How Much Dog Food Should I Feed My Dog? A Scientific Feeding Guide to Help You Raise a Healthy Pup!
How Much Dog Food Should I Feed My Dog? A Scientific Feeding Guide to Help You Raise a Healthy Pup!
Parents often ask: "Doctor, how much dog food should I feed my puppy?" or "How many kibbles should I give my dog daily?" Parents also frequently mention that the seller advised them not to overfeed their dog, as it might make them too large. The most extreme case I've heard is of a parent being told to only feed their dog 15 kibbles of Royal Canin biscuits per meal. Goodness! 15 kibbles! That's not even a small shot glass!
We have seen, on more than one occasion, puppies suffer from hypoglycemia and collapse due to inadequate feeding. A lack of prompt treatment can even lead to fatality. These tragedies leave parents heartbroken and veterinarians distressed.
With this article, we hope to provide clear answers to the above questions and equip parents with some basic nutritional knowledge.
Dog Size is Determined by Genetics, Nutrition is Just One Factor
First, a dog's size is determined by its genetics. Nutrition acts as an environmental factor that influences the expression of these genes. While reducing food intake may slightly affect the dog's growth, it will also inhibit the growth and development of all other organs besides bones. It's safe to say that dogs who grow up on a restricted diet will have weaker constitutions and a weaker starting point. Therefore, parents should never make their puppies sacrifice their health for size.
Calculate Your Dog's Daily Energy Needs Scientifically for Healthy Growth
Next, let's delve into two fundamental nutritional concepts:
1. RER (Resting Energy Requirement): This refers to the energy needed by a normal animal at rest in a comfortable temperature environment. The value changes with animal weight. The relationship with body weight is RER (kcal/day) = 70 × weight (kg) 0.75.
2. DRE (Daily Energy Requirement): This refers to the average daily energy needs of an animal. It can vary depending on the living environment and activity levels (work, pregnancy, lactation, and growth development). The relationship between the two is shown in the table below:
| Activity Level | DRE (kcal/day) |
|---|---|
| Resting | RER × 1.0 |
| Lightly active | RER × 1.2 |
| Moderately active | RER × 1.6 |
| Highly active | RER × 2.0 |
| Pregnancy | RER × 2.0-3.0 |
| Lactation | RER × 3.0-4.0 |
| Juvenile growth | RER × 2.0-4.0 |
In other words, you can calculate your dog's daily energy needs just by knowing its weight. Check the back of your dog food bag, which will list the nutritional information for that particular brand. It will include the caloric content per unit weight of the dog food. Divide your calculated daily energy requirement by the calorie content per unit weight of the food to find out how much to feed your dog. The back of the dog food bag usually also provides a feeding chart based on this calculation, conveniently expressed in cup measurements. Remember, different brands and types of food will have different feeding amounts, so recalculate when changing food.
Warm Reminders:
- 1 pound = 0.45359 kilograms
- 1 ounce = 0.028349523125 kilograms
Conclusion
A dog's size is determined by its genes, and nutrition plays a secondary role. Don't restrict your dog's food intake to achieve a certain size, as it could lead to malnutrition and health problems.
To determine your dog's daily energy needs, you can use the RER and DRE metrics to calculate it. Your dog's activity level, age, pregnancy, and lactation periods all affect its daily energy requirements.
We hope this article helps parents better understand their dog's nutritional needs and allows you to feed them scientifically for healthy growth.
Parents often ask: "Doctor, how much dog food should I feed my puppy?" or "How many kibbles should I give my dog daily?" Parents also frequently mention that the seller advised them not to overfeed their dog, as it might make them too large. The most extreme case I've heard is of a parent being told to only feed their dog 15 kibbles of Royal Canin biscuits per meal. Goodness! 15 kibbles! That's not even a small shot glass!
We have seen, on more than one occasion, puppies suffer from hypoglycemia and collapse due to inadequate feeding. A lack of prompt treatment can even lead to fatality. These tragedies leave parents heartbroken and veterinarians distressed.
With this article, we hope to provide clear answers to the above questions and equip parents with some basic nutritional knowledge.
Dog Size is Determined by Genetics, Nutrition is Just One Factor
First, a dog's size is determined by its genetics. Nutrition acts as an environmental factor that influences the expression of these genes. While reducing food intake may slightly affect the dog's growth, it will also inhibit the growth and development of all other organs besides bones. It's safe to say that dogs who grow up on a restricted diet will have weaker constitutions and a weaker starting point. Therefore, parents should never make their puppies sacrifice their health for size.
Calculate Your Dog's Daily Energy Needs Scientifically for Healthy Growth
Next, let's delve into two fundamental nutritional concepts:
1. RER (Resting Energy Requirement): This refers to the energy needed by a normal animal at rest in a comfortable temperature environment. The value changes with animal weight. The relationship with body weight is RER (kcal/day) = 70 × weight (kg) 0.75.
2. DRE (Daily Energy Requirement): This refers to the average daily energy needs of an animal. It can vary depending on the living environment and activity levels (work, pregnancy, lactation, and growth development). The relationship between the two is shown in the table below:
| Activity Level | DRE (kcal/day) |
|---|---|
| Resting | RER × 1.0 |
| Lightly active | RER × 1.2 |
| Moderately active | RER × 1.6 |
| Highly active | RER × 2.0 |
| Pregnancy | RER × 2.0-3.0 |
| Lactation | RER × 3.0-4.0 |
| Juvenile growth | RER × 2.0-4.0 |
In other words, you can calculate your dog's daily energy needs just by knowing its weight. Check the back of your dog food bag, which will list the nutritional information for that particular brand. It will include the caloric content per unit weight of the dog food. Divide your calculated daily energy requirement by the calorie content per unit weight of the food to find out how much to feed your dog. The back of the dog food bag usually also provides a feeding chart based on this calculation, conveniently expressed in cup measurements. Remember, different brands and types of food will have different feeding amounts, so recalculate when changing food.
Warm Reminders:
- 1 pound = 0.45359 kilograms
- 1 ounce = 0.028349523125 kilograms
Conclusion
A dog's size is determined by its genes, and nutrition plays a secondary role. Don't restrict your dog's food intake to achieve a certain size, as it could lead to malnutrition and health problems.
To determine your dog's daily energy needs, you can use the RER and DRE metrics to calculate it. Your dog's activity level, age, pregnancy, and lactation periods all affect its daily energy requirements.
We hope this article helps parents better understand their dog's nutritional needs and allows you to feed them scientifically for healthy growth.
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