# How much and what do you feed your puppies?



## Wesleysmom (Dec 20, 2007)

We have been feeding Wesley Science Diet puppy bites( I think there is a small breed puppy bite, that's what it is) , but it's so expensive and I'm limited on storage, so I started mixing it(gradually) with Iams puppy food. Just to make it stretch. He gets 1 1/4 cup each day(according to the bag), but my hubby thinks we're overfeeding him. I've also noticed within the last few weeks, he doesn't eat it all at one meal(he gets 1/2c AM and PM and 1/4c at noon) so I cut out the noon feeding. I just don't want to end up with an overweight dog, but I don't want him to be malnourished either. 
Any suggestions?
Thanks:biggrin1:


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## Poornima (Jun 29, 2007)

How old is Wesley? 

My Benji is 13 months and Lizzie is 5 months. They have allergy issues so I feed them Natural Balance Duck and Potato kibble plus freshly cooked duck, sweet potato and carrots. Benji eats 1/2 cup per meal which has 1/3 cup of kibble the rest is freshly cooked duck, sweet potato and carrrots. Lizzie eats 1/3 cup ( 1/4 cup kibble + fresh duck, SP and carrots). I give them this meal in the morning and evening. They eat a snack of Natural Balance Turkey Formula treats. I cut small bite sized cubes and they eat 1/8 cup of it at 2pm. I feed 1/2 hard boiled egg yolk twice a week to both. You might want to check with your breeder what she might recommend. 

Hope this helps.


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## Havtahava (Aug 20, 2006)

I'm getting away from any "puppy" foods completely and just sticking with the Fromm's Foods for now. At this time we are feeding Salmon A La Veg by Fromm's. Each of my dogs wants/needs a different amount, so I just try to go by their rib exposure. If I can still feel their ribs, they aren't too fat. If I can feel a very distinct groove in between every single rib (like the knuckles on your hand), then I feed more or add more fattening supplements to the food.

When my puppiess are regularly refusing a meal, I eliminate one. For me, that has usually been around 3 or 4 months old. By the time they are a year old, most of mine only eat once a day.


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## Wesleysmom (Dec 20, 2007)

Poornima said:


> How old is Wesley?
> 
> My Benji is 13 months and Lizzie is 5 months. They have allergy issues so I feed them Natural Balance Duck and Potato kibble plus freshly cooked duck, sweet potato and carrots. Benji eats 1/2 cup per meal which has 1/3 cup of kibble the rest is freshly cooked duck, sweet potato and carrrots. Lizzie eats 1/3 cup ( 1/4 cup kibble + fresh duck, SP and carrots). I give them this meal in the morning and evening. They eat a snack of Natural Balance Turkey Formula treats. I cut small bite sized cubes and they eat 1/8 cup of it at 2pm. I feed 1/2 hard boiled egg yolk twice a week to both. You might want to check with your breeder what she might recommend.
> 
> Hope this helps.


Wes is 5 months old now.


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## Jan D (Mar 13, 2007)

Havee is eating Wellness chicken now and gets 1/3 cup, morning and night. That is less than the bag says. He's almost 1 year old.


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## HayCarambaMama (Dec 8, 2007)

Bonnie eats about 1 cup of Eukanuba a day in two meals -- morning 6:30am and eve 5pm. She has treats during the day too. The vet tech remarked on her "full" belly the last time I took her in for shots??? I wonder if she's getting too big? She weighs about 7lbs at 5.5mo and I can feel her ribs but can't "see" them, yk?


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## Lina (Apr 26, 2007)

Kubrick eats Fromm's as well and he eats 1 cup a day (1/2 cup morning, 1/2 cup night). I can feel his ribs very well, so I know he is not overweight or too thin. That's really the best way to judge their weight (as Kimberly mentioned). 1 and 1/4 cups seems like quite a lot to me, but it's so dependent on what food you're feeding, that I'm not sure. When Kubrick was younger (and weighed less) he was getting 3/4 cup per day.


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## littlebuddy (May 30, 2007)

djangos 4 in january and he's always eaten 1/2 cup dry food, i leave it out for hiim to graze all day. the bag says much more but he's only 9 lbs and not a big eater.


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## Poornima (Jun 29, 2007)

I can feel Benji's ribs and he tends to regulate himself. He tends to maintain a steady weight too. Lizzie can be a chowhound and I have to monitor her intake. She gets pudgy very quickly and waddles about. :biggrin1:


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## Leslie (Feb 28, 2007)

Tori just turned 5 mos. old and weighs 5.5 lb. She eats 1/3 c. of Nutro Ultra Puppy food in the AM and the same amt. in the PM. She will occasionally leave a bit of food in her bowl, usually from the PM feeding. She's always hungry for breakfast, though. She also gets additional treats (carrots and jerky) when we're training. I forgot to mention she gets 1/2 an egg yolk daily.


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## Wesleysmom (Dec 20, 2007)

OMG! I have a chub! He is 5 months and easily 10 lbs. I have to take him in to weigh him this week for his heartworm meds, but at his visit probably 6 weeks ago he was almost 8 lbs. I wanted a small dog, not my handweights!:jaw:


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## Leslie (Feb 28, 2007)

Lanette~ Believe it or not, Tori is bigger than our Shadow was. At not quite 8 mos. old, Shadow weighed barely 6 lbs!


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## Elaine (Jan 17, 2007)

Lanette,
Don't start comparing his weight to anyone elses. Your little boy may be bigger boned or taller than someone elses puppy. You need to listen to what Kimberly said and make sure you can feel his ribs. I also stopped feeding puppy food a long time ago. You will find it has a lot higher fat content that our dogs really don't need to eat. If your little guy is 9 in. tall and weighs 10 lbs. than you may have an issue but I suggest that you should only being feeding around a cup a day. You can split it into 3 meals for him so he isn't so hungry by night but if he is absolutely starving by the night meal and gobbles his food down it may be that he needs a little more. Good luck and have your vet help you learn how to check the ribs to see if there is a layer of fat showing up where it doesn't belong.


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## Rita (Jan 1, 2007)

Elaine said:


> Lanette,
> Don't start comparing his weight to anyone elses. Your little boy may be bigger boned or taller than someone elses puppy. You need to listen to what Kimberly said and make sure you can feel his ribs.


Elaine is right. You cannot compare.

Houston is 11 lbs and he gets a cup of Pro Plan adult food a day (1/2 morning and 1/2 night). I do change to different choices of pro plan every bag (salmon, chicken & Rice) otherwise he gets board.


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## Lynn (Jan 2, 2007)

Missy is also 5 months old and weighs 6.5 pds. She eats 1/4-1/3 cup 3 times a day of solid gold wet. She doesn't get any treats.... She is also having 1 tbs of yogart a day. She was on Metroz.. for a while so this is working for her really well.


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## DanielBMe (Nov 25, 2007)

Brando is now 6 months old. When I got him at 4 months I was feeding him a cup a day. I would feed him a third in the morning, a third at noon and a third in the evening. It's recommended a puppy eat 3 times a day until he's 6 months old. Although I did switch him to raw at 5 months.

As long as you can feel the ribs when you gently press the body, then you're ok. Keep in mind that when you use the better dog foods that you don't need to use as much since there's less filler and more nutritious ingredients.

You might want to try this site for food recommendations.
http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/ scroll to the bottom and click the review button.

Seem to me this question comes up so much that maybe the link above she be a sticky note or something. It gives a fair and unbiased review of dog foods.


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## lfung5 (Jun 30, 2007)

Wesleysmom said:


> OMG! I have a chub! He is 5 months and easily 10 lbs. I have to take him in to weigh him this week for his heartworm meds, but at his visit probably 6 weeks ago he was almost 8 lbs. I wanted a small dog, not my handweights!:jaw:


Lanette,
I wouldn't worry about the weight thing. My Scudder weighed 9lbs at that age and is not big at all. He has stopped growing now and is 14lbs. He has heavy large bones and is solid muscle. He is only 9.5 inches tall and isn't extra long either. We walked with a 7 month old pup the other day that weighed 8 lbs and Scudder did not look much bigger.


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## Lina (Apr 26, 2007)

I wouldn't worry about weight either, Lanette. Just go by the ribs. Kubrick is about 12.5lbs now at 8 months but he was 9.5lbs at 5 months. He slowed WAY down in growth as he started at 5.75lbs at 3.5 months. He is not by far the biggest Hav I have seen, so weight isn't really a good way to estimate size in this breed.


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## Leslie (Feb 28, 2007)

Lanette~ I agree w/the others, don't worry about his weight. Some grow early, some later, just like children. What matters is, is he healthy?


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## Wesleysmom (Dec 20, 2007)

Healthy as a horse!!!! and happy too!


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