Amount of food he should be eating?
 

How much food should my 7.8 pound yorkie be eating? We've been feeding him a crappy (not nutritionally balanced) home-cooked diet and just switched back to kibble, Blue Buffalo Small Breed. He is barely eating anything of the kibble, I don't know if he's holding out for something better or what. But it's only been a few days since we started the kibble.

How much should he be eating? The bag says 1/2 to 3/4 cup per day. He's not making much of a dent in the food each day. I am weighing the food and it seems he's only eating maybe 5 to 8 grams of food per day. Should we just continue to leave it down for him since he eats sporadically throughout the day or should I feed him at specific times during the day?

He's always been a picky eater, and rarely chooses to eat kibble, even as a tiny puppy... I hope we can get him used to eating it. He was interested in eating it when I added juice from a can of chicken to his kibble. But didnt eat more than a few grams of food then. How much should he be eating?

Ziva , is 2 yrs, 7 lbs and busy all day. She eats 1/3 cup of Taste of the Wild, Pacific Stream (360 cal/cup) per day. I offer it to her at 9am- she rarely eats it- maybe a few kibble (she had some toast and fruit bits at 7am)...at 5pm I offer it again usually adding about 2 tsp of something else to it (boiled chicken, veggies, cottage cheese, scrambled egg). She typically eats it all, maybe leaving a few kibble behind, which she might ask for at 8pm. If she swims or long walks she will ask for and get more. If the kibble is plain at dinner she will snub it and eat a lot the next am...Like a toddler that has slowed growing with a bad appetite and cranky!

ZoE gets 1/2 a cup of Blue Buffalo in the morning & 1/2 cup in the evening. She also gets snacks of carrots, peas, apple and occasionally chicken or cheese as potty treats throughout the day.

I feed on schedule because I want predictable poop times, as I take ZoE pretty much everywhere with me.

Wow 1 whole cup Kazzy, I can't even get Bentley to eat 1/2 cup in a week (so far)! I hope he can work up to 1/2 cup soon. I'm worried about his health. My little guy has no real appetite most of the time. We take him on a 30 minute walk daily sometimes less than that if he wants to come home, which happens a lot. But dad doesn't walk him for exercise, he walks him slowly letting Bentley sniff as much as he wants. I wonder if a directed walk for exercise would help his appetite. I know dad enjoys his walks with Bentley as they are leisurely but I'm not sure if he'd want to do a full out walk since we are already "depriving" Bentley of table scraps and dad hates doing that as it takes the "fun" out of having a dog, he said. Maybe in a few years if I can lose my weight I'll start taking Bentley on good walks, but until then I'm afraid I can't even walk to the mailbox and back without having to sit down due to low back pain.

I would love for Bentley to eat 1 cup of food per day but I hope he can work up to at least 1/2 cup which is recommended for his weight according to Blue Buffalo.

I have always heard that the bag amounts are usually more than required. I am not even sure what TOTW says, :) but I feed 1/3 cup in the a.m. and 1/3 cup in the evening. They usually get a few x-small cookies a day and occasionally a carrot bite or blueberry or two. Hmm, that sounds like a lot, lol.

My girls are between 10 and 12 lbs but are a healthy weight for their frame.

Big Oops!! I mean a 1/2 cup per day, of which she gets half in the morning & half in the evening. Plus snacks.

She'd be huge if I gave her a whole cup per day, cos she'd probably eat it all. She's a greedy lil thing.

Jackson is an active healthy 16lb'er and eats 1/2 cup per day of TOTW kibble (330 kcal/cup) along with approx. a tablespoon of wet food in each meal, or whatever else, like some chicken, etc. He also gets some treats throughout the day.

I wish we had a scale to weigh Bentley on so I could monitor his weight. He looks healthy and not skinny or overweight. He does have a good waist line. I guess if he's not losing weight or looking thinner and thinner I don't have anything to worry about. I just hope his appetite picks up. I would love for him to eat everything on the plate when I give it to him but he's never been one to do that. I guess he's just one of those dogs that are reserved when it comes to eating.

Jovi is 8lbs and 5 months old - according to the vet she isn't overweight(he can easily feel her ribs) she eats 1/2 cup in the am and 1/2 cup in the evening - she is pretty active - walks 3 or 4 times a day and plays in the back yard a couple of times a day - on rainy days she doesn't get as much exercise and she doesn't eat as much.We joke cause she is no longer a "purse puppy" she's now a totebag puppy.:p

Sasha weighs 7-8lbs. and eats 1/4 cup of kibble per day. I actually give her a 1/2 raw, 1/2 kibble based diet so really she only eats 1/8 cup of kibble per day. Sometimes if I forget to take her raw out to thaw, then she'll get kibble for both meals which is 1/8 cup each time. She also gets treats throughout the day and at night before she goes to bed.

A lot of times, the food amounts on dog food bags usually recommend to feed more than your dog may actually need. Every dog is different so you have to go by your dog. It's like a process, put a certain amount down, see how much they eat and then go from there.

Ok I'll keep weighing his food. He ate 9 grams of food yesterday. I weighed on my scale 7 kibbles and it came out to be one gram, but it doesn't look like Bentley is eating 9 times that at night.. I'm going to measure out 9 grams and see how much it really is, maybe my scale is weird and not working right or something.. Thanks for your replies, everyone! I'll just keep doing what I'm doing for a while and see how it pans out. I'm recording how many grams Bentley eats per day. We'll see how he does. If he doesn't need more than that, then that's great! I'll keep a look out.

9 grams was 39 pieces of kibble. So I'd say that was pretty good. I hope he can do better soon. I just ordered one can of green beef tripe online as nobody carries the non bleached version in stores near me. I hear it's excellent to get dogs to eat kibble. Just mix a spoonfull with some warm water and make a gravy out of it and pour it over the food. I hear dogs just gobble it all up, so I'll try that. I'll measure out 1/4th cup of kibble just to have Bentley try it. Anyone have luck with tripe and picky eaters?

I bought a fairly inexpensive ($30ish) postal scale online that I use to weigh mine regularly. If they're gaining, I cut back. I haven't had any problem with them being underweight :O

The scale I bought has a fairly small base, but I set a basket on it, zero it out, and then drop them in the basket. It works great. I found that even scales in vet's offices varied, so I feel better about weighing them on the same scale every time.

And for the record, my 9-pounder eats 1/4 cup twice a day, half-kibble, half a good home-cooked blend.

I try to feed Keno 1/2 cup a day of the Blue Buffalo Small Breed daily, he really does not like it and some days he holds out for something better. Like cooked chicken or steak. He is 9 months old and 11lbs. Not over weight at all, he is really tall.

My parents are miserable that I'm not allowing them to feed him their food off of their plates. My dad actually ate outside so he didn't have to see Bentley looking up at him begging. I told them that they can give him treats just not as much as they used to. Hopefully that'll fix their problem as well as keep Bentley eating kibble throughout the day.

I hope that Bentley keeps wanting to go eat, I just wish that he would eat more than a few grams at a time. He only eats maybe once during the day and sometimes once at night, and eating only a few grams each time. It's sad. Oh I bought a can of green beef tripe online so hopefully making a gravy out of that with water and mixing his kibble with it will help him eat the kibble. I hear that it's great for picky dogs who dont want to eat kibble. So I'll try that out, and if he likes it, I'll buy a case of the tripe. Stores near me don't sell the green tripe (no extra chemicals in it and non bleached), so I have to order it online.

Wish us luck! I'll post back here next week when it arrives and let you all know if he ate it.

Wow the Tripe got here today! Fedex delivered it, that was QUICK!

I took one spoonful and mixed it with a bit of water and poured it over his kibble. He licked all of the kibble and ate some of it. He is going nuts for tripe!! I've never seen him so interested in food! I'll give him 1/4 cup with tripe mixed in and set to absorb it for a while, tonight. I hope he eats his kibble. He seems obsessed with tripe now. Wow... I'm amazed! He actually begged for more, but we gave him a dentastix.

If he continues to go nuts for tripe I'll buy a case of it online. If it gets him to eat his food, I'll buy it. It stinks so bad, and I didn't even touch it and the smell was on my hands! But I'll do it for my baby, if it gets him to eat his kibble. :)

He's not continuing to eat the tripe. I guess the only thing I can do now is to put the food down and pick it up after 20 minutes if he hasn't started eating it. I'll do that 3 times a day. :( I hate to do that but it seems nothing else is working.

awwwwwww bless him, i have a yorkie puppy who eats anything and i have a yorkie cross jack who is very picky, i find if i change the flavour of his food regular then he eats it up, at the moment mine are fed on naturediet and mixer.

when he doesn't eat i just let him walk away and then wait for him to come back to the kitchen and put the food infront of him and i repeat this for half an hour after that he has to wait untill next meal time, and usually will eat it:thumbup:

My dog quit eating the tripe mixed with kibble. It's been a frustrating ordeal. I did buy a can of Taste of the Wild and he seems to like that (for today)... So I'll feed it again tomorrow to see if he still will eat it. If he finishes the can, I'll go buy more. Otherwise I don't know what to do if he keeps refusing food.

He's developed allergies though. We just gave him a bath because he was obsesively licking his paw. Poor guy. I think he has outdoor allergies, so we should bathe him once a week. I need to get specially formulated dog shampoo, we are currently using a cheap knockoff of Johnsons tearless baby shampoo. I hope feeding him a grain free food will help that as well. No clue if it will. He's a pain to try to get to take benedryl or any liquid medicine or pill for that matter so we are trying to avoid using benedryl.

But yeah I hope that he continues to like TOTW. I'm trying to do research on it but I've not found much online. I hear it's very good for dogs, but can't find much in the way of reasons online.

Paris is a 12 lb Yorkie and he gets 1/3 cup Blue Buffalo 2 x's a day mixed with 1 tablespoon Blue Buffalo canned and water mixed together. He gobbles it up like no tomorrow. I also had to stop feeding him ANY people food. It was hard at first because he would stare at me while I ate, but now he know he's not getting any and just goes and lays down. Usually I give him his daily treat while I eat.

www.paristheblindwonderdog.blogspot.com

Riley weighs around 8lbs. He eats about 1/4 cup of food, total per day with a few treats throughout the day.

I have been feeding him about 1/8 cup of Primal premade raw in the mornings and then he and eats 1/8 cup of ACANA kibble at night.

I usually cut up a few frozen green beans and put a few peas in each meal. For the kibble, I will also let it soak in a little bit of water, for a few minutes, then drain, and sprinkle it with a tiny bit of Cocotheraphy Coconut Chips.

It took me a few months to get the food thing right but he is totally thriving now. People comment all the time about how great his coat looks.

Good Luck! :)

I just found a food that Bentley will eat. He's eating Taste of the Wild canned food. Today is the second day on it, and it seems he really likes it! It's been 3 years of fighting with him to eat dog food. Trying tons of different brands of kibble. So I've been exploring canned foods and he seems to like TOTW. I hope his enthusiasm doesn't die off like it usually does with food. He will go maybe 3 days eating a food then refuses to eat it again. I have hope that he'll continue to eat this because he's scarfing this food down.

I need to start measuring his food. I've not been doing it. But I'm confident that I'm feeding enough. Whew! Finally. I'll go to the pet store and buy more of the TOTW tomorrow. I only had one can. :)

Thank you all for sharing how much food your baby eats. It has given me an idea of what Bentley should be eating.

You can be confident feeding TOTW. He may also like their kibble; Dori is "wild" for it!

Forgot to mention...excessive paw licking could be a sign of yeast infection. Have your vet check it out.

Yeast infection? He may have one in one of his ears. I gave him a bath and wasn't as careful as I should have been around his ears. Would a yeast infection in an ear cause paw licking?

No, it wouldn't CAUSE a yeast infection, but yeast can spread from paw, to mouth, to ear or anywhere on body. Yorkies with allergies seem to be more prone to these infections and they are hard to clear up.

Hmm. I gave him benedryl last night and he stopped licking his last night and hasn't started back up today. So I'm thinking it's like a pollen or other outside allergen that is attached to his paw. But yes I'm going to call the vet first thing Tuesday to see if he needs to be seen for a possible yeast infection in his ear. I think last time that happened a few years ago we were given ear drops.

I called and got him an appointment on Wednesday for his ear and nail trimming. The tech said to wash our his ears with cleanser "aggressively" (??) until I can get him into the vet. I'll try to find the ear cleaning solution, it may be up in a cupboard.

Science Diet is a very poor food to feed any animal. I would check the sticky list on the General forum to get free samples from high quality dog foods. I feed Taste of the Wild 1/3 cup twice a day now. He is eating it all, for the most part. Some days he leaves a few pieces but that's not much of a concern. He doesn't eat when he's not hungry. But usually he'll eat twice a day. I feed him before noon and around 7pm.

I'd try to go with a dog food that is grain free, Blue Buffalo has a grain free dog food which is called Wilderness. I don't know if they have canned food for that variety or not.

Bentley seems to have finally stopped his scratching and paw licking. It's been probably 2 or so weeks since he's been on TOTW canned food and he's doing great! I hope I can start getting him to be more active so that he can lose some of this weight that he's gained over the year. Mom feeding him from her plate really isn't helping. But she's cut way back on how much she gives him. So that's good. I want to start buying the Lite Greenies, if they have them in the Teeny size. I'll have to look.

But so far so good with feeding Bentley the TOTW. I'm so happy he's eating! He is begging less for food. Though he still does beg for his treats in the evening, the greenie and the dentastix. But that's okay, they are good for his teeth! :)