small dogs- more protein and fat in diet

[Randy Jane]

I have a 7 month old toy breed puppy. He shouldn't get to be more than
14 pounds. I was told by a few people that small breeds need a little more fat and protein than other dogs because they burn calories faster and tend to be more active.
I feed him a very high quality dog food, but it is higher in protein and fat than some other foods.
Does anyone know if this is true about small breeds.
Thanks
RJ

[Jo Russell]

I was told by a few people that small breeds need a little more fat and protein than other dogs...

I have heard something like this too, though only anecdotally and without the reasons for it... It came up briefly on a natural feeding list I lurk about sometimes, but in this way: 2-3% of a dog's weight is the usual guide for raw feeding, but someone with small dogs was finding 4%, maybe slightly more, was right for her small breed.

I wonder if there's a nutritionist or advisor at the company that makes the food you feed who would be able to field this question. I might be worth emailing or phoning them, if you'd like to. Though you might still get a knowledgeable reply here.

[Maria Juliano]

All dogs need more meat protein than any other ingredient.

[Jo Russell]

Oh, dear. I hope my post didn't make it sound like dogs require 2,3 or 4% of their bodyweight in fat and protein. Obviously the protein and fat content of foods is much higher than that.

The formula I spoke of pertains to the overall daily quantity of food to be fed if you're feeding raw. eg... (and I'm going to show my examples in kilograms and grams because we're metric down here, and I might get all twisted up if I try to show this in pounds and ounces.

...my approx 50lb dog is 23kg, and 2.5% of that is 0.575 or 575grams, which would be a starting point to her daily allowance of raw food, consisting of raw meaty bones and/or organ meat or whatever else she was being fed as part of her raw diet.

whereas my approx 15lb dog (an adult Pom) is 7kg, and say 4% of that is 280grams, making his recommended daily quanitity of raw food closer to 1/2 what my larger dog requires even though his weight is only about 1/3 of hers.

If it is true that small dogs/breeds generally require more metabolizable energy than larger breeds/dogs then they would need the greater quantities of raw food and any processed food specifically for smaller dogs would have a higher protein and fat content to meet this need. I hope this makes better sense.

It would be interesting to check this out. That is, to see whether or not, within any particular company's range of processed foods, their products for smaller breeds did contain more metabolizable energy than prod's aimed at larger breeds.

It sounds like this is true for the food RJ is feeding, and this might be a useful thing for all small dog owners to be aware of. I did try to find some more info but couldn't find anything definitive.