[Elizabeth A]

Thank you for all the posts regarding the allergies. I will definitely look over the links and do some reading. The rescue had recommends feeding grain free for skin issues. Most of his skin issues have cleared up. He had a severe yeast infection and lost a lot of hair and was severely matted and had to be shaved down. His hair is growing back now and we’re giving him some fish oil supplements as well. He has been on occasion chewing or licking his feet/paws. I think that might be our grass and we’ve had another dog who was allergic to the grass and I can attest that it is very itchy for me to walk in it (I have grass allergies).

Regarding the allergy testing. I don’t think the rescue is going to do that at this point unless it’s recommended by the vet. His allergies are not severe I would say (not like our late dog who had terrible allergies). We just notice a bit of paw chewing/licking.

Also, we brought the Limited Ingredient back and got the Merrick Lil’ Plates for him since it was 5 stars and the other was 3.5. I started feeding him 5/8 twice a day plus a spoonful of can food just to mix it for him. The can food he’d need 1.25-1.5 cans a day if we fed him entirely canned food so I’m not too worried about the calories in one spoon or two.

I’m just confused should I feed him to his ultimate goal weight of 15 lbs or should I feed him to 20lbs and when he reaches 20lbs feed him the 15lb guide? And thank you for pointing out the guides are too much on a lot of dog foods. We definitely noticed this with our other dog’s food (Nutro Ultra). We have one that’s overweight by about 1 – 1.5 lbs (small dog–12-13lbs) and we were feeding the guidelines too! I wish they would just put Calories/kcals on the serving size on the bag of food. It’s much easier for me to relate to and then I could find out exactly how many calories she should be eating.

We’re trying to exercise our foster as much as possible but it’s a little hard with the heat here. Today’s heat index was about 110! He is so overweight and had a lot of breathing trouble (recovering from kennel cough) so we didn’t want to walk him too much. He does like to walk he just can’t go too far. We’ve gone down a few houses each way and he’s huffing and puffing when it’s over.