# How much kibble do you feed your 50-60 pound dog?



## d_ray (Nov 5, 2013)

We recently switched back to kibble while we are fostering. I would feel bad feeding Jewel raw and foster kibble and we get free kibble from the rescue to feed the fosters.

So we have been feeding Jewel FROMM Gold for large breed (378kcal/cup)

At first we were feeding 3 cups a day, but recently cut back just over 2 cups a day. I would like Jewel to lose about 5 pounds.

We don't feed many treats and no table scraps and she is quite active.

I know every dog is different, but I am curious about how much other people feed similar dogs? She is 3 and altered.


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## fourdogs (Feb 3, 2014)

Echo is almost 50 pounds and gets 3/4 cup twice a day plus a spoonful of canned. She's spayed and relatively couch potato


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## taquitos (Oct 18, 2012)

For my old 50 lbs foster I fed her 1.5-2 cups a day.


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## Willowy (Dec 10, 2007)

Penny is 50 pounds and got 2-2 1/2 cups in her prime. Now she gets between 1 and 1 1/2 cups (2 heaping half-cups, I've never measured to see how much it is exactly).


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## d_ray (Nov 5, 2013)

Jewel is about 58 pounds so 2 cups should be sufficient. I just felt like I wasn't feeding enough. Her healthy weight should be 50-55 pounds. Thanks guys!


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## RedGermanPinscher (Jun 22, 2012)

My 120ish pound "couch potatoes" are currently getting around 3 1/2 to 4 cups of Canidae Lamb Meal and Rice mixed with about 1/4 can of Merrick wet food a day
My 13 lb newcomer is getting about 1 cup a day mixed with some wet
And my 23ish pound, Ball of Energy, is up to approx.. 2 1/2 cups a day.... I will be switching out for Zignatures Trout and Salmon formula here soon (probably within the week, as soon as the bag of Canidae is empty), so amounts may change slightly......


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## SDRRanger (May 2, 2013)

Ranger's food is 435kcal/cup (Acana Chicken and Burbank Potato) and he gets two cups a day. He weighs 55lbs. He also gets treats for training and some other stuff through out the day.

On this schedule he went from 60ish pounds to a nice lean 55.


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## Kyle071785 (Nov 28, 2013)

Jax is still in his growing puppy stage (just over 12 months)...he is currently fixed as well.

Right now, he's sitting at 55lbs and is getting 2.75 cups per day of Acana Pacifica (421 kcal/cup). I increase it to 3 cups per day when he gets really active (ie. playing outside at the lake all day with other dogs, etc.). 

Most days, I'm walking with him around 5km and usually every other day we'll play frisbee for a half hour. He is still really lean (Poodle genes in him) so he should fill out to 60'ish pounds before I start worrying too much about lowering his caloric intake.He's already 10lbs heavier than his parents were so although his growth is slowing (lb wise), I'm unsure where exactly he'll stop at. I estimate he'll likely hit the 59-62 lb range by 18 months.

Other info: Also gets a sardine topper with his breakfast and a pumpkin topper at night. Treats are freeze dried beef liver (99% of the time). Will also get a marrow bone chew once per week and a small (8 inch) bully stick every now and then (maybe 2 per month).


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## sassafras (Jun 22, 2010)

Pip is about 60# and apparently has the metabolism of a hypothyroid sloth. He only gets 1 cup total/day. I feed Native Performance level 1, I don't remember off the top of my head what the calorie content is.


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## dagwall (Mar 17, 2011)

Honestly I wouldn't worry too much about feeding one kibble and the other raw. When I'm not being lazy about preparing Jubel's raw meals he still got one raw meal and one kibble meal while the fosters got two kibble meals. They really don't care. 

Jubel is 45# and gets 2 cups a day. I start most of my fosters who are around 50# on 2 cups a day and adjust up or down based on their weight. Usually they need to drop a few pounds. In the end just pick an amount and adjust until you start seeing the weight come off, stay there until you reach your goal. You might need to adjust back up a slight amount if she keeps loosing past your goal.


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## DaveS (Feb 26, 2014)

We start feeding our new dogs based on the results from a calculator at http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-feeding-tips/dog-food-calculator/ For example, a dog with an ideal weight of 50lb with a typical activity level = "Your dog requires 1145 kcal / day Feed your dog 3.03 cups / day"


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## Damon'sMom (Aug 2, 2011)

I think every dog is different, just like people. Jasper is 2 years old, neutered, and 60 pounds. He is also a working dog so he gets a lot more than your average dog. His food has 443 calories a cup. He eats 5 cups a day, which is 2215 of dry food. He also gets around 200 calories of wet food 2X daily, for a total of 2615 calories a day to maintain his weight.


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## Foxes&Hounds (Jun 7, 2014)

Honestly, I've _never_ looked at the calorie content of the foods I use; I find the dogs themselves (energy levels, bod condition etc) faaar easier than maths lol!

When not having raw meals, I use the 50% and 60% meat Millies Wolfheart flavours
[60% Salmon, Venison, Trout and Rabbit], [60% Turkey, Black Aberdeen Angus Beef and Pork], [60% Duck and Trout], [50% White Fish], [50% Trout, Lamb and White Fish], [50% Turkey and Duck] - the remaining 40 - 50% is fruit, veg & herbs

Metric! As a standard, I use 10g of dry food per kg of weight, and adjust up and down from there based on how the dog looks and acts.
So 30kg Frodo has 300g and 10kg Rory 100g.
Ripley (ideal 7.5kg) puts on weight just thinking about food so she has 50g, and 27kg Sam is a 6 m/o growing puppy so gets 350g.

These are split into two or three meals and amounts obviously reduced when mixed with wet food, tinned fish etc


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## Miss Bugs (Jul 4, 2011)

When Gem was eating Orijen she ate 2 cups per day...spayed, 3 years old, just under 50lbs and EXTREMELY active.


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## elrohwen (Nov 10, 2011)

Watson's a little smaller, at 40lbs.

He gets 1.5c kibble (typically ~400 cal/cup), plus 3/4c of a wet food mix (~350 cal/cup). He also gets a lot of high calorie treats in general. One regular training session might be 3 meatballs, or ~150-200 calories, and a training class could be twice that. So all together I think he's at about 1,000 calories per day and could have more. He is quite lean (hip bones poking out very slightly) and I think he just has a high metabolism (being intact helps)


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## NancyQ (Sep 28, 2014)

I feed 2 cups plus a couple forkfuls of canned food to my 56lb Malinois. No idea the calorie content probably about 400 calories per cup id say. I feed Natures Domain Salmon


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## gingerkid (Jul 11, 2012)

Both of my fosters were eating RC Adult Dry Professional. One was 55lbs, and was supposed to be getting 2.5 cups per day, but she was already pretty chubby and I was working on training with her, so I was feeding her 2 cups/day.

My second foster was 50lbs on the dot; I wasn't given any feeding guidelines for her, but she was maintaining weight on 1.5-2 cups per day (it varied depending on how much training I did with her).


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## Shell (Oct 19, 2009)

Eva is right about 60-62 lbs and gets 2 cups per day which is maybe 800 calories or close to it.

Moderate exercise, spayed female and about 3 years old.

But if you want to keep feeding raw, feed raw when you want to. I never feed dogs in the same room anyway so no dog knows what any other dog is getting so i feed each dog to their needs.


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## BostonBullMama (Apr 20, 2013)

Toby is 40lbs and gets 1 cup a day, down from 2 cups a day because he was packing on fat... we've managed to keep him stable at 40lbs but trim the fat with a boost in exercise + watching the amount of food he gets. He's gotten much leaner this year and still hovers around 40lbs.


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