[Tabby W]

My 7 year old staffy bulldog mix (Boss) needs to lose some weight. He had a torn ACL and has gained weight. He was chunky when we rescued him but I want him to be fit. He is recovered now and his goal weight is 55 lbs from 70 lbs.

He is going to be exercising a lot more, BUT I am also switching his kibble because I don’t think he loves nutro that much, and I think the new kibbles I’ve selected are of better quality.

I would like to feed a mix of Earthborn Unrefined Rabbit and Perfectus Chicken. I love both of these foods for different reasons and have decided to try to go with the best of both worlds. He loved the samples, and his stomach did well. I initially was just going to mix them evenly (they are both 25 lb bags) but someone told me that the calories would be too high evenly mixed because Perfectus has higher kcal/cup.

SO, the advice I’m seeking is: in cups or ounces, how much of each food should get in a day? I can feed him once or twice, but he often skips breakfast, and eats later at night only.

Perfectus – 407 kcal/cup
25% protein
14%fat
5% fiber
12% moisture

Earthborn- 370 kcal/cup
23% Protein
15% fat
8% fiber
10% moisture
.10% taurine
Plus other great stuff

Thanks in advance, and Boss says thanks too! Lol

[Patricia A]

I’m also trying to get my slightly chubby Chihuahua to lose a bit. She gets two meal a day. Breakfast being just 1/8 of a hard boiled egg. Very hard to figure out how much to feed Boss since the food is pretty significant calorie difference. How about alternating each day? This way you can give less of the Perfectus per cup on those days since higher in calories.
I notice with my little chihuahua that giving her breakfast, which is for her 1/8 of a hard boiled egg, cuts her hunger for giving all the calories for dinner. So if you can give dinner a little earlier and wait an hour and give her some exercise with a walk the calories can burn off? String beans in-between instead of caloric treats also helps for the weight lose.
Hope this helps.

[Iryna L]

My 7 year old GSD puts on weight rather quickly. It helps a lot when I reduce his portions.

[WondrousPups]

Hi there!
Here is a nifty calculator I use on a regular bases. This calculator applies different set of factors Vets uses to figure out particular dog’s daily caloric needs. I’ve used different calculators in the past, and this app is more versatile and accurate than others.

Tabby – since Boss needs to loose significant amount of weight, if I were in your shoes, I would start out with setting the initial weight goal as 65 lb. and base his daily caloric needs based on that. So for example, you would put 65 lb. as the current dog’s weight, and pick the activity level, and not the weight loss option. One of my dogs needed to loose significant weight a couple of years ago, and I made a mistake of using the “weight loss” option right off the bat. It’s really harsh reduction of calories. Try it and compare how much less the recommended daily calorie is for 70 lb. weight loss option and 65 lb. dog, moderately active option. I believe the “weight loss option” is pretty harsh meant to be used only under a vet’s close supervision because that’s pretty much the very bear bottom caloric needs of a dog.

A safe weight loss for a healthy dog is 3-4% of body weight per month. For Boss, it’s 2.1 lb. – 2.8 lb for the first months.
That’s 11 oz weight loss per week pace at most.

If I were in your shoes, I would also consider switching to feeding less calorie dense formulas (I aim to find a formula that has 360 kcal per cup or less, but not extremely low fat kibbles during weight loss). The reason is that when you use a high calorie kibbles (400 kcal/cup is considered calorie dense) and fee it less, it often ends up not meeting the all of the nutrient needs. It sounds like an oxymoron, but less calorie dense kibbles end up containing more nutrients per calorie of kibble than high calorie kibbles when you have to restrict calorie intake.

Calculators:
Figure out daily calorie needs of your dog:
https://thebark.com/rer/

I just did a quick search, and DFA has one, too!
/dog-feeding-tips/dog-food-calculator/

Good luck!
WP

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