Feeding a Puppy

A puppy will require a high quality, energy dense, highly digestible balanced diet. A puppy should reach 50% of its adult weight by 5 – 6 months of age. However, a fast growing puppy doesn’t always mean optimal growth! The chosen diet for a puppy should be specifically designed for pups; it needs to be high in protein and contain the correct and balanced quantities of vitamins and minerals, and an optimal ratio of calcium and phosphorus, to promote healthy growth and development of bones and joints. If the puppy is fed the wrong type of food with the wrong levels of ingredients or over supplemented then bones and joints may grow too fast, and so will not fuse or develop properly. If fed more than its daily ration the pup may become overweight, putting extra stress on the new soft bones; both of these things can cause many problems in the dog's future.

Ideally a pup should be fed their daily allowance of food split into 3–4 meals. A pup's energy demands are high so small and frequent meals are necessary to allow the quantity of food needed to be consumed. They have relatively short gastro-intestinal transit times and smaller meals will give optimal nutrition digestion by slowing the transit time, if one large meal is fed the food is forced through quickly and so not as many of the nutrients can be absorbed. Their food should be left down for 5 – 10 minutes, if they do not eat it all then take it away and add it to the next meal ration.