White Flour

[nanney1]

How do dogs react to white flour? I made some homemade dog biscuits using white flour (as opposed to most recipes which call for whole wheat). Treated the dogs as normal, adding one biscuit following meals. Weighed my younger dog and she had surprisingly put on around 5lbs. I have large breed Bernese Mountain dogs. The size of the biscuits would be similar to a medium size milk bone.

She had gone off of her food the week before and dropped a couple. Some weeks she gains, others she doesn't, and I've regularly weighed her each week. And while it doesn't surprise me if she gains as much as two pounds per week, a five pound jump is too much. She went back to eating better this week, so perhaps she simply gained back the weight she lost plus put added back a few. Still, this seems to be a big gain. So, I am guessing the biscuits were the main issue in the weight gain.

I've heard of people adding white bread to a dogs food to help them gain weight, so I wonder if the white flour dog biscuits caused this increase.

[bowhunter1221975]

the only thing with white flower is that its bleached and some dogs dont seem to handle the bleach as well as others i have been makeing treats for years now and i would use whole wheat its safer my vet says wont up set bellys as often but if your dog does fin with it i would dont see a problem and it shouldnt cause wieght gain but it all on the dog good luck

[ezzy333]

White flour is just processed a step further than whole wheat. Thats why the name difference. White flour is just the starchy part of the kernel which is white and whole wheat includes the other parts. The bicuits increased the carb content that the dog was eating and that would tend to increase weight.

As far as your weight difference most of that is probably water. Check your own weight and you can easilt vary 5 lbs during the day. That is one of the reasons they tell you not to wiegh every day when you are dieting. People get discouraged when they see their weight go up.

Ezzy

[nanney1]

I think it looked like more of a gain than what it was. She had been 86.5 two weeks ago, and then dropped to 84.5 the following week. This week she was at 89 lbs, so actually a 4.5lb increase in one week, but only 2.5 from two weeks ago. So, water weight, going back to eating normal, and any increase from the biscuits could have all combined to bring the weight back and gain a couple. No big deal.

And, of course, I'm assuming that the scale hasn't changed any. I use the waiting room scale at the Veterinarian office at our local Petsmart.