How much do you feed?

J

jumba

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I know this may sound like something I should already know, but I don't. I hope this is the right section. I have free fed Addie since she came home. She was very tiny, and continued to be tiny. Sometimes kibble would sit in the bowl for a day until I dumped it and put fresh. She never, ever finished a bowl of kibble (well, maybe initially when we switched her from what the breeder was feeding to the Merrick, but that didn't last long).

Well...I am transitioning to Fromm (Four Star Beef Fritatta) and now the bowl is always empty. Well, not technically empty...just empty of Fromm. She piles the Merrick on one side of the bowl and it sits there.

I can probably just stop the Merrick. How much should a 10 pound dog eat per day? She is medium energy, gets the zoomies once a day. I would probably fill it daily and just let her eat when she wants, but if I could regulate the amount she eats. I don't want her to be pudgy and I already feel a weight difference.
 
I'm not a huge fan of free feeding, so I would definitely recommend going away from that for a number of reasons.

Unfortunately, I don't think there's a magic number for an answer. My two 15" dogs eat 2/3 C per day. One of them is very active and the other is fairly sedentary. Sometimes even at that amount the active girl needs to be cut down a little and we add green beans. Our little guy is around 14" and he eats about 1.5-2C per day. He is very active.

I would just pick an amount and monitor her for a week. Does she gain? Cut back. Does she lose? Increase.
 
My Spirit is just a tiny bit bigger than your Addie. She eats 1.6 oz of raw food twice a day. She has never been a fan of any kibble so feeding her that was out of the question. She's done really, really well on the raw diet and loves it.

You can probably research the calories in raw to compare to the Fromm and see what the appropriate amount would be for Addie.
 
My five adult Shelties eat Fromm and they all get 1/4 cup twice a day. They weigh from 17 to 22 pounds and that works well for them. I'd start there with your girl and then see how her weight goes. It's a good idea to weigh her occasionally and keep track of it somewhere. I try to weigh mine once a month.

Free feeding is not a good idea, especially for Shelties who are generally foodies and will eat till they explode. It's much better to feed morning and evening and control how much they get. She may tell you she's starving but she isn't! You can always mix in some frozen green beans if you think she needs to eat more.
 
3 meals

when Kaleigh and Savannah were brought home I fed them 3X a day, smaller portions...when they got to 7 mths, 2X a day, feeding Fromm kibble...Kaleigh was AlWAYS hungry...so I got her on veggies along with her kibble, until I transitioned her to real food when she was a year...Savannah, is 13lbs...she still gets kibble. And I added veggies with kibble when she hit 8 mths...but when she reaches a year. She will be on real food too. Savannah eats as much as Kaleigh, she is 20 lbs, but Savannah is ALWAYS in motion and burns it up, she just doesn't grow. I think you just need to experiment with how much...keep feeling those ribs and adjust the amounts. Mine were famished in the winter mths, I think they ate more because we had such a cold winter. It is HOT now, and they are more concerned about drinking this week than eating.
 
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Cleo eats 2x a day and half a cup each feeding. She is fed totw. She gets 2 one mile walks a day. She is also let out in the backyard occasionally to help knock down some of that energy. She weighs 14 pounds at 8 months.
 
Jocu (~27 lb/16.75") and Cranberry (~28-29 lb/17.75") get 1/2 cup twice a day.
Destin (~14 lb/14") and Dixie (~18-20 lb/15.75") get 1/4 cup twice a day.
 
Well the free feeding was never an issue because I would use a small scoop (maybe like 1/2 cup per day) in the bowl and let her pick throughout the day. The bowl was never full to the top. I'm sorry if I wasn't clear before. Maybe that isn't called free feeding?

If anything she was a little thin and boney. The vet did not say anything about her being underweight, but when she was wet I would notice. I really didn't mind her picking throughout the day. It has only been a few days transitioning, but like I said she is eating ALL of the Fromm. I have a lot of guilt right now because I thought she just wasn't hungry....she just didn't like the Merrick and here I was buying this food over and over.

What I wanted to do was figure out how much to feed her in measurement, and put that in the bowl and just let her eat. It was never my intention to fill the bowl to the top and let her keep eating :) but if putting measured scoops per day in the bowl and letting her eat when she is hungry is wrong, then I will try the twice a day thing.

I'll start out with the 1/4 cup twice a day and see how she does with that.

Thanks everyone!
 
Missy gets 4 oz of raw food twice a day. She weighs around 25 lbs. When I was feeding her kibble, she got 1/4 c twice a day. Switched her to raw because she was acting like she was starving with the amount of kibble she was getting, but not maintaining a healthy weight. Raw has been better because she feels more full, and she doesn't gain weight on it.

I consider free feeding any time you leave food out during the day, even if it's a measured amount. When Missy was a puppy, she was more interested in playing than eating. I would give her 30 minutes then pick up the bowl. She learned to eat when I put the food down. I feel like with making them eat right then, it's easier to notice if there's a problem like, if your dog doesn't want to eat for some reason. If Missy doesn't eat her food, something is wrong!
 
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I agree with Jess. Free feeding to me means setting the food out and leaving it out until it's gone--regardless of quantity.

For me, there are a couple great things about NOT free feeding.

  1. I know when my dog is sick. If my dogs don't eat their food in less than a minute, something is seriously wrong. I didn't know Bentley was horribly sick until he took about 3 minutes to eat his food. I know that sounds crazy but we took him in immediately and he had surgery that same day for an obstruction. It was his only symptom at first. If they typically pick at their food, how do you know when something is wrong? Shelties are just so stoic that it can be the only indication.
  2. Along those same lines, eating the same time and the same amount every day means I can monitor their poop schedules. If they aren't pooping around the same time every day, then something is wrong and I know literally right away. If they pick at their food and eat whenever then they would poop at different times too.
  3. Traveling with a dog who eats immediately makes life so much easier. We can feed them right before we go, in the car, as soon as we get there, at night when we get home, and I'm not worried about them having time to eat enough, etc.
  4. Keeping weight off/on. If I know exactly how much my dog is eating every day, then it's super easy to adjust if they gain weight or lose weight. I wouldn't want to have to measure what has been left at the end of every day to determine how to adjust in the days to come.
 
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