When you first bring home that newest member of the family, you of course will have many questions and will be burning up the internet with one of the most important, ‘how much to feed a puppy’.
This is not something to be taken lightly, because your puppy is developing and another thing of great importance will be how and what type of food your dog will eat for the rest of his life. A puppy is like a child, in that good eating habits and nutritional food should be established at a very young age.
How much to feed a puppy – so you get it right:
Believe it or not, one of the best places to look to get a best estimate of what to feed your puppy is to read the labels of the canned or dry puppy food. You can then make the calculations of how much to feed and what time to feed and make the necessary adjustments for your puppy’s energy level, age and size.
A general rule of thumb is first of all do not be frugal when it comes to your puppy’s food; use a high- quality puppy food that has 25 to 30 percent of protein to give your puppy the energy he needs. Also, whenever you are feeding your puppy always make sure there is plenty of fresh water available.
As with a child, puppies (under the age of 6 months), require almost twice the amount of food than that of an adult dog. It is best to break up the meals for your puppy to 4 times a day until your puppy is 6 months old.
After 6 months, reduce the meals to twice a day. Changing the diet of your puppy from puppy food to that of an adult dog will depend on the size of your dog. So if your dog is a medium to small breed dog, you will switch his diet to that of an adult dog at the time of his first birthday.
Larger breed dogs will be different, since their bone structures do not fully mature till they are 2 years old. So, due to this, a larger breed dog should not have his diet switched to that of an adult until they reach the ages of between 14 to 18 months of age.
How much to feed a puppy who has high energy:
You will need to take into account your puppy’s energy level. If the energy level of your puppy is high, this will mean that your puppy is burning up calories at a higher rate and will need to have his food increased. The same will be true of a puppy that is calmer or even of the sedate type, you will decrease the amount of food, so as to not have an overweight puppy problem on your hands.
Do not start bad habits with your puppy, that means no food from the table, and only healthy treats should be given and sparingly. Remember determining how much to feed a puppy is a very important factor and building block for your puppy’s health now and when they get older.
