please help with dog food

[Dena v]

Hi, I currently feed dry fromm to my lab/Shepard mix. She’s 11 years old. Very inactive. Lays/sleeps a lot. She use to be over weight but she’s been not wanting to eat her dry food as much. Which makes me think I need to switch her to wet food because it would be easier on her teeth. She has had merrick before so I want to switch to that. But I need help figuring out how much to feed my inactive senior.

Merrick senior wet says
Calorie Content

873 kcal /kg or 332 kcal per 13.2.oz. can ME (metabolizable energy) on an as fed basis (calculated).

^^^ I don’t quite get what it means. Or how to enter that into the dog food caculator.

Your dog food’s calories per serving

 kcal / cup or    kcal / kg

what number would I enter into the caculator?

I’m totally confused. Tia!

[pugmomsandy]

use 873 kcal/kg and it will give you how many calories to feed her.

[Akari_32]

When I do canned in the calculator, I personly treat the size of the can as a cup, enter it that way. If it says my dog needs a half cup of the entered food, then it’s a half can. Easier than trying to decide how much to feed with the kcal/kg calculated I to the calculator.

[Dena v]

Thank you for your help.

I’m still needing some help.

I entered
Ideal weight ….80
Activity…. . Inactive senior
Kcal cup or kcal kg …. 873

It said
Your dog’s ideal weight

 pounds   kilograms

Step 2

Your dog’s activity level

select an activity level…TypicalActiveOverweightHighly ActiveSenior, neutered, inactiveWorking Dog (light duty)Working Dog (moderate duty) Working Dog (heavy duty)

Step 3

Your dog food’s calories per serving

 I did both kcal / cup and   kcal / kg and it said the same calories…

Your dog requires 1333 kcal / day
Feed your dog 1.53 cups / day

Which baffles me a bit cause that would be 1 and a half cans (13.2 oz) a day.

But the can itself reads
80 lbs
1330 kals day
Feed 4 cans a day
(13.2 oz)

That’s a big difference. I know she should eat lead cause she’s 11 years old senior and inactive. But is 1 and half cans a day too little?
What do you guys think? Thank you so much for your help!!!!

[Dena v]

Meant to say eat less nor lead.

[Akari_32]

I feed my 130 pound, almost 11 year old rott mix 2.5 cups a day (it does say he should eat about twice that, however). So what the calculator came up with may not be too far off if you did it correctly. Just tweak how much you feed him until you find what works. I’d probably start with 2-2 1/2 cans a day if he’s moderately active for an older dog. My guy just lays around all day, only getting up for food or potty breaks. He’s extra lazy, even for a senior dog LOL

[pugmomsandy]

How many calories is she eating currently of dry food? You could start by feeding her the equivalent in wet food.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 9 months ago by pugmomsandy.

[Dena v]

Her dry food is fromm

It says
CALORIC CONTENT41681,894 kcal/lb404 kcal/cup

she eats 2 1/2 cups a day. Although a little less lately.

I can’t even figure our how much calories she eating now cause I don’t know which numbers to use to multiply and figure out.

[pugmomsandy]

She’s currently getting 1010 calories per day of kibble. That would be 3 cans of Merrick Senior wet. You can feed her regular adult Merrick wet with more calories per can so you can feed less cans.

[Dena v]

Fromm reads..

4168 kcal\kg
1894 kcal\lb
404 kal\cup

It ran together when I copy and pasted earlier.

[Dena v]

Ok I will feed 3 cans thanks.
I checked the regular kind and instead of being able to feed less they have the same calories so it says to feed them more. So it be the same for her.
Thanks so much!!!

[pugmomsandy]

Or you could do one can plus a rounded 1/3 cup of kibble twice a day which would be at least 930 calories per day depending on how rounded your 1/3 cup is. But 2 cans and one cup total for the day is 1068 which is a little too much.

[Dena v]

Thank you so much!

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