# Portions - Amount of food



## trish07 (Mar 5, 2010)

I'm lost regarding "what portion" of food should I give to my dog.

Like I previously said in an other thread, we've been trough many issues with our dog's food.

At first, we fed him with Royal Canin - Puppy (for big dogs) = diharrea

Than, Nutro Ultra Hollistic - Puppy (for big dogs) = ears/eyes/skin deseases

Than, Nutro Ultra Lamb and rice (told us Lamb and rice were hypoallergenic) = same problems

Now, we feed him with Orijen, red meats. Everything is going well. The problem is, with his old foods, Phenix was eating about 6 cups per day of food.

Now, Orijen is a lot more protein and we need to reduce his portions if we dont wan't him to become fat (he now pounds 95lbs @ 1½ year, no fat, only muscles). On the bag, they say that for active dogs around 95 pounds, we should gave maximum 3½ cups per day LOOOLLL!

Phenix is looking at me like if I was the cheaper women on earth without any consideration for his stomach lol

How many cups per day your dog eats? Are you controling his feeding? Is your dog have weight to lose?

Thank you!!!


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## roxy84 (Jun 23, 2007)

well, the orijen is much more nutrient dense, has way more meat, and more calories per cup (i think about 100 calories more per c.) than anything you were feeding previously. id go ahead with the 3 1/2 cups per day (divided into 2 meals of couse). then you could adjust up (or down if need be) maybe 1/2 cup if he starts showing some ribs or looking too chunky.

i know it seems like alot compared to what you were feeding, but 6 cups sounds like a crazy amount of food to me. i feed orijen and 3 cups/day does the job. my girl is smaller than your dog, but her activity level is very high. ive seen quite a few larger male gsd's that do fine on 3-4 cups/day of orijen.

when i feed my dogs, for each meal i pour half of it in the bowl, let them finish that, then give them the rest. i hope it makes them feel like they are getting more to eat


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## EmilyK0429 (Dec 6, 2009)

I agree with Derek that the 3 1/2 cups should be fine. I can't imagine feeding 6cups a day. My girl is 60lbs and very active with a fast metabolism. She gets 3 cups a day of Evo and looks fantastic. Just adjust according to how your boy looks and you should be fine.


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## Elaine (Sep 10, 2006)

Ok, this is not that hard. Look at the calories per cup on the old food and figure out how much to feed of the new food from that. It doesn't matter if there is more protein in the new food; it has everything to do with how many calories you are feeding. If you like his weight, continue with how many calories he's currently getting. If not, feed less. 

Quit looking at the bag for amounts to feed as those are only sort of guidelines and I've never seen them to have any relation to how much the dog actually needed to eat.


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## roxy84 (Jun 23, 2007)

Elaine said:


> Ok, this is not that hard. Look at the calories per cup on the old food and figure out how much to feed of the new food from that. It doesn't matter if there is more protein in the new food; it has everything to do with how many calories you are feeding. If you like his weight, continue with how many calories he's currently getting. If not, feed less.
> 
> Quit looking at the bag for amounts to feed as those are only sort of guidelines and I've never seen them to have any relation to how much the dog actually needed to eat.


 
i never expect x calories of one food to equal x calories of another food in terms of what effect it will have on my dogs body.

it can depend on what the calories are coming from. if they are coming from a bunch of poorly digested ingredients, the dog is getting less nutrition.

for example, TOTW has less calories than Orijen, but the calorie equation doesnt work. i have to feed about 1800 calories of TOTW to maintain my dog vs 1450 calories of orijen.


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## LaRen616 (Mar 4, 2010)

I was feeding my boy Solid Gold Wolf Cub (puppy) and he was getting fed 2 1/2 cups 2 times a day, one in the morning and one at night. He has now been switched to the Solid Gold Wolf King (adult). I am monitering his weight right now because I have switched to 2 cups a day 2 times a day. I dont know if he should stay at 2 cups or if he should go back to 2 1/2, I wont know for a couple more days. His weight goes back and forth between 85 and 88 pounds. He is not neutered.


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## VaBeachFamily (Apr 12, 2005)

I have the same problem. My dogs get Orijen in the morning, Raw at night, and cullen get's a little extra orijen at lunch for his third meal. Not sure how much I should be feeding, I go by the bag, and if they are still hungry after eating it all, we do training, and the treats seems to be good, ( seeing as training treats around here ARE meat... except for the occasional evo grain free biscuit).


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## trish07 (Mar 5, 2010)

roxy84 said:


> well, the orijen is much more nutrient dense, has way more meat, and more calories per cup (i think about 100 calories more per c.) than anything you were feeding previously. id go ahead with the 3 1/2 cups per day (divided into 2 meals of couse). then you could adjust up (or down if need be) maybe 1/2 cup if he starts showing some ribs or looking too chunky.
> 
> i know it seems like alot compared to what you were feeding, but 6 cups sounds like a crazy amount of food to me. i feed orijen and 3 cups/day does the job. my girl is smaller than your dog, but her activity level is very high. ive seen quite a few larger male gsd's that do fine on 3-4 cups/day of orijen.
> 
> when i feed my dogs, for each meal i pour half of it in the bowl, let them finish that, then give them the rest. i hope it makes them feel like they are getting more to eat


Hahah lol thank you, I'll try!

He seriously ate 6 cups per day, but I swear, his shape was and is perfect. I know he is a pretty big GSD, 95 pounds isn't nothing and people are always surprised of the size of our dog, but there is no fat, not single part where I can found fatness lol.

I just want to make sure I'm doing good lol....I don't want to compromise his health. We were told that it was very important during the "growing", especially for the bones (hips).


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## roxy84 (Jun 23, 2007)

yep. alot of us are pretty strict about keeping our dogs pretty lean, especially while they are growing. i wont up my dogs intake unless i can actually see some ribs from the side (i usually look in good lighting or in the sun) and like to see a very defined waistline from above and a nice tuck from the side. 

good luck with the orijen. the regional red looks really good, but i havent found it locally yet.


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## trish07 (Mar 5, 2010)

roxy84 said:


> yep. alot of us are pretty strict about keeping our dogs pretty lean, especially while they are growing. i wont up my dogs intake unless i can actually see some ribs from the side (i usually look in good lighting or in the sun) and like to see a very defined waistline from above and a nice tuck from the side.
> 
> good luck with the orijen. the regional red looks really good, but i havent found it locally yet.


Too bad! Dogs seems to really enjoy it a lot lol


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