feeding amounts

[agentorange]

Hi

We adopted a greyhound 4 months ago and are struggling to keep weight on him. 
He had really bad skin so after settling him in we have changed him to a better quality food than the basic greyhound feeds. 
With both we have followed the recommended feeding amounts and increased the amount significantly but cant seem to get him to put weight back on.
The vet has no concerns other than we need to feed significantly more than recommended, which goes against all the other advice including that of the food company.

We are waiting to speak to a greyhound expert but in the mean time could you give me an idea of what food and the quantity you feed per day to see how that compares with the advice we are being given

Thanks in advance

[mtbbuxton]

Hello and welcome

which food was your hound on before and what are you feeding now?  I used to feed my Whippet on Burns, but she couldn't hold her weight on it at all, unless she ate as much as my Lurcher, who is twice her size. 

If your Vet isn't worried then I take it there's no medical reason?  Also (and please don't take this the wrong way) if you're not accustomed to them, Greyhounds can look much thinner than other breeds of dog - even Vets sometimes think they need fattening up when they are perfectly fine   Obviously, if you can post a photo of your hound, it would help with judging if he needs to put weight on and we always love pictures of hounds 

Moira x

[agentorange]

Hi Moira

Yes no medical issues, although new to greyhounds I understand they have a skinny look but he has all his ribs showing now compared to just the last 2 when we got him. He has lost 2.5kg in 12 weeks or so.

I didnt want to muddy the waters so to speak by saying what we have fed as from experience 10 people will feed 10 different foods.
At the moment its the conflicting hypothetical advice im getting so really just wanted to canvas actual owners with real world experience and compare that to what im being told.

[vickyb]

Yes people feed different foods but there is often a common thread as to what makes do and don't suit them. Are you feeding twice a day and using a raised feeder? How is his poo? that's usually a good indicator as to whether the food is suiting them along with whether they are producing a lot of toxic gas from the rear end!
Do you add anything to the kibble? Most of us add some wet food like Forthglade, Nature diet or Pet@home trays. Sardines usually go down well but mine can get a bit runny if I give them too much at one go but oily fish should help the coat and weight. Is he starving or does he seem as if he's getting enough food.
And finally, last question, what is his height or length and weight?

[vickyb]

Aug 15, 2015 16:28:06 GMT -5 agentorange said:

I didnt want to muddy the waters so to speak by saying what we have fed as from experience 10 people will feed 10 different foods.
At the moment its the conflicting hypothetical advice im getting so really just wanted to canvas actual owners with real world experience and compare that to what im being told.

Saying what you feed would be a good idea, you're asking what we feed. My 4 have 3 different foods as no food suits them all and believe me I've tried! One of mine is definitely wheat intolerant and has had tests and is intolerant of a lot of other things too so has grain free food, Lilys kitchen senior I think another probably is wheat intolerant so has a fish and potato food from Angell pet co and Maddie is fussy so has Bob and Lush duck and potato food. Bod has kidney trouble so is on a special home cooked diet on vets advice.

[kamkay]

Welcome to Gap. Daily cod liver oil , primrose oil or other fish oil capsules will help the condition of your hound's skin and coat. I have fed both of my lads on Burgess greyhound and lurcher, twice a day with added extras-fish, chicken, liver, Naturediet. Jet was a rangy hound who always lookd underweight and Guinness is a great galumph of a dog who always looks to me as if he's carrying a bit too much ballast! It is often a process of trial and error finding the right combination and amount to suit your dog-good luck and keep us posted:-) Just a thought-is his worming up to date?

[craigandbev]

Hi, welcome to Gap and the wonderful world of greyhound ownership

Congratulations on your new addition, may I ask what age your greyhound is? (and their name). 

We have older greyhounds and have taken a few who struggle to maintain their weight.  As others, we feed a dry kibble with something nice added, meat or fish.  However, we feed smaller meals three times a day.  I have also added in potatoes, pasta or rice at times for underweight dogs.

Is your dog happy otherwise? Without knowing the full picture it is sometimes hard to advise correctly.

Good luck.

Bev

[agentorange]

ok sorry, in trying to get a specific answer it looks like ive raised more questions.

Jake is 51/2 now (5 in March) and raced up until October last year. He spent the winter with the training kennals before a slot became available in March at the rehoming centre. We saw him 3 weeks later and fell in love with him. He was 32.5kg when we got him and yesterday weighed 30.1kg. Overall still very alert, full of energy, great coat - oil suppliments and improving skin.

He initially was on Gain Maintenance which I feel is very poor nutritionally. We actually spend more on a sack of wild bird food than this costs. Wholesale prices cost around £6 so do not believe that it contains anything of any value despite many dogs being fed this or similar feeds and doing ok. We wanted to feed a better quality food and eventually settleld on the Natural Dog Food Company.

We converted over to this after our holiday. While we were away he was looked after by my sister who unwittingly took him for walks that totaled 6 miles a day compared to 2 miles he was usually doing with out giving aditional food so he worked off a fair amount of weight.

Now here lies the issue we were told to give him a jug of food a day. What we didnt establish is the size of the jug so went with the recommended amount on the Gain bag. This seemed to be ok with only a slight drop which we put down to the stress of rehoming. Having changed over we fed the recommended amount of the new food which is around 320g. This has resulted in a loss of weight of 1.5kg over 5-6 weeks despite upping to 350g.

I have spoken with the company and they advise a 1-1.5% of body wieght as a guide which equates to 320-490g However was advised that 400g or more would be overworking his liver and would not be healthy. The suggestion being to feed the Active range as this has more calories but still has the same feed levels

I have since manually and via a website calculated the callories needed perday for him and this equates to around 5-600g of most readily available dry complete kibble. The Vet has advised that this is the amount she thinks he should be getting and should not cause any excessive liver problems as long as it is a quality food.

I am waiting to speak to a Greyhound specialst Vet and also here back from a nutitionalist.
To feed twice the recommend amount seems alot. Hence my vauge question. I am fully expecting to have to change food but potentially will have the same issue.

[lurcherlot]

Do try and feed the best quality food you can afford - £6 bags of food will be the sweeping off the floor, with very little of the requirements to put on a bit of weight.
My rule of thumb is to look at each individual dog each day - if they are looking a bit porky, I reduce the food ... if I can see bones, apart from a few spinal ones, when they are stationery, I increase the food. I have had dogs all my life and have not been guided by the recommended amounts - they are usually insufficient. All dogs have a different metabolic rate so generalisation shouldn't, in my humble opinion, occur.

[vickyb]

I agree with Liz, my girls get the same exercise but Sapphy who eats the most is the smallest and lightest and at times it's been a struggle to get weight on her but Maddie has is fed the least is the the fattest and it's a constant battle to keep her weight down.
You could try something like satin balls to add calories.

I've just looked at the food you're feeding and whilst it looks good it is lower far than a lot of foods and it is only half the fat and lower protein than Gain (well the one I compared it to) and it may well be that he'd do better on a slightly higher fat food. I agree it's far better than Gain but it might not be quite the right one for him.

[mtbbuxton]

You're quite right in saying that if you ask for food recommendations, you'll get 10 answers from 10 owners, but knowing what you currently feed is useful info.  I mentioned the Burns for that reason - anecdotally, a lot of people, myself included,  struggle to keep weight on their dogs with it. 

My Lurcher boy has gut problems, so I feed 3 meals a day as it allows his stomach to absorb more nutrition from his food.  When he was first ill, he lost a lot of weight and it took quite some time to get it back on him.  He is fed a higher fat food than your boy at 12% but it suits him well. 

Would it be possible for you to feed an extra meal or even two, so that the extra amount of food could be spread out a bit more?  Personally, I think if you try to give too much at a time it'll just go straight through and be of no benefit whatsoever.  If he's lost the weight over 3 or 4 months, you don't want to try and pile it back on in a couple of weeks, so feeding a bit more and  monitoring his weight may be the place to start. 

Moira x

[lucyrw]

I watch an episode of "the secret life of dogs" that was about obesity. The vet on the program said that people generally don't measure their dogs food and portion by eye, and so the dog ends up eating far too much and gets fat.

Now I'd been doing exactly that, and suddenly had a panic that I was over feeding (I have no idea why as both dogs are a steady weight and have been for at least 2 years!), and when I checked the bag I was horrified to find that I was feeding almost double what it said. But then common sense kicked in and I realised that they were absolutely fine.

So I wouldn't worry excessively about portion size - the right food and portion size is the one that maintains his weight at the right level and doesn't cause runny poos or terrible gas. We tried three or four foods before settling on our current combination. As long as he's a healthy dog I personally wouldn't worry that his liver would have to work hard to digest normal food, I've never heard that before.

[Ted]

I feed my three Greyhounds and one Ibizan Hound on Naturediet Chicken and Lamb with a couple of pieces of ham slices. They have 1/2 a carton each for breakfast and a carton each for their evening meal. I also leave down a bucket of gluten free kibble for them to snack on. All four are around 33 kilos. I give them two walks a day, Merlin and Kelly I let off the lead at the Riverside Park, I have to keep Mickey on the lead as he has very poor recall due to the fact that he was roaming loose for over 6 weeks in Sheffield central, Menta my Ibizan Hound is completely blind caused by her being diabetic so I normally have her on the lead until I am in a very safe place then I let her off the lead for her to have a wander around an area she knows from when she could see. They are getting less walk lengths these days due to the amount of wet weather we are having this Summer. Mickey, the wanderer, does not like getting wet and will turn around asking to go back to the Dog Wagon and home to his comfortable bed.

[jodav]

As has been said, it's the general look of your dog that guides you and there may be times when you tweak the amount fed slightly. Equally buy the best quality kibble by ingredients you can afford, avoiding terms like meat and animal derivatives which are unidentifiable. As stated, there can be weight loss during the settle-in period and previous albeit temporary walks of 6 miles a day are quite lengthy for a dog not used to that amount of exercise. If it helps, our 32kg dog is on about 300g per day, a third of that being home cooked meat, fish, veg, pasta as toppings. Training treats like cheese cubes can up the calories along with gravy bones or similar. It'll all settle down in time.

[agentorange]

Good news. Our hound has put on wieght after a week of feeding more food. We have spoken with a nutritionist and the greyhound specialist vet. It would seem that we were being given general dog advice previously which was causing us confusion and meant that we were not feeding enough. Sounds daft but if you are told that feeding too much will harm your dog then you are reluctant to do so. The food we are using may not be suitable as he needs more calories than it provides. We are going to run with it for a few weeks to get him stable before changing. Hopefully we will have another gain this week.

Thanks for the info