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Help with Diet Calories

586 Views 3 Replies 3 Participants Last post by  storyist
Hello, my 7yr old Frengle is a little overweight, currently not as active due to high temps.

He’s 18kg and should be around 14-15kg. I’m feeding him wetfood but not the whole can.

I feed him twice per day (Total 150g), the can is 400g. I just contacted the brand to ask how many calories per can. They said 340 calories in the 400g.

I’ve tried online calculators, but I can’t trust that. Some say 400 , 500, 600.

How many calories should my dog be having per day to cut down on weight?


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Honestly, I don't know a single dog caregiver who putzes with calorie counting. Have a way to MEASURE how much food your dog is getting, either by volume or by weight. If your dog is too heavy, reduce the amount they receive at each meal by a little. After a week or so, if the dog is still too heavy and not dropping weight fast enough, reduce the amount a little more. Do this very gradually. Small changes in food quantity really add up over time, and you don't want your dog to go a on a shock diet. Similarly, if your dog is too skinny, increase the volume/weight of the food they receive at each meal, again very gradually.
Honestly, I don't know a single dog caregiver who putzes with calorie counting. Have a way to MEASURE how much food your dog is getting, either by volume or by weight. If your dog is too heavy, reduce the amount they receive at each meal by a little. After a week or so, if the dog is still too heavy and not dropping weight fast enough, reduce the amount a little more. Do this very gradually. Small changes in food quantity really add up over time, and you don't want your dog to go a on a shock diet. Similarly, if your dog is too skinny, increase the volume/weight of the food they receive at each meal, again very gradually.
That’s what I do. I go with measurements vs calories. I just changed his wet food brand because the other one is out of stock.

I used to feed him 150g per day with the old brand. The new one comes in a 400g can so I wanted to know calorie wise.

Sometimes that 400g brand could have much lower calories intake than the 150g brand.

I don’t want to starve or over feed my dog.


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Here's my dogs and calories experience: I put one of my Rottweiler girls on a raw diet because of allergies (couldn't find a single kibble without at least one of the things she tested as sensitive to). I knew how many calories she was getting with kibble and matched it with raw. AND over the next couple of months she steadily gained weight. I had to cut and cut to find the actual amount of raw she needed to maintain a healthy weight.

So here I am again, at last able to put my other Rottie girl on raw (have been feeling guilty about her being on kibble while the other one got the good stuff). It's been 5 months and I had to take her to the vet yesterday. I knew she'd gained some weight, but according to the vet she needs to lose 15 pounds! IMO she only needs to lose 10, but even so....

When I mentioned my experience with the allergy girl, people on this forum theorized that maybe Story was absorbing the raw food calories (and hopefully nutrients) in the raw diet better. If that's true, so is Teagan, but I've always believed a calorie is a calorie whether it comes from junk food or health food.

Anyway, my girls need fewer calories on raw than they did on kibble, so in the OP's shoes, I would only match calories of old diet to new diet as a starting place and afterwards keep an eye on the doggy waistline, adjust accordingly, and obviously do that adjusting quicker than I did.
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