trying to work out EXACTLY how much we SHOULD be feeding Lexie and as i am going to try and do raw a few times a week and a mix of wet and dry on the other days i would like to know do you always feed 3% of adult bodyweight? She is a 14mth old beagle bitch currently weighing 15.2kgs (vet checked her on friday and says she is in perfect condition,not to lean and certainly not fat

As far as I know it is only raw where you feed between 2% and 3%, as they use all the food being just meat, bones, offal, no fillers that they get no goodness from, etc.

With commercial food there are a lot of fillers and stuff their bodies can't use which bulks it out so you would need to be guided by what the packs say.

So on the raw days you feed the 3%, commercial days according to the pack or what she was on before.

When Poppy was on commercial she was getting half of a ND tray per day plus a measured amount of kibble. Just the ND alone was about 197g per day then whatever the kibble weighed (I used a glass as a measure so not sure of the weight). She's now totally on raw and gets a total of between 150g and 180g split between two meals so that's less than the ND alone. Her weight has remained more or less the same, if anything has gone up from 5kg to 5.3kg.

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i was goin to up her wet food to half tray of wainwrights (the trays are 395g each), so she would be getting 195-200g wet plus how much dry as all the labelling on dry is as fed complete and ranges for size (she is in the medium dog bracket but at lower end of scale)-she is now on wainwrights cereal free and we were giving her 180g dry with 1/3 tray of wet as she wont eat anymore dry than that

I use wet food and the RDA is 400g per 10K body weight which is 4%. - mine works out at 320g per day for around 8K

ND and NH recommend about 1/2 tray which is 2.5% but she has 3/4 tray - 3%. Same with WW, altho they recommend less.

Looks as tho wet food is v similar (probably not the supermarket brands)

I remember skinners kibble was 100g per 8K which is 1.25% so pehaps kibble is different.

I always thought that it was 2-3% of bodyweight regardless of food -obviously not.

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With raw I've seen it recommended that as little as 1.5% is enough for some dogs and 3% for others. I'm starting mine on raw next week he will be getting no more than 2% as an absolute max to start with because he piles the pounds on hideously easily (golden retriever, a bit on the lower side of his weight scale at the minute though).

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As DirtyGertie says, the 2/3% of bodyweight rule is for when feeding raw food, NOT commerically prepared wet foods or kibbles.

For example, my Blue weighs 73kg, so 3% of his bodyweight is 2.9kg - no way on earth would be have 2.9kg of kibble

I feed kibble and raw food on alternate days. On our kibble days, Blue will eat 850g of James Wellbeloved kibble, and on raw days, he'll eat just under 2kg of raw food - I don't quite give him the full 3%. Kibble and wet foods are often full of fillers and grains, which swell up in the stomach making the dog feel fuller for longer whereas they use absolutely everything from a raw diet, and digest it quickly. Hence why I need to feed smaller amounts of kibble than I do raw food.

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Use th guides on the bags to start with then feed by eye/exercise.

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What I used to do when feeding a bit of both was to decide how much of each I wanted to give, if it was 50/50, then I would give half the RDA wet and half the RDA kibble. I mainly did 3/4 wet to 1/4 kibble so instead of 3/4 tray of WW she would get half and instead of 100g kibble, 25g. Hope that makes sense

As mentioned, it's only a guide, the best way is watching your dog. Do what you feel is right and then if she puts on a bit of weight, you can reduce it and likewise increase if necessary. Mine has always been on the higher side of RDA because she burns off a lot.

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"Life is mostly froth and bubble, Two things stand like stone,
Kindness in another’s trouble, Courage in your own”

With wet/dry food start off with what's on the bag and raw start with 2-3% then adjust as needed. Some dogs need a lot less some more just adjust if she's losing or gaining weight

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