How much food to give my staffie

pastelblue

I've taken in a staffie as an emergency foster. She is about 2 years old and weighs 15kg. The previous owners didn't pay too much attention to what they fed her, but I want to make sure I give her the right amount for her weight. I was thinking about 250g of dried food split into 2 meals a day. Does that sound about right?
Any advice appreciated. The poor thing is crying away in her crate right now with separation anxiety.

Cherry Blossom

It depends what brand the food is.

VonVix

500g a day sounds like a lot, that's pretty much how much my German Shepherd gets and he is over 35kg! What food are you planning on feeding her?

Where is her crate? If she is somewhere new, I would avoid leaving her in the crate alone if possible, have the crate in your room with you.

muddypaws

I've never owned a staffie, but 15kg does sound as though she is quite underweight. If you want to put weight on her, the best thing is to divide her food up into smaller, but more often meals, so that her system can digest as much of the food as possible. I would suggest 4 feeds a day to start, or if you can't manage that, with work etc, try for 3, but divide her food up into those meals, don't overfeed her. If you look on the bag of food that you are using, and know roughly how much she should weigh, I would feed for that, rather than what she does actually weigh at the moment - if that makes sense.

pastelblue

VonVix wrote: »

500g a day sounds like a lot, that's pretty much how much my German Shepherd gets and he is over 35kg! What food are you planning on feeding her?

Where is her crate? If she is somewhere new, I would avoid leaving her in the crate alone if possible, have the crate in your room with you.

Not 500g - 250g split into 2 meals of 125g each! They've given me some spurious brand of cheap food, but I'll probably pick up a bag of Royal Canin next time I'm in Pet Mania.

The crate is in the kitchen. It's too big for my room but I've given her an old jumper of mine to sleep with. She seems to have quietened down a bit now.

muddypaws

The poor girl, well done for fostering her. Not sure if you've posted in API before, but photos are mandatory

VonVix

pastelblue wrote: »

Not 500g - 250g split into 2 meals of 125g each! They've given me some spurious brand of cheap food, but I'll probably pick up a bag of Royal Canin next time I'm in Pet Mania.

The crate is in the kitchen. It's too big for my room but I've given her an old jumper of mine to sleep with. She seems to have quietened down a bit now.

That's what I get for posting when I'm tired, they should take my keyboard off me after 10pm.

pastelblue

muddypaws wrote: »

The poor girl, well done for fostering her. Not sure if you've posted in API before, but photos are mandatory

Boo. I can't post photos because I'm too new a user. No fair!

DamagedTrax

pastelblue wrote: »

Not 500g - 250g split into 2 meals of 125g each! They've given me some spurious brand of cheap food, but I'll probably pick up a bag of Royal Canin next time I'm in Pet Mania.

The crate is in the kitchen. It's too big for my room but I've given her an old jumper of mine to sleep with. She seems to have quietened down a bit now.

if you want to put a bit of weight on her if she's underweight, that sounds about right. But a lot depends on her height, build and metabolism too. A smaller, chunkier staff will get fat very fast, on 250g a day.

Whereas my staffy bitch is nearly 17" and 15kg but she only gets 200g in 1 meal per day.

Latatian

Foods vary a fair bit in calories, I would go with what the bag says and reduce it a bit if it's too much for her. I used food-filled rubber toys to get them used to the crates, it really helped (kong, squirrel dude etc).

Good luck with her and fair play for fostering her! And please do post pictures!