[Karen D]

Hi everyone! My name is Karen and I have an almost 4 month old mini dachshund. I am brand new here and hope you can help me out!

He is eating Blue Buffalo with some cooked chicken breast now. I have 3 cats that have eaten raw for 5 years…2 years ago we moved them to Blueridge Beef. We have to keep him separated from them or he will race over there to gobble it up faster than you could believe LOL!

He starts in August and my question is how much should I feed him? He is almost 6 pounds now..projected to be 10-12 pounds according to what his parents weigh. I read 2.5% of that….so does that mean about 2.5 ounces per feeding (3x’s a day)?
Also, BRB only has 1 organ meat in it (liver). Do I need to add something else? This is the total break down of their puppy mix: ground beef, chicken, green tripe, beef heart, chicken bone and beef liver. I add a supplement to my cats’ food too (Kitty Bloom). Should I add the Dog Bloom to this?

Thanks in advance!!

[Hound Dog Mom]

Hi Karen –

Because he’s a puppy I would suggest feeding him 4% of his body weight – which would be about 3.84 oz. per day. I’d divide this into 3 feedings (about 1.28 oz. per feeding) until he’s 6 months old, at this point in time you could probably start feeding him twice a day. After he’s 6 months old you may need to reduce the amount to closer to 3 or 3.5% of high body weight and after a year you may need to drop him to 2.5-3%. Small breed dogs do tend to require more calories per pound of body weight but just monitor his body condition closely and adjust the amounts he’s fed as necessary – these are all just general guidelines.

Blue Ridge Beef is not a balanced food so it will be necessary to supplement the meals. I can’t locate an ingredient list or nutrient panel anywhere for Dog Bloom so I can’t tell you whether or not that would balance the Blue Ridge grinds – I highly doubt it though. Most pet vitamin/mineral supplements are designed to be fed with a balanced meal so don’t contain high enough levels of certain nutrients.

[Karen D]

Thank you SO MUCH! That’s exactly what I needed.

This is the link to the Dog Bloom analysis
http://dogbloom.com/canine/DOGCOMP.htm

If this isn’t adequate, do you have an alternative suggestion?

[Hound Dog Mom]

Sorry, but based on that analysis I have no idea. I’ve never seen a label report values in usp – nutrient values are typically reported in IU.

I found this:

“From the Dictionary of Units of Measurement:
USP unit:
a unit used in the United States to measure the mass of a vitamin or drug based on its expected biological effects. For each substance to which this unit applies, the U. S. Food and Drug Administration has determined the biological effect associated with a dose of 1 USP unit. Other quantities of the substance can then be expressed in terms of this standard unit. In most cases, the USP unit is equal to the international unit (IU). “USP” is an abbreviation for the United States Pharmacopeia, a handbook describing the established properties of drugs legal for use in American medicine.”

Some of these values look a little high to be equivalent to IU. I’m not sure though. I’d need to know IU equivalents for the reported values before I could say.

[nan p]

I went by same guidelines Hound Dog Mom suggested. I have a 15 lb westie. She ate 3 meals a day to get it all in the first 9 months. I used Gradma Lucy’s with the blue ridge beef but mostly used Bravo Complete with fish oil and enzymes.

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