Author Topic: different brands suggest different feeding amounts...  (Read 1127 times)

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Offline doglet

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different brands suggest different feeding amounts...
« on: June 26, 2007, 07:29:50 PM »
hi,

we've been looking at burns and autarky puppy foods as both seem to get excellent reviews on here. we'd almost decided to head towards autarky simply because it seems as highly recommended as burns and yet is cheaper per kg.

however, looking on the respective websites the amounts they recommend feeding are significantly different and therefore the price difference may not be as big as i first thought...

for example, for  a 5kg puppy under 4 months, autarky recommend 205-220g a day while burns recommend 100g.

is this right? should we follow each individual brand's own recommendation or do the more experienced amongst you have your own rules of thumb? presumably higher quality foods do have greater nutrient density, but is the difference between these 2 brands really as big as this?
there is mention on the burns site about the fact that its superior quality means it is more easily digested and hence feeding quantities are less.

any thoughts? we get bella at the weekend so we are looking at making decisions based on feeding an 8 week show cocker...

thanks all!

Offline Nicola

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Re: different brands suggest different feeding amounts...
« Reply #1 on: June 26, 2007, 07:35:26 PM »
I feed according to how my dogs look. I know by eye how much I like them to weigh so I feed them accordingly and if they put on weight I cut them back a bit and vice versa. In general Alfie needs more than the recommended amounts as he does not put on or maintain weight easily whereas Tilly has a tendency to be a bit porky so she gets a bit less. When Alfie was a pup he was on Burns for a while and lost a lot of weight on it, I was feeding him 2 or 3 times the recommended amount but he still lost condition so I took him off it quickly. 
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Offline Cob-Web

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Re: different brands suggest different feeding amounts...
« Reply #2 on: June 26, 2007, 07:49:39 PM »
Burns works out cheaper than some other premium brands when recommended portion sizes are taken into account - but thats what they are -  recommended amounts - and each dog is different  ;)

It is fair to assume that the recommended portions are a good guide to start with and for costing purposes; it wouldn't be advisable to feed the same weight of Burns per meal as Autarky, for instance  ;)

The reason is the amount of filler (cereals etc) each brand contains - in general, the fewer fillers, the smaller the recommended portion sizes, as the dog doesn't need to eat as much to get the same nutritional benefits  ;)
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