Feeding your puppy
There are lots of choices of dog foods. What should I feed my puppy?
Diet is extremely important during the growing months of a dog’s life. We recommend a premium-brand dog food made for puppies. This should be fed until your puppy is about 12-18 months of age, depending on its breed and size. Large breed puppies should be fed a formula that is specifically made for them. Remember that what you feed your puppy now will be with him for the rest of his life.
Feeding a dry, canned, or semi-moist form of dog food is acceptable. Each has advantages and disadvantages. Dry food is definitely the most inexpensive for the nutritional value.
Consumers are faced with a wide variety of choices for feeding their puppy. There are many “designer foods” available as well as grocery store and pet store brands. What should you look for?
First of all, recognize that it is very difficult to assess a food from the label. A pet food may look good on the guaranteed analysis, but if the ingredients are poor quality or over-processed, the food may have low digestibility. We recommend feeding a food that has undergone feeding trials for puppies, as a minimum standard. Check the bag: there should be a 1-800 number that you can call to find out if feeding trials have been done. Or a website to give you more information.
A few things to consider:
“Grain-free” means that the food does not have a grain-based carbohydrate, including wheat, corn, oats or barley. Many of these foods have rice, potatoes, or sweet potatoes as a carbohydrate source. Unless your pet is allergic to grains, there is no reason to avoid them in favour of other carbohydrates. Wheat is the most common food allergy in dogs, but corn and oats seldom cause food allergies.
“Added Fruits and vegetables” has become a trend, and the outside of the bag sure looks good with all those pictures of apples and cranberries! There is no down side to feeding these diets if the rest of the food is balanced.
“Natural”, means that a food has no synthetic chemicals like food colouring or artificial preservatives: It does not mean that the food is organic. Many many dog foods are naturally preserved with no added chemicals. They don’t all have the word “natural” on the bag.
What about home-cooked food?
Do not feed table scraps in large quantity unless you have enough information to feed a balanced diet.
There is no doubt that if you cook your own puppy’s food, you have more control over the ingredients. Since the melamine contamination scare, many pet owners prefer to make their own pet’s food. We recommend that you check out the websites: petdiets.com, and BalanceIt.com for more information and to have recipes created for you.
Should I feed raw food?
We recommend against feeding raw meat to pets for these reasons:
- Inappropriate nutritional balance: calcium too low or too high, very high fat content, for example.
- Bacterial content: Public health research is focusing on Salmonella and the transmission of antibiotic resistance to E.Coli. Most dogs seem to be resistant to getting sick from Salmonella, but some have become extremely ill. Many emergency clinics and university hospitals now ask if the patient is on raw food and will put these pets in isolation if they have to be hospitalized. This is because of the risk of Salmonella and other bacteria to their staff and to other patients. Salmonella and other bacteria from food are passed in the stool. Freezing does NOT kill these bacteria.
- Bones: Raw diets that also include intact bones run the risk of bones getting stuck in the digestive tract.
We accept that there are many owners who feel strongly about feeding raw food, but we don’t feel that the science supports it.
How often should I feed my puppy?
We recommend feeding your puppy several meals at consistent times. A measured amount of food should be offered four times per day for 5-12 week old puppies. What is not eaten within 30 minutes is taken up. If the food is eaten within 3-4 minutes, the quantity is probably not sufficient.
By 3 – 4 months of age, most puppies are ready for 3 meals a day, and by 6 months can go to two meals a day.
“Free choice feeding,” means that food is available at all times. This works well with dry foods and for some dogs. However, many dogs tend to overeat and become obese. If there is weight gain after the optimal size is reached, this method of feeding should be discontinued. Large breed puppies who are fed free choice or are allowed to get overweight are more likely to have hip dysplasia.
