Could I reduce my dogs food?

[Doggowo]

If the recommended food for a dog 10-25kg is 500 to 1000g

Could I feed an 11kg dog who is overweight 340 a day?

It says for 10kg dog 1 and a quarter packets a day but they've always had 400g/ one packet.

But I have 2 overweight 11kg dogs and a very small yorkie who is just 2.5kg

I'm having a hard time keeping up with the cost of this very expensive food but it's really helped with allergies and such so I'd like them to stay on it!

The yorkie has 120g a day.

If I could do 2 x 400g packs a day between the 3 dogs I may be able to stick to it.

(So 2 x 340 for the bigger dogs and 120 for the tiny one)

It's just a recommendation right? So if the dogs are overweight on 400g a day could I reduce to 340?

In theory yes you could as like you said its a recommendation but I think you need to address why your dog is overweight. Do they have treats or scraps? Are they walked regular? Is it a underlying medical cause?

They're pugs and prone to it. They have about 3 treats a day, each after the toilet.

I fed my 4 year old 24kg border collie 600g of food per day, for him to loose 1kg I reduced his food to 500g per day. His weight has crept up again 2 years later, so we are reducing treats and added extras in his food, plus no human food. My vet told me to feed the amount for what weight you want your dogs to be. It’s easier to cut down food, before dogs become too overweight, so good that you are acting on it.

That is a big reduction (400 down to 340) so you would be better to reduce it by 10 for a couple of weeks, then a further 10 for another few weeks, then another 10. otherwise you are going to have a very unhappy, hungry dog that will scavenge on walks which will give you different problems. Definitely get vet advice for the best way and for regular weigh ins.

I think it's worth a try, we give our dog carrots and broccoli for treats. She's only feed raw though

My experience is that the food manufacturers suggestions are too high. I have 2 labs, neither is young now, but even at their most energetic, I never fed them as much kibble as was recommended. And they are not over / under weight.
I would perhaps just skim it down gradually, as pp suggests.

Are these wet or dry packets?

One of ours has pancreatitis so his wet meat food is heavily diluted with the addition of water to aid digestion.

We now add water to all of our dogs wet meat meals, they have one a day and have found that our Rottweiler is able to eat slightly less this way and maintain his healthy weight.

They also have dry food which is put down of an evening which they all have free access to.

Wet, it's forthglade.

I think this too. It makes sense.

To say the need 1.25 packs a day rather than 1 is financially much more beneficial to them

My ddog goes to "Doggie fat club" every four weeks, it's at the vets and it's free, she gets weighed and you get free advice, one thing the veterinary nurse said was to feed mine senior dog food as it has less calories, I buy supermarket brands as it's cheaper.
Also, exercise, my ddog piled on the pounds as she had a bad knee joint so she wasn't allowed to run, it's improving now so I take her to the park and throw a ball for her, if you have a garden use that

Definitely the recommendations on the packets are too high. My boy puts on weight if he has the amount recommended.

It quite difficult to figure out properly though as they never tell you how many calories it is which seems obvious info to me but I remember I worked out

• how many calories he needed and how much was in the food using the two calculators I've linked below
• plus I factored in his treats (some tiny bits of chicken, sausage or cheese all weighed out and out in the treat pouch for the day) which he does have for training purposes just using human calorie calculators

www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk/calorie-calculator

petsci.co.uk/calorie-content-of-dog-food-cat-food/

We feed two cavaliers on Forthglade. They weigh about 8.5kg and 8kg. We feed 1/3 of a tray per dog per meal and feed them twice a day. In the depth of winter we go to 1/2 a tray per dog per meal to maintain their weight.