How much are you feeding your diabetic dogs?

[Pomchi]

and does the amount vary depending on the brand of food?

My diabetic dog is always always hungry, I'm really not sure if it's a symptom of diabetic canines, or am I just not feeding her enough? Is there a general rule of thumb when it comes to feeding? We currently feed her science diet senior canned food and small bite kibbles, and my dog currently weights 7.4 lbs.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

[k9diabetes]

Re: How much are you feeding your diabetic dogs?

The easiest thing to do is to base the quantity of food on your dog's weight.

Is it stable, going up, or going down?

And is her weight what you want it to be or does she need to lose or gain some?

If the weight is a good one for your dog and stable, then you're feeding the right amount of food.

If you want to change her weight, I usually suggest changing the amount of food (up or down) by about 20-25%. Which will usually also require a small adjustment in the insulin dose.
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And if you want to change foods, I always recommend that you determine how many calories you are feeding with the current diet and feed the same number of calories of the new diet.

Pretty much all of the food manufqcturers have websites that list the nutritional information and calories contents of all their different products.

I think you're currently using Science Diet.

From here: http://www.hillspet.com/products.html

you can select what you are feeding, including the prescription diets, and get all of that kind of information.
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Chris taught us a valuable habit of measuring food so we now do that with our nondiabetic Jack and we have maintained his weight - even with a ton of food-treat-based training - to a four pound range that's a very healthy weight for him.

If he gets too many training treats and starts to gain weight, I cut back his diet a bit.

His training treats are actually dog food - Natural Balance roll semi-moist food cut into tiny bites - not as nutritious as his regular food but a lot better than treats and smells fantastic so he considers it a bonus over regular food.

Natalie