Until recently I have used kibble from her allowance for Molly's training, but then she hit adolescence and an upgrade of training treats became necessary. My question is. How many calories does a year old female Lab need each day? I would like to adjust the amount of kibble I give her to reflect the amount of extra calories she is getting with smocked sausage, chicken and cheese as an addition to her diet. The sausage I use gives 600 calories and lasts 3 to 4 days, so it would be easy to gradually over feed her. I know I can use my common sense (which I do), but I'd rather get a handle on it before she starts getting 'well padded'. I am working on the basis of "prevention is better than cure"
Re: Training treats I'm not sure there is a set amount by age as they are all different shapes and sizes. Could you work out calorie content of her normal feed then work out the great content and reduce the normal feed accordingly?
Re: Training treats I accept that like humans they all come in different sizes, but was looking for a ball park estimate to give me something to work on.
Re: Training treats Would be interested in knowing this too, I can't even find info on how many calories are in get kibble etc, I largely have to guess what to feed her(esp on training days with multiple treats) & it's quite frustrating. I guess it depends on activity levels too but we know roughly how many calories a walk burns for humans, it should be possible to estimate for a dog.
Re: Training treats I completely "get" this. I think it's fine really experienced people saying "I feed the dog in front of me". Great if you can do that. If not, a calculator and scales are your friend. You can find out the Kcals in kibble by looking it up on the packet or on the maker's website. Then find the calories of the treats you are using. Work out conversion rate.
Re: Training treats I went on line a few weeks ago to see how many calories a 6 month old male lab needed to keep up his activity and shape.....in my cases it turned out to be 1300 calories and I was actually feeding him less.....maybe you can try on-line and see if you can find the website I was on....sorry, but I dont remember what it was. I just went in and asked "how many calories does a 6 month old male Lab need on a daily basis". Sorry I cant be more helpful. Good luck.
Re: Training treats my jasper is the heavy end of a lab, from being 8 weeks old my vet estimated he would be approximately 38 kilo, he is 20 month old now he is between 33 to 35 kilo, when we was training in his teenage years i used high value treats, sausage, sardines, salmon, chicken ect, now his walks are increased to up to 10 miles a day his weight is maintained, i now only use kibble for training, he gets a chew treat every morning and a denture stick, i have never counted his calories neither do i count my own calories, i maintain a healthy weight and now exercise more than ever
Re: Training treats Tatze chubbied up a bit after her spay. She is nice and lean at 26Kg but went up to 28Kg. We simply gave her 20g less in every meal - she's lovely and slim again now. We use kibble for training, from her allowance. Unless we are in class, then we use tasty fish treats. Now would someone please do the same for me! It's so easy to diet a dog! ??? : ??? : ???
Re: Training treats i did find some sites this morning if anyone is interested in some further reading or maths today; http://www.wsava.org/sites/default/files/Calorie%20requirements%20simple%20dog.pdf http://vet.osu.edu/vmc/basic-calorie-calculator and less formal on another forum - this would be the maths bit if your food manufacturer (like mine) does not put calorie content info on their food or website. http://www.dogforum.net/dog-frequently-asked-questions/6495-how-estimate-calories-dog-food.html Also for me upping the value of treats doesn't always up the calorie content as she likes chicken/fish which is pretty healthy when considering some other dog treats.
Re: Training treats Thanks Sam. Very good point about the calorie impact of training treats. Kibble, by its very nature is a condensed food and there fore likely to be fairly calorific, so substituting the substitution of chicken, frankfurter etc should not have a great impact on her calories requirements. Good news for Molly. Sam you are SO on her Christmas Card list
