Puppies need a specific balanced diet that favors their proper development. Your vet has probably already recommended a type or brand of food for your pup, as well as the amounts you should start feeding.
Dog food, and especially puppy food, must be of high quality and especially balanced, since puppies in the first months of life experience great changes in weight and height, and impressive growth.
As a general rule, at 4 months, most dogs can reach half the weight they will have as adults. This rapid growth will continue until 6 or 9 months. At one year the dog is considered to have reached its adult weight. Giant breeds are the exception as they continue to grow rapidly up to 16-18 months, reaching their adult weight at two years.
How should puppy food be?
Regardless of its breed and size, your puppy’s food must be balanced in terms of nutrients and energy concentration.
Fats provide much-needed energy at this stage, proteins are essential for the proper development of muscles, vital organs, hair, skin and in general for the metabolism of the organism.
Carbohydrates contribute to healthy growth and are an extra supply of fiber. Minerals and vitamins are also important and something fundamental is that the food is highly digestible.
For all this, we must trust both the recommendations of our veterinarian and the manufacturers of quality food specially formulated for this very special stage of our furry ones.
How much food should I give my puppy?
Puppies, whether they are large or small breeds, usually need 4 to 5 meals per day until they reach 4 months of age, then up to 6 months of age we can go down to 3 times a day and from this moment on, they must be given their food at least 2 times a day (depending on the breed).
You can calmly guide yourself by your own recommendations and depending on the age, size, breed of your dog and his state of health.
Also, it is important to keep in mind that puppies always need to eat at the same times of the day.
His internal clock will cause his stomach to start secreting digestive juices at his usual eating time and if you don’t follow the same routine and get messy with meal times, the puppy will stop eating and you can also cause digestive problems.
Respecting the amounts is essential, dogs in general and puppies often eat more with their eyes than with their stomachs, so it is necessary that you give them the right amount at each feeding and thus avoid harming their digestive system and avoid being overweight. .
The way you feed the dog food to your pup is also important. Use weighted bottom feeders to prevent spillage or turning the plastic feeder into a chew toy.
Make sure nothing bothers him while he eats to prevent him from eating too quickly and causing digestive problems.
Give him up to 30 minutes to eat the dog food you offered. After that time, remove what has not been eaten and provide your puppy with new food at the next feeding.
Remember that your puppy must have fresh water at all times. There are very useful ones on the market to ensure that your puppy always has fresh and even filtered water, which will be very positive for his kidney health.
The exercise of the puppy and its feeding.
Taking into account that at this stage your puppy needs to exercise a lot, it is not a good idea to do it immediately before or after eating, so we must get him used to resting for a while in a quiet place after eating from a very young age. .
This will avoid digestive discomfort or more serious problems such as gastric dilation and torsion, so common in large or giant breeds and which requires immediate medical attention.
If we have returned from an intense exercise session with our puppy, the ideal is to wait half an hour before giving him food. We invite you to consult the specific section of puppy food on our website where you can find a wide variety of high-quality brands and even some foods that cover specific needs that help increase their defenses.
And finally, we want to remind you that although it seems that these high-quality dog foods can be a little more expensive, in the long run your dog will enjoy great nutrition and will have to eat even less than if he does a food of poorer quality, less digestible and worse assimilation of nutrients, which will also have an impact on slow growth, less development and less resistance to diseases.
From Best for Pets we hope that these tips will be useful in the new adventure undertaken by you and your family. We also invite you to share this article with a friend who may be interested in this information.
It will really be worth educating him from a young age to gain a great friend and companion for life.
Our last piece of advice is to do it with love and patience. Like children, they need our care and affection.
We must be very aware when buying a puppy that they will give us work, cause small disasters in the home, change our habits and customs, but not in vain are they small living beings that will fill us with joy and good times.