Hi guys,
I've kept, worked and occasionally bred various dogs for over 20 years now. Working terriers, lurchers, hounds, bulls and mastiffs predominantly. For most of that time I raw fed, and still do where possible. However my own failing health (kidney disease, ME and severe arthritis) are starting to hold me back and I'm waiting for surgery, plus dealing with our fab newborn daughter. As such I've been falling back to high quality dried foods to bridge any gaps.
Eden initially gave my older working terrier bad diarrhoea but I expected that. She was also rather overly energetic! We dialled back the amount (feeding her as a 5KG dog instead of a 7.5KG dog) and she bounced back beautifully. After a week her stool was solid, and she was in the best condition she'd been in for ages. I also tried a couple of other brands (our boerboel did very well on Fishmongers' Finest 60/40 before he died of a brain tumour last year), and this week ordered some Millies Wolfheart Hunter mix to see what it was like.
The reason for my query was because the feeding amounts recommended by the two companies (looking at kCal/day recommendations, not grams of food per day) varied massively. For our (worker to be) Malinois pup the two foods were recommending thus:
MWH Hunter Mix recommended at 240g: 364 kCal per 100g / 100 * 240 = 873.6 kCal/day
Eden Original recommended at 365g: 368 kCal per 100g / 100 * 365 = 1,343.2 kCal/day
With such a large difference I hit my old textbooks and found the relevant formulae for RER and MER and how it is applied to puppies. For example RER is usually given as ((30 *
aKG) + 70) *
b.
c where b.c is generally 2.5 or 3.0 (for puppies under 16 weeks old); or RER = 70(
xKG)
3/4 *
y. Waltham's formula for MER is given as 132*(
xKG)
0.75.
Either way I couldn't make much sense from the limited data on the manufacturers' websites as to how they arrived at their respective feeding guidelines. Small differences are to be expected, but with almost double difference between the two, I was worried about choosing the 'right' food for him and wanting to understand the whole process better. Not to say they are wrong in any sense (I'll make that clear!), rather I'm the curious type with an academic background and wanted to understand better how these things were worked out. Given that both foods are 80/20 and have a close kilocalorie content per KG, I emailed both companies to ask for some help, information and clarification.
Eden haven't replied at all (yet?). MWH did reply.
The rest of this message has been redacted as all relevant information is present and the rest isn't worth the hassle. Thanks.
