How much should I feed my dog?

Great question! But before you can decide HOW MUCH to feed, you have to decide WHAT to feed. 

Here's an article to help you work out what's best for you and your lifestyle.

Back again? Good! Let’s now see how to work out how much of your chosen diet to give your dog. 

If you have decided on buying a commercial food you'll see instructions on the bag or tin telling you how much to feed, and the first thing to do is totally ignore these!  

These will be general guidelines and not tailored to your individual dog. We all know people - even in the same family - who are a completely different shape and size from each other, and respond very differently to food. Don’t you hate those friends who can plough through chips and cake and still fit a size 14?!

So you have to adapt to your particular dog’s food and nutrient absorption.

So now what??   

Working out how much to feed is actually much easier than you may think. 

Working like a stockman you need to feed to condition.

And how do you assess your dog's condition? Search the internet for body condition charts and you'll see some great illustrations of what your dog should actually look like, from the side and from above.

Then after studying your dog carefully with your eyes, use your hands to confirm what you see - especially if your dog is swathed in fluff and curls and you can’t see much of what’s underneath.

1. Ribs - you should be able to feel all of them, but not cut yourself on them.

2. Spine - feel those little knobs down her back?

3. Pin bones - the top of the pelvis over the back legs. These points should be very easy to feel.

4. Neck roll - is the back of the neck soft and “empty” skin rolls? If it’s solid and in bumpy rolls, you’re in trouble.

Now, naturally, there’s variation between breeds. Some have a very flat back and the spine knobs and pin bones are not so easy to detect - but they should be findable!

I use this system all the time to keep my dogs in their best condition. I never feed what food guidelines suggest.

As an example of the variation between individuals, I have three dogs:

1. English Shepherd, f, spayed, 24kg: she gets 11-12 oz of raw food a day.

2. Whippet, f, spayed, 11kg: she gets 9 oz a day

3. Miniature Poodle, m, entire, 7kg: gets 6 oz a day

So you can see that if I fed my Whippet in proportion to what the others are getting, she’d look like a toast-rack! … or my ES would look like a hippo. 

As a dog’s weight is one of the most important things to get right in order to promote a long and healthy life, this is something you want to spend some time on. 

It may take you two months of adjusting quantities gradually, of continually feeling your dog - and keeping a careful note of the numbers - before you can settle on a suitable amount.

Puppies

Here’s an exception for you: growing pups!

Here the best thing to do is feed to appetite, as well as to condition. Don’t starve your puppy! Like us, they grow in spurts, so may suddenly become much hungrier. Go with this. But don’t forget to be checking condition at the same time.

 

What does my dog think?

Another great question! Here are some answers for you.

How many meals?

And here’s a general guide on how many meals you should be feeding:

Exceptionally tiny or large dogs may need some variation.

Some dogs prefer to eat once a day, usually an evening meal.

Others may enjoy a snack earlier, breakfast or lunchtime.

Let your dog guide you!

You'll find lots more about what to feed and when, and how to use treats effectively in your training, in the books at www.brilliantfamilydog.com/books

And for lots more answers to your questions, get our free email course here!

Dog feeding frenzy!

There’s a tremendous amount of nonsense around, about how to feed dogs.

Some people are on crusades to promote their own favoured way of feeding, and belittle anyone who doesn’t agree with them.

Most of us don’t have time to delve too deeply, and dish out the same food, day in - day out, for years. (Imagine that if it were you! Even boarding school’s not that bad!)

But if you want the best for your dog, a long, healthy life, good teeth, and few vet visits, it’s something you should spend some energy on.

So what SHOULD you feed your dog?

There’s such a vast array of commercial dog foods available, most of them claiming they’re the best thing ever, and some just relying on being dirt-cheap.

Without being a canine nutritionist, how can you know what will suit your dog?

I can recommend you pay a visit to a site actually run by a canine nutritionist - www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk. And don’t worry if you live outside the UK. Many of these commercial foods are available universally. The big petfood manufacturers are huge international concerns. And there’s actually a page where you can copy in the ingredients of your chosen food if it’s not listed, and you’ll get an assessment of that.

Your chosen food doesn’t have a detailed ingredient list? Move on. If they’re too ashamed to tell you, get something better!

And to get the lowdown ‘from the horse’s mouth’,

How about asking your dog?

Yes! Ask your dog!

She’s bound to have strong views on what she likes and what’s “Meh”. Not only that, but she’ll have opinions on how she likes her food delivered too.

Here’s what Annie’s owner, Laura Kelly from Best Choice Dog Training, offered her.

You can see there was a fair variety. You could also add in egg (raw or cooked), cheese (cream/cottage or hard), broccoli and other fruit and veg (preferably pureed so the dog can actually digest them), goats’ milk or whey, fermented goats’ milk products, coconut oil, leftovers (of proper meals, not pizza and chips!), tinned sardines … most things!

This can be fun to do, and you may be surprised by your dog’s choices - Annie’s owner was! The kibble definitely came last.

Is this something you’re going to have a go at? Do tell us in the comments below what you will offer!

Has it always got to be in a dog food bowl?

You can be imaginative about the vehicle you offer food in.

To get an idea of what I’m meaning, take a look at Benson here, patiently waiting to be let loose with his array of goodies for amusement during the day.

He has a snuffle mat with treats buried in it, a variety of wobble-balls he can bat around with his nose to release their treats, and a food-game with hidden compartments.

For most of these containers, you’d need hard food - kibble. Though you could certainly put soft food, cooked or raw, in the sliding compartments.

Slowing down feeding

These are great to keep your pup amused while he’s eating, and to spin out mealtimes - specially useful for dogs who tend to hoover their food. Apart from the lack of enjoyment, there’s also a danger of gut complications for some fast-feeders.

Archie Spaniel didn’t wolf his food that much, but look at this brief video to see the difference in his engagement between hoovering it up from his bowl and actively hunting it down!

Slowing down Puppy feeding

By the way, for English readers, here’s a load of money off a super food I regularly use and here’s another where you can get a big discount using this link - they provide high-quality fishy treats and foods, which are firm favourites with my crew!

To learn more about what to feed your dog, and to dispel more myths (I love myth busting!) check out this post.

And for more about asking your dog things, instead of telling him … watch our free Workshop here, on getting your dog to LISTEN.

Is raw feeding safe for my dog? Let’s get to the Bare Bones

The dog with his bone. An archetypal image. Everyone knows that dogs love bones. Aesop knew. Early painters knew. Most people know not to approach a strange dog with a bone - they know it’s the highest value item and not to be shared. Or even looked at.

So WHY do people act so surprised when I tell them I feed my dogs bones as a regular part of their diet?  Indeed it’s the basis of their diet!

There seems to be an awful lot of mythology out there about bones. This has coincided with the huge upsurge over the last forty-odd years in commercially manufactured pet foods. Is this disinformation put about by the pet food companies (innocently or otherwise)?

The dog's eating system

You only have to look at a dog’s mouth and teeth to know that raw bones are what they are designed to eat. They have small ripping and tugging teeth at the front. Their canines on the front corners are what would have brought down their victim and ensured it had no escape - it would also probably dispatch the animal with these teeth. The back teeth are for cutting and crunching big bones. Dogs have a scissor bite, and can’t grind their back teeth as we do to break down cereals and vegetation. They chomp and swallow. 

Digestion takes place in the gut, not partly in the mouth as in our case. And this is why they are unable to break down cellulose and digest vegetation. One of the reasons they will go for the stomach of their prey is because the nutrients are already broken down by the time they get there (either through the long digestion process or via the four stomachs), and are therefore accessible to them.

These jaws are immensely powerful, and dogs can use their back teeth to cut through rope or crunch through bone - quite large bones too. And they can clamp down on a rope to grip it without cutting it . It’s a measure of their exquisite sensitivity and control that they can also carry a puppy or a fresh egg in their mouths without causing any damage to their burden.

Over the last few thousand years of living alongside humans, dogs have adapted to be able to eat more or less anything. But their mouth and digestive system is still the same. 

So it’s clear that raw meaty bones, with flesh to be ripped and tugged off, hard bone to crunch and mash, and marrow to be licked out, are ideal food for the dog's eating and digestive machinery. Add to this that they get a full-body workout while attacking a bone: they really have to put their back into the work! The paws will hold the bone in place while they rip food off it. They can stand on the bone and heave against it to strip off the valuable meat and sinew. They stand, lie, move around their prize. At the end of this meal - which can go on for 30 active, hardworking, uninterrupted minutes at a stretch, they are tired! Instead of hoovering up a load of flavoured carbs from a bowl in a matter of seconds, they can extend the eating sequence to a very satisfying hour or more till they have a quick wash and brush-up and doze off over their bone.

What’s more, these bones will gain in favour and flavour as they age. If you’re squeamish about this, institute a bones-only-in-the-garden-or-outside-kennel rule. (I have a no-bones-upstairs rule. They learn it very fast - just give your dog the choice of staying downstairs with his bone or coming up without it: it’s up to him.) The soft tissue is soon removed from the bone, and the resulting white bone will be revisited and chewed and gnawed for weeks. It’s not a fly hazard - certainly not in our temperate climate, though I appreciate that that could be different if you live in a hot climate. 

Is it dangerous for the dog?

I have heard horror stories about dogs getting blockages or cracked teeth from eating bones. I can only say that in 30+ years feeding a raw diet to 3-4 dogs at a time (so that’s over 100 years total!), I’ve never had such a problem. 

I don’t feed marrowbones or any weight-bearing bones of cattle, as they tend to be too hard and mature.

The essence of my dogs’ diet is that it’s at least 50% raw bone. Pigs’ trotters, chicken and turkey carcases all fit this requirement. Beef bones, even meaty ones, have a higher proportion of bone, but a couple of meals of offal or fish or raw eggs balance this out nicely. In case you’re confused by this, just remember that raw bones are fine. It’s cooked bones we’re warned against, as the cooked bones can splinter. 

It's entirely your choice what you feed your dog!

The important point about dog-feeding is that you give your dog the nutrients he requires. 

So as long as this requirement is met, you can feed whatever is convenient for you

As long as you do your homework and provide your dog with the right food, you can do it any way you like - home cooking, commercial kibble, raw meaty bones. This is not an area for crusades! 

Of course you can mix and match too. While switching kibble seems to need an adjustment period of a few days to allow the gut flora to catch up, you can feed raw straight away without this changeover period. So you may choose to have a bone day once or twice a week. 

There are some very good commercial dog foods available - indeed I always have a backup bag of food handy in case I’ve ever forgotten to defrost something. Currently my dogs are enjoying Skipper’s Salmon and Sweet Potato. Another firm favourite is Butternutbox who also have an unbelievable offer right now, just for my peeps! With four dogs you can’t just open a can of sardines if you’re caught short! I also take kibble or Butternutbox for some days on camping trips - for compactness and convenience.

A word about hygiene

Dogs are able to cope with pathogens that would make us ill. In other words, wash your hands and utensils after preparing their raw food. While it’s more awkward preparing raw treats, it’s a good thing to do with a puppy, when all his meals are coming as training rewards. You can get some terrific poultry shears and cut necks and wings up very small. 

How can I tell what commercial dog food to buy?

But bag foods are very variable in quality, and you have to do some research to find the right one. Just because it comes in a bag and has a pretty picture of a dog on it, doesn’t mean it’s any good. They are definitely not all created equal! I recommend you have a cruise round www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk and learn about what actually goes into a lot of these manufactured foods.

This site is run by a canine nutritionist and is not affiliated to a manufacturer. You will still learn a lot from it, even if you are not in the UK and have different brandnames where you live (though you’ll see some are global, and many brands belong to just the same few companies). The principles are the same, and they have a simple Nutritional Rating by percentage to make it all easier. You'll find all the ready-prepared raw foods in the 90%+ section. You see - you don't have to fell an ox every month and do it yourself!

And as a halfway house between fresh raw food and the convenience of dry kibble - UK readers may like to check out Butternutbox.com where you can get really delicious "home-cooked" food specially designed for your dog and his likes and dislikes. You can get a three-week trial entirely free, without obligation! Go check it out!

You need to research carefully and get the best food that fits your budget. The better the food you feed, the less you’ll see of your vet, so you’ll save money in the long run!

When I first signed up with my present vet he asked me what I fed. When I said “raw” he replied, “Oh, I won’t be seeing much of you, then.” He knew that I was feeding an excellent species-appropriate diet

And if you’re a vegetarian or a vegan, then that’s fine for you, but keep in mind what your dog is designed to eat. I wouldn’t feed a horse rump steak just because humans can eat it! You have to feed what the animal is programmed to eat, digest, and benefit from. You have to take even more care and study to provide the required nutrients for your dog with any form of restricted diet.

Will my dog growl over his bone?

You can introduce bones to a dog at any age but - be warned! He will say, “Oh my gosh, this is REAL food, this is the first REAL food I’ve ever had,” and he just may guard it to the death. This may appear comical in a 7-week-old puppy, but it’s not: it’s serious. So first time out, just give him his bone and let him get on with it. When he’s finished and gone out of the room, you can gather it up if you wish. If he gives you a stony glare, whites of eyes showing, lips flicking, head rock-still over his prize, then on no account try to take it from him - you may well force him to bite you. Wait till he’s out and take it then. 

Now you can embark on a program of swapping good things for equally good things. Never challenge a dog who is guarding something, and never try to take it away. Once you’ve practiced lots of swapping, he’ll know that you are not trying to take something away from him - rather give him something better. Then you can graduate to two similar bones. If you have a dog-owning friend who has some well-gnawed second-hand bones - rather than fresh, red, meaty ones - these would be an ideal start. 

My four dogs are at the moment contentedly munching bones near my desk. Every now and again they move about, swap bones, and carry on. There’s never been a bone-fight here, ever, in all those 30+ years of feeding multiple dogs bones.

And I very seldom visit the vet. Just the odd stitch for an injury. My dogs are wonderfully fit and healthy.

So by all means give your dog the bone he craves. Just be sure it’s a raw bone.

By the way, for English readers, here’s a load of money off a super food I regularly use and here’s another where you can get a big discount using this link - they provide high-quality fishy treats and foods, which are firm favourites with my crew!

RESOURCES

The Barf Diet - raw feeding bible from a vet to get you started
www.rawmeatybones.com - another vet book
www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk

www.butternutbox.com

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