# How much does your puppy eat?



## sunnydays (Aug 22, 2012)

Since Pablo came home we've been worried that he's not eating enough. Based on the recommendations on his bag of dry food he should be eating one cup a day, but he has been averaging just over 1/3 cup per day.

How much does your pup eat? One cup seems like a lot to me, but 1/3 also seems too little. We want him to grow big and healthy!

I've been mixing his dry food with warm chicken broth and a bit of canned food in the past week and this helps a bit, but he still doesn't show a lot of interest in it, I usually have to hand feed him a good portion of it (not sure why he will eat out of my hand and not the bowl) :frusty:


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## BearsMom (Jul 16, 2012)

Pablo sounds a lot like Bear with this. I also coax Bear to eat the kibble with a little chicken broth or mixing a little shredded chicken in with the kibble. On a good day, he eats about 1/2 cup of the kibble (Bear eats Blue Puppy kibble -we had first tried Fromm but he had even less interest in that brand). He has always refused to eat plain kibble since the day I brought him home. A lot of the advice that I've read and been told is the old saying "if they don't have anything else, they'll get hungry enough and eat" but I also worried a lot about his growth -I want him to be as healthy as he can be! 

Good luck  ....I also don't pull his dish after 15 min. -He does eventually wander over to it and pick at it.


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## jgb919 (May 14, 2012)

Stanley eats 1/4 cup three times a day of just plain kibble. He goes crazy for it and was eating it so fast that we started using a puzzle ball to feed him. He's figured that out now so it only takes him about 5 minutes to finish each meal, but better than the 15 seconds it took before.


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## leg71 (Mar 20, 2012)

Hi - 
I just brought my puppy home yesterday and the breeder gave me Nutri-Stat to give as a supplement for the first few days until she becomes acclimated. Maybe that is something that would help you to make sure your dog is getting enough calories? I am a total newbie but it's an idea...


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## Dory (Jan 4, 2012)

Quincy is just over four months old and he's eating 1/4 cup kibble mixed with about 1/2 TBS of Wellness Puppy (canned) twice a day. I've tried putting down dry kibble for lunch, but he's usually not interested. I put it down every day and if he doesn't show any interest in it, I take it up. I was going to wean him off the Wellness Puppy, but his stool was so hard with just the kibble, that I thought he needed the extra moisture. I guess the Acana Ranchlands doesn't have a lot of extra water in it. I think I'm going to try taking him off the canned for one meal and see how it goes. Is it horrible to still be mixing a little canned food with his kibble? I still think of him as being pretty young.


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## sunnydays (Aug 22, 2012)

BearsMom said:


> Pablo sounds a lot like Bear with this. I also coax Bear to eat the kibble with a little chicken broth or mixing a little shredded chicken in with the kibble. On a good day, he eats about 1/2 cup of the kibble (Bear eats Blue Puppy kibble -we had first tried Fromm but he had even less interest in that brand). He has always refused to eat plain kibble since the day I brought him home. A lot of the advice that I've read and been told is the old saying "if they don't have anything else, they'll get hungry enough and eat" but I also worried a lot about his growth -I want him to be as healthy as he can be!
> 
> Good luck  ....I also don't pull his dish after 15 min. -He does eventually wander over to it and pick at it.


Yes I don't want to let him go hungry either! I do take the bowl away after 15-20 min, I do 3 feedings a day. Another thing that I do is warm up his food and let him smell it, and then I pretend I'm eating it, I put my head by the bowl and go NOM NOM NOM, then I let him smell it again and repeat ... this seems to make him really want the food and he's crying to get it by the end. However, I still have to feed the last 1/3 of his food by hand, he seems to get full or sick of his food easily. LOL I never thought I would have to do all this to get the puppy to eat!


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## sunnydays (Aug 22, 2012)

Dory said:


> Quincy is just over four months old and he's eating 1/4 cup kibble mixed with about 1/2 TBS of Wellness Puppy (canned) twice a day. I've tried putting down dry kibble for lunch, but he's usually not interested. I put it down every day and if he doesn't show any interest in it, I take it up. I was going to wean him off the Wellness Puppy, but his stool was so hard with just the kibble, that I thought he needed the extra moisture. I guess the Acana Ranchlands doesn't have a lot of extra water in it. I think I'm going to try taking him off the canned for one meal and see how it goes. Is it horrible to still be mixing a little canned food with his kibble? I still think of him as being pretty young.


I don't think there's anything wrong in mixing puppy canned food with the kibble as long as this gets him to eat, it's still nutritious. Does he like the Acana? Our breeder was feeding him Eukanuba and we picked up a very large bag for him (what were we thinking, at the rate he's eating it will last a year!). After some research I think I might eventually switch him to Acana, they sell it at a store close to my work, it seems like a healthier option than Eukanuba.


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## sunnydays (Aug 22, 2012)

leg71 said:


> Hi -
> I just brought my puppy home yesterday and the breeder gave me Nutri-Stat to give as a supplement for the first few days until she becomes acclimated. Maybe that is something that would help you to make sure your dog is getting enough calories? I am a total newbie but it's an idea...


Thanks, that could be an option, Pablo will go to the vet for his 2nd set of shots soon and will have a weigh-in, if he's underweight I might consider this or ask the vet for advice.


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## Dory (Jan 4, 2012)

sunnydays said:


> I don't think there's anything wrong in mixing puppy canned food with the kibble as long as this gets him to eat, it's still nutritious. Does he like the Acana? Our breeder was feeding him Eukanuba and we picked up a very large bag for him (what were we thinking, at the rate he's eating it will last a year!). After some research I think I might eventually switch him to Acana, they sell it at a store close to my work, it seems like a healthier option than Eukanuba.


Yes, he loves the Acana. It's what the breeder was feeding him when we got him so I kept him on it. I even use it to play "find it" with him around lunch time. A little hide and go seek with his kibble all over the house and he has to go find it LOL
BTW my husband thinks I've lost my marbles :biggrin1:


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## TilliesMom (Sep 30, 2010)

Dory said:


> Yes, he loves the Acana. It's what the breeder was feeding him when we got him so I kept him on it. I even use it to play "find it" with him around lunch time. A little hide and go seek with his kibble all over the house and he has to go find it LOL
> BTW my husband thinks I've lost my marbles :biggrin1:


hide and seek with the kibble is a FANTASTIC idea!!! 

Tillie gets about 1/2 a cup total per day of homecooked food, BUT she is a small (9lbs) adult.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Kodi is a BIG adult, at 16.5 lb, and he gets 1/4 cup of kibble twice a day, plus training treats. But he WORKS for his training treats, they are very small, and I make sure they are good quality food too.


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## RitaandRiley (Feb 27, 2012)

There's nothing wrong with feeding all canned. It's less processed and usually has fewer carbs than kibble and it's more palatable.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

RitaandRiley said:


> There's nothing wrong with feeding all canned. It's less processed and usually has fewer carbs than kibble and it's more palatable.


There's absolutely NOTHING wrong with mixing kibble and canned or feeding straight canned (or feeding straight kibble for that matter, as long as it's good quality kibble!) as long as it's YOUR decision, and you stick to it. It's when you start catering to their whims that they get turned into picky eaters.

There are good reasons to change food... if your dog has an allergy, or isn't doing well on a specific food. But it shouldn't be because the dog turns his nose up at it. THAT can be a very slippery slope.


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## sunnydays (Aug 22, 2012)

Thanks everyone, I guess 1 cup a day is a bit unrealistic, it doesn't seem like anyone's Hav eats that much. Now I'm not worried that he's starving himself anymore! I'm really curious what his weight will be at 12 weeks when we take him to the vet.

I will continue to feed him the puppy Eukanuba until he finishes his bag, which will probably take a VERY long time, and after I will try to slowly switch him to Acana since the ingredients are better quality and it's produced locally, so it seems like a good long-term choice.

Since I've been mixing his kibble with broth he will not eat straight dry kibble anymore. My boyfriend says that it's my fault for spoiling him, but I couldn't stand to see him not eat, I don't mind mixing it with canned food and broth as long as he's getting the nutrition he needs to grow!


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

sunnydays said:


> Thanks everyone, I guess 1 cup a day is a bit unrealistic, it doesn't seem like anyone's Hav eats that much.


Yeah, you have to remember that dog food companies are in the business of selling dog food. If, by printing inflated "guidelines" on the bag, they can talk you into feeding more, they make more money!:biggrin1:

It also depends on how active your dog is, how much food they need. I've noticed that if I don't reduce Kodi's food slightly in the winter, he gains a little, I'm sure because we don't go on long walks in the winter. So I just adjust down a bit in the winter, and up a bit if he starts feeling a bit too ribby. When I say "a bit", I mean by 7 or 8 pieces of kibble. When you are starting with 1/4 cup, it doesn't take much in either direction to make a difference!!!


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