Puppy Feeding Requirements

8/3/2014

From the desk of Sharda Baker.

Hi and welcome everyone!

This is Sharda with a wonderful newsletter about dog food.

Today, let’s talk about puppy feeding requirements!

Certain dogs will need special feed requirements due to their nutritional profile.

Puppies, adults, pregnant dogs, and seniors all require a different diet to meet their individualized needs.

Different dog foods will have different methods and amounts they suggest for dogs in differing life stages and some of the top twelve dog food brands will not have any recommendations listed.

So it is really up to owner and their vet to decide how much of the food is appropriate.

PUPPIES

Much of the thought that must go into supplying a healthy diet for puppies flies in the face of conventional wisdoms.

For instance, while one might well imagine that puppies need to eat significantly less than larger dogs, and while there’s some degree of truth to this, they also need a richer caliber of food, one that supplies them with all the nutrients they need for their high- activity lifestyle.

As a matter of fact, puppies usually expend twice the average amount of calories in a day that grown dogs do!

This paradox is only the tip of the iceberg where the proper diet for puppies is concerned.

There are a lot of other considerations that one must be mindful of, making the feeding of puppies probably the most complex job that a dog owner will ever come across.

There’s some pretty standard advice, however, that seems to get the job done, and should be of help to the average puppy owner who is confused about what to do.

First of all, bear in mind the credentials of the AAFCO that we mentioned above. Buying only food that has been tested and approved by the AAFCO is a great idea as, at the very least, it will help you to make the judgment that your puppy is receiving decent nutrition.

Next, look for a high quality premium puppy food that is fairly high in protein content, somewhere in the range of 25 to 30 percent. Of course, bear in mind the different sources of protein that can be divined from an ingredients list.

A food that has 25 percent protein but lists chicken as its primary ingredient is probably better than a food that has 30 percent protein but lists assorted bone meal as its main ingredient!

Next, when feeding your puppy it’s probably a good idea to make their food, at least for a while, into a kind of porridge by adding warm water or a good quality milk formula for dogs to it. While its important that older dogs have
the grain of kibble in order to clean their teeth, for puppies, it’s more critical that they have easy digestion.

For the first 5-6 months, puppies should be fed three to four times a day. This might seem like a lot, but remember that their bodies are constantly growing and in dire need of nutrition.

The amount to feed your puppy can vary wildly depending on the size of the breed. It’s best to consult with your veterinarian on this matter, but there will still be some variation with individual dogs.

In order to avoid over or under feeding, keep in mind the following formula for how quickly puppies should be growing:

For every kg of the anticipated adult weight, a healthy puppy will gain 2-4 grams per day, for the period of their first 5 months.

For example, if a puppy is expected to weight 10 kg as an adult, it should be graining 20-40 grams a day for the first 5 months, whereas if its expected to weight 2kg as an adult, it should gain somewhere between 4 and 8 grams a day.

By the time puppies are about 6 months old, they can go onto a different feeding schedule of twice a day, and gradually adjust to a regular adult diet.

I hope you learned a lot from today’s dog food newsletter.

I will be back for more!

Warmest regards,
Sharda Baker