The Arab Way to Calculate How Much a Dog Should Eat

There is another simple way to calculate based on the old Arab belief that the human body doesn't require more than two or three pounds of food a day to stay healthy. That amount can be reduced according to the weight of the dog in question, however you have to remember that dogs do more exercise and therefore require a bit more food per weight than humans; I based my calculations for my greyhounds on this teaching.

Here's a final comment that applies to all puppies: give them as much natural food as they want to eat making sure they do not overdo it.

Regarding the adult dog I'll also make one final comment: don't be too sharp or dogmatic in relation to the times when they should eat or strictly following the diet. You have to respect the habits and customs of dogs and cats, as individual creatures that they are. Even my own greyhounds, and many others I know, don't like to eat when it's very hot; during summer, they'll even reject the meat, so what I do is delay the cereal based food until well in the afternoon, more or less 5 pm. By keeping this meal separated form the meat based one – with the exception of an occasional whole wheat cookie or some dried figs or dates before the meat in order to condition the stomach against sharp bones – it is usually quite late into the night when I give them the meat meal. It represents a problem to me, but it's very healthy for my dogs. And after all, summer doesn't last the whole year. Additionally, carnivores are by nature night hunters and eaters, so I simply follow what nature says.

Naturally, animals have their fancies or likes as far as food is concerned. For example, my greyhounds generally prefer their oat flakes with extra vegetable bran, made even tastier when added dry coconut (a teaspoon per dog), a teaspoon of tahini (prepared sesame grain) and some raisins, which I put to a side to let them chew them better. The second dish consists of milk slightly thickened with bran (a sprinkle) and some cereal flakes, but in essence it is a liquid meal.

As far as the evening meat meal, look at the previous diet, if I administer cereal grains or legumes, I finely chop them and I put them together with the meat. The eggs are also better if given along with the meat, as they help the complements to stick together better.