My friends recently adopted a 2.5 year old chocolate lab (former backyard breeding mother) who they have in a month turned into a Butterball (!). She should be about 55lb but she's probably around 65 now. They feed the recommended 3 cups of food a day and do a lot of exercise. They won't listen to me when I say to feed less because of what the bag says.

I'm hoping if I can take a quick poll on how much Nutro feeders would or do feed for a small female I can approach it with some stats. Obviously it is very dog specific, but...

I doesn't help that the vet said she's fine. She has 4 rolls on her back!

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Jacqueline

"I have just met you and I love you" - Dug (Up!)

When we still fed Nutro... 2 cups. Sometimes when the dogs were on diets+training (getting treats), we'd drop that down to 1.5 cups a day.

If they are running with her and really doing 4+ miles walks every day, they can get away with feeding her 3 cups of food a day.

But if she's your average family lab who hangs out in the backyard for exercise and takes quarter mile walks in the evening or whatnot - then absolutely they have to cut the food quantity down by a cup.

Couple more thoughts too...

1. labs are built like tanks. So 65lbs isn't the worst. I think they can be up to 70lbs if you look at the AKC breed standard. So that may be part of the reason why your friends aren't concerned.

2. dogs who get milkbones and chewie treats and kong filling treats and training treats etc, all day every day... will gain weight. So it isn't always the kibble...

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Always loved, never forgotten, all our previous boys -

I feed my 2 girls Nutro Ultra LB puppy 1.25 cups twice a day. They are 45 and 55 lbs. They are also extremely active, 4-5 hours/day everyday. When starting or changing food, I usually take the lowest recommended amount and decrease by 25% to start with, feed that for a few weeks and then re-evaluate. Also, I think Labs tend to put on weight more easily than Goldens, IMO.

i use nutro - lamb and rice. i give chloe a cup in morning and a cup in the evening and she weights in about 55lbs.

i should also mention she gets an hour walk in the morning, a play session mid day (20-40 mins) and then another hour walk at night.

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my parents lab is about 60 lbs and she looks super skinny but she is just a very active dog. I know my parents feed her nurtro 3-4 cups a day.

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I feed my 2 60 lb dogs 1.5 cups 2 times a day and my 80 lb 4 cups once a day while the 70 lb gets 3 cups once a day. All but 1 are quite active and have no 'shape' issues. The new Natural Choice has modified feeding guidelines on the bag that help you take activity into consideration and a body image chart. I am pretty sure the feeding charts are on nutro.com too; just in case they put the food in a container and threw the bag away.

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I don't feed Nutro, but my vet agrees that the recommended feeding amounts on bags are way too much for most dogs. I'd also stress the importance of keeping a dog lean to keep inflammation down and link to some studies of the implications of excess weight on illness/disease (i.e. cancer, joints).

Dog food brand aside, if a dog is fat, cut down on the food. Simple eh?

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We feed Jessie 2 1/2 to 3 cups a day ultra large breed formula, we are active though. Her treats are small, no milk bones. Those put a lot of weight on Casey.

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Cindy and Jessie
Sweet Casey in spirit


Our Casey, my best friend
12/28/98 to 12/8/10

Yea, they feed milk-bones as well as milk-bone type treats. They are gonna keep going with 3 cups - as that's what the bag says and because the vet said she was just a bit overweight...

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Jacqueline

"I have just met you and I love you" - Dug (Up!)