Congrats on your newest addition to your family by getting a four-legged best friend. We understand the excitement and trepidation that comes with bringing home a furry ball of joy. If you’re a new or first-time pet parent, you must be having a lot of questions one of which for sure is “How much food should I feed my puppy?” which is one of the most reasonable questions as you don’t want to overfeed your puppy to make him/her obese and thus hamper him/her growing in a healthy state. You also wouldn’t want to underfeed your pup to ensure he/she doesn’t suffer from malnutrition and thus a slow or negligible growth. So, let’s answer your questions one by one.
How much food should I feed my puppy?
During the first six to eight weeks of life, the puppy should stay with the mother and be allowed to nurse as they must nurse from the mother. The mother’s milk provides the best nutrition and provides antibodies to help protect your puppy from disease yet sometimes it isn’t possible or viable for the puppies to be kept with the mother due to the mother being diagnosed with eclampsia or mastitis and this is exactly when you must select the best puppy food. Now, what is the best puppy food? The best puppy food is which fits your puppy’s caloric and nutritional needs. Puppies should be fed three to four times a day therefore if you are currently feeding ¾ a cup of puppy food twice a day you should consider spacing it out by feeding ½ cup three times a day. Smaller yet well-spaced meals are not only easy to digest for puppies but it also doesn’t peak or let their energy levels fall rapidly. At around six months, it is recommended to feed your puppy two meals a day but then again this varies as per the breed of your puppy. So ‘How much food should I feed my puppy?’ is rather a subjective question.
What is the best fresh puppy food? What are some homemade puppy food options?
At Furrmeals, we offer the best fresh puppy food and it is homemade puppy food as well because we highly believe you should keep your puppy as much away from harmful artificial preservative loaded puppy food as possible. FurrMeals is packed with the freshest ingredients that are carefully hand-picked to provide a balanced meal to your furry friend. Slowly and lightly cooked to retain the nutritional value, each meal is measured to make it perfect for your buddy. Some of the homemade puppy food options that we have in store for your pup are –
1-Herbed Chicken and Rice
2- Juicy Chicken and Pasta
3- Chunky Lamb and Brown Rice
4-Fresh Cottage Cheese and Peas
and the best part? Each of the options mentioned above is not only made naturally but also loaded with the nutrients your pup needs to grow and be at its finest. We at FurrMeals, indeed believe in helping you to get the answer to “How much food should I feed my puppy?” which comes along with nutrients-loaded options.
How much dry food to feed a puppy?
After answering a bit of your “How much food should I feed my puppy?” question which is endless and subject, we would like to another great question that pet parents have on their mind. Weaning your puppy to dry and solid food should not be an overnight trial and error thing but should ideally take place over two to three weeks. First, you must select the brand which ideally is perfect for the health and nutritional requirements of your puppy. Talk to your veterinarian for specific recommendations but generally the best puppy foods will be packed with protein, calcium, and calories. When the puppy is four to six weeks of age begin introducing your puppy to puppy food by making a gruel by blending the puppy food with a milk replacer. Offer the gruel three to four times a day gradually reducing the amount of milk replaced used to make the gruel. This way your puppy gradually learns to adapt to solid food and gastric upset is minimized. By around eight weeks of age, your puppy should be eating solid food.
When to stop feeding puppy food?
Puppy food consists of high nutritional supplements and is high in calories so you might want to switch to adult food once your puppy begins to approach adulthood. There is no appropriate age when the switch should be made because it will vary with the breed, gender, and individual dog’s nutritional needs. Generally, smaller dogs approach their adulthood much faster. Small breeds up to 13 kg mature or reach their adulthood around ten to twelve months of age although some toy breeds reach maturity even faster. Medium dog breeds up to 36 kg will become an adult between twelve to sixteen months and large breed dogs weighing more than 36 kg can take up to two years to reach maturity. When switching to adult food, take it slow over one or two weeks by gradually mixing in increasing amounts of the adult food with decreasing amounts of her puppy food to minimize gastric flare-ups. So the question is when to switch from puppy food? The appropriate time to switch from puppy food to adult food when you notice your dog eating less of the puppy food or if he/she starts to put on too much weight. Feeding your dog puppy food too long can result in obesity and orthopedic problems.
Conclusion
Thus, the answer to “How much food should I feed my puppy?” is a question which mostly has no definite or proper answer as it depends on trial and error, breed and gender of the dog, etc. so the best person to ask these questions to is your vet who’ll be able to guide you properly as they watch your dog closely!
