What's a 1/4 cup of kibble? Part 3 of 4

For many dogs the culprit of being over weight is portion control and that's on us, the humans. In this fast paced world, it's easy to just toss food in a bowl or feeder and move on. We do this with a guess and hope for good enough. We often error on the side of too much. 

 

Or we may measure but then mindlessly offer treats and lets face it, no one turns down a treat.  Many of us don't account for those "treat" calories.  This quickly increases a waistline on a pretty small dog. This is a mistake I've made with my own rattie!

 

A quarter measuring cup - every dog household should have one!

 

 

A level 1/4 cup of kibble

A "scoop" of a 1/4 cup of kibble

                                       



 Above is the amount of kibble Gramercy eats twice a day.  As you can see, it's less then 1/4 cup. He eats this amount as we are still working on getting some weight off of him and I'm factoring in his calories from the bully sticks he chews on and the 1/2 tsp of raw coconut oil in his meal.

 

 

Now, the above pictures may not look like that much of a difference in the amount of kibble. BUT it's actually a significant difference and those extra kibble calories add up fast.  I think it's easy for us to forget (me included) that we have small dogs - many between 7 and 15lbs they don't need a lot of calories.

 

The bowl on the far left is the "scoop" it contains 84 pieces of kibble.  

The center bowl is the what Gramercy eats, it contains 32 pieces of kibble. 

The bowl on the far right is the level 1/4 cup amount and it contains 56 pieces of kibble

 

So, you do the math and think about those extra calories at each meal that your dog could be consuming.  No big surprise why we may accidental end up with a chubby tubby dog.

 

 

The really great news is that because our dogs are small and don't need a lot of food, we can feed them high quality food!  There are some great choices out there that include high quality kibble, high quality canned, dehydrated and raw.

 

Wondering how the quality of your food ranks look here:  dog food reviews

 

Here's a link on why feed grain free food