Ask the Frenchie Geek - How much to feed my French Bulldog?
bullmarketfrogs July 10th, 2008
My question is related to feeding Toby. He is about 131/2 weeks and weighs in at about 8 stock lbs.
I have been doing lots of research related to raw feeding and commercial dog food. I talked to me vet who suggested staying away from raw, but also staying away from commercial. I had him on Eagle Pak, but have now decided to make all of his meals at home.
I want to know everything he eats is natural and healthy. I have a variety of what seem to be good doggie recipes, and he loves them. He eats tuna patties with cottage cheese and veggies, also I make him a boiled chicken stew with whole grain rice and veggies ( no onion or garlic). Also I do give him the occasional raw meaty marrow bone which he looooves.
My question in how much should he be eating. I give him two large meals a day , and he gets some kibble treats during a few obedience training sessions throughout the day. I have been portioning out his meals to about a heaping cups worth of food during each feeding.
Is this an appropriate amount of food? I think he is going to be on the larger size as he was the only male and the largest of his litter. The little guy has lots of wrinkles to grow in to.
Any suggestions about diet content and size would be great help.
Carol writes -
I have two dogs, both of them roughly the same age.
Tula, my cream, is a slim, lithe little girl. She eats roughly two cups per day of high calorie, puppy formulated food.
Penelope, my brindle, is a chunky little thing, and prone to chubbiness. She eats one scant cup per day of adult formulated food.
This is by way of saying that, in Frenchies, one size does not equal all, and neither does one set volume of food. You have to adjust your feeding amounts - and your food - to your dog, and not the other way around.
A cup per day is good rule of thumb, but it’s not a hard and fast rule. On a single cup, some dogs will look thin, while others, like Penelope, will look like little round bowling balls. Trust your own judgement - if your dog looks thin, up their volume. If they look like sausages with legs, drop it back a bit, and make up the difference with some green beans (and cut out the snacks).
It’s easier to adjust a home made diet than it is to adjust kibble. We up the fat and protein content (ie; meat and fish and eggs and yoghurt) for slim dogs, and up the vegetable content for the Jenny Craig poster dogs.
There are lots of good books out there on home cooked diets - I personally think that home cooking is easiest done if you base it around a mix that has all the bone meal and extras added in already, like the ones from Sojos or Essex Cottage Farms. With either of these, you can cook, or feed raw.
Your ability to know your own dog is so much better than mine - or even your vet’s - could ever be. Trust yourself, and if you get worried, remember that there are still some good commercial foods on the market.
Carol
