[maquignon]

Originally Posted by lil fu fu girl

First, welcome to YT.

Secondly, allow me to expand on your kcalorie comment. Unfortunately, determination of kcalories is somewhat more technical than a standardized 225 calories across the board. The basic standard equation that nutritionists use to formulate appropriate kcalorie guidelines is based on a canines RER, or Resting Energy Requirements; where
RER(kcal/day)= 30 (body weight in kilograms) + 70. The RER is only valued for resting energy requirements, when other things such as activity, specific breed variants, coat requirements, environmental factors, muscle maintenance, and organ repair are entered into the equation, kcalorie requirements can vary radically. This RER is then multiplied by a specific numerical rate exemplifying the activity level to predict appropriate kcalorie intake that your pup will need for adequate nutrition.

So, say you have two five pound yorkies, one is extremely active and the other is very sedate. After deciphering their RER:
RER = 30 ( 2.27 kg) + 70 = 138.1, you find that their basic resting requirement is 138.1kcal.
For the sedate pup a multiplier of 1.6 is normal so basic kcalorie count would be 220.96 kcals, whereas the active pup would be using a multiplier between 4 and 8 which would put the kcal. count between 552.4 kcals and 1104.8 kcals. So as you can see, there is a drastic difference between these and the standard 250kcalories that you have quoted. My pups are extremely active, and their kcalorie range varies between 325-700 kcalories per day, depending on the exact type of exercises that we are doing.

So there it is, somewhat academic and boring, but useful perhaps to someone.

Well, I thought I clarified my thoughts in response to Maximo but I suppose I still didn't do too well. I don't know whether I said too little or too much. I am well aware of the formula, RER and multiples and that different activity levels require different caloric amounts (my dog eats half the suggested amount and I am sure that some need twice the suggested amount). I use the calculator at mycockerspaniel.com/mer.htm which gives all of the variables at once. I was merely offering the suggestion that the questioner might be feeding too much since I have seen so many people jump from one dog food to another to another and all along the problem was that they were giving the dog too much and he was eating enough, just not as much as the owner thought he should eat. I have even seen some people try several high quality foods and then switch to a low quality food, which the dog needs twice as much of, because of the lower caloric content and they decided that the higher quality food was "too rich" and settled on the lower quality food because the dog ate more of it. It seems that I failed miserably if two people misunderstood so badly. I think I will steer clear of this site henceforth.