Should I increase their food?

Gertie's Mom

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Community Veteran
Jul 17, 2010
1,727
34
SanTan Valley, Az.
Bulldog(s) Names
Gertie & Ida
I have been feeding Gertie and Ida twice a day. They get a cup and 1/4 in the morning and a cup in the evening. I always mix in something with their dry food. In the morning I give them a little cottage cheese, yogart, pumpkin, or banana, and at dinner some canned food. Today I got a new bag of food (Nature's Variety Prairie), and I looked at the feeding recommendation. It says for Gertie and Ida's weight, they should be getting 4 1/2-6 cups a day. That's twice what I've been giving them! They are always eager to eat and always eat every last morsel. They gobble like they're in a race, but I figured that was because there are two of them and they don't want the other one to come get into their dish. But now I'm wondering... They're not skinny, they're very healthy and active. Do the rest of you feed the recommended amount on the bag? Gertie and Ida are about 7 1/2 months old. If anyone else has pups their age, please let me know how much you feed them. (Or if you can remember what you fed when your Bully was that age). I don't want to over-feed them, but I don't want to under-feed them either.
 

sheshistory

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Jul 11, 2010
3,395
291
Vermont
Country
United States
Bulldog(s) Names
Bentley, Linus, Truman
Gertie and Ida are eating more than both Linus and Truman, so I wouldn't increase their intake unless you notice there is a problem, which it doesn't sound like there is.

Dog food bags notoriously recommend overfeeding the dog, of course, so you have to buy more food. Bulldogs aren't incredibly active most of the time and get fat super easy (and it's NOT easy to get off) so I would err on the side of caution in feeding.

For reference, I feed Truman - 8 months old - one cup of dry food twice a day, with a little wet puppy food on top in the morning only. He weighs 47 pounds and the vet said he is very healthy and at an optimal weight for his breed and size right now. He is also a piggy when he eats, I think it's a bully thing!
 
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Gertie's Mom

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Jul 17, 2010
1,727
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SanTan Valley, Az.
Bulldog(s) Names
Gertie & Ida
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Oh good, thanks Jill. Sounds like they're right on track then. Makes sense that the food manufacturer would want you to buy food more often. I just thought "Oh my gosh, am I starving them?!?" when I read that.
 

Maximus

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Jun 6, 2010
506
13
Toms River, New Jersey
Country
USA
Bulldog(s) Names
Maximus
Maximus never eats the exact same amount of Food from day to day. I used to get paranoid over measuring his food allotment for the day, but gave up on that. Somedays he eats alot less, and other days alot more, and the times he eats also varies. Most days he does not want to GET UP to eat, and he will soundly sleep all day until 3PM in the afternoon ---- so he has already missed Breakfast. He is ready for dinner at dinner time, but many evenings, doesn't want to eat until 8:30PM or later . . . . . . For maintenance he should be eating 4-cups per day. He doesn't stick to that every day. He gets Fresh Chicken every day too, and he gets YOGURT (coz I give him Digestive enzymes and probiotics, which get mixed into the yogurt).
 
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Gertie's Mom

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Community Veteran
Jul 17, 2010
1,727
34
SanTan Valley, Az.
Bulldog(s) Names
Gertie & Ida
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Wow, how old is Maximus? My girls are just pups, so they NEVER sleep late, and absolutely never sleep thru meal time. I'm not real exact about when they eat either. They get breakfast around 8 am, give or take an hour, dinner at 7-ish. Depends on what's going on around here. I do try not to feed them too late because I crate them at bedtime and I don't want accidents in their crates.

Right now they're both asleep here near me, and neither one of them looks like they've missed a meal. They're fat little "rollir-pollies". I think they're doing fine.
 

TessaAndSamson

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May 7, 2010
4,260
162
Southern California
Bulldog(s) Names
Samson
I'm not sure of feeding amounts for puppies because its been so long since I've had one but I do always feed Samson less than the recommended amount because like Jillh10 said they aren't active dogs and they gain weight easily. I will say one thing though [MENTION=881]Gertie's Mom[/MENTION], you are definitely safe feeding them more than jillh10 does hers because the praire has less protein in it than the instinct nv which is what jillh10 feeds her babies. The more protein the less food they need so it would only make sense that you should feed Ida and Gertie more.
 

kazzy220

..........
Jul 31, 2010
8,556
441
Grafton, OHIO
Country
England
Bulldog(s) Names
Maggie (My Angel Baby 5/31/2012). Daddy (2 years). Linus (1year). Bella (4 years)
I'm not much help because Daddy is still only 5 months old ... but he's about 30lb and is on 1 1/2cups of FROMM twice a day. That is usually topped with plain yogurt and shredded carrot.

Maggie is 3 and she is on 3/4cup FROMM daily with the same toppings. We intentionally wanted her to lose a little weight as she had no waist ...:eek: She is now a beautiful shape and I'm happy where she is so I'm going to start weighing her weekly to fine tune the amount of food she gets. She is currently 35lb .. such a tiny little bundle of bully!!
 

TessaAndSamson

New member
May 7, 2010
4,260
162
Southern California
Bulldog(s) Names
Samson
[MENTION=959]kazzy220[/MENTION] Yeah I definitely wouldn't expect Maggie to need much more than 3/4 to one cup of Fromm switch a day. I was giving Samson 2 heaping cups a day of Fromm and now NV because that was what I was giving him of the Natural Balance before. He went from 55 to 57 lbs after the switch and so I had to scale back to just under a cup twice a day. I hadn't thought of what a big difference it would make but Fromm and NV have alot more protein so he doesn't need as much anymore.
 

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