Mike’s Doghouse

Mike is making the switch from Puppy Food to Big Boy Food. Now that he is (ack!) almost 8 mos, it was time to put him on adult food. He was eating Wellness Just For Puppy and as soon as that bag is empty, he’ll start Wellness Super 5 Mix adult. Our other dogs eat Taste of the Wild. (I discussed protein amounts in another post)

I read a wonderfully well written blog by a vet. Dolittler is wonderful in that it is candid, honest, and revealing both personally and professionally. Sometimes the posts are painful (euthanasia) other times they are a hoot (hen turned out to be a rooster). Today’s post, titled Counting calories in fat dog weight loss and the role of “intelligence”, brings up this delicate subject of calories and pets. We humans don’t often consider calories when it comes to our pets. We gleefully dole out the kibble and assume it is all well and good. Some of us read the labels to find out how much to feed, most don’t.

I admit it: We’ve never paid much attention to the calories. One, they are hard to find on the bags. Two, if a dog gets chunky, we feed less until it’s not so chunky, then maintain that feeding amount. This means one dog will get two full scoops, another may get one and another scoop with a wee bit off the top (yeah, we are oh so precision oriented). Jake, our Damnation Dalmatian, had a big weight problem. She could visibly gain weight just from one treat too many that week. It took us a while to figure out her base amount of food then could add or subtract from that depending on what else was going on. We also raise everyone’s food amount in the summer (more active) and lower it in the winter (slug-o-rama). If Lorna and Sam are going on a hike, we feed him a little more at both meals and she takes high quality treats along.

But how much calories does a dog need? Dolittler gives the following equation (bolding of text is my doing):

Base calories/day (resting energy requirement) =
30 x (your dog’s weight in kg) + 70

Example: So if you have a 10 kg (22 pound) dog, he needs to eat 370 calories a day.

Since this is based on adult dogs, I’ll use Joella as my example. Jo is about 80 lbs. Using my little converter program, that’s equal to 36.28739 kg. Then, using my little calculator program, that means she needs about 1159 calories per day.

But then it gets a little more complicated. That’s because the “resting energy requirement” is only a measure of the amount of energy (in calories) he needs to keep his basic functions going comfortably. So if he’s a busy dog who runs around a lot in your big yard, he’ll need a lot more. And if he’s a neutered couch potato who’s seriously obese he may need no more than his basic bodily functions require to actually lose some weight.

Joella’s not overly active but she’s not a slug either. I went and got out the empty bags (we stuff them into one then take it out when that bag is full) and made notes of the amounts to feed and the calories.

Jo’s weight tends to waver between 78 and 83 so we’ll go by the “60 – 80 lbs” recommendations. She gets two meals a day, 3 scoops each. Our scoop is .5 cup so she gets 3 cups a day. She’s getting the low end of the required amount (Taste of the Wild’s High Prairie = 1110) which comes in just under the calculated amount for her resting energy requirement. Not bad! Since she is recovering from her leg surgery and will be a slug-puppy for a few weeks, I now know I don’t need to cut back on her food any to keep her weight steady. I also know that we’ll need to watch her treat intake during this.

Back to Mike. I’m going to guess he is about 45 lbs which is 20.41166 kg. Times that by 30 and add 70 and he should be getting about 682 calories per day IF he were an adult. The Wellness Adult says to add 25% for pups which puts it at about the right amount using Dolittler’s equation but still low going by their feeding chart of the puppy food. What this tells me is that when we do the switch, we’ll need to make sure he is getting enough calories. Currently, he’s sleek, maybe a little on the thin side, but with growing full breed pups, that can change at any given moment. On the surface, the Wellness Adult food has a weird calorie amount. But using Joella again, her 3 cups is on the upper end of the amount for her weight group so it evens out.

Mike went to the vet yesterday! There’s some weird stuff going on but nothing to be too concerned about yet. He’s on an antibiotic and a dewormer. Thursday I am to collect and take in a urine sample and a fecal sample. Oh, the things we do for our dogs!

Mike may be younger than the original vet paperwork says. He should be getting his first adult teeth this week if he is the age it says. If not, then he is younger and some vaccines may need to be repeated. This is no one’s fault, and could be simply the wrong date was entered into the computer. There were 8 puppies in that litter, at least one other slightly older puppy, and an emaciated adult dog and I’m sure the vet’s office was busy taking care of them vs making sure dates were absolutely correct.

We discussed nutrition. Large breed puppies should not be on puppy food for very long. It can cause them to grow too fast which can create problems such as Panosteitis. This is what Joella had. Some pet food companies have come out with different puppy food for different types or breeds. Mike was getting Iam’s “Smart Puppy” but we switched him to Wellness’s “Just for Puppy”. There are great debates about the role puppy food’s protein content and Panosteitis. Our vet recommended a food less than 26% protein, preferably less than 24%. Our adult dogs now eat Taste of the Wild, a high protein dog food. We started using it to combat Joella’s lethal gas problem. Prior to TotW, our dogs got Wellness Fish and Sweet Potato. We love Wellness’ products and the quality of the ingredients (they don’t do animal by-products). In a week or two, we’ll switch him to the Wellness Adult Fish and Sweet Potato.

For reference (minimum protein):
Taste of the Wild

High Prairie Canine Formula has 32%

Iams

ProActive Health Smart Puppy Large Breed has 26%
ProActive Health Smart Puppy has 28%

Wellness

Super 5 Mix Just for Puppy has 28%
Super 5 Mix Large Breed Puppy Health has 26%
Adult Whitefish and Sweet Potato has 22%

Not long after Mike was rescued, his tail was amputated due to infection and injury. He has an odd habit of growling at then chewing the stub. This happens at least once a day. He did not like the vet messing with the tip of it. It is possible that there is some nerve damage due to the infection and injury. Normal docking of tails does rarely causes this and is done when the pups are just a few days old. When he is neutered in a few months, and if the tail is still bothering him, they will check the tip for possible scar tissue or otherwise compromised nerve. It is quite possible Mike is just being a weird puppy and there is nothing wrong.

Mike was microchipped, too. The vet’s office uses the HomeAgain microchip. This will ensure so that if we are ever separated, he will be able to come home again (pun intended). See my previous post on emergencies.

Mike weighed just 14.5 lbs. He is in a growth spurt and his body is using slightly more than it is taking in. I am feeding him a lunch and we are increasing his morning and evening meal amounts. He should start gaining weight once the internal parasites are gone. Right now he has just two activity levels: all out and full stop.

The vet’s staff all loved Mike. They knew I had been looking for puppy and were looking forward to meeting him.