Just switched my 11 mo GWPF to adult dry food. She's ~55lbs and gets fed 2x day. I give her 1/2 can of wet food with dry mixed at each feed. Solid stool for months. How many cups of the Purina One dry should she get a day in addition to the single can of wet?

I apologize if this is a stupid question, I probably could calculate her basal metabolic rate, etc. but I'd rather go on the advice of knowledgable dog folks. Thanks.

I'd say that's hard to know since each dog is different. Go with the same volume you're currently feeding her. Watch her conditioning and she'll show you how much is right. I can tell you that in my animal nutrition classes in college, we did cost/benefit stuff a lot, and canned food is about as bad as it gets for value. You are paying for water essentially. Unless she is real finicky, I'd cut out the canned stuff altogether. If money is no object and you really want to feed her the best possible diet, I'd look into the BARF diet stuff. Our german shepherd had bad allergies and I spent about 3k trying to straiten him out before finally giving up. My parents dog had similar problems and they started making her food themselves to the BARF guidelines. According to them it really doesn't cost more, and I can attest that her skin and hair are leaps and bounds better.
All of the major food mfgs. cook the food at high temps and nuke the enzymes. They are also more likely to affect allergies. If you've not yet had a dog with allergies, consider yourself blessed. Hope that helps.

Thanks, I'll check out the BARF info(funny name for dog food formulation). I don't think my dog has any allergies.....her coat seems good, normal development as far as I can tell, and solid stool. Regarding the canned food, before I mixed it with the dry she was ho-hum about mealtime....once I added it she gobbles it down(which was more important to me while she was still growing fast). Now I'll just watch her weight.....especially as we get into the slow winter months.

As she gets older, she needs less food than when she was a growing puppy.

Our Britts weigh 35 lbs and eat 1&1/4 cup dry plus 1/4 cup chicken or beef twice a day.

Your dog will eat twice or three times that for the next year, then adjust it if she appears to be gaining weight.

When a dog reaches 2 years old, they have reached maturity in their structure, that is when they start to require less food. Our Britts are 2 & 1/2, but they still play and act like puppies, plus we hunt them 4 days a week, so they eat more than the package recommends.

Thanks Shottist.....do you duck hunt with your Brits? I had planned on bringing her since she's a demon retriever but I just know already that I won't be able to get her to sit still for one second. Any thoughts?

My vet, bless her heart and her staff, lets me bring my dog in for weighing. No appointment, no charge. Staff has a look, and records the weight on the dog's chart.

Some dog's get fat. Some dogs run their butts off and need more food. Scales help fine tune all that.

Norton, BARF is not a formula but a way of eating. It stands for biologically appropriate raw food. I'd cut back to one feed per day and start her off on 500 grams of dry. Every second day give her some meaty bones, mutton flap is good as it is digestable, you can also add some mince beef or chicken carcuses for variety. If she is getting lot of work (or cold weather) bump her food up. Keep an eye on her flanks right behind her ribs. You want to see a concave there. If it starts to fill out she is putting on weight.

Don't go chasing her weight by cutting back on her food however. If she is putting on weight and you want to slim her down give her more exercise. She still needs the energy to work properly and if you cut back on the food she won't have it when she needs it. I agree with the thoughts on can food. Its a waste of money.

To Bakes from Lola


http://picasaweb.google.com/ro...v1sRgCNLPgeC4_9uOiwE

rob

How's her war wound coming along Rob?

Bakes,
Lola's stitches come out on Wednesday.The wound looks to be healing nicely, and judging by Lola's energy levels and appetite I'd say all is well.She absolutely hates being walked on a lead and only tolerates it because it is an outing, but a shitty one by her standards.
My neighbour's Vizsla is also missing her as the get walked together every day and play together as well.
by this time next week it will be back to the usual 2 plus hours a day off lead.
rob

I don't feed the same food so I don't know what I'd give them, but for reference, my ~80lb lab gets 2 cups of iams senior 1x/day, 55lb pointer gets all the dry food he can eat plus all the table scraps, leftovers, biscuts and treats he can charm out of us. I've got a dane/bulldog mix puppy ~85lbs that gets 2 cups iams large breed puppy 2x/day. I used to double their food during hunting season and cut back a little during the heat of the summer.

quote:

Originally posted by Norton:
Thanks Shottist.....do you duck hunt with your Brits?

I wouldn't dare go duck hunting withOUT our Britts. They would ambush me in my sleep and you wouldn't find my body.

They claim that no bird is too big; even though they had second thoughts the time we stopped at the ostrich ranch to see their expression.

Look at short coated dogs. A rib or two showing is just fine. Long coated dogs need to be felt. Better slightly thin than heavy. Keep track of the volume and adjust it for optimum weight.

On dogs needing wet food, if you are really working your dogs they need something to encourage eating before they go to sleep. If you are really working them hard, be sure to add water to the food to keep them hydrated.

Check out this web site to see how your dog food compares with others. I was surprised to see that Iams, Science Diet and eukanuba are not rated very high. According to them grains are bad and meat conrent should make up a major portion of dry dog foods.
http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/

465H&H

Norton,
Buy a self feeder and let the dog decide

Stepchild

quote:

Originally posted by 0X0:
My vet, bless her heart and her staff, lets me bring my dog in for weighing. No appointment, no charge. Staff has a look, and records the weight on the dog's chart.

Some dog's get fat. Some dogs run their butts off and need more food. Scales help fine tune all that.

If a veterinarian won't allow you to bring your dog in for periodic weighing free of charge, then find a better one!

Dogs should be fed enough that their ribs and spines can be felt, but felt through a thin layer of subcutaneous fat.

I feed my german shorthaired pointer 2 cup of dry dog food once a day.