I'm not sure what the problem is to be honest Malka. You feed Pereg roughly 130g of food going by what she's had today. The rest is veggies which you could also feed with kibble to fill her up. Am I missing the point completely or something?

You know that, I know that, but try telling Pereg that! It is not her fault, the Pb convinces her she is hungry, and to her it is quantity that counts. So I guess I should just carry on feeding her as I am doing, with the kibble just for emergencies, and not worry whether in such a case she has more than she should. The thing is that if she has to go to the Pension there is no way they will be able to feed her on raw as I do, so she would have to be fed on the kibble.

I had queried it in the first place as the feeding guidelines were so vague, giving the daily amoung for a dog "11 - 23kg" as .75 - 1.5 cups per day. So I emailed the company, said she weighed ~20 kilos and I was trying to get her down to 18, and how much does a cup actually weigh, as I do not have any measuring cups, US or otherwise.

And they emailed back saying she only needed 135g each day, divided into two meals.

I guess I am lucky in that she loves vegetables and is happy enough to fill up on them!

No, I am probably the one missing the point. I have been under the impression that the amount Pereg should be having, ie 2% of 18kg, should include everything, which is why I have been weighing the vegetables, treats, everything.

[Tomorrow's turkey neck chunk weighs 193g and I have 80g of liver defrosting for her second meal].

Maybe I should not have bought the scales?!

When Teagan was on steroids she was ravenous...but I didn't increase her food!
She didn't technically 'need' the extra food, so I just made her have what she had always been having!

I think you should sell your scales

I dunno how others do it but I only weighed the meat and bones, not the veggies or any supplements or meds. I was under the impression it was meat/bone you had to weigh, not absolutely everything.

But I could have been doing that wrong and not knowing coz Rupert could eat for a dog twice his size and stay lean.

My 4kg pup (& I know as a pup they have more) has 130g of Orijen a day which is less than other brands due to the high meat content. 135g doesn't sound enough for a 20kg dog

What happened was that when Pereg first went onto Pb and was still having bad seizures, it was just about impossible not to give in and give her food, especially when she was post-ictal and the only thing that would calm her down was to give her more and more food. She really does get extremely difficult at such times.

She went from 17kg to 20.8 in about 4 months - probably more as I had already put her onto raw and started cutting down on things before that last weigh-in. Since I started weighing everything and really being strict she has definitely gotten slimmer - she has her waist back and a fairly good tuck, and no excess fat over her ribs or anywhere.

I will not know how much she has lost until her next weigh-in which should be in the middle of next month, but however much or little she is definitely heading in the right direction.

So I think I will keep the scales!

I dont weigh anything, kibble or raw! I think you can get too hung up about it so I just feed whatever I think and go by eye as to how the dogs look. Jed has always had weight problems and as a result I have to keep his food down to a minimum but I still dont weigh anything.

With regards to the 135g suggested for Pereg, it does sound about right and will obviously depend on the activity levels of your dog, weather etc. When my dogs were on kibble, I think they only got about 200g a day and that was a cheap brand with high cereal content and very low meat content, and one of them weighs a few kg more than Pereg.

I don't weigh anything either... I never did when I fed kibble, and I started to when I first fed raw but now, I just go by eye... of the food and of Jake

I will be a lot less paranoid about amounts after Pereg's next weight check - assuming that she has lost a reasonable amount. If she has not lost much then I am not sure what to do as I cannot cut down any more than I already have.