[AConklin03]

I previously had my dogs on Purina Dog Chow, until reading about how crappy that is, and switched them to 4health chicken and rice. They're doing well on the new food, but the pug isn't eating much of it. The guidelines say 1 cup a day, and for the first 4-5 days she was eating that much. Now she'll eat only 1/2 cup a day, sometimes I can get her to eat 3/4 of a cup, but for the most part she just eats her 1/2 cup in the morning and then turns her nose up to the evening serving. She's even gone so far as to get in her crate and lay down when I call her to her food bowl. (That's where she goes if I am calling her to do something that she doesn't want to do..)

She's a small dog, weighs 13 lbs. I know the guidelines are just suggestions and estimates..but could she really be getting enough to eat with only 1/2 cup a day? She does not like treats much..so she maybe gets one or two small ones a day. She's active in spurts but she does spend a good part of the day laying around. She's also about 5 years old if that makes any difference.

Thank you for any suggestions you guys can give me!

I've also tried giving her a full 1 cup in the morning, thinking maybe she just didn't like to eat at night..but nope, she'll eat about 1/2 a cup and leave the rest in the bowl.

 

[Miss Bugs]

it may just be that thats enugh for her, differnt dogs have different requirments, my JRT X and my Toller for example are extremly acttive, the JRT x is 15;bs the Toller is 30lbs..the JRT x needs 1 cup a day to maintain his weight..the Toller is twice his size, just as active and needs only 1 1/2 per day or she gets really fat..meanwhile my BC who is also only 30lbs needs 4 cups a day to maintain her weight. dogs can very a LOT in this reguard. I would say if she is not loosing weight, she's fine.

 

[Willowy]

Sounds like plenty to me. My mom's dogs weigh about 35 pounds and eat a cup a day (of 4Health). So 1/2 cup a day for a 13-pounder sounds fine. Unless she starts losing weight, don't worry.

 

[AConklin03]

Thank you to both of you! That makes me feel much better..I've just never had a dog who will stop herself from eating before. My other two I have to limit their food because they will just eat and eat and eat if they're allowed. I'll definitely keep an eye on her weight, but for now I'll just leave her with eating 1/2 a cup a day and not worrying about it.

 

[MagicRe]

i have a pug...and he was fed 1/3 cup twice a day...he weighs 20 lbs...so 1/2 cup per day sounds right.

as long as your dog isn't losing weight and is happy....that's fine.

plus, if you're giving treats, that counts too.

 

[luv mi pets]

Sounds like enough for your dog. I would throw away the scale and learn to do body condition score testing to see if the dog is at an ideal weight. As owners we tend to be worried about the numbers than how the dog looks. Plus you do need to add in any treats or table scraps if she gets them as part of what she eats. Many factors come in the factor of how much your dog eats. You need to account how active she is and she is getting older and her metabolism is slowing down. Being a pug, you should feel lucky. Pugs tend to overindulge at the food bowl if given a chance.

 

[Binkalette]

My dogs are 25 and 17 pounds, the 25 pounder eats 3/4 cup a day, the 17 pounder 1/2 cup. They both get half in the morning and half in the evening. The bag however would like them to have about double that! Ha!

 

[AConklin03]

She doesn't get a whole lot of treats lately as we've been working on some training for our puppy and she only gets treats during those times if she follows along and also does what she's told...which she has not been. She flat out refuses. So, her treats lately have been only one or two small biscuits a day and she doesn't regularly get any table scraps.

I don't normally use the scale to judge how she's doing and do normally go by the body conditioning charts, I just weighed her to find out how much of the new food she needed.

So far she's doing well on 1/2-3/4 of a cup a day though and seems satisfied.

 

[pugmom]

My pug only eats a little over 1/2 cup per day....she gets a heaping 1/4 cup in the am and pm ....plus small treats here and there

 

[AConklin03]

Since the general consensus seems to be that pugs generally eat about that much, I'm now starting to wonder if I'm feeding the other dogs too much since I'm following the guidelines on the bags for them too.

The one is a puppy so it's easy to see if she's gaining weight properly, but the older dog is overweight and we've been trying to correct that so I've been feeding her the recommendation based on her ideal weight..but I wonder if that's too much too.

 

[Kathyy]

Bingo. Feed less!

My poor dogs get fed according to their body condition. I don't believe their begging eyes or any website on calorie intake or bag's instructions or even bile vomits.

Put your hands on the dog, you should be able to easily feel all the bones. Look at the dog, you shouldn't be able to SEE any of those bones. Well, the last couple of ribs is fine and some dogs have prominent hip bones too. I would increase or decrease the feed accordingly week by week.

 

[AConklin03]

Well, Elphie (the pug) I think is in pretty good shape and I don't think she needs to gain or lose weight. She's a small pug, but that's just her stature.

The elkhound though...she is very overweight and needs to lose about 15 lbs. She's about 60 lbs but should be about 45ish and I'm feeding her based on what it said for 40 lbs but I am thinking that might be too much still. I'll try dropping her down a bit further and see how she does. I've read that green beans can be used as a filler in foods for dogs that think they're still hungry after eating..which might be a good idea for her since she's a chow hound and never seems to think she's full.

 

[Goldens&Labs4Me]

My JRT x is 12 lbs and only eats between 1/4-1/2 cup per day.

 

[Jordan S]

My dog is 23 lbs and gets 2/3 cup a day so that's probably fine for her.