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Knowing how to provide your puppy proper nutrition is key to having a happy, healthy dog. Eukanuba gives us some excellent puppy feeding guidelines.
The Critical Puppy Years
Nourish him as a pup and you’ll build an excellent foundation for life as a healthy dog. That’s because his first few months are critical to the development of his body and mind. In fact, puppies experience their most rapid period of growth during the first six months of life. It is no real surprise, then, that puppies expend nearly twice the energy of an adult dog. The catch is that Mr. Blue doesn’t have the stomach capacity to eat enough food to meet his energy requirements. Therefore it’s important he’s given meals with an enriched formula. So unless he’s eating a premium brand, he may be missing important building blocks in his diet…
Feeding TipsOnce you’ve purchased your puppy’s food, it seems it would be simple to feed him—just open the bag and pour, right? But there are a few things you can do to turn his food into a meal.
- Think like a dietician and measure portion size correctly. To determine it, start with the daily amount recommended and divide by the number of times you’ll feed your pooch (usually breakfast, lunch and dinner: after four months of age, feed only in the mornings and evenings.) Remove the bowl after he’s had a chance to eat for 30 minutes. This avoids overfeeding which leads to unhealthy weight gain. (While puppies need to chew frequently, they shouldn’t snack like humans.)
- Think like a canine connoisseur and serve his meals at room temperature, the way he likes them.
- Resist the urge to play chef and mix in cottage cheese, hamburger or eggs into his chow. Such foods can interfere with the absorption of minerals provided in dog food. (Plain old puppy food might not look that enticing to you, but neither does chewing a shoe.)
- Always provide your pup with fresh water. Just one dropped kernel of kibble can contaminate his bowl quickly.
So, the expert puppy feeding guidelines are 3 meals a day until 4 months old, then only in the mornings and evenings. While your puppy should have constant access to fresh water, meal times need to be consistently regulated in terms of time, duration, content, and quantity. Read the full article to learn about puppy food, teething, and moving your puppy to an adult diet. Is your puppy a picky eater?
