How much does your dog weigh currently? Would you say that your baby is over or under weight? Or just right?
Traditionally it's been advised to feed 2-3% of your dog's estimated healthy weight. I find this guideline more useful for large breed dogs however not so much for my Yorkies as they eat more than those %'s but are NOT fat! Prey Model feeders often refer to this question as "tweaking". Tweaking a dog's diet until it's just right where the dog doesn't get fat from it nor gets skinny. I also don't feed the same amounts every day as prey model fed dogs do what's called "self regulating". They voluntarily will not eat anything for a day or so (once a week, more or less) to give the digestive system a rest. This is normal behavior and is linked to the behavior of carnivore pack animal's in the wild as it's been observed there as well. I let my dogs guide me as to how much because oddly enough, since Toy eats this way, he never over eats. He eats what he needs and leaves the rest so that's how I figured out which amounts are just right for him to consume in one sitting! With kibble, I could've fed him all day and he probably would've just tipped over like a pig! LOL
My Toy is 10 pounds and he typically eats one chicken drumstick completely and a side of (a quarter of a yoghurt cup) chicken livers for breakfast. For dinner he can put away one pork rib with another tiny serving of beef kidney or green tripe. Gia is 5.5 pounds and she will leave a little of her drumstick and she gets less organ meats. Mahli is 23 ounces and all she can consume in one sitting is maybe half the size of a human thumb (sorry for the comparison, I couldn't think of anything else
, lol) and her organs serving is like a thimble full. Not so active dogs will eat less I suppose, but my dogs are very active and get walked 3 times a day for 30 minutes or so each time while the tiny one gets carried a lot of course, she'll never be able to keep up with the rest as she's not expected to even reach 2 pounds fully grown! In the summer it gets brutally hot here in Arizona and I'm putting them on a threadmill this year!
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Originally Posted by Sookie  I would be interested in how much you feed a small Yorkie and what you feed on a weekly basis - if anyone is interested in posting. That would be a great start for me. |
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