Hi all, am looking for some advice on feeding amounts and the guidelines the manufacturers give on their packaging. I've recently switched my little girl from a wet food diet to a kibble diet due to health issues. I haven't fed her kibble only since she was a baby and it took a while to get the feeding amounts for the wet food to a level where she didn't put on weight and that was right for her.  Having not fed kibble only for a while, I had a look at the recommended amount for her weight and reduced it by 10%.  However as soon as I switched, her stools increased dramatically and she has gone from going to the loo twice a day with relatively small stools to 4 or 5 times a day over the past few days with very large bulky stools.  I did switch her food over gradually over the space of a week. 
I assume this means I am feeding her way too much? I am a bit of a novice when it comes to this so apologies if this is a stupid question. Judging by the amount of times she is going, it looks like I am going to have to at least half the recommended feeding amounts which does surprise me....I would expect to have to play around with the feeding amounts, but halving the amount, possibly giving her even less than half seems a little excessive to me.  Was just wondering if anyone has had similar problems/experiences and what your opinions are.  Thanks :-)

There will be more fibre in the kibble for her to process hence the larger stools, which one are you giving her as some brands have more "fillers" than others.

When changing to a new kibble I start off with an amount half way between minimum and maximum for the dogs weight, if they gain more weight than ideal I lower the food intake, if they lose weight then I increase the amount.

I am free feeding at the moment as they all vary as to when they want to eat.

I'm giving her Arden Grange, she seems to like it and can be a fussy little so and so, so the fact that she eats it is a bonus. She has always seemed to put on weight quite easily...
Just to add to this too, some of her stools are quite hard and some are quite soft....am I right in thinking if she has soft stools then she is having too much?

Arden Grange isn't one I have used but have heard it mentioned on here, I am using Fish4dogs at present and been using it for about 12 months now, small non smelly stools which has worked for all 4 dachsies, no pups at present.

Soft stools can also be due to the body not processing the food properly and more fluid is left in the stools. Are the soft stools always at the same time of the day?

Are you feeding 2 meals per day? Some folk feed their adults only once per day and the amount needed is too much for the body to process at one sitting.

You mentioned health issues, have they got any connection with her gut and how it deals with food?

I was giving her Fish4dogs in the morning and Naturediet in the evening. The vet said to change her food as she has had an ongoing infection with her anal glands and they think it may be allergy related. They said to change her food totally to rule this out to a hypo allergenic food.
I give her 2 meals a day, usually only a tiny amount in the morning. When she was on fish4dogs she only had about 15g of kibble for breakfast. I'm thinking I've been over feeding her where I've gone across to kibble, as I was splitting her daily allowance more equally between the two meals and she was having 30g for brekkie and about 50g in the evening of the Arden Grange. It's a bit silly of me really, cos thinking about it when she was on the naturediet in the evening she only had about a third of the recommended daily amount then.
I cut down her kibble this morning to just 15g and she's been fine all day, just went once this morning. I was planning on giving her about 30g tonight bringing her daily allowance to 45g, it's just that the recommended daily allowance for a dog her weight is 120g! Which worries me cos what I'll be giving her is so much less. But then I suppose if she loses weight I can always increase it.

Depending on the brand I feed my dogs around half to 2/3rds of what it says on the bag.

Dogs vary in how they metabolise food and their energy levels so suggestions of how much to feed doesn't fit all.

With a history of anal glands problems she will need firm stools for them to empty naturally, adding steamed pumpkin/butternut squash helps to firm up stools quickly, I steam, mash and freeze in ice cube trays which are then emptied into a bag and stored at the bottom of the freezer, one or two cubes is usually enough.

It may take time to find the right amount of food for her to maintain a healthy weight and her stools be normal too, if she is acting hungry and you don't want her gaining any more weight then frozen sliced runner beans will fill her without adding loads of calories.

Thank you for your help. I've cut the amounts right down to just under half the recommended amount and already she's going to the loo less, stools are still very bulky but better. I'll monitor her weight and if she loses any ill start increasing as she's at a weight at the moment that is just right and I don't really want her to lose anymore. 
Thanks very much for all the advice :-)

I would suspect that the kibble will have more cereals and fillers than the wet food would have done.  Surprised at the vets suggestion of wet food tends to have a better quality meat percentage.  What does he think your dog is allergic to?

Looking at teh ingredients of most tinned foods, the emat content is similar to teh dry, jsut the water content high.

The only wet foods with high meat content are minces, and mince mixes with added veg.

Vet wasn't sure what she had an allergy too, she had an ongoing anal gland problem which wouldn't clear up so the vet suggested switching to a hypo allergenic food and suggested kibble only as "it was better for their teeth". 
The anal gland problem has now cleared up, we cut out all treats inbetween meals and literally just gave kibble only. We saw a different vet when we last went and she said she believed it was a problem with dairy foods as we did used to give our dog a lot of cheese as treats and as soon as we stopped this it seemed to have a beneficial effect on her.