Basil Weighs In...

We have some great news!

Remember when our vet told us we needed to put Basil on a little diet? Well over the past 4 weeks, we've been following the feeding plan exactly and it seems to have worked like a charm — Basil weighed in at exactly 83 pounds when we dropped by the vet for a weigh in. After calculating the weight of his collar, etc, he's lost 4 pounds over the last 4 weeks and the best news was how the doctor on staff said he looked just right — that we didn't need to cut anything else out of his diet.

So what have we been doing? We began feeding him exactly 2 cups of food twice a day by using a cup that will only allow 1 exact cup of food per scoop (before we had a big measuring cup scoop and would go over). We've also been adding in canned vegetables like cooked green beans and carrots instead of wet food. The vet said this makes them feel like they are getting a special treat mixed in and provides a more balanced and healthy diet at the same time (not to mention buying a big can of veggies is actually cheaper than the wet dog food we get). Sometimes we'll still cook an egg and put it in his food and we also still give him natural treats throughout the day.

Pretty much restricting the dry food and mixing in veggies is what did the trick for us — we've continued to give him his daily walks and he's getting the same amount of exercise as he usually does. We also just made up a fresh batch of sweet potato treats!

Lucky for all of us, we decided to weigh him before we get into the thick of the holidays — leaving us a little room for spoiling with toys and treats!

Happy Holidays!