I’m determined to help my 7 year old beagle lose weight, what are the best home made meals I can make for her?

Weigh her food every time you feed her. Give a little less each day than what you normally serve. If, after a few weeks, she’s not starting to lose weight, reduce her daily rations a little further. The key is, you want her activity level to remain normal, but that she would lose weight slowly.

I did this with our dog. She returned home alarmingly overweight after being boarded. I got her back to her normal weight within a few months.

You are making her food? Chopped up chicken, peas, carrots, and green beans. But the real key is just as @snowberry said…limit the amount of food. And make sure she gets a lot of exercise.

This is a good opportunity to experiment since you have control of all the test variables.
Try reducing the quantity of food you serve by about 10%. While doing that take her for a walks a little more than you usually do. her food. You both will benefit.

Please weigh her regularly and plot the data so you can monitor progress. This is a teachable moment! :-)

When my female began to look pregnant, I knew that the problem was ME!!! For the first week, I gave her about 10% less in her bowl than I had been feeding her. With week 2, I cut her back by a total of 20%. Then I limited the number of treats that she was given daily!!! I kept an eye on her & she didn’t seem to be going hungry, so I continued with the 20% reduction & watched as her school girl figure returned. Since then, I’ve continued to keep her at the 20% reduction & she is still maintaining her slimmer look without becoming skinny!!!

You probably don’t need to change the homemade food that you’re currently making her…maybe just reduce the amount you’re feeding her each day. Just don’t make it a drastic cutback. Dogs, much like humans, will gain weight when they’re eating too much; so, a food reduction in is in order!!!

Homemade? I would recommend a weight loss formula dog food. Getting with your vet, to make a plan would be ideal.
Beagles are really food driven. Don’t let the dog emotionally manipulate you into over feeding.
Good luck!

A good quality dry dog food served dry.

If your dog doesn’t have any health complication then a routine and discipline are the keys, in other words, planned diet. Dog will do just fine not eating for 3 days when the situation calls for it, however, drink should be provided at all times. It’s not all about the food, it’s about the amount of good calorie present in the ingredients themselves. I know others will quickly lunge at me but I’ll still suggest BARF diet anyway as it has many natural benefits for your dogs, which including, weight control. If you feel iffy about that then a portion of boneless cooked chicken thigh can be given to your dog once every 2 days, then if you notice he has grown accustomed to this you can extand this to once every 3 days or keep it 2 days if it works just fine. No snacks for your dog. You can give him as much chicken as he can possibly eat then let him fast for 2 or 3 days, this is natural for dogs and by doing this their body can deplete the excess calorie stored in the body to maintain bodily function when food is not available. It doesn’t have to be just chicken, you can add a variety of low fat, low calorie ingredients in his food, including supplements if you feel you couldn’t provide all necessary vitamins and minerals in his food.

@LadyMarissa

Thanks for the answer. But I have to ask, why the use of exclamation points in every answer?

Green beans for snacks. Baby food, mixed with a bit of flour to bake healthy cookies. Chicken.

My general trick for keeping dogs at a healthy weight is to put all their food for the day into a prey dummy. They get fed for returning the toy, and chasing it around the house or undergrowth is both fun and healthy. The stereotypical Beagle would go nuts for that sort of thing.

@Unofficial_Member You are making a bunch of claims that I haven’t heard from anyone in a couple decades. Please explain why going without food for a few days is “natural” for dogs. I’m also curious to understand why BARF – a diet of raw meat – is helpful in weight reduction.

@longgone Remember that dogs are descended from wolves. Although, it’s been thousand of years their internal workings are still the same. Most commercial pet food are harmful for dogs in the long term. Raw meat consumed with fasting system is a way to mimic how wolves in the wild could keep healthy weight. Please see this and its subsequent parts so that you’ll be enlightened and won’t be so blinded by the common ‘information’ provided by pet food manufacturers.

^ “Remember that dogs are descended from wolves.”

1) Our ancestors ate raw food too. That doesn’t mean it was a good idea – it just means they didn’t know how to cook. They also had a much shorter lifespan than we do.

2) Dogs are genetically different from wolves. For example, they are able to digest starches.

1) The idea of cooking doesn’t exist for dog. It’s not a necessity for them. The lifespan issue in the wild is not majorly attributed and centered on food alone, there are other factors such as predators, conflict, diseases, availability of food, and such. Wolves have evolved a long time ago to be able to perfectly cope with raw food. Contrary to popular belief, the internal organ of a dog hasn’t differ that much from that of a wolf.

2) Just because they can tolerate starches in their gut doesn’t mean they can do it efficiently. They’re natural carnivore, carnivore that can tolerate plant diet but that doesn’t mean we have to let them suffer from such predicament if we know we are able to do better. Protein diet is miles better than starches diet

^ Thanks for your thoughts, but I think we’re straying from the question. Maybe we’ll have to just disagree on this one.