Puppies grow incredibly fast and it is very important to closely monitor this growth and adjust their feeding appropriately. Your puppy should gain weight at a nice steady pace; they should be nicely covered but never fat! This is especially important in larger breed puppies as we need to guard against any unnecessary strain on the growing bones and joints.
Many skeletal disorders are caused by inappropriate diet and excessive feeding at a young age, so the quantity of food given has an important role in helping to avoid such things as hip dysplasia.
Feeding guidelines for puppies
Growing puppies have significantly increased nutritional demands over Adult dogs in terms of the percentage of food fed by weight.
We recommend feeding:
- A daily intake of 5% - 8% of your puppy’s weight, across four meals a day, till they are four months of age.
- A daily intake of 5% - 8% of your puppy’s weight, across three meals a day, till they are 6 months.
- A daily intake of 5% - 8% of your puppy’s weight, across 2 meals a day, till they are 1 year old.
- From 1 year old, in terms of feeding, you should move your puppy onto the adult feeding plan.
Smaller breed puppies generally require a higher percentage within the suggested range than larger breeds. For example, an 8-week old Bichon Frise weighing 2kg would require approximately 7% of their total bodyweight; working out to ~140g a day, across four meals. However, an 8-week old Rhodesian Ridgeback weighing 8kg would require approximately 6% which would equate to ~480g per day.
It is important to remember that as your puppy grows so does their daily intake. So for our Rhodesian Ridgeback above, when they weigh 9kg, their daily intake would increase to 540g per day.
No supplementation of calcium is required when using this method of feeding, Wolf Tucker is nutritionally balanced and provides everything growing puppies need, naturally.
Pick from the Puppy range from the site or take advantage of the “Elka Puppy Pack” where we’ve picked a balanced selection for you.
You can start introducing some of the Adult range of foods once your puppy reaches their “Junior” stage from about 9 months; always aim to provide variety in your dog’s diet. Keep the variety of proteins in the regime and work with the higher percentage until puppy reaches approximately a year old or has finished growing then reduce to 3% intake to total bodyweight. This can be further reduced to 2% if required.
Feeding Bones to Puppies
Many owners are fearful at the thought of introducing bones to puppies but actually this is an ideal time to encourage these instinctive skills. A raw feeding breeder will have hopefully introduced things such as chicken wings, ribs and carcass to puppies as young as three weeks of age. At this time they are very much interested in their new play things and although their jaws may not be strong enough to crush the bones they are learning valuable lessons for later on.
By seven weeks of age most puppies will now have strong enough jaws to enable them to crush and chew soft raw bones; they are well on their way to a time when they can consume a raw meaty bone with ease.
From around 12 weeks of age a puppy will begin teething; bones and carcasses are a wonderful aid to relieve teething by massaging sore gums and helping puppy to cut those teeth.
Puppy raw feeding quantities chart
Use the chart below to calculate how much raw food to feed your puppy for a given weight and age.
|
Weight of Dog (Kg) |
Puppy | |||
| Feed 5% - 8% of Bodyweight | ||||
| Age: 0 - 4 months | Age: 4 - 6 months | Age: 6 - 12 months | Daily Intake | |
| 4 meals of | 3 meals of | 2 meals of | ||
| 2 | 25 - 40 | 33 - 53 | 50 - 80 | 100 - 160 |
| 3 | 38 - 60 | 50 - 80 | 75 - 120 | 150 - 240 |
| 4 | 50 - 80 | 67 - 107 | 100 - 160 | 200 - 320 |
| 5 | 63 - 100 | 83 - 133 | 125 - 200 | 250 - 400 |
| 6 | 75 - 120 | 100 - 160 | 150 - 240 | 300 - 480 |
| 7 | 88 - 140 | 117 - 187 | 175 - 280 | 350 - 560 |
| 8 | 100 - 160 | 133 - 213 | 200 - 320 | 400 - 640 |
| 9 | 113 - 180 | 150 - 240 | 225 - 360 | 450 - 720 |
| 10 | 125 - 200 | 167 - 267 | 250 - 400 | 500 - 800 |
| 11 | 138 - 220 | 183 - 293 | 275 - 440 | 550 - 880 |
| 12 | 150 - 240 | 200 - 320 | 300 - 480 | 600 - 960 |
| 13 | 163 - 260 | 217 - 347 | 325 - 520 | 650 - 1040 |
| 14 | 175 - 280 | 233 - 373 | 350 - 560 | 700 - 1120 |
| 15 | 188 - 300 | 250 - 400 | 375 - 600 | 750 - 1200 |
| 20 | 250 - 400 | 333 - 533 | 500 - 800 | 1000 - 1600 |
| 25 | 313 - 500 | 417 - 667 | 625 - 1000 | 1250 - 2000 |
| 30 | 375 - 600 | 500 - 800 | 750 - 1200 | 1500 - 2400 |
| 35 | 438 - 700 | 583 - 933 | 875 - 1400 | 1750 - 2800 |
| 40 | 500 - 800 | 667 - 1067 | 1000 - 1600 | 2000 - 3200 |
| 45 | 563 - 900 | 750 - 1200 | 1125 - 1800 | 2250 - 3600 |
| 50 | 625 - 1000 | 833 - 1333 | 1250 - 2000 | 2500 - 4000 |
| Quantities in grams | ||||
