[Aussie]

I have one, only one complaint or rather concern amount of food required to keep weight on. (Really I have a couple of trialling concerns but the light at the end of the tunnel is still shining training wise LOL).

Yank does everything at a million miles per hour training wise. Naturally he uses a lot of calories. BTW, he is great in the house and in his kennel run at night, no pacing.

He is nearly 2 years of age. He is fed a diet of raw meaty bones and 7 cups of Eagle Pack Power per day. Vet checks have him, fit as a fiddle.

Does anyone else need to feed so much dry food to their dogs????????

 

[Howard N]

Nope, my hardest keeper gets ~4 cups a day when in hard training.

 

[Zack]

I have one dog that gets about 5 cups of 30/22 food a day to keep weight on.

 

[Aussie]

4 cups? Thanks Howard.

I feel semi?? confident, as he matures he will require less.

After training, at his night feeding (4 cups) my concern is less regarding ie bloat. The mornings (3 cups) are a little harder as I set my alarm at least 2 hours before training, so there is at least a 3 hour delay before hard exercise.

Paranoid me!!!

 

[YardleyLabs]

At a point when I was running my dogs 7 miles per day as part of their regular exercise routine I needed to feed them 6-8 cups/day of ProPlan chicken to avoid weight loss. One is 60 pounds and the other is 70. When they were younger I fed them the same amount of ProPlan Puppy. I no longer go those distances (their legs held up but mine didn't) and now feed them 3-4 cups/day each for weight maintenance.

 

[ErinsEdge]

I had one that did. It will get better as he gets older. Better to have them eat than be picky. You can always cut them back if they gain weight.

 

[KEukaFlyer]

I'm glad someone else has the same problem! My dog is eating me out of house and home. I run with him a few miles every morning then train every night I can. He was consuming 8 cups a day!! He is a long legged dog and good size. He weighs 88 lbs and looks lean, but not too lean. I'd say he's at the ideal weight. I have now backed him off to 6 cups a day, he is approaching 2 years old. The bag still says 4...I don't know if we'll ever make it!

The vet says he's a perfect shape, tones down nice after his ribs.

 

[2tall]

Holy Cow! My boy gets only 3 cups a day of pro plan. He looks good, likes his dinner, but is not a chow hound. I Feed him his 3 cups at night because we train in the A.M. He seems to maintain a nice weight, great coat etc, but now I am worried that I am starving him! He is a tall lean boy, weighs about 72 - 75#'s, is almost 2 years old. Am I doing wrong!?!?!?

 

[Miriam Wade]

Hi Julie-

Finny's a very active dog- although very, very low key in the house. He came home on 4 cups of Euk & I'm switching him back to Eagle. He seems to choose to eat about 3 1/2 cups a day. 68 pounds & all muscle, sooo...

..yes-8 cups seems like a LOT to me!

M

 

[WRL]

I currently have 5 males and 1 female that get 8-10 cups of food daily.

They are hard hard hard to keep weight on.

Two of the males are littermates and one of the males and the female are littermates.

Two of the dogs are pacers (the littermate boys). Seriously, if you even think about feeding them less, they'll lose 5 lbs while you watch.

I feed a 30/22 protein to fat ratio, stools are good and I worm the heck out of them. They are just hard keepers.

I do believe once they mature a bit more (they just turned 2) that the metabolism will slow down and I'll be able to scale back.

The fifth dog mentioned is a 4 year old and he's pretty much going to get fed that much food for life unless he gains more weight and starts looking chubby.

WRL

 

[pupaloo]

I would suggest trying Innova Evo-expensive, but it's higher protein/fat should enable you to feed less and still maintain condition-so it might be the same cost in the end as 7 cups of Eagle Power, which isn't cheap either...or, try a sled dog diet (PM me if you want a link-friends make one, but I don't want to spam)

 

[SueLab]

You might examine the contents of the food you use. Some sources of protein are not as digestible as others...for example - corn gluten raises the protein content but is not very digestible.

I feed 2.5 cups/day to two older dogs and to one smallerm younger female. My young male gets 4 cups per day to stay in good shape. It is 26/18 food by a different manufacturer...a manufacturer that has had no recalls and does not import any contents except meat from Australia. Since switching, I have little waste and the dogs seem to be in better general shape...

Here are it's contents which seem to be alot different from the food you use...

Poultry Meal, Ground Rice, Corn Meal, Chicken Fat [Preserved with Mixed Tocopherols (Source of Vitamin E) and Citric Acid], Dried Potato Product, Menhaden Fish Meal, Brewers Dried Yeast, Dried Plain Beet Pulp (Sugar Removed), Flax Meal, Dried Whole Eggs, Dried Cheese, Lecithin, Salt, Calcium Carbonate, Potassium Chloride, Dried Whey, Natural Flavors, DL-Methionine, L-Lysine, Ascorbic Acid (Source of Vitamin C), Yucca Schidigera Extract, Dried Garlic, Dried Streptococcus Faecium Fermentation Product, Dried Lactobacillus Acidophilus Fermentation Product, Vitamin A Acetate, D-Activated Animal Sterol (Source of Vitamin D3), Vitamin E Supplement, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (Source of Vitamin K Activity), Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement (Source of Vitamin B2), d-Calcium Pantothenate, Niacin Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate (Source of Vitamin B1), Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Source of Vitamin B6), Folic Acid, Biotin, Manganese Sulfate, Manganous Proteinate, Ferrous Sulfate, Iron Proteinate, Copper Sulfate, Copper Proteinate, Zinc Proteinate, Potassium Iodide, Sodium Selenite.

 

[SueLab]

Here is a link to a study (cat food) regarding the use of corn gluten meal and other meals (meat, fish, etc) for protein:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/...ve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12224854&dopt=Abstract

 

[WRL]

The dogfood I feed does not contain corn gluten.

Chicken meal is the first ingredient.

WRL

 

[SueLab]

So what I wonder is corn meal the same as corn gluten meal as far as the labeling is concerned? It is definitely not the same product.

This what I found when I did a search:

"What is Corn Gluten Meal?"
Corn gluten meal is a yellowy powder created as a by-product during a milling process of corn. It is primarily used in farm animal feeds, dog food, and fish food. It contains 60% protein and 10% nitrogen. It is also used as a "pre-emergent" weed control for lawns. The nitrogen in the Corn Gluten Meal provides a small amount of fertilizer helping to "green-up" the lawn.

"Is Corn Gluten Meal the same as the cornmeal I make muffins with?"
It's a very different product, cornmeal for baking is a specific product made by grinding dried corn kernels.