Orijen Puppy feeding guide

[Mauricio]

Hi,

I'm feeding my puppy (almost 9 months old) Orijen Puppy and I noticed the following in the feeding guide:

Daily ration:

at 15kg - 270g

at 20kg - 330g

at 25kg - 300g

at 30kg - 280g

My dog is in between the 25kg and the 30kg; which means that according to the guid I need to feed him less than a couple of months ago. Is that right? That seems counter intuitive. Is it because he stopped growing as fast and he doesn't need that much?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I'm not sure where you're seeing those numbers, but I don't see it on the website feeding guide. For a puppy between 25 and 30 kg, it looks like you should be feeding 2.5 cups per day: http://www.orijen.ca/products/dog-food/dry-dog-food/puppy/

Puppies need fewer calories per lb of body weight as they get older and their growth slows, but they also weigh more as they get older, so the number of calories they need usually doesn't go down, although I suppose it could. At 9 months, your pup's skeletal growth is most likely complete, so you may just want to consider switching to Orijen Adult at this point. 

[Mauricio]

Hi, Karen: That page you sent me is exactly where I'm seeing those numbers; I guess I'm looking at the metric values in grams and you are looking at the cups. So it is like this in cups:

Daily ration:

at 15kg - 2 1/4 C

at 20kg - 2 3/4 C

at 25kg - 2 1/2 C

at 30kg - 2 1/3 C

According to the guide, after 20kg of weight, the amount of food goes down.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I did see it after I replied, see response below. They're calculating based on a specific adult size, extrapolating the pup's age and growth rate based on weight. 

If you look at the feeding guidelines on the Adult formula, you won't see it going down as the weight of the dog increases, because growth rate is no longer a factor.

Interestingly enough, in adult dogs, the larger the dog, the fewer calories per lb of body weight he requires. 

Still, all of these guidelines are just that, guidelines, and may vary for any individual dog. 

[Mauricio]

Got it, thanks for the explanation. And yes, that's interesting.

Also, thanks for the suggestion, I'll switch to the adult formula when he finishes this bag.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Okay, I do see the numbers you mentioned. They are for a Medium-Large breed dog, the company is calculating the feeding amounts for a dog that size based on the weight of the puppy as he gets older and his growth slows down.