Inexpensive, quality kibble

[RD]

Puppylover, as Herschel said, Zaphod is very underweight and is eating twice what he normally should in order to gain weight and get good nutrients, post haste. Now that he's put a layer of fat on his body (albeit a very small one) I'm decreasing the amount of food he's getting, slowly. Ultimately he should be eating about 4 cups of kirkland a day, and we'll see if he maintains his weight with that much food.

Zaphod is doing VERY well on this food, I'm quite pleased. His stool isn't really firm and small, but I attribute the consistency of the stool to the fact that he's probably eating a lot more than his system can adequately compress at this point. The stool is still solid though, so as long as he's eating well and putting on weight, I'm not going to be bothered by it.

Dakota and Dash (Border Collies, 40 and 23lbs respectively) each get about 1.5 cups of food a day. Dakota is rather inactive, though on the days we do agility he gets an extra cup of food. Dash is high energy, but very small. Eve (Border Collie, probably 30lbs) is a working stockdog and my service dog. She eats about 2.5 cups of food a day, and gets an extra cup of food if she's worked all day.

 

[ihartgonzo]

WOW :yikes: 6-8 cups a day of food is a ton.

Didn't you used to feed your 4 month old puppies 6 cups a day? Yeah.

I'm glad Z is doing well, Grace. C: My Aunt feeds Kirkland to her Weim, and he does really well on it. It's a good choice, especially for how much you have to feed that horsey boy! hehe

 

[Balto]

I have 2 labs

65lbs gets 2.5 cups of EVO a day
90lbs gets almost 3 cups of Evo a day

So now that I think about it, just like I have always read and thought teh higher priced foods liek EVO/CORE u feed waaaay less then cheaper ones. How much did you feed of EVO when you had the money for it? You might do some math and see which is actually the most cost efficiant.

 

[Zoom]

Balto, if that's directed at Puppylover, don't bother.

If it's RD, she has the money to feed EVO to her other four dogs, but since Z needs to put on a lot of weight, it wouldn't have been cost effective for him. Perhaps once he levels out.

 

[showpug]

If it's RD, she has the money to feed EVO to her other four dogs, but since Z needs to put on a lot of weight, it wouldn't have been cost effective for him. Perhaps once he levels out.

It seems too, at least in my experience, that if you want a dog to put weight on, sometimes the foods that contain grain work better anyway. I have a hard time getting my dogs to maintain weight on grain-free foods with the exception of TOTW.

 

[RD]

I've found the same thing, Showpug.

I also, frankly, was scared to switch him onto a dense grain-free food (which he probably won't eat for another 6-8 months due to the amount of protein and fat) because of the amount he needs to eat. Diarrhea on 1 cup of EVO during the switch is tolerable. Diarrhea on 5 cups? No. Thank. You.

I'm so pleased with the little bit of weight he's put on, though. I can take him out in public now without too many comments about 'why are you starving your dog????'

 

[noludoru]

Nolu... is Middie a really hard-bodied dog? Let me tell you... I've been trying to put weight on Ronin for more than two years now, and his body just will not gain anything extra. Doesn't matter what he eats, how frequently he eats or how much he gets - his body naturally stays extremely lean, what some migh trcall "agility weight", "hunting weight", or "game weight". I always laugh when people say, "he looks great, but he'd smooth out and do better in the ring if you just put about 5 more pounds on him... " YEA RIGHT! Let's see YOU try!

IMO some dogs are just hard-bodied and very lean. Ronin is one of them... and from Middie's photos... I wouldn't be surprised if he turned out to be one too.

Yes... he is. He used to have more weight on him, before I put him on EVO, but that was primarily because of what he was being fed, I think... Middie was his owners' garbage disposal... whatever they didn't finish from their meals or went bad in their fridge he got, and they eat complete CRAP... all packaged foods and sweets. I think that's also part of the reason he never has really solid poops no matter how well a food agrees with him or how long he's on it. (He had chronic diarrhea--rainbow poop--until I got him.)

It's just driving me NUTS, that's all. He certainly isn't/doesn't look unhealthy, but I'd like a little bit of cushioning on him.

 

[Zoom]

I think Sawyer would be pretty hard bodied, but he's so darn fluffy that you can't tell. He has an easy time keeping weight on though...I can't wait until we switch to EVO and see how that does for his muscle tone.

 

[showpug]

Yes... he is. He used to have more weight on him, before I put him on EVO, but that was primarily because of what he was being fed, I think... Middie was his owners' garbage disposal... whatever they didn't finish from their meals or went bad in their fridge he got, and they eat complete CRAP... all packaged foods and sweets. I think that's also part of the reason he never has really solid poops no matter how well a food agrees with him or how long he's on it. (He had chronic diarrhea--rainbow poop--until I got him.)

It's just driving me NUTS, that's all. He certainly isn't/doesn't look unhealthy, but I'd like a little bit of cushioning on him.

For the dogs needing a little weight, have you tried a hard-boiled or raw egg per day? It usually does the trick!

 

[Romy]

I second showpug's egg idea. We used it for Anko when she came to us as a skeletal shepherd from the pound, with the crappiest coat on earth. One egg a day really helped a lot.

 

[RD]

So far I am very pleased with the results he's had on the Kirkland, and he's only been on the stuff for 2 weeks! He's put on 13lbs and his coat has improved visibly already.

I wish there was less poop, but considering he's eating about 6-8 cups of food a day, there really isn't *that* much coming out of him. I'm just used to the "rabbit pellets" that raw/grain free fed dogs produce.

 

[swamper]

I didn't read this whole thread, but I've been feeding Diamond Naturals Large breed formula. I pay $17.99 for 30#s of the stuff. It has no corn and no by-products.

 

[Spirit2010]

For the dogs needing a little weight, have you tried a hard-boiled or raw egg per day? It usually does the trick!

Oh!! Yes it does!!! I did this with Whisper when she was small, and needed to put on weight. Good luck though! I don't have many suggestions.

 

[Chikadee77]

I'm so excited, we're finally getting a Costco (it'll be open Feb 20th!) and I'll be able to get Kirkland!

I feed the younger two Diamond Naturals LB puppy and Rhea is on raw (she can't handle eating ANY dog food, but does great on raw). But the Diamond is getting harder to find, everytime I go into the feedstore to get it, I have to put it on special order. It works very well for them and isn't too pricey, but I'm just having a really hard time finding it. So Costco and Kirkland will be great next month!

 

[Renee750il]

canidae. i pay about $35/40 pounds and it feeds at 1 cup per 25 pounds of dog per day, approximately.

I missed your post before. Your estimation of feeding gives me a good basis for comparison. Kharma does well on about 3.5 cups of EVO RM a day. The Canidae would seem to require at least 5 cups.

 

[RD]

Zaphod's still on Kirkland and I am really pleased with the results, he looks really good.

I switched him from the lamb formula to the chicken one, and I've been feeding significantly less of that with Z suffering no unwanted weight loss. Plus he just likes the taste better and I like the smaller, cleaner kibbles. Yay!

The Border Collies don't like the kirkland, though.

 

[Zoom]

We're on the last 10-15lbs or so of this first bag of Kirkland. Sawyer does well on just about any food it seems. Virgo's coat still looks really nice but I'm not as pleased with the other results...she's pooping a lot more in general and I don't know if it's coincidence or what, but we've had more goopy stools since switching than when she was on the Innova. I have a feeling that she'll do fabulous on EVO whenever I can afford to start feeding that.

 

[Julie]

I'm still feeding kirkland chicken & rice and all the dogs are still doing great on it.