[Happyhome]

Stella and chewys super beef is 70 calories for the small frozen patty so by that caculator I would feed my 6 pound dog more than 3 small frozen patties a day where the stella and chewy calculator says 2.5 a day for her. I am trying to figure this all out to see if I can afford to feed her Stella and Chewys.

 

[miascloset]

I've always fed my dogs Merrick kibble with added coconut oil.
1/2 cup is the recommended amount for a 4-6 lber but I give Mia 1/3 cup a day.
She's happy and is a perfect 4 lb weight.

 

[Moonfall]

You'll find that it does vary by the dog. I feel Alli a massive amount (I think about two cups a day!) of a high energy food and she's lean as they come. Our much larger dog eats the same of a lower cal food and still has to watch her weight.

Douglas eats .45 of a cup TOTAL per day, so less than 1/4 cup a serving. Very small amount and people not used to it tend to feel very bad for him like he is being fed too little, however he's a food hound and would very rapidly become fat without my monitoring his food intake carefully. It happened once where family watched him and overfed him and boy was he getting chubby fast.

Make sure you count treats as food intake too- drop the meals if they get a ton of treats because they add up fast and can make a very fat dog!!

 

[yamsville]

This calculator makes the mistake of simplifying to calories/volume of food when there's nutritional requirements to account for. So it's not just a matter of scaling back food if you want your pet to lose weight

 

[mom2marley]

I have to say that if I fed either of my dogs by the dog food calculator they would definitely be overweight.

 

[doginthedesert]

This calculator makes the mistake of simplifying to calories/volume of food when there's nutritional requirements to account for. So it's not just a matter of scaling back food if you want your pet to lose weight

Calories and volume of food are not the same thing. The way to loose or maintain weight is absolutely by feeding the number of calories you need a day. For most dogs and most foods you don't need to worry too much about nutrient density- which is different than calories and what you are talking about.

In very extreme cases of dogs that are performance or working dogs or very low energy seniors the average dog owner might need to think about nutrient density. However mostly you need to feed a high quality food and with a chihuahua not very much of it!

A lot of the nutrient density stuff you are seeing these days is because the big pet food manufacturers are hard marketing at weight loss food. They are even telling people it is dangerous to feed non-perscription kibble if your dog is trying to loose weight. I was at a dog event last weekend where purina in particular was hitting this point hard. It is not that nutrient density doesn't matter- but with AAFCO approved kibbles the nutrient levels are so incredibly high that there is almost no way you could cause a nutrient deficiency in a healthy dog by limiting their calories to keep them a healthy weight.

 

[boubou]

Feeding Mickey our " little " rescue guy. He's chihuahua/terrier weighs about 14 lbs and is a bit chunky. I looked at the calculator and according to it, I should almost double his food intake. I have been feeding him only 1/4 cup (heaping) morning and again at night for him to loose the weight but it's not budging. He is healthy, happy but not doing a whole lot. He is fixed. We think he may be around 6 or 7 years old.
How can he not loose weight?

 

[AngelicMisfit13]

My newly raw fed puppy eats 6 ounces of meat a day and still comes back to the kitchen looking for more.

 

[MinyFizz]

This is a great post. This should be a sticky!!! This question gets asked ALLLLLL the time!