# Kcal/ cup in old food compared to new food.



## lovemydogsalways (Mar 4, 2012)

Old food Diamond Naturals Chicken and Rice has 368 kcal/cup calculated ME. Emma eating 4 cups a day.
New food Nutrisource Chicken and Rice has 405 kcal/cup calculated ME. 
I had a worksheet from my nutrition class on how to calculate the dogs weight with the kcal and it would tell how much I should feed.
Normally I feed by the ribs, but I have fed this Nutrisource before and I was thinking she had to eat more of that than she did the Diamond Naturals.
How does that make any sense? 
I think I might start out with 1.5 cups twice a day and adjust accordingly. ​


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## 1605 (May 27, 2009)

lovemydogsalways said:


> Old food Diamond Naturals Chicken and Rice has 368 kcal/cup calculated ME. Emma eating 4 cups a day.
> New food Nutrisource Chicken and Rice has 405 kcal/cup calculated ME.
> I had a worksheet from my nutrition class on how to calculate the dogs weight with the kcal and it would tell how much I should feed.
> Normally I feed by the ribs, but I have fed this Nutrisource before and I was thinking she had to eat more of that than she did the Diamond Naturals.
> ...



I think you are on the right track. When it comes to how much to feed your dog, only YOU can tell how much is too much or too little. And yes, it's something of a trial & error process before you get it fine tuned.

Bonne chance,
​


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## kimouette (May 2, 2012)

Here's a good calculator : Dog Food Calculator


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## InkedMarie (Sep 9, 2011)

Am I the only one who doesn't think about weight, kcals etc? I go by how the dogs look. If too heavy, I cut back a bit. If too light, I up the feed. I also take into consideration if it's grain free or not and the Carb percentage.


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## lovemydogsalways (Mar 4, 2012)

InkedMarie said:


> Am I the only one who doesn't think about weight, kcals etc? I go by how the dogs look. If too heavy, I cut back a bit. If too light, I up the feed. I also take into consideration if it's grain free or not and the Carb percentage.


I do look at the dog first. I mentioned I fed this food before and could have sworn I was feeding more of it even though it is higher calorie. 
IMO that is BS I should not need to feed more of a food that is higher calorie compared to the one that is lower calorie. That would mean I am spending money on a food that must not be that high of quality if I have to feed more to keep weight on.
Wish Diamond wouldn't have screwed up....again.
Trying to get to my goal of going RAW as soon as possible.


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## DDBsR4Me (Jan 23, 2012)

Whenever I switch foods, I gauge how much of the new food I need to feed based on kcals. 

If I know that he gets 4 cups of x/brand food per day at 300kcals/cup (for a total of 1200 kcals) and this maintains his current body weight and the new food has 400kcals/cup then I know I need to feed 3 cups of the new brand to maintain his current weight.


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## 1605 (May 27, 2009)

InkedMarie said:


> Am I the only one who doesn't think about weight, kcals etc? I go by how the dogs look. If too heavy, I cut back a bit. If too light, I up the feed. I also take into consideration if it's grain free or not and the Carb percentage.


I think when starting a new food you need some beginning point, so I look at how many calories are in the food & it's nutritional breakdown (% of protein, fat levels, etc.). This is due to the high energy/activity levels of our dogs. If the food doesn't have enough protein & fat, then we will need to feed them a lot in order to keep weight/muscle on them.

However, that's only a starting point. It definitely can go up or down from there depending on what the dogs look like & their current activity level.


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## InkedMarie (Sep 9, 2011)

SubMariner said:


> I think when starting a new food you need some beginning point, so I look at how many calories are in the food & it's nutritional breakdown (% of protein, fat levels, etc.). This is due to the high energy/activity levels of our dogs. If the food doesn't have enough protein & fat, then we will need to feed them a lot in order to keep weight/muscle on them.
> 
> However, that's only a starting point. It definitely can go up or down from there depending on what the dogs look like & their current activity level.


Yep, I must be different. I look at the bag and feed a little less of what the least recommended amount is and go from there. With kibble, I do pretty well but with THK, I keep changing!


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## Caty M (Aug 13, 2010)

Also- calories from meat are generally easier to digest than calories from grains and vegetables- one of my friend's dog actually needed about 30% MORE calories from a crappy food than from a high quality meat based food.


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## lovemydogsalways (Mar 4, 2012)

I don't even look at the feeding "guidelines" on the bag or I would have fat hogs instead of lean dogs, just the kcal and GA.


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## kimouette (May 2, 2012)

Here's a very useful dog food calculator :
Dog Food Calculator


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