Food Size

piper22705 · Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2005 12:16 pm Post subject: Food Size

Piper - 4months eats 3 1/2 cups of food a day (little over a cup 3x a day) as per the purina one puppy large breed label this is the max to be fed. But it seems she is always hungry for more. last night, on her last meal of the day, she finished then picked up the bowl with her teeth and put it on my feet. I was 3 rooms away. Any advice?

RK · Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2005 12:29 pm Post subject:

(maybe move this thread to the NUTRITION section?)

poor piper!

i don't like to be preachy about food but i did a ton of research on what to feed before i got my pup. purina doesn't make great food, to put it kindly. a lot of it is filler and junk.

this website provides a LOT of info on how to read nutrition labels on dog foods:

www.mordanna.com/dogfood/index.php?page=intro

when you feed a better quality food, although initially you pay more per bag, you end up feeding less because it is more nutrient dense so per feeding, you feed less. you will also see less poops because she is using more of what she eats. and she will be healthier overall.

another thing i have learned is that you can feed puppies adult food pretty much from the get-go, if you don't want to bother with getting size-specific food. the only thing you shouldn't feed a large breed pup is regular puppy food.

that said, a good low-calorie filler is steamed green beans. you can add that to her meals and that should help make her feel fuller. good luck!

piper22705 · Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2005 12:39 pm Post subject:

Thanks! I am looking for a store that sells that INNOVA food that others talked about on here. I will try the green too. Thanks.

RK · Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2005 12:45 pm Post subject:

have you tried their website? they have a store locator on it:

www.naturapet.com

you can usually find the better foods in feed stores or smaller, independent pet supply stores.

if you do end up with innova and you are feeding the regular adult (green bag), let me know. i have the puppy feeding recommendations that they sent me.

piper22705 · Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2005 1:07 pm Post subject:

Great found one thats nearby. Thanks. Next time i will post in the nutrition section. sorry bout that all.

heathr · Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2005 1:31 pm Post subject:

When we got Riddick, the breeder told us that both the dam and sire were allegic to wheat, so we have been using Wellness Super5 Puppy, because it is wheat free. I am not sure how previlant wheat allergies are in weims, but would rather be safe than sorry.

Heather

emily · Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2005 2:49 pm Post subject:

Also to add my personal experience, you cannot always go by the recommended feedings on the package. Each dog is different and one dog may have faster metabolism than the other. We feed eagle pack to scout, and for a dog his size they recommend 4-5 cups. We feed 6 because if we don't his ribs start to show. And after going through what we did last week, I would feel a lot more comfortable putting a little extra weight on him. A good rule of thumb for weims, is that you should really only see thier last rib at their skinniest. He's alot better weight-wise this week. Already putting the pounds back on ;o)

TishaBishaKate · Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2005 4:56 pm Post subject:

A lot of good advice, y'all. I spent a lot of time researching also about dog foods - never knew until we got TB that there are dog foods and then there are dog foods. TB is on Wellness now but she hates it so I have to add something to it in order to get her to eat it. I will probably go back to PMI Exclusive because it is an excellent food and is half the cost of Wellness - she had gotten picky about it also - thus the change to Wellness. I will probably change to chicken or turkey as she had been on the lamb & rice and more than likely just got plain tired of the same thing all the time.

RK · Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2005 4:57 pm Post subject:

it's true, i don't follow the recs exactly because schroeder is too active and if i did, he'd get too skinny. you have to adjust according to your own dog. another good way to tell with weims if they are at the right weight is if you can see a "shadow" of the ribs but not the ACTUAL ribs themselves—then s/he is too skinny and you need to feed more. if you can't even see a shadow of ribs, your weim is packing on too much and you need to cut back.

emily · Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2005 6:35 pm Post subject:

Tisha, The petstore guy where I get my food from actually said that lamb is the most bland of all the meats. Scout got sick of his puppy food at about 6 months, decided it was about time to switch to adult. He was eating the solid gold, so I kept him on the same brand, but an adult product. Both were lamb and he got sick of the adult food at about a year. Then we switched to eagle pack, the duck one and he can't get enough of it. Isn't it funny how picky they can get. One good thing about eagle pack though is they have several lines, each of which are made of different meats. Kind of nice to know we don't have switch to a different maker if he grows bored of this one(which I'm sure he'll do in about 6 months)! A nice additive to thier food is canned pumpkin. It keeps 'em regular and doesn't add any calories!

TishaBishaKate · Posted: Tue Jul 12, 2005 8:05 am Post subject:

Emily, I know what you are saying! I could imagine if we ate the same thing all the time we would get sick of it!!! But, yep, little TB has definitely turned up her nose with the lamb - and the Wellness has some other great stuff in it that I thought she might like - but no, so will switch from the lamb for sure! I always wondered if we needed to mix the old with the new if it is in the same brand. Don't need to, right?

GrayGhost · Posted: Tue Jul 12, 2005 8:26 am Post subject:

Some foods have a lot more filler than others. When doing a cost analysis, you need to take this into consideration. I can feed Dorian the less expensive Diamond Brand Lamb & Rice, but it takes like 6 heaping cups of it to keep him at a reasonable weight. It is a good food, with good ingredients, but that is a lot of food and as a result, a lot of poop.

Natural Balance Ultra Premium however is much more concentrated as far as actual energy goes. It only takes about 4 heaping cups to keep Dorian at a good weight. Natural Balance however is a much more expensive food. If you start doing the math though, Natural Balance is about the same price once you realize you have to feed less.

You will find this to be true of many dog foods. A lot of the less expensive dog foods (even the ones with good ingredients) have a lot of filler (they are cheaper for a reason). On the other hand, a lot of the more expensive dog foods are more concentrated. As a result, you are looking at feeding less food and less waste. And when you do the math, you usually find out that it isn't going to cost you that much more, if any, to feed an ultra premium dog food. On top of the added bonus of less waste, your portions are not as large, so this may also help reduce the risk of bloat as well.

emily · Posted: Tue Jul 12, 2005 9:20 am Post subject:

I would always mix them together at first, but the transition time probably wouldn't take as long if the ingredients are mostly the same. Usually I'm in the middle of a bag of food when Scout decides he doesn't like it anymore. So I just start mixing them...