What % Of Dogs Weight Do You Feed Them

[sllebasi]

Somewhere along the line I have heard of a figure like 2 % of body weight in terms of how much to feed a dog. Is this correct, so for example a 20 kg dog you should feed them 200 g per day. Am asking this as i normally make a chicken and vegetable stir fry mix and portion it out for the two small meals a day. however am having difficulty with storage and freezing the meals, so am now looking at making a chicken mince (or fish) and grated vegetable patties (with eggs and other things), but want to know how much I should feed her.

(by the way, she is a 22 kg staffy kelpie cross, who could lose another 2 kg or so, has pancreatitis, and arthritis, of which both seem to be quite well managed by avoiding red meat products)

[Diva]

The Barf rule of thumb for adult dogs is 2%-4% of the ideal body weight. Obviously that allows for quite a range but it needs to as energy requirements, exercise patterns and metabolism vary between dogs and over time, even from day to day for mine.

The best measure is how your dog looks. If she needs to lose weight you want to do it slow and steady. when you can feel her ribs and see her waist, and her coat is good and her energy levels high, you are probably feeding enough.

[sllebasi]

for a 12 year old, she has absolutely no problems with energy. will probably make each meal 150 grams going by that % and will see how she goes on it, whether she loses weight slowly or stays steady.

Thanks for that, I thought it was around that figure

[tlc]

I usually go on about 2 - 2.5% depending on what they have done for the day. I had a friend who was working on the same principal but the thing was she has got en extremely over weight boy and she was going on his current weight, I explained to her that the amount she should feed has to be on his ideal weight which cut back his food considerably. Hope that makes sense.

[sllebasi]

yes that makes sense, will see how i go for the next few weeks, unfortunately will be going to the kennels for a period of time, so will have to work on it again after i get back.