Does a Border Collie eat a lot? (How much?)
Are you planning to get a Border Collie, but you are unsure how much the daily food costs are? In this article, I will go into more detail about how much does a Border Collie eat and the daily feeding costs.
Does a Border Collie eat a lot? How much a Border Collie eats depends on different factors. Decisive are age, weight, and especially the activity level. Border Collies are very active dogs. The more a Border Collie does, the more food a Border Collie needs. With about 275 grams of dry food or 400 grams of Barf, you have a good basis.
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How much does a Border Collie eat?
How much a Border Collie eats depends primarily on weight, age, and activity level.
As a basis, you should follow the feeding recommendations of the manufacturers and then observe whether it is too much or too little for your Border Collie.
I think the dry food from Orijen* is currently one of the best dog foods. From my point of view, a high meat content and no artificial additives make the food a high-quality Preimiumfutter.
The Border Collie is a medium-heavy dog weighing 14 – 20 kg. Males are usually somewhat larger and heavier than females. The feeding recommendation for Orijen for a 20 kg dog is 240 grams.
If you want to feed your Border raw, the basic rule is that Barf needs 2% of his body weight. That is 400 grams of meat per day for a 20 kg Border Collie.
Since a Border Collie needs a lot of exercise, you must adjust the values upwards.
This depends on how much and what you do with your Border Collie. Do you regularly “just” go for a walk, or maybe even do agility several times a week?
An athlete needs more calories than an average dog.
How many calories does a Border Collie need?
I have found the calorie information from Orijen. The dry food has approximately 3900 kcal per kg.
That is 390 kcal per 100 grams.
The calorie requirement for a dog can be calculated with the following formula.
(Weight in KG x 30) + 70 = Resting Energy requirement
This is how many calories your Border Collie needs to maintain life support.
This requirement is multiplied by a factor for activity level.
- 1.8 – adult dog, normally active
- 2.0 – light work
- 3.0 – moderate work
- 4.0 and more – heavy work
So let’s assume a 20 kg Border Collie that is more active than an average dog but not a top athlete. So the factor 2,0.
Calorie calculation: (20 kg x 30) +70 = 670
670 x 2 (light work) = 1340 kcal
Assuming the feeding recommendation of about 300 grams/day and calorie content of about 390 kcal/100 grams, we come to 1.170 kcal. The feeding recommendations are only a rough indication. But approximately fits the
The feeding recommendations are only a rough indication. It would be best if you adapted them individually to your dog. The active Border Collie will need more dry food because he naturally needs more food.
It is essential to understand that these are always approximate. Either by more or less food or by more exercise. You must observe individually if your Border Collie is too fat or thin and counteract accordingly.
How much food does a Border Collie puppy need?
Border Collie puppies need more food in proportion to their body weight than adult dogs because they are growing and have a higher percentage requirement.
According to the manufacturer, a 4-month-old Border Collie with an expected final weight of about 20 kg needs 325 grams of dry puppy food.
Since puppies have smaller stomachs, it is recommended that the amount of food be divided into three or even four servings daily. We feed our Broholm puppy morning, noon, and night.
How expensive is the food for a Border Collie?
I will only discuss the dry food from Orijen*, which I can recommend.
The price per kilo is 8,40 €, in the offer you can get it for 7,81 €/kg if you buy the 16 kg package.
With a requirement of at least 275 grams, you come to 2.30 € feed costs for a 20 kg Border Collie. Maybe more like 2,50 € if we assume 300 grams.
Of course, this premium dog food provides your Border Collie optimally with all nutrients. In my opinion, you should rather spend 0.50 $ – 1.00 $ a day more and feed your dog in the best possible way.
Cheap dog food with harmful and inferior ingredients can be the reason why your Border Collie stinks. But also, it can be that your dog develops diseases in old age, and you are significantly more often at the vet and then have high costs.
Another benefit of high quality dog food is that there is a chance that your Border Collie will shed less.
How often does a Border Collie need to be fed?
We usually try to put the feeding after a walk if possible. Dogs mustn’t generally jump around wildly after eating, but rest is the order of the day.
The risk of gastric torsion is significantly increased when dogs jump around wildly after eating.
How often a dog must be fed a day can not be answered in general. 1x a day would be enough.
But we feed our dogs 2x a day in the morning after the first walk and the evening after the last walk. This ensures that they do not jump around after eating.
The advantage of 2 meals is that your dog doesn’t have to take in such a large amount of food at once. Which also increases the risk of gastric distress.
Especially with active dogs, like the Border Collie, there could be concentration problems during training if they haven’t eaten for a long time.
Conclusion: Does a Border Collie eat a lot?
How much a Border Collie eats depends primarily on age and activity level. A 20 kg dog needs about 275 grams of dry food. Since the Border Collie is more active than the average dog, he usually needs a little more.
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