Calories are something I puzzle over frequently.

I'm going to use Drum as my focus for this question, because he is inclined to eat less. Grip will eat any and everything you put in front of him, so I'm less concerned about how many calories he's getting because I can always increase the amount he's fed.

(Needless to say, I have never had "overweight" worries with either of my dogs).

Now Drum doesn't seem to be able to eat large meals, if I try to increase his quantity he either walks away or ends up with diarrhea, so I'm interested in increasing the caloric count of his food.

But I can't seem to find anything online about how many calories a dog needs per day!!!

Both dogs get moderate but not heavy exercise, and both of them tend to be lean. I would be happy for both of them to put on another 5 pounds. I can get them on Grip, but how in the world do I get them on Drum???

Drum currently weighs just under 80lbs; Grip weighs just under 70lbs.


p.s. if anybody remembers my excited post about Grip weighing 90lbs please note that was operator error. I am not mathmatically reliable :(

Waltham has put out a dog food calculator that determines how many calories your dog requires based on age, weight, and activity level. It should get you pretty close.

http://www.mycockerspaniel.com/mer.htm#waltham


There are actually two calculators on that webpage. The one at the top of the page over-recommends in my opinion. The calculator near the bottom of the page is the one you want, the waltham calculator.\

According to that calculator, Drum @ 80 lbs, being typically active, would need around 1700 calories/day. While Grip @ 70 lbs, being typically active, would require around 1500 kcal/day.

good luck,

http://www.picvault.info/images/17256_whipped.jpg

The only dog calorie chart I have found that was not on a pet food company website was this one for Akita's -

http://www.phouka.com/dogs/dog_amount.html

Basically, according to that website you should be feeding 24 to 25 calories per pound of dog (70lb dog = 1680 to 1750 calories per day).

On Naturapet.com (Innova's website) calorie needs for a 70lb dog ranges from 1298 for an inactive dog up to 1950 for an extremely active one.

Wow. You guys even did the math for me!

:ibow

Thank you thank you thank you!