Hi,

We feed our Bedlington's pedigree pouches + mixer and pedigree puppy food + mixer, please may I ask what do you feed your bedlington's?

We feed our 6 yr old male a 300g pouch a day with mixer, he also gets treats during the day. When we rescued him he was very underweight, now he weighs just over 11kg and the vet says we now need to watch his weight. It says on the pouches to feed a 10kg dog 3 pouches a day. We also do not feed our pups (4 packs) we feed 2 , it states on 4 on the packet as they would all be enormous.

Can anyone advise, are the directions on dog food always overstated?

Thanks
Karen

Hi Karen,

Have no idea what your breed should weigh in at but IME I haven't found a dog food yet that I could safely feed the "recommended" amounts of - my lot would be like barrels :D

I think the best way to judge if it's the right amount is how well they are maintaining their condition.  If they're already on track that should maintain or improve even, but if they start off underweight obviously you want to monitor that they are *gradually* increasing and likewise if they start off too fat they should be *gradually* decreasing ;)  Anything too drastic in either direction and the quantity or quality of the food needs to be reassessed.

Hopefully a Bedlington person will be on soon to advise specifics for you :rolleyes:

HTH meantime,
Regards, Teri :)

Thank you for your help, my dogs are like my babies and I just worry worry worry! 

Hi Karen. As Teri said, food manufacturers seem to wildly over estimate the food required.

The problem with telling anyone how much food to give is that no two dogs, even of the same breed require the same amount. Add to that, differences in exercise, plus of course the amount of titbits given would both affect it. The only good guide is how they feel.

Idealy, when running your hands over them you should be able to feel the ribs. If you cannot feel them the dog is too fat. If you can feel them very clearly and hard edged then the dog is too thin. You should be able to feel them clearly but with the edges blurred by the flesh. (If the makes sense to you)

Regards, John

Hi Kaznumi :)

I currently feed my dogs Autarky or Burns, I wouldn't feed them Pedigree personally,  the first one was fed pedigree as a pup but his teeth were covered by thick brown tartar by 6 months old despite regular brushing (this disappeared after I fed him Burns) and I just object to the amount of advertising (I feel a really good product sells itself ;) )  Another good food is Gusto (made by the Working Dog Food Company) - despite the price it has a minimum 27% meat and no sugars, colourings or flavourings and the dogs I've seen who are fed on it are fit and looking good.

Interestingly 'working dog' foods only ever give a rough guide on the amounts to feed, they always advise that the amount fed is governed by the dogs condition, if you can't feel their ribs then reduce the amount. :)  don't forget a bedlington doesn't usually require a lot of food, if he needs tempting to eat, then you're probably feeding too much ;)

Don't know if this helps
Regards
Dill

John, you said it soo much better than I did ;) :)