41lb femal pit mix feeding amount

[katoom400]

we are transitioning our 41lb femal from blue buffalo to Kirkland. both bags say for her size she should be between 2.5 - 3 cups per day, we feed her twice a day and give her ~1.5 cups at each meal. she immediatly scoffs it down, and is always looking for more. I know that 2.5-3 is the guidline, but I worry that I'm not giving her enough.

At the same time I don't want her to get overweight from too much food. Does this sound right for her size?

Thanks,
Andy

[AllisonPibbleLvr]

A 41lb dog (ideal weight) should have about 1000kcal/day. Kirkland foods are usually around 350ish, blue buffalo formulas tend to be higher.

You could add in some cooked green beans or try feeding out of work to eats toys.

[BrokenAquarian]

My female used to act like that with kibble. She would slow down if I put water in the kibble and wouldn't act ravenous after she finished.

She also doesn't act that way now that I feed her raw meat or canned food.
I think it's pretty unnatural for them to be eating completely dry food. Their natural diet has a lot of water in it and isn't eaten as quickly as a bowl of kibble is.

That's just an observational assumption on my part.

[Misskiwi67]

Imagine yourself sitting down to a table with a bowl of dehydrated apricots - how many would you eat before you felt full. Do the same thing with fresh apricots...

This is how our dogs eat every day, and they rarely feel full after an appropriately sized meal. Adding water to the food is the best thing you can do for her.

What a dog should eat depends on the brand and the individual dogs metabolism.

My 35# pit bull eats about 3/4-1 cup twice daily and my 45# lab mix eats 1/2 cup twice daily of the same food. Some dogs need significantly more than others!

[Shoshana]

Peanut eats a little more than 3/4 cup 2x a day of Blue Buffalo and she's 47-48 pounds. She gets walks and zoomies but is an only dog. As soon as i dogsit my friends' 4 GSPs she'll start losing weight because she is running with them and swimming.

When she gets down to 44 pounds I start upping her food.


It's really trial and error!