Dog Food Questions - merged

Debt_Free_Chick

About 10% of their adult weight is the norm. So for a 20kg dog you should be feeding around 200g of food.

Mine is only 13kg (he should be nearer 20kg) and I'm currently feeding him around 600g of food to get his weight up.

Chesnut1

I should add ours are fed a normal size can a day 400 gram + equal mixer and I do not underfeed my dogs. Mine are fed twice a day as Dobbies and Retrievers are breeds that can have tricky digestions and the vet said to give this a try. That was over 2 years ago and it worked for them so they are fed at 7am and 6pm each day. Did try various dry foods but it did not agree with the retriever re digestion and gland trouble due to smaller stools. It does depend on the dog but I do have a good friend who breeds Staffies and occasionally goes to Cruft, I asked her tonight about this and she says that her Staffs and they are a good size get fed the same as mine, she would not think of feeding 2 normal size cans per day but that is her opinion. Hope you find the answer and by the way I was always told dogs eat grass if they want to be sick it's natures way of helping them. But some dogs do appear to have a thing about this and get hooked.

Chicken_Samosa

Im currently having the same problem as the OP with my 7 month Jack Russell, until a couple of months ago he would run like a lunatic when he heard the food going in the bowl.

Now, he's really not bothered about his food, we put the bowl down and leave him to it for about 15 minutes, most of the time we can hear him have the odd nibble here and there but then he just sits and waits. If I or someone else in the family stays with him, he tends to eat all of it over 5-10 minutes of gentle coercing. Plus I think the rest of the family are a bit lenient in giving him human food, maybe he's just waiting on that cos its tastier?

One theory I have is that I'm feeding him too much, we have him on Hills Puppy food (dry) but their guidelines are so vague its almost like guess work, does anyone have any info on whrere i can find the right amount to give?

Cheers,
Indy

Debt_Free_Chick

Chicken_Samosa wrote: »

...he just sits and waits. If I or someone else in the family stays with him, he tends to eat all of it over 5-10 minutes of gentle coercing. Plus I think the rest of the family are a bit lenient in giving him human food, maybe he's just waiting on that cos its tastier?

Both of these things could be the problem. Firstly, he might now be waiting for you to give him attention before he eats - so stop coercing him. Believe me .... he will eat when he's hungry

And - yes - get the family to stop giving him human food. Firstly, he'll learn to beg whenever you are eating, which is annoying and not a good habit in a dog. And, as you guess, he's leaving his food because he's either had something to eat or he's learned to eat something tastier.

If they must feed him, get them to give him one nugget of his dry food. But I really wouldn't encourage this at all ... again, it just leads to begging.

One theory I have is that I'm feeding him too much, we have him on Hills Puppy food (dry) but their guidelines are so vague its almost like guess work, does anyone have any info on whrere i can find the right amount to give?

Cheers,
Indy

Full details of feeding amounts here, on the website

If the family are going to give him some as tit-bits, you'll need to adjust the amount you give him in his bowl - another reason to discourage the family from feeding him

You need to know the puppy's weight. Weigh yourself, note the weight, pick up the pup and weigh again

Chicken_Samosa

You're a star, thanks very much!

Hintza

We have a young Springer and I faffed around for long enough when he spent half the day just looking at his food. He is a year now and has been down to 1 meal a day for a few months (probably a shade too early) and he soon wolfs it down. If he doesn't then the other dog scoffs it.

A bit of competition always helps.

But if I was the OP I would cut the dogs food in half and just keep an eye on his weight and adjust accordingly.

All dogs are different I had a German Shorthaired Pointer that was fed enormous amounts of food but was very active and I could never get the weight on him.

mcchell

Our 16 month old sounds the same, she was happy with her food then started losing interest (which is strange as she will happily eat anything she can find on the floor or try and scrounge food off you if you have some) she is now having bakers, rice, gravy and chicken twice a day and is wolfing it down barely looking up from her bowl even if we are eating as well.

So perhaps it is something she will grow out of.

Debt_Free_Chick

Hintza wrote: »

A bit of competition always helps.

This is a good point, IMHO.

My dog ...

(Springer, too ... maybe there's a trend )

... didn't give a stuff about food until my partner's SIL came to stay with her Greyhound and Jack Russell. Both are very food oriented and would wolf down my Springer's food if he left it for more than a nano-second. He soon learned to eat as soon as the food was put down .... otherwise it would be scoffed and wouldn't be available later.

It's a pack thing, I think ..... the older dogs get to eat first, unless you "get your revenge in, first"

pollyanna24

Just want to thank everyone for their help.

At the moment, she is eating very well at the moment. Go figure.

We have cut her food down to 1/2 tin (200g) in the morning with a couple of shapes if she eats it.

Then in the evening, she gets one tin (400g), again with biscuits. If she's showing signs of not eating, then we will mix some scraps in or leftovers from dinner (i.e. last night she got some rice and green beans mixed in).

I've started buying the six tins from Tesco for £1.88, but what's confused me is I've just started buying the same size tins for the cat and on it, it says to feed the cat one whole tin (400g) a day!! How does this equate? The cat weighs 4kg and the dog 16kg. How can they be eating almost the same amounts (I didn't actually check on the dog tin what the dog should be eating, silly me, just going on what people have said on here).

EssexGirl

Our Staffie has half of one of the Tesco tins you mention with a cup of Wagg biscuits in the evening and half a cup of Wagg biscuits in the morning.

Suits her fine. She wolfs it all down to make sure the cat doesn't get any lol.


She also has a grass eating thing. So has another Staffie I know, so maybe it's a breed thing?