friend's question

[rexdoggieowner]

my friend has an 9 month old lab as well-- she was just wondering ( apart from saking the vet) how much should she feed him, she says she feeds him 2 times a day, but how much ?!

[Writing4Fun]

Funny, I was just checking this out myself. The PetSmart.com website has a pretty good interactive chart to find out how much to feed your pet. It asks you what age, type, activity level, etc... and then lists the brands of foods available and how much your particular pet should be getting of each. Pretty cool!

[rexdoggieowner]

wow... i'll even cehck that out for my dog too.... btu what part of the website do you go to... cause i can't find it

[Writing4Fun]

http://www.petsmart.com/ps/main.jsp

Right in the middle of the page, below the "Save 15%" ad, there's a "Pet Food Calculator" (picture of a food dish with a calculator in it - took a marketing genius to come up with that graphic ) where you choose "dog" or "cat".

Here's the link directly into the dog calculator (I hope this works):
http://www.petsmart.com/ps/applicati...=1091804149746

Enjoy!

[rexdoggieowner]

for my dog, a collie X-- 9 months old aswell.. it says 4 cups a day,,, does that look right to you people ?!

[Writing4Fun]

Well, I think it depends on the brand of food you're feeding. But if I remember reading the bag correctly (and I can't be sure because I throw my bags out & store in a container), that sounds about right. Phoebe's in the 4-6mth range, eating Iams Large Breed Puppy at about 4 1/2 cups/day (give or take). Are you shocked at how much s/he should be eating, or surprised by how little? I know she'd eat (and produce ) less if she were eating a better quality food, but this is the best I can afford right now.

[Lucky Rescue]

I know she'd eat (and produce ) less if she were eating a better quality food, but this is the best I can afford right now

The thing is, they eat much LESS of good quality food, so it really doesn't cost more.

[rexdoggieowner]

i buy him the vet one.. i'm not sure what its called but its white ...that defiantely doesn't help you much.... but its the only brand my vet carries!!

[Writing4Fun]

Originally Posted by LuckyRescue

The thing is, they eat much LESS of good quality food, so it really doesn't cost more.

What brand do you suggest? I'd like to check some of them out. I noticed in a previous post that some people really hated Iams. I always thought they were pretty up-there in terms of quality (not the best, but better than Dog Chow). Why the anti-Iams sentiments?

[rexdoggieowner]

i'm at work rigth now-- but i will check out what kind he eats..

its about 70 bucks for a HUGE bag that lasts him more then 1 month

[heidiho]

Solid Gold......

[Heather MH]

It says that my Daisy should have 5-6 cups a day???
That is crazy,she eats maybe 3 cups a day but most of the time 2 cups a day. Chevy who is 15 pounds heavier (Daisy's brother) eats 3-4 cups a day. We for the most part free feed them so its not like they are going hungry there is always food in there bowls. We feed Canidae and it is great.

[Writing4Fun]

I think this goes back to the whole "brand" issue. It seems that PetSmart has put together this tool using the recommended feeding guidelines from the brands of food they carry, which is great, if you're going to buy those brands.

Like LuckyRescue said, if you're feeding a top-quality food, they'll need to eat a lot less of it than with an inferior brand. I checked PetSmart's web site and they don't seem to carry Canidae. I guess they'd prefer to have you constantly coming back to buy more food every week!!

Please keep those recommendations coming. I'd like to look into as many as I can. I'd also still like to know why some folks are anti-Iams. My vet seemed to think it was okay (better than Puppy Chow, at least ).

[Sunkist/Winnie]

I found out from this website that Iams isn't as good as it was. I mentioned this to my vet and questioned them as to why they never said anything about getting a better quality food. They said Iams was a good food 4 or so years ago, but the company got bought out and turned into a "grocery store" brand. They said they never said anything to me because my cats weren't having problems and it was better that cat chow or whatever it is. Not a good reason if you ask me...but that's another thread.

I have since switched over my munchkins and they do eat quite a bit less than what they did, one's dandruff problem has cleared up AND the porky one is starting to slim down! I figure with the fact they are eating less it actually costs me about the same to feed them AND they get the added benefit of a better quality food, no skin problems, feeling better because one of them is losing weight and we avoid any potential long term affects of not feeding them premium food.

The reason people don't like Iam anymore is because the ingredients that make up the food are not quality ingredients...there are a lot of fillers and other junk in the food now.

[Writing4Fun]

Ahhh, well that explains it! I was concerned because my previous dog was on Iams and everyone back then was touting it as one of the greatest foods on the market. I was concerned when I read in this site that people didn't like it - I thought "Great! So all those years I was feeding my dog cr*p and didn't even know it?!".

So, on to the "meaty" question (pardon the pun ). How can I tell if a food is any good? I know you're supposed to check out the ingredients, and if the first one is meat of some kind, then you should be okay. Does that include "meat by-products"? What other ingredients should I be looking for/staying away from?? Sorry for the questions. It's been a while since I've researched dog food, and apparantly the rules have changed a bit!

[glasslass]

meat - good
meat by-products - bad (don't even want to know)
corn - bad

That's not all the bad or all the good, but just what I remember most.