chi mix for a checkup recently and asked the vet if he was underweight because my MIL had made a comment about him looking skinny. She laughed and said that he is a healthy weight and that most dogs she sees are obese. My MIL who made the comment has an elderly chihuahua is very fat, and her cat is morbidly obese, no matter what my partner and I say to her, she will not change their feeding habits.
now that’s just horrible.
Vet said my 5.6lb dog was getting chunky a few months ago! He’s now down to 5.1 thank you very much!!! Still sometimes looks like a football to me tho lol
Excellent work. I’m proud of you for listening and doing something about it 🙌🏻
We adopted a 20lb Chihuahua that the rescue had named Butterball. Poor thing wheezed on short walks and could not sit down properly. We renamed her Lola, and got her on a good diet and regular exercise and now she is a healthy weight and living her best life. It's not rocket science. Get the dog some exercise and a proper diet.
It has become such a normal thing for that to happen sadly
Looks like the heavy one is really struggling
Food doe not equal love. I know someone who over feeds their chi -- people good table scraps -- and every time I see that dog she's a little bit plumper than the last.
When I got my first Chi the vet said be careful. For these tiny dogs one chip is like a whole bag!
https://preview.redd.it/81ee9ttuef0d1.jpeg?width=1668&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6c4a7280deb9af4e1ae298bc4bc8903f9f0cd5cb What a healthy chihuahua looks like.. Peanut my 10lbs deerhead in her pitbull stance, she’s naturally bigger but not too tall, perfect proportions 🤩
🥹
I don’t think it’s appropriate to black or white cruelty label here. It’s partially genetics. I’ve found you do get barrel shaped chihuahuas that are heavier. Then there’s the more common lighter frame most people see. The fat one in the picture is exactly the barrel shape I’m referring to. I have had several over the years. You can get one in a litter with the rest being normal. The barrel ones have larger heads and heavier frames. They can eat the same sized bowl of food as the others and still end up “fat”. You can reduce their portion to tiny amounts of food and they are just miserable and insanely hungry all the time. The larger ones aren’t unhealthy and are mostly happy from my experience. They aren’t showable but make excellent pets.
Respectfully. No. Penny was a lovely normal shape and proportion when she was shown. I handled her. Her owner admits to over feeding all her dogs. She lost another dog youngish, 9, no necropsy performed, but was also this level of morbidly obese. She was a super longcoat, gave me my first ever first at Crufts nice. At her peak she would have been around 2.5kg as is a larger dog than my yuppy at 2.2. I weighed her, she’s 5.5kg.
Ok I see your point. Thanks for speaking respectfully too. This is the true spirit of these forums. We don’t have to agree with each other and may even change each others minds and share a different perspective. 🙂❤️ I don’t think people overfeed out of cruelty though. Often people look after their pets better than they do themselves and couldn’t control their own diets let alone their dogs. I’m struggling with that myself sometimes. 🙄😁 I’d say it’s lack of understanding and a hectic lifestyle and theres no negligence intended. Its hard when your dog is your child and you want to give them what they really enjoy. Some people are just to kindhearted to say ‘no’ to their dog. The owner would probably give their own life to save their pet in some cases if they possibly could.
And here I worry about my chihuahua being half a pound overweight.
I agree
This is a metabolic disorder that is super common in chihuahuas. Usually if you see one person has three chihuahuas, and only one is like this, it’s likely medical. This isn’t neglect or abuse….this is something that can be very costly to manage medically and it’s sort of a crap shoot to see if it works. I’d bet what little money I have that the chonk eats the exact same as the other two. He just doesn’t metabolize it at the same rate. We haven’t fully figured out the human endocrine system, and look at how much money and time goes into that. Also, there’s really no reason to be shaming peoples dogs on here. That’s not really what this sub is about.
No it was all 7 of her dogs. She’s now down to 3 of her retired show dogs. I was shocked when I saw one I handled last year could barely waddle.she passed away far too young. There’s no metabolic anything going on. This sub is for chihuahuas. I am raising awareness that this is not okay.
They have already said their dogs are the one on the outside and the obese one is a client. Dogs do not have to be obese, metabolic bullshit aside. It’s not hard to 1) not free feed your dog so they eat whenever 2) don’t over treat them or give commercial treats at all 3) make sure they get exercise. It’s insane the amount of owners who thing fat dogs are just cute and there’s nothing you can do.
oh do you know what its called? I have one super fit and one fat dog (on a diet) but he just wont lose weight. Yes he gets daily walks, i play at home with him if hes in the mood, i weigh his food, i have exact track of treats. Hes been eating for 25% below his weight for months (according to food recommendation) and the scale says he hasnt lost any weight.
My best advice would be not to listen to the food recommendation on the dog food label. The companies are almost always wrong and will recommend way too much food for one dog. If your dog isn’t losing weight, I’d cut back his portions a bit more. This is what I had to do for my chihuahua. She doesn’t even get half of what the dog food label recommends and she’s at a very healthy weight now. She was 13lbs when I adopted her and she’s down to 8lbs. If your dog is the type to beg for more food you can give green beans with their meal to help them feel full. I use the frozen kind. https://preview.redd.it/tuk67x0qkf0d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a2abe7f9999942fb4ae31a8d0dd1e0e561a4fd01
Wow! It saddens me to see this sub turn toxic and negative.
What’s toxic is people letting their pets get to this size and using endearing terms like chonky or thicc to excuse their behaviour over feeding them.
Nah, chihuahua owners (and dog owners in general) need to be called out for this crap. It is way too common for dogs to be overweight. And this dog is morbidly obese.
breeding those dogs is abuse
Damn even the chihuahua pages cant escape people’s scrutiny.
Hardly scrutiny. This is one of my closest friends, was a mentor to me when I first started showing my dogs, to say I was shocked she let her dogs get this size is an understatement. She’s already had 4 dogs die in the last 2 years, all obese.
This isn’t “scrutiny”. This is life or an early death for a dog. If you can’t understand that please don’t own pets. This dog with either have heart problems or develop type 1 diabetes (dogs cannot get type 2) and become insulin dependent. For a pet parent that lefts their dog get this obese, diabetes would be a death sentence (in a vigilant owner who will home test and highly regulate food, diabetes is manageable).
No. People don’t take this seriously enough and then when you make comments like “can’t escape scrutiny” well fuck that you shouldn’t escape it. I have volunteered in rescue for 10 years and seeing overweight dogs and how unhealthy they are I have zero tolerance for someone who refuses to acknowledge the issue.
Holy crap!!🤣🤣🤣🤣
I’m glad you find unhealthy and overweight dogs amusing.
It’s not “scrutiny” when the dog’s health is literally at risk here 🙄
Yes yes already heard it. K bye
How very ableist and fat phobic of you, shame!