What and When to Feed for Puppies

[DogGoneGood]

What and When to Feed

by Shara Slorstad
2008

Finding what type of diet to put your new puppy on can be more difficult than choosing a name for him. There are many, many brands of food available as well as different diet plans you can make yourself (RAW for example). Which route you choose to take is entirely up to you and what you think is best for your growing puppy.

The most important thing to do when choosing a food for your dog is do your homework first. It doesn’t take much for dog food companies to pass FDA requirements, and quite often what you see on the label isn’t always what you get. Did you know that you can combine leather boots, wood shavings, and canola oil in a pot, boil it down, cook it up and serve it in little kibble shaped pieces and it will pass FDA regulations on pet food? Now, just because FDA regulations on pet foods aren’t as strict as their regulations on people food, doesn’t mean all pet foods are made up of leather boots, wood shavings and canola oil. It does mean, however, that you should learn what those ingredients on the back of the bag mean.

A lot of helpful information can be found at www.thedogfoodproject.com. In this site it explains many things about general nutrition and what ingredients are actually in a bag of kibble.

To explain proper nutrition for dogs would take a whole other booklet which is why I will only explain the basics and you can take that information and use it as a guide for important matters you should be researching in fuller detail if you wish to fully understand what goes into a bag of kibble and what your dog actually needs for nutrition.

One very common ingredient you will find on the back of a bag of kibble is “byproducts” or “meal”. While it’s best to find a food that doesn’t contain any byproducts, how the ingredients are listed can determine whether or not the food is okay. If a type of byproduct (example: chicken byproduct) is listed as the first ingredient, you’ll probably want to steer clear. If an actual meat (example: chicken) is listed as the first ingredient and the second is a byproduct (chicken byproduct) this bag is slightly better quality than the first. If the byproduct listed isn’t specific (example: poultry byproduct) this makes it a bit lower in quality than if it were specific (example: chicken byproduct).

What is a Byproduct?
A byproduct is something produced as a secondary result of the manufacture or production of something else. This means that something labeled as “poultry byproduct” can be nothing more than chicken and turkey beaks and feet, which hold very little nutritional value.

While grains hold nutritional value for dogs (though this is debatable), it isn’t as important as protein. You want the first few ingredients to be nothing but a source of protein (real chicken being the most desirable). Also, you don’t want to see the same type of grain listed several times (example: corn, corn meal, etc.).

Like grains, fruits and vegetables are another type of ingredient that has been debated thoroughly on whether or not it has any significant nutritional value to dogs. If a dog food contains fruits and vegetables it doesn’t tip the scales tremendously in my books to make or break it as a good quality dog food. I don’t think fruits and vegetables can hurt a dog (as long as they are “dog friendly”, some fruits and vegetables dogs have trouble digesting and can even be poisonous. Most fruits and vegetables aren’t actually poisonous, but rather indigestible or have an undesirable result.

Nightshade plants, for example (eggplants, potatoes (although sweet potatoes are okay), tomatoes, broccoli, cabbage, brussel sprouts, onions, chives, and garlic) can result in an increase in the inflammatory response of the body and therefore should not be given to dogs with arthritis. They can also aggravate gastrointestinal problems, increase intestinal gas, and cause indigestion.

Fruits and vegetables can add extra nutrition if severed correctly (the right types and the right amounts), although shouldn’t be a dogs main source of nutrition. The main source should come from meats.

For more information on nutrition in kibble and in raw or cooked diets, do your research. There is an overwhelming amount of information available on the internet and in books, if you’re willing to look for it. Keep in mind that a lot of the information you will find is contradicting because dog nutrition isn’t an exact science and people who devote their lives to researching it (either as a career or just for their dogs well being) are constantly learning new things and making new discoveries. What you choose for your dog is up to you and how much time and money you are willing to use in providing the best diet possible for your canine family member.

Puppies require the proper nutrition to help them grow and develop properly. This is why there are puppy specific lines of food available. You should choose these types of food based on what is nutritionally sufficient and what breed of dog you have.

I personally believe that puppies should be on a puppy specific food up until they are 6 months of age. After 6 months they can be fed an adult dog food. While dogs in general (again, varying from breed to breed) take one year to grow tall and another to fill out (and sometimes another to mentally mature), puppy food does not need to be given for this entire growing period. If you choose to feed puppy food for longer than 6 months, that is your choice entirely. I personally do not see the point, however.

How Much to Feed, and When:
If you choose to feed kibble you will find a chart on the bag of the bag that will tell you how much to feed your puppy. While this is a general guide-line and is a good place to start, it should not be used as your bible. How much food your puppy requires depends on your individual puppy and his breed.

You can start by using this chart on the back of the food as a guide-line and adjust the amount you give at each serving based on your puppies activity level and how much weight he gains or looses. Talk to your vet for more information on doing this, your vet should be able to help you set up a good feeding plan.

Depending on where you got your puppy from, he may have came with food. A lot of breeders provide a small bag of food with the puppy when it leaves their home. Just because the breeder was feeding this type of kibble doesn’t mean you have to as well. If you choose to switch the brand of food, I suggest doing it slowly. Each serving add a little more of the brand you choose and a little less of the food the puppy came with. Do this over a course of 7-10 days until your puppy is eating 100% the brand you choose. The reason for switching slowly is because many dogs may intestinal problems if you switch “cold turkey”. Not all do, but there’s no way to predict which dogs will and which won’t so it is better to be safe than sorry.

How often you feed your puppy is completely up to you and will most likely be determined by your daily schedule. I do encourage, however, to never “free feed”. Free feeding is when you leave a bowl of kibble on the floor all day for your dog to pick at. The longer the kibble sits in the bowl the more likely it is to contract bacteria and bugs. To teach your puppy to eat all of his food in one sitting you will have to set it down for an allowed amount of time (lets say
10 or 15 minutes). If the puppy has not eaten any or all of his food in the allowed amount of time you take it away.

Poor the left over food back into the bowl or throw it out. Don’t give him another chance to eat until his next feeding. I assure you that your pup will not starve himself! It may take a couple of days but before long your pup will learn to eat all of his food in one sitting or it will get taken away and he’ll have to wait until the next feeding time to eat.

5 - 12 week old puppies should be offered food about 4 times a day. This means that you will take the amount you will be feeding a day in total and divide it by 4 and give that amount at each feeding. Once the puppy is 3 - 4 months of age 4 feedings will no longer be required, and the puppy may actually refuse to eat one of his meals on his own. You can cut back the amount you feed (remember to up the amount of food during each feeding if you are removing a meal, you want him to be eating the same amount every day). You can continue to feed three meals a day for the rest of the pups life if you choose, but not everyone’s schedule will allow them to come home to feed their dog at lunch time. If this is the case I suggest giving two meals a day; half in the morning and half at night. You can start doing this once the pup is about 7 or 8 months old.

I really don’t recommend eventually feeding only one meal a day. Think of it this way; how would you feel if the only meal you got each day was breakfast? Dogs use different amounts of energy during different times of the day, and require food for this energy (just like people). My own dogs, for example, generally eat less at breakfast time than they do at dinner. This is because they haven’t yet burnt off any energy and don’t require more “fuel”. Come dinner time, however, they’ve used a lot of energy and have gained an appetite by this time.

It’s hard for me to tell you how much to feed your dog and when because I don’t know you and your dog. Each dog and each breed of dog has different requirements and each person has a different schedule to go by. Do your research, talk to your veterinarian, and apply this knowledge to your own schedule and what you feel is right for your puppy.



If you do choose to feed a home made food, keep in mind that you are the one responsible for providing a fully balanced nutritional diet for your dog. This is a lot of responsibility and should take months of studying to do it properly. There are many excellent groups available online where you can ask questions and talk to people who are feeding their dogs a home made meal.

Home made meals became extremely popular in 2007 when a massive pet food recall was announced due to pets being poisoned from pet food that contained melamine. The amount of pets that became ill or killed due to this contaminated food is still not quite known. It is estimated to be up in the thousands.

Because of this recall, many pet owners became scared and unsure as to whether or not they should trust there pets health in the hands of complete strangers who were in the business to make money, and with good reason, if you ask me. This doesn’t mean every single pet food available is dangerous to your dog. There are many very good quality kibbles available, you just have to really look for them and quite often, pay a bit more.

Due to the popularity in homemade foods that came about from the pet food recall in 2007, in just the last year there has been a huge boom in the amount of information available on the subject and a lot more is known about pet nutrition.

I can’t stress enough that you need to do your homework before starting any of these types of diets. Also, keep in mind that a dogs nutritional needs are very different from a cats nutritional needs. One of the reasons for this is that dogs are more omnivores than carnivores (they can tolerate and even get nutrients from fruits and vegetables) whereas cats are strictly carnivores (they get absolutely no nutritional value from fruits and vegetables). Why this is, I don’t know. My personal suspicions are that it has something to do with how long dogs have been domesticated and living closely with humans as opposed to cats. So what you read about a cats diet won’t apply to your dogs.

Also, let me quickly address table scraps. Many sources will tell you not to feed your dog table scraps. Table scraps are okay if you know what is harmful to dogs and what isn’t. Again, do some research on this subject. One major rule is to never feed your dog cooked bones because they can splinter and pierce the stomach and intestines or get caught in the throat. Uncooked bones are perfectly fine for dogs and can add extra nutrition from time to time.