Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey- I am brand new to board! We have a 10 yr old sweet happy but allergic bichon, Zoe. I have started to make her food & she is better than on commercial foods. She is 24 lbs-10 yrs old-fairly active. How much food (ounces) should she eat at a meal? She is fed 2 times a day. Would like her to lose some weight. Has taken very small amts of steroids to control allergy symptoms that were causing her to bite and scratch to open sores.
Glad to have found the board!
nonozozo

This really isn't an easy thing to answer. It depends a lot on what type of food you are feeding, the moisture content, her activity level, add to it each dog's metabolism is different.

If you are able to weigh her easily (should be able to use a normal bathroom scale for her size) where you hold her and then subtract your own weight. That will give you an idea if your diet is allowing her to lose weight. Take her to better scales on a monthly basis- typically at pet stores or your own vet clinic- to get more accurate weights to affirm your diet is working.

It would be advisable to work with your vet on how much weight she can loose safely in a week and what the target weight should be.
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Chelle and the rest of the crew including, but not limited to Kita and Taiko (the shiba inu wrestle maniacs), Adi (reserved and dignified tabby cat), and all 28 reptiles

What are you feeding exactly? Raw or cooked? I feed raw only, and my 50 lb. girl gets 1 lb. per meal, twice a day. When we got her she was closer to 60 lbs. We came up with an amount of weight we'd like her to lose, then subtracted that from what she weighed- her ideal weight. We fed her according to that instead of her real weight. At first we fed her as if she weighed 55 lbs., then as she lost a little we'd feed her less and less, and now we feed her for 50 lbs., which is what she weighs now. It's a pretty slow process, but it's not really stressful because not much food is being taken away at a time. We also made sure she got plenty of exercise, of course, and that the food she did eat wasn't stuff that would make her fatter. I'm not sure because I don't cook any of my dogs' food, but I'd think you'd have to feed a little more cooked food than raw because things get cooked out.
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Kadee Sedtal
home of old lady Lucy (boxer/lab/garbage disposal), and the lovely new addition, Fancy the Wonder Beagle!

I feed homecooked and my 33 lb girl gets two hardboiled eggs in the am with veggies, and 4-5 ounces of pork with veggies in the pm, with various supplements. She is on the skinny side because she doesn't tolerate fats, carbs, startches well.

If you are looking for weight loss, then you want to minimize the carbs, not the fats or the protein. For the allergies, increase the antioxidents, or add some vitamin C with bioflavonoids.