Tinned food - Why so much?

I was looking at the tin of food (winalot) Paddylicious gets... they are 400g, and it says that for a dog who is 25kg (which is Jake's weight) they should get 4 tins a day Thats 1600g a day! Jake is raw fed, and gets 500g a day... I worked out that for Paddy, he should be getting about 5 tins a day if he was the right weight... he needs to gain weight though so needs more than that. It says a 5kg dog should get 1.25 tins...

I alway have wainwrights trays in, just in case for Jake, and they say a dog of Jake's weight should get 3/4 of a 395g tray!

I first thought that it could maybe be the water content that meant they need fed so much... but most raw foods have quite a high water content, and raw fed dogs don't need to eat as much as that. I then thought maybe it was water content with the not so good ingredients... but i still wouldn't have thought it would cause a dog to need that much food...

Anyone know why it says to feed so much? If the dogs do need to eat as much as that, it explains why Paddy is so underweight coz he certainly wasn't getting anywhere near that much.

Dfferent dogs needs vary - they just give approx what they consider a dog needs. A high energy dog would need more than a more sedate dog

Katie is on tinned food albeit perscription diet. She is 23 kilos, weight rarely varies & she gets two tins a day. Sometimes i crumb the kibble but she isnt keen on it. She is very active, Katie wouldn 't walk anywhere if she could run

I should add i substitute part of her tinned script diet for tinned Butchers which agrees with her

I'm afraid I never look at recommended food amounts. I go by my dogs reactions and how he/she looks. Underfeeding is more difficult to spot, but overfeeding is really easy.....

I thought the same when I changed over to tinned food! The large tins of Chappie said that Zena should be having 1 1/2 cans a day I'd never, ever fed her that much and considering I was cutting out lunch, that gave me big problems. I decided to do half and half of one large can and she was fine on it, but just like you, when I saw how much the Wainwright trays recommendations were, I changed over to the Wainwrights because of course, large dog, worries about bloat for me

Instead of the recommended amount of the Wainwrights, however, she does get 2 trays of that a day, and I'll just have to suck it and see, but she's looking good, and I will keep taking her down the vets to weigh her every couple of weeks like I did the other day when I took George down there.

It's just a case of finding out what's right for your dog I suppose lozzib, if Jake seems hungry, maybe give him a little extra of that food at bedtime perhaps? Food stays in the stomach for 6 to 8 hours normally, so you can work around that? So if the previous meal is still in there, you might as well have given the whole lot in one go, which is something you have to think about (well I did!).

I remember once we were put on Hill's I/D and I was horrified when I saw she would have to have 5 cans of that a day and she was only 11 months old at the time No way would she have eaten that lot! All very strange, you just have to go by what you see with your dog, both in the looks and behaviour. Good luck, I understand your dilema.

Ah, but look at how much comes out the other end! Processed food contains fillers. No idea why. To make you feel you`re a Good Mummy I suppose.

You cannot compare oranges with apples.

Look at the protein content, water content and fat content, this will give you an idea of why more may be needed.

As for dogs on raw not eating that much, well one of my dogs who weighs 39kgs eats at least 2kgs of food per day, raw.

The other one who weighs 27kgs eats about 800g per day, raw.

Just look at the ingredients!

Ingredients
Meat and animal derivatives (min 14% meat, of which lamb 4 %), Vegetables (beans 4%, potatoes 4 %), Cereals, Vegetable protein extracts, Minerals.

14% meat - so to get a whole tin's worth of meat you'd need 7 tins! Cheap food is mostly fillers - many are poorly digested so don't really provide much nutritional value, just bulk up the food at a cheaper cost, hence needing to feed more to provide the dog with what it needs. False economy really, it may be half the price but you have to feed three times as much.

I agree with some of the comments above but also I found wainwrights were quite mean with the recomended amounts (I think I've seen other people say the same too)

There is tonnes of moisture in tinned/wet food isn't there I'm sure that's why so much needs to be fed?

Wainwrights feeding requirements on the trays are some of the stingiest I've seen, I know lots who think the same too..!

Yes Wainwrights has more fibre and less fat than Natures Harvest, that is why W is better for dogs who need to lose weight.