I would welcome any advice.
I have a 2 year old male welsh terrier and an 8 year old female wire haired fox terrier , both neutered. I have been feeding them on GURU since July and they both love it.
The problem is that even though I am feeding them about half’s much again as the recommended amount they both seem to be hungry all the time, they did loose a lot of weight when they were just having the recommended amount hence why I Increased it.
They are scrounging for food constantly ( they don’t get any extras) and there have been a couple of nasty fights between them if there is food around.
Hello and welcome to the forum. Please can you let us know what you were feeding before the Guru and if your dogs were always hungry when on that food? Did you have to give more than the RDA with the previous food?
With regards to you giving half as much again of the recommended allowance, what are you basing the latter on? Normally the company advise 1% to 1.2% of the dog’s body weight. Also, are you weighing the food or using the measuring cup?
Scrounging for food is a real headache - I have it with my three. Unfortunately they put weight on easily so I have to watch their intake. There are some dogs that never seem to be sated and if you are sure that they are getting all they need and are healthy, all you can do is stick them out.
FWIW, my (scrounging) dogs are on cold pressed food and I give them three smaller meals a day - I don’t know whether this is the right thing to do but it seems to be better for them. My theory is that cold pressed is digested more easily than kibble and possibly leaves the stomach more quickly so that is why I feel it may be helpful. However, that is just a personal opinion. In the past, because cold pressed food is so dense I have found the small amount a problem with my dogs but it is something I have learned to cope with. If I gave them kibble they would probably be the same. Currently they have 1% of body weight and I top up with various proteins - fish, chicken, sardines. Sometimes I substitute one of the meals with scrambled egg or raw complete. I find that all of these extras go well with cold pressed food. I also sometimes soak the nuggets as it takes the dogs longer to eat the food when wet. Slow feeders are also useful to make the dog take more time over it’s meal.
As your dogs are doing well on Guru it is a shame to change food but if you do then let us know and we can try to help you select something suitable from the Dog Food Directory.The other thing that you could do is contact Guru customer service to ask their advice.
Edit - regarding the fighting, I have had that myself in the past. You may know what the flash points are, in which case you can perhaps take remedial action to prevent it. With my dogs I take the bowls up as soon as they are finished and I try not to let them go sniffing around after a meal. If I sense trouble, I separate them. They are not allowed in the kitchen when food preparation is going on and same goes for our meal times. It’s a case of being one step ahead of them - not easy though.
Hi Thanks for the reply,
They were on arden grange before , I just used to put one bowl down and leave it down and they would graze all day-they never seemed very interested in it and the bowl never got finished.
Since putting them on Guru I weigh the amount as recommended by them on their website based on the dogs weight.
I feed them separately now and the food is gone in seconds!
The latest fight was over one of them trying to get in the dishwasher to lick the plates Even if I am eating a piece of fruit they are begging! They are maintaining their weight now but I don’t know if even though they are they could technically still be hungry.
Guru were ver y helpful and checked that there was no medical reason (which there isn’t) and if they had been wormed
(they have).
I really don’t want to increase the amount because it’s then going to be super expensive and I would be worried I was over feeding .
I can quite understand that you would not want to give more food - as you say, there is a cost implication. Although daily allowance needs varies quite a bit in dogs, it seems to me that if you are having to give half as much as the RDA and they are still hungry then it might not be the right food for your dogs. I honestly don’t know what is going on here except that as kibble takes longer to digest than cold pressed (presumably you have seen the videos on the Guru website), it is satisfying your dogs’ hunger more than the current food. The protein in Arden Grange Adult is similar to Guru but the fat is higher and my understanding is that fat can help satisfy a dog’s appetite.
As I mentioned, my dogs are quite greedy but I know that whatever I give them they would be the same and in any case I have to watch their weight. Your dogs clearly enjoy the cold pressed but from what you say, Arden Grange seems to suit them better at this point in their lives. Obviously, it is your choice but the welfare of the dogs is the most important thing and it does sound as if they are not very happy at the moment.
they are much calmer and the welsh has stopped chewing since I switched food …but maybe a food with higher fat content may be worth considering as you say
Thank You
That throws a different light on things - it sounds as if there are positives and negatives to cold pressed. The fact that they are generally calmer on cold pressed would seem to indicate that there might be something about the AG that does not wholly suit them. Have you had a look at the Dog Food Directory for an alternative food? There are plenty of really good ones with a higher fat content. If you need any help with that, please let us know.
Yes, it is at the bottom of the filters list under nutrient levels. Quite a lot of the products scoring 4 to 5 stars have higher protein and fat levels so if you move the ratings slider to this it would select those. I would also suggest that under Avoid ingredients, you put a tick in the ‘all red’ box.
Using dry complete/natural/clearly labelled/no red ingredients/rating slider 4 to 5 and setting the fat slider to 15% to 25%, it returned 4 pages of good quality products.
I was wondering how much exercise the dogs are having as I find it makes a big difference to how much food mine can eat. She has some wire fox terrier in her and has always been full of beans. She has slowed down recently and I am having to watch her food. She has generally been able to eat over the RDA plus treats.
Also she is always hopeful for extra food but I don’t worry too much unless she starts trying to steal it, goes deaf when told to ‘leave it’ or starts to eat earth or other strange things. She did all this on a raw food she was on and lost a lot of weight so clearly she had been hungry. Mostly she is just greedy.
I can’t help wondering, if the food has become more appealing since it hasn’t been available all the time or since they are enjoying it more. I hope you can find something that works and keeps the dogs sated.
