corgi diet

Question
Tanner is my 2 year old Pembroke Welsh Corgi. I am looking for a definitive answer once and for all on how much he should eat a day. I have heard answers ranging from 1 cup to 3 cups of dog food every day. He is mostly an indoor dog, but he spends time outdoors running around with our kids and our other dog, a setter-retriever mix. He also gets an ENORMOUS amount of exercise inside the house, playing fetch, wrestling, and tirelessly chasing our cat! I used to feed him 1 and a half cups twice a day, and he developed a weight problem. The owner of a small, inactive dog was appalled at that amount, and she advised that I should feed him one half cup twice a day. I've been doing that for a week, and the poor little guy seems hungry all the time! I think he needs more calories than her dog because he is more active. I feed him Alpo dog food, sometimes Purina (always dry food). I don't buy cheap no name brands, but I can't afford the high priced stuff like Iams, either. I've been working on making sure everyone in the family obeys the no-table-food or snacks rule, and we've been keeping him active, but I'm very concerned about making sure that I don't feed him way too much or way too little. Also, another friend advised that I replace part of his food with green beans (which he loves). But a half cup seems like such a tiny amount, and I'm afraid that if I take part of that away in favor of green beans, he will be malnourished.

Thanks, Kristen, I really appreciate that you're taking time to help me with my problem!

Ericka Myre

Answer
Ericka, good question, but there honestly IS no definitive answer to the question "how much should my dog eat per day." It all depends on the dog's activity level and the quality of food that he is being fed. Because he isn't eating a high quality dog food, he will need to be fed more of it to get the nutrition his body needs. Foods like Purina, Iams, Pedigree, Science Diet, and all the other foods than can be bought at the grocery store or places like Kmart and Walmart are about the same (even though the prices make you *think* one is better than the other), and are full of cheap, undigestible fillers that provide very little nutrition. I'm not trying to make you feel bad, since you say that Purina and Alpo is all you can afford. If that's what you have to feed, then that's what you have to feed.

According to the feeding recommendations on the back of a bag of Purina Dog Chow, it says to feed your dog (whose weight should be between 25 and 30 pounds, according to the breed standard) 1 1/2 cups of food per day; you were feeding twice that amount, so yes, that was way too much, as proven by his weight gain. If you're going to feed him twice a day, split it in half and give him 3/4 cup at each feeding, so it totals to 1.5 cups for the entire day. Personally, I'd feed him just 1 cup per day. If he loses weight on that, then wait until he gets down to 25 pounds, and then start feeding him the 1.5 cups a day like it says on the back of the bag. If he starts gaining weight again, then cut back to 1 1/4 cups per day for a week or two. If he's still gaining weight, then cut back down to 1 cup and stick to that.

Subsituting part of his meal with green beans will not hurt him in the least. Now, if you were feeding nothing BUT green beans, that would be a problem, but feeding him 1 cup of dog food and 1/2 cup of green beans is perfectly fine, and will help to keep him from feeling hungry all the time. Just don't salt or season them.


Good luck and please let me know if there's anything else I can help you with!

Kristen