[xDaltonLaney]

Hello y’all,

My fiancé and I have been feeding our 31 pound 15 week old GSD the raw diet for the last week or so and the results have been great. He never really liked his food and would take a while to eat it. Now he enjoys every second of it. We are concerned however that we are not feeding him enough. The books that we read said that a dog in the 30-50 pound range should be consuming roughly 15 ounces a day. So we do 7 ounces of muscle meats vegetables eggs yogurts etc in the morning and 8 ounces of rmbs at night. He loves it but always looks like he’s very hungry after. My fiancé said that she even thinks he’s gotten skinnier over the last week. Is he really hungry or does he just want more food because it tastes good? Any advice would be great. Thank you.

 

[Fodder]

As always, the feeding suggestions are only a guideline... or as I like to think of it, a starting point. If puppy is thin or if puppy seems hungry, feed him more.

One suggestion I might add is to feed him 3x a day instead of 2. Generally puppies his age still need to be fed 3x a day anyway, but since raw food is digested more quickly, the little tike is probably ravenous by his next meal.

In my adult dog, he’s 7, there is definitely an eagerness that comes because he loves his meals so much more now, but I also know that on days that we’re really active, he’s burning through those meals and I’ll provide mid day snacks for him.

Another thing I’ve always done when prepping his meals (I feed half commercial raw and half DIY)... whatever oz or lbs that is recommended - I feed that amount in meat. Any veggies, eggs, yogurts, etc are in addition to.

I started Keystone conservatively at 2% of his weight... after a month he was losing so I increased to 2.5, still lost, went to 3%, he gained... now back to 2.5 but not including the additives, like I mentioned.

Hope that helps... of course keeping in mind that my dog is an adult.

Edit: in addition to the amount, I’d be concerned about making sure his meals are balanced - it’s crucial in a developing puppy. You may want to incorporate some commercial raw while you’re still figuring things out.

 

[Pawsed]

I was under the impression that you should feed a puppy at least 2% of his projected adult weight, not base feedings on his current weight. If you know how big the parents are, you should have a good idea of how large your pup should be when grown. Use that number to determine how much to feed him now.

15 ounces seems pretty small to me. A 100 pound adult dog would eat 2 pounds per day. An 85 pound adult would need 1.7 pounds, or one pound and just over 11 ounces. Those are just estimates and would need to be revised up or down depending on the individual dog.

So yes, in my opinion, you aren't feeding enough.