Original August 2002, Revised September 2009
Proper diet decisions are important to ensure the puppy's nutritional needs are met since this can have a big impact on its growth and development. Adhering to a sensible feeding program is essential to provide a good start nutritionally for your puppy.
Puppies Have Special Nutritional Needs
Your puppy has a lot of growing to do. The nutrients to support its growth and development are greater than those of an adult dog. For the first few weeks after a puppy is weaned, it requires about twice the amount of nutrients per pound of body weight as it will when it becomes an adult.
As you feed your puppy, you need to supply all the body building nutrients it requires to grow and develop: protein for strong muscles, calcium for strong bones and teeth, iron for healthy blood and enough calories for all the energy a puppy burns.
Most puppies are ready to be weaned when they are six weeks old. If they have started to eat solid foods from their mother's dish, it is not unusual for them to wean themselves at about four to five weeks of age.
A dry puppy food should be fed moistened during the first few weeks after weaning to encourage adequate food intake. Thoroughly mix one part warm water to three parts dry puppy food. This makes the food tastier and easier for the puppy to eat. Allow no more than one hour for the puppy to eat at each meal. Moistened dry food or canned food left at room temperature can become unpalatable and may spoil if left out for several hours.
The Feeding Schedule
Small breed puppies should be fed at least three times a day and medium and large breed puppies twice daily until their food requirements, per pound of body weight, begin to level off as they mature. The feeding schedule for small breeds can be reduced to twice a day when they are four to five months old and once a day when they are eight to nine months old. Feeding some large and giant breeds twice a day throughout their life is appropriate.
At about four months of age, your puppy's temporary puppy teeth will fall out and gradually be replaced by permanent teeth. At this time the water used to moisten the dry puppy food can be reduced or gradually eliminated. You can continue to serve the food moistened if you prefer. However, you should consider the role a dry diet plays in dental health. The chewing action employed by a dog acts as a toothbrush to help keep its teeth clean. Feeding a dry puppy food is usually more convenient and generally costs less per serving than other types of foods.
The recommended daily amount on a package is a guide to help you determine the amount of food to feed your puppy. However, puppies are individuals. The amount of food needed by your puppy will vary depending upon its size, activity, metabolism and environment.
Establishing Good Eating Habits
As you feed your puppy, you are establishing its eating habits. Feeding your puppy in the same place and at the same time(s) to aid in housebreaking is recommended.
Although feeding a puppy in the evening helps quiet it for the night, it tends to make it more inclined to urinate or defecate. A morning feeding gives a puppy the opportunity to urinate or defecate before you leave for work or begin your morning chores.
Family members should avoid offering your puppy food from the table. This may lead to digestive upsets and create a finicky eater. It may also lead to your puppy's begging or even stealing food from the table.
Never feed your puppy real bones which could splinter and injure the throat or digestive tract. Or the bone could become lodged in the puppy's throat causing it to choke.
Let Your Puppy Finish Growing Up
Puppies continue to mature until they are about one year of age for smaller breeds and about 15 to 18 months for some larger breeds. Even though your puppy may appear fully grown before it is a year old, it is still developing inside and needs the nutrition of a specially formulated puppy food.
Monitoring your puppy's body condition to prevent its becoming overweight is important. Calories from protein, fat and carbohydrates in a puppy's diet provide energy for the active puppy. Calories not utilized for energy generally become deposited as fat. Current research indicates that excessive caloric intake leads to excess body weight which may result in improper development in puppies.
Achieving Normal Development
Research from several sources in the United States and Sweden indicates that controlled calorie intake can be beneficial and aid in the development of large breed puppies.
When controlling caloric intake, a nutritionally complete and balanced diet must be fed; there must be no malnutrition and calories are restricted to help a puppy maintain a slim, trim body condition.
If you wish to feed your puppy in a way to provide the best possible health, follow these recommendations:
- Select a nutritionally complete and balanced diet formulated for puppies;
- Avoid using calcium, phosphorus and vitamin D supplements in conjunction with nutritionally complete and balanced diets unless directed by a veterinarian;
- Control food intake to help keep your growing puppy slender.
Two Studies Show Supplements Are Unnecessary
Feeding nutritional supplements in addition to a good quality nutritionally complete and balanced puppy food is not necessary, unless recommended by a veterinarian as a medical necessity.
In a study at the Purina Technology Center, researchers examined the effect of adding a vitamin supplement to Purina Puppy Chow. Labrador retriever puppy littermates were studied from the time they were weaned until they were one year old. No difference in the measurable growth factor or general body condition was observed between the two groups of puppies.
In another study at the Purina Technology Center, an excess of vitamin-mineral supplementation was provided to growing puppies being fed a complete and balanced diet. After 10 weeks of feeding, the function of their immune systems was examined using blood tests that were done in a specialized laboratory.
The results of the tests were compared to those of littermate puppies fed the same diet but not given any supplementation. No differences were found between the two groups of puppies, indicating that the supplementation offered no physiological, growth or health advantage.
Maintaining Mineral Balance
One of the most common and potentially harmful forms of supplementation involves the minerals calcium and phosphorus. Too much or too little calcium in your puppy's diet may result in bone abnormalities. Too little calcium along with low levels of phosphorus and vitamin D may result in rickets, soft bones that bend out of shape under the animal's weight.
Some puppy owners provide excessive calcium in the diets of puppies, particularly large breeds, which may cause skeletal abnormalities. If your puppy is being fed a nutritionally complete and balanced puppy food, it will be getting all the calcium it needs.
Mineral nutrients are interrelated and cannot be considered as single elements. Calcium and phosphorus have a definite relationship in the formation of bones and teeth, provided a proper ratio is maintained. Too much or too little of either mineral is likely to interfere with the utilization of the other by the puppy.
The Role of Vitamin D
The absorption of calcium and phosphorus into the bones and teeth requires a sufficient amount of vitamin D in the diet. Vitamin D requirements of puppies are influenced by the levels of calcium and phosphorus in the diet. Excessive amounts of vitamin D may be toxic to a puppy.
Important Caution
How you play with your puppy also affects its bone growth. Rough play may strain developing bones and should be avoided. Gentle play helps strengthen its muscles and ligaments.
Water Is Essential
Fresh drinking water in a clean bowl should be available to your puppy at all times. Water is a needed nutrient. It is the most important nutrient for survival on a short-term basis and one that is too often neglected. Water plays a part in virtually every function of your puppy's body.
Place your puppy's water dish next to its food dish for convenience. Even if Puppy Chow is fed moistened, your puppy still needs fresh water daily.
Diet and Diarrhea
Puppies sometimes experience diarrhea and owners tend to believe diet is the cause. The truth is diarrhea can be the result of a variety of causes including viral or bacterial infections or parasites. Larvae of roundworms or hookworms may be passed through the mother's milk to the puppy. This can happen when the female is not wormed prior to breeding. Sometimes puppies may be infected with the parasite coccidia. Providing a sanitary environment for the mother and puppies is the best prevention.
Some breeds, like German shepherd dogs and Siberian huskies, tend to have soft stools. Occasionally the problem is not breed-specific, but specific to a particular dog and does not relate to digestive disturbance or illness.
Sudden diet changes may cause diarrhea and vomiting. Any diet change should be made gradually over a seven to ten day period. Add a small amount of the new diet to the food you are presently feeding. Each day increase this amount and decrease the amount of the present diet until the changeover is complete.
Supplementing a puppy's diet with meat or baby food may not provide all the nutrients a puppy needs. Fed consistently, these supplemental foods may upset the nutritional balance of the puppy food and cause diarrhea and/or vomiting.
Although it is not necessary, milk can be a useful food for newly weaned puppies and may be used to moisten the dry food. However, too much milk can act as a laxative and cause digestive problems.
If diarrhea and/or vomiting persists, your veterinarian should be consulted.
The Safety Margin
Some puppy owners wonder if certain ingredients in a puppy food are lost during processing and shelf life of the product. The manufacturer who produces high quality pet foods maintains a safety margin of essential nutrients in the product formulation to compensate for any loss during normal processing and storage. These levels are not high enough to create any kind of nutrient toxicity. A puppy owner may destroy this safety margin by continual supplementation of certain vitamins.
A Feeding Time Bonus
You can provide the nutrition your puppy needs by the food you choose and the feeding habits you establish for your puppy.
Making feeding time a happy experience for your puppy aids in socializing your newcomer. Considerable puppy-owner bonding can occur through positive feeding experiences.
Feeding can also be an aid in training your puppy. As you place its food dish on the floor, give the command, 'Come,' preceded by the name you have chosen for your puppy. This introduces your puppy to an obedience command and also helps teach it to respond to its name.
Factors for Success with Your Puppy
Genetics, care and nutrition are the key factors influencing the development of your puppy. Because the genetic potential is determined at conception, it cannot be changed. Controlling the other two factors is your responsibility.
The proper care for your puppy includes clean, comfortable housing, regular veterinary visits for vaccinations, parasite checks and physical examinations; proper grooming and adequate obedience or behavior training.
In training your puppy, remember the three P's: patience, persistence and praise.
Evaluating A Puppy's Body Condition
Thin Puppy: Ribs may be visible with no palpable fat. Pelvic bones becoming prominent. Obvious waist and abdominal tuck.
Fat Puppy: Ribs palpable with heavy fat cover. Fat deposits over vertebrae and base of tail. Waist absent or barely visible. Abdominal tuck may be absent.
Ideal Puppy: Ribs palpable without excess fat covering. Abdomen tucked up.
