Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have just started making homemade dog food - my dogs are currently eating a higher quality commercial dry food. I am gradually switching them over to the homemade stuff. I have 5 dogs - all different breeds and weights. Do you portion it according to their weight and also do you feed once a day or twice a day?

My dogs' weights are: 66 pounds (lab mix)
44 pounds (small shepherd mix)
25.5 pounds (chihuahua terrier mix)
9 pounds pom/terrier mix
9.5 pounds pom/terrier mix

my fat chihuahua terrier needs to lose weight which is one of the main reasons I am switching foods she is also 10 years old.

If anyone knows or can point me in the right direction of portioning this food I would greatly appreciate it!! My vet is in a small town and knows a little bit about homemade but was not sure how to portion either.

Thanks!

Might need a little more information... do you free feed your dogs now or are they fed at a set time everyday? Are they fed together in the same room where possible one dog can steal another's?
-----

If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.

I try to feed them at the same time everytime everyday, however, I have one dog that is an outdoor dog that eats whenever - it is different for him everyday - the other 4 eat at the same time. However, that is with dry food. If I feed them homemade food they all 5 gobble it up at the same time and I stay in the room to avoid stealing! So while they eat in the same room (all different parts of the kitchen to allow eachother some space) there can be the occasional stealing. Does this help? I am more just wondering how many cups of homemade food each dog should get according to their size. I can monitor eating times to make sure there is no stealing.

Good for you for switching!
I feed my 55-ish lb. boxer/lab mix 2 pounds a day of raw food. She's 8 years old and not terribly active. I feed her half in the morning and half in the evening, plus a little mini-meal in between. In Ian Billinghurst's The Barf Diet, he says to feed 5-10% of the dog's body weight every day. Puppies need closer to 10%; older, less active dogs will need closer to 5%. Pretty much what I did was start out at 7% and wait a couple of weeks. If the dogs start getting fat, cut back. If they start slimming down adjust (if you need to, or stay at the smaller portion till the fat one gets to a good weight, then bump up the ration just the tiniest bit to maintain the good weight).
With the outdoor dog, move him inside with everybody else!! My old girl Lucy was outdoors-only before we got her, and because she was alone so much she ate more than she should have out of boredom and was fat and unhealthy because of it. With free-feeding you never know how much the dog is getting, plus the food will get stale toward the end of the day. With homemade food, free-feeding just isn't an option because the food will spoil within a few hours. Feeding only once a day makes their tummies empty too much. You don't eat just one meal a day, do you? Mine get their big meals morning and evening, and in between I'll give them each an egg (with the shell) or some yogurt or something small just to hold them over till dinnertime.
That's my two cents.
-----
Kadee Sedtal
home of old lady Lucy (boxer/lab/garbage disposal), and the lovely new addition, Fancy the Wonder Beagle!

Thank you very much for your "two cents"! My outdoor dog, Hobo, is still inside most of the time, however, he enjoys eating by himself as my biggest dog, Buddy, is a very dominating type dog and will often bully his way into Hobo's eating space. That is one of the reasons buddy came to be our dog. He was my sister's dog but was dominating her older springer spaniel. Training has only helped that issue so much although he is much better now. Anyway, getting back to the food thing, when I feed them homemade dog food they call come in the house and eat it up rather quickly! So I never have to worry about some getting left behind. I will definitely feed them twice a day as I think that is better than just once.

Question about yogurt and cottage cheese - I notice alot of posts indicate feeding them yogurt and cottage cheese (on occasion). Do you feed plain yogurt to your dogs or flavored and do you know if you feed dry cottage cheese or the %1 one (not so much fat)?

THanks again - let me know about the yogurt if you can!

Yeah, my dogs go a little nuts for their food too. Homemade, whether raw or cooked, has so much more variety than stuff out of a bag or a can!! I feed plain yogurt because my old girl won't touch the flavored kind, plus the plain is a great big tub of it for about $2. I'm sure there would be no harm in giving some of the flavored kind now and then, although the plain does have less sugar. With cottage cheese I feed my girls the full-fat kind, but if you've got a fatty on your hands maybe just give that one the reduced fat kind. I've read that some dogs are sensitive to dairy, so watch them after you feed it to them the first time. Mine don't have a problem with it. Yogurt and cottage cheese are great for if you feed ground meat. It needs calcium to balance it out. Eggs are also a good mid-day meal. I just smash one up for each dog, shell and all.
-----
Kadee Sedtal
home of old lady Lucy (boxer/lab/garbage disposal), and the lovely new addition, Fancy the Wonder Beagle!

Thank you - I will try the yogurt (plain) and cottage cheese. How do you serve the hard boiled egg - do you mash it up with the shell? Thanks again!

I don't cook the egg. Just smash it all up, shell and everything. It can be cooked, I never bother, though. It's kind of funny to watch them chase the bowl around trying to get every little bit.
-----
Kadee Sedtal
home of old lady Lucy (boxer/lab/garbage disposal), and the lovely new addition, Fancy the Wonder Beagle!