I can’t tell if my dog isn’t getting enough to eat with Ollie food subscription or just begging to beg

[niall28]

We recently started our German Shepard on Ollie and the formula was set with his weight and size in mind. However, I swear the portions look SO small and he is a big dog. We used to feed him double in size what the portions look like for one meal when we were making his food ourselves (not sure if maybe Ollie is more calorically/nutritionally dense while taking up less space). Although he is big, he is a lean dog and isn’t overweight at all so what we were feeding him seemed ok. He has begun begging after we feed him Ollie each time for more. I can’t tell if it’s just because he loves it (which he does, he goes back to lick his empty bowl clean) or if he’s genuinely still hungry. Anyone else have experience with this?

 

[stryker4]

@niall28 I don’t know ollie but I don’t believe it’s a great food since it doesn’t meet WSAVA guidelines so I wouldn’t recommend keeping your dog on it.

In terms of knowing how much to feed, you should really know how many calories your dog ate previously and calculate the calories of what you’re feeding now from Ollie based on the calorie information they gave you. If this is a fresh food, it shouldn’t be that calories dense compared to kibble, since there is probably water in there, but I can’t say for sure without knowing the calorie information they gave you and the kibble you used to use. I would definitely be worried you are under feeding your dog based on what you have written.

 

[niall28]

@stryker4 Thank you so much for your time to respond! I just looked up which options do meet WSAVA guidelines and may consider swapping him to farmer’s instead. I appreciate the information about keeping track of calories as well - I did not know or consider this.

 

[brennanskates]

@niall28 Understand that at the moment, there is nothing (other than the company itself) saying farmers dog meets wsava guidelines. Until they start publishing further research, they are flat out lying.

For bigger dogs, a good balanced kibble really is the best option to be the most nutritionally sound and calorically dense.

 

[givenallthings]

@brennanskates I couldn’t imagine feeding a working dog a non calorie dense kibble. The portions would be insane. My male eats a little over 2k calories a day and is still lean.

 

[stryker4]

@niall28 Of course! I would highly recommend reading the wiki in this sub when you have a chance. Especially the bits about how to pick a dog food and about fresh food. Farmers dog, although they donate to the WSAVA, they don’t actually meet their guidelines and falsely act like they do.

 

[birdiie]

@stryker4 Do they now offer “grain inclusive” options? When I researched it a while ago, they did not.

 

[ernestcop]

@niall28 Farmer’s Dog is the biggest fad diet right now. Avoid like the plague!

 

[givenallthings]

@niall28 Someone correct me if I am wrong but “just food for dogs” meets Wasava. You can even buy kits to cook it yourself and be in nutritional guidelines. I personally use Hills or RC. Works for my dogs.

 

[sevilodorf]

@givenallthings They do not. Closer than other companies but no cigar

 

[givenallthings]

@sevilodorf Oh no. I thought they did.

 

[brennanskates]

@givenallthings They are on their way and are the closest. They do digestibility studies on most (but not all) of their foods and have started doing research. They have some published papers but nothing that would be considered "further research to better nutrition". Instead they are doing research to prove their food is good.

 

[ihavenoname]

@niall28 Did not like Ollie or the farmers dog. We Feed Raw was the best for me