Feeding Your Puppy

Feeding your puppy correctly with good nutrition in mind is critical to overall puppy care and health. Feeding puppies does require attention to the types and amounts of food that is provided and consumed. Feeding high quality food will not only help your puppy grow and stay active, but it can also help with lifelong health and prevent many common dental, digestive and growth problems as the puppy matures.

Good Puppy Foods Are Essential

Choosing the right food for your puppy is important to get them off to a good start. Feeding puppies is a lot like feeding babies; they have very sensitive digestive systems and need to stay on basic, specially designed puppy food. Part of good puppy care means getting your little one on a high quality kibble as soon as possible and limiting all other foods such as treats and especially table scraps.

Feeding puppies the same food as the breeder or previous owner has had them on is also important to prevent digestive problems that make housetraining more challenging. If you don't like brands you can always switch later, but it has to be done gradually mixing small amounts of the new food into the old food over a three to four week period until the puppy is on one hundred percent new food of your choice.

How Often To Feed Puppies

Puppies need to be fed several times a day; the younger they are the more frequently they need to eat. To ensure your puppy is getting the right amount of high quality dry kibble or raw food if you are feeding a BARF (bones and raw food) type of diet, measure out the daily recommended amount and divide into four or five smaller potions to dole out during the day. Feeding puppies with free choice can also be an option if you only have one puppy and no other pets that may eat the food or chase the puppy away from the dish.

By the time the puppy has reached six months or so, even with the large breeds, feeding can be cut back to two or three times per day. Most vets an breeders recommend twice a day feeding even for adult dogs, especially those that are prone to bloat or other digestive problems.

What About Canned Puppy Food?

Canned food is not typically recommended for feeding puppies, as it is not really a healthy or natural form of food. Some might argue that dry kibble is also not natural, however it is more closely nutritionally balanced for the puppy than the wet foods in a can. In addition canned food can lead to dental issues such as tartar and early tooth loss, a leading cause of puppy care and dog care dental problems.

Feeding puppies requires that new owners consult with their breeder, vet and follow the manufacturers feeding instructions and rations. When in doubt or concerned about any puppy care issues, make an appointment and talk to your vet as soon as possible.