How much food?

[Doglover1988]

I am really confused as to how much food to feed my dogs. Maggie is a few pounds overweight she is beginning to look more round and doesn't have a "figure" anymore. She is 17 pounds. How much food do you think she should get a day?

Gracie came to me about 20 pounds and then she was perfect, she is now 26 pounds and doesn't have that "figure" either anymore. How much food do you think she should get?

To me Lucy is a good weight if not a little under what she should be. She is 35 pounds. How much again?

[Cassiepeia]

What I would do is cut back on the food for Maggie and Gracie and slightly increase Lucy's. Simple as that. Don't worry about set amounts. Every dog is different so what we think a Boston Terrier (for example) should eat is not neccessarily right for your Maggie.
As long as you're not free feeding and they don't steal each other's food it should be easy to monitor.

Also look at what treats you're giving them (either free treats or training treats) and adjust their meals to compensate for that (or cut out the free treats altogether).

Cass.

[Rivsky]

As well as the things Cass pointed out try and keep a rough idea of how much exercise they are getting each day too. If due to weather or whatever other reasons they've done a bit less than usual one day remember to cut the food back a touch as well.

It really is just a matter of mucking around with the amounts a bit yourself to find what works.

[dogs4life]

I'd take a moment and calorie count 1 day for each dog. It's easy and will give you an idea of what is going in their bellies and you can make adjustments to suit their situation. Dog food containers should state the calorie content in kcal/weight of food, but for some reason I cannot find it on my bag of food. On their website the data is in, I swear, 3 font under the Feeding Guidelines where they state how much to feed your dog. It stated 315 kcal/cup with 1 cup=8 oz dry measuring cup. Some people suggest 30-40 calories per pound of body weight per day to as a maintenance diet depending on activity level. This will at least give you an idea. Waltham also has a calorie counter on their website. If I find another resource, I'll make sure to pass it along

If you cook for your dog or feed raw foods, you can use a calorie counting guide in book form, most book stores have them in the diet/health section or there is a cool website I use, Nutrition Data You have to register and put all foods you feed in your "pantry" but it's great for analyzing your recipes, very simple, very fast. I love it, can you tell.

IMO feeding time in a multiple dog house can be a challenge. Here is what worked for me in the past. Feeding small portions 2x a day and only allowing 5 minutes for eating. I always fed in order of dominance and when a dog was finished no more food was allowed. No stealing other dogs food was allowed, sometimes this was challenged so I had to be present to enforce that rule. This works for when I have more than 2 dogs in the house, but I have 2 dogs now and I choose to free feed because I'm having problems with my senior dog eating. She is really a complicated case, cancer and aging related issues.

HTH

[TinyAlbinoDancer]

Whatever you do, leave Lucy's food intake as is. From photos she looks just right, so don't adjust that!

Remember that each dog has a different metabolism and exercises differently, so there will be no set amount we can give you. If some are too fat, cut back on food a little and up the exercise until they're at a good weight and then keep that routine up. I've found that even piling the food in the measuring cup differently can have an affect (don't laugh, I pile the same amount of food differently for each of my small dogs and that actually works for us. lol), so watch that you're not rounding it a little or something, too.

You should also look for why they've gained weight. Are they not exercising as much? Have you changed foods? Has someone else been feeding them? Have they been getting treats? Etc.