I’m presently feeding a seven-year-old Chihuahua, who is overweight. At the moment, he’s getting Wellness Senior canned, mixed with Wellness Weight Management kibbles, with crushed Pet Tabs. He does get small pieces of Breathes Chicken Strips with mint and parsley added, as a treat. I’d like to remove as much commercialism as possible and still be able to feed him properly in a time-constrained situation, so I thought I’d change to The Honest Kitchen “Preference” dehydrated food, and thought of adding a small amount of Prozyme to help him digest his food.

I sure would appreciate your opinion on my approach to getting rid of the commercial and heat processing methods of feeding him, and at the same time maintaining control over what he gets nutritionally. Thanks.

From: Chuck, in Castaic, California

Dear Chuck,

Thanks very much for writing. I salute your desire to do the right thing nutritionally for your little guy, and you’re going in the right direction. I must say, though, that you’d do well to have a professional nutritional consultant with whom to consult. The best person I’ve found in the field is Sabine Contreras. Go to www.thedogfoodproject.com, and you’ll see the click for a personal consultation in the upper right hand corner of the opening page.

In the meantime, some things to know (and I’m sure Sabine agrees with all this) are:

1. “Senior” food and “weight management” food are useless marketing ideas.
2. The way to maintain health and lose weight is connected with quality and quantity of food, and with exercise -- just like people.
3. Forget supplements like “Pet Tabs” -- utterly unnecessary.
4. Ditto with a digestive enzyme UNLESS the dog has serious digestive issues. I recommend Prozyme.

I like the idea of your using the organic beef and chicken, but I would consider feeding them RAW. It’s something I’ve experimented with (human food, frozen and then defrosted). Also, go to www.countrypet.com, and see a great product that is neither raw nor heat processed.

Good luck, and I’d suggest checking in with the Questions and Answers section at www.thedogbible.com, in which I’ve listed a number of quality foods you might try. Meantime, thanks again, and please, keep me posted.

Tracie Hotchner