Natures Variety/Fromm/Something else?

[Stacy]

I'm trying to do this analysis myself, but math makes my brain hurt. 

Maggie is currently eating Natures Variety Raw Instinct (beef) at 508 kcal/cup. She could stand to gain a couple pounds so her foster parents were feeding her 4 cups/day. She won't eat quite that much for me, but it's probably upwards of 3 cups/day. 4 cups would be 2032 calories/day. 

Katie is eating from the Fromm 4 Star line which has 395 kcal/cup. To get the same number of calories Maggie would have to eat upwards of 5 cups/day. I can't see convincing her to eat that volume. 

Ideally I would prefer them both to eat the same thing.

I can't see changing Katie to Natures Variety. She only gets 1 1/3 cups of food anyway. I would have to cut her back to 1 cup/day to drop her calorie count, and she would think she's starving. 

I'm also not sure if Natures Variety is the same quality as Fromm. The guy at the "fancy" dog food store made a face when I told him that was what Maggie was eating. 

The other factor is price - though not the primary factor. Natures Variety is $70 for a 20 pound bag. And I'm paying $50 for a 30 pound bag of Fromm. 

So I'm not sure what to do. I could leave them each on a different food. Or I could change them both to something different. It looks like Orijen Original has 449 calories per cup, so split the difference? Or transition Maggie to Fromm assuming that 2000 calories per day is kind of excessive and she doesn't need to gain weight that quickly. 

I'm stumped. But I have 20 pounds of Natures Variety to figure out what to do!

[Stacy]

I also made an educated estimate that there are about 120 cups in a 30 pound bag of Fromm and at 5 cups/day Maggie would be eating 150 cups/month. I find it hard to imagine that one 50 pound dog can eat more than 30 pounds of dog food in a month. When Ava was healthy she ate 3 cups a day. The girls together ate a 30 pound bag of dog food almost exactly every 4 weeks.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Okay, so first, the guy at the pet supply store is a non-issue. Nature's Variety Instinct is a very good quality food and in fact, the formula Maggie is eating has a superior nutritional content to Fromm's. 
In that same vein, the cost of the Instinct is higher because it's got a lot more animal protein, and meat/poultry/fish cost more than plants. And as you said yourself, you feed less of it because it is calorie dense, so you can't really compare the price per lb of one versus the other. 
Orijen is a great food, and would always be my first choice of kibble, but have you looked at the price of it? 
As far as how many calories per day Maggie needs, how much does she weigh now and what should she weigh? 
I personally would not switch her to Fromm; I do think she needs a more calorie dense food. But it is hard to imagine she needs 2000 calories per day, unless her ideal weight is 100 lbs. Because that's what a 100 lb healthy young adult dog should be getting. :) 

[Stacy]

She weighs 50 pounds. She could probably be closer to 60, maybe 55- 57. She looks really good with her hair, and her hip bones are not protruding, but she has no padding at all. She definitely isn't going to be a 100 pound doodle though. She has long legs, but she's built like a dancer. 

I've never priced Orijen. I assume I'd have sticker shock? 

I can keep her on Natures Variety - unless you think I should do something different. I just know Katie doesn't want to eat that. She would like something less calorie dense so she can eat more of it! I fight the never-ending battle of the pudge with her anyway. Maggie doesn't seem to have that problem. 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

The lowest price I've seen for the least expensive Orijen formula is $83 for 25 lbs. :)

Dogs do not need padding. Maggie doesn;t need anywhere near 2000 calories per day. 1200 is what a healthy 60 lb adult dog should be getting, so you could switch her to Fromm and she can have her 3-4 cups per day and still be getting more than she really needs. That seems like the easiest solution to me. 

[Stacy]

Price-wise Orijen comes out about the same as Nature's Variety. Can I tell you I was surprised, at first at the price, and then by how light the bag was. 20 pounds! Of course you feed significantly less, but I was still... well, I definitely blinked. 

I've been happy with Fromm. I just want to do the right thing with Maggie. If something else is better for her, I can afford to feed her. And I don't want her to be fat. I love that she can leap tall buildings in a single bound. She reminds me of a deer. I just don't want her to be a little malnourished dog either. It's possible that I overthink. 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I think Fromm  would be fine for Maggie. And if you are feeding the Four Star line, you can rotate formulas, which will keep her interested in eating. Katie should love that too. 

[Stacy]

Katie does like it. Right now she's eating whitefish and potato. But Katie has no trouble finding joy in all food. I really wish that someone would address my nutritional requirements the way I do the dogs, so I could be more thin and not malnourished! ;)

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

PS: The opposite of fat is not malnourished, lol. It's thin. Which is just as healthy for dogs as it is for people. :) 

[Scotty]

OK first of all I'll attach a link to a food calculator that I found here that really helps make sense of the cost considering the different amounts of food you feed depending on the calorie content of the food. With that being said I ran some numbers for you. Assuming Maggie is over 12 months & is spayed at 55 lbs the calculator indicates she needs just over 1300 calories. Even if she's under 12 months which is when she would need the most, its about 1650. Even in that case according to the calculator she should only get 3.2 cups. Again if she's over 12 months & spayed she should only be getting 2.6 cups per day, at a cost of $2.31/day

Since you mentioned Orijen, you're really pretty close to the Orijen cost at that point. The $83 bag Karen mentioned comes out to $2.49/day and you would feed 2.9 cups per day. So it would only be $0.18 more for the Orijen per day. As far as the Fromm's you're feeding Katie, I'm assuming you are feeding the gold & not the grain free version. If so that is by my numbers one of the cheapest foods on the recommended list here (only Canidae healthy grain is cheaper) at $1.12/day for a 55 lb dog. Obviously by switching from that to either Orijen or Instinct is going to cost a bit more, but obviously she must be smaller since you're feeding her so much less so it wouldn't be as big of a hit as switching a bigger dog.

Also I'll add a link to the food cost per day thread stickied at the top of the forum. I'll try to link you directly to page 3 where I ran the numbers on all the brands in the recommended list. I ran them all at 55 lbs as that is about what my puppy is estimated to be. So again assuming she's spayed the numbers I posted should pretty much exactly apply to Maggie. If you want some options run for Katie you can use the calculator yourself, or just post her age, weight & whether she's spayed & I don't mind running the numbers for you when I get some time.

Dog Food Calculator

Food Cost Comparison Thread

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I would put the calorie requirements for a 55 lb adult spayed dog lower; typically, for an adult dog beteween 50-80  lbs, you use 20 kcal/per lb of body weight as your starting point, (assuming you want to maintain the current weight) and since Stacy feels 60 lbs would be a good weight for Maggie, my own estimate would be 1200 calories per day to start. 

For smaller dogs, the kcals required per lb of body weight go up; they may need anywhere from 25-30 per lb. Puppies of course may need up to double the amount of calories per lb as adults. Giant breeds typically don;t require more than 15 kcal/per lb. And of course, body condition and activity level all factor in, but these are good starting points. 
I believe Stacy is feeding the Four Star formulas in rotation; some of them are grain-free, some are not, but it's definitely not the Fromm Gold formula. 

[Stacy]

You're correct. We are rotating through the four star line. And I agree that 1200 calories a day seems like a good starting point to figure out her adult weight. I also think it's much more reasonable to expect her to eat 3 cups of food a day instead of four. 

What is funny to me is that the smaller dogs need more calories per pound to maintain their weight. I swear Katie could live off sunshine. 

[Stella]

I think some dogs just metabloise every calorie in their food!  My Hartley is a lean 70lb and I feed Acana Light and Fit, last time I checked the feeding guidelines I'm feeding him what they recommend for a 50lb dog!  He is ten years old and still competes in agility, so I figure I am doing something right!