How much to feed our bull mastiff

Question
QUESTION: We adopted a 7ish year old bull mastiff from the shelter.  We had been following the feeding amount guidelines on the bag of commercial food.  He weighed 140 when we got him so we upped the amount of food as the chart on the bag didn't go that high. A month later he weighed 150!  We cut back on the amount of food and he behaves as if he is starving.  He gets in the trash, barks at us, and scarfs down what he is fed.
How many cups of kibble should this guy have per day?

ANSWER: Hi Wendi,

A few variables here, starting with - what type of food are you feeding? Various kibbles contain different levels of energy (calories) per unit - and lower quality foods are much less digestible than premium. So for starters - what are you feeding? how many calories per cup(it will be on the label somewhere, usually expressed as 'ME' - metabolizable energy).
If you can't find it, get me the brand and I'll track down the calories.


So - how many calories does he need? Based on his (ideal)weight alone(140 lbs)  he should take in a range of calories between 2250 (low activity) to 3000 (very active).  However, these are the textbook numbers and quite often, in real life, dogs need more or less than these suggestions. Let me know how much exercise he gets, what his ideal weight is(I assumed 140?) , and what he's eating. I can help you more precisely with that info.
All the best,
Catherine

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks so much for getting back to me.
The food is Ol' Roy from WalMart.  It's about $15 per 50 lb bag.  We had been mixing a little canned food or chicken broth with it as he wouldn't eat at all without it.  We have quit doing that, but he doesn't eat much of it.  I'm worried that he will go the opposite way and lose too much weight.

Answer
Oh dear Wendi - I'm sorry to say this, but Ol'Roy is one of THE most notoriously bad dog foods in the world, so much so that those of us in the nutrition world often refer to bad food generically as Ol'Roy.
I would urge you to consider using a quality food. You will most definitely pay more than 15$ a bag, but then you will save at the vet's over the life of the dog, believe me. And with quality foods you feed much less too, so the bag lasts longer. I'd suggest looking into Canidae for your guy, I like the All Life Stages food, it will cost more but your dog will be healthier BY FAR and much less stressed out.
http://www.canidae.com


Here's an ingredient list of Ol' Roy - shocking that manufacturers can get away with this:

Ingredient Name
1. Ground Yellow Corn
2. Meat Meal/Meat & Bone Meal
3. Ground Whole Wheat
4. Soybean Meal
5. Wheat Mill Run/Middlings
6. Animal Fat
7. Chicken Byproduct Meal
8. Rice
9. Animal Digest
10. Salt
11. Calcium Carbonate
12. Choline Chloride
13. Vitamins/Minerals
14. Sodium Selenite

I'm amazed that dogs stay alive on this stuff. Did you know that when a company refuses to disclose the source of "meat" it can mean the food contains euthanized dogs and cats from local shelters? I kid you not. Never, ever use a food that declines to identify it's protein source - the label should say "turkey, chicken, lamb" etc as opposed to "meat". And all that wheat and corn - "animal" fat - gives me the shudders just to think what's in this stuff.

I highly suspect your dog's problems will disappear once he is on a good, wholesome, healthy commercial diet.
Just by way of comparison, here is what's in Canidae All Life Stages:


" Chicken Meal, Turkey Meal, Brown Rice, White Rice, Lamb Meal, Chicken Fat (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols), Herring Meal, Flax Seed, Sun Cured Alfalfa Meal, Sunflower Oil, Chicken, Lecithin, <vitamins and minerals>."

You're looking at about 40$ for a forty pound bag - a fair bit more than Ol'Roy, but also a guarantee of improvement in health.

If this is prohibitively expensive for you please let me know and I will help find a lower cost food that's still better than Ol'Roy.

Good luck!
Catherine