Raw Feeding Guide for Puppies

It is a well-known fact that raw feeding promotes excellent health, a happy disposition and longevity. Raw feeding allows you to be in control of what goes into your dog and therefore you can avoid harmful additives, preservatives and process’s that are detrimental to the health of a dog.   

Along with the complete food your puppy has been eating, he may have experienced small bones, such as chicken wings, lamb ribs and marrow bones. These are not so much to feed them on at this young age but to encourage their natural skills; pulling, stretching, gnawing, tearing and ripping at the bone. They offer your puppy stimulation and gentle exercise. The bones also provide relief for teething puppies, massaging sore gums. As your puppy grows their bone will become a ‘natural’ toothbrush! 

As an adult, your dog can be offered soft bones as a meal replacement (both puppies and adults should be supervised with their bones).

Our meals are suitable for both adult and puppy dogs

Your puppy has been fed a combination of chicken/bone, beef and tripe based meals. Both have added vegetables, fruit and parsley, plus some other natural additives, flax oil and organic sea kelp. We have a specially designed variety pack for puppies. It is important to provide a variety of the meals/proteins to ensure you are achieving a balanced diet. As your puppy has grown, the size of the mince meal provided has increased, starting off first as a blended consistency and now ground to a manageable consistency for their age. All Wolf Tucker food is hand made by us to ensure everything that we do is correct. We make the food in batches and, unlike other manufacturers, we do not mass produce. Because we are using raw meat, it is especially important that correct preparation is used to minimise the risk of harmful bacteria, for this reason our meals are frozen at an extremely low temperature, something that can only be carried out in commercial freezers, making correctly prepared raw feeding much safer than homemade diets. We are DEFRA approved and follow their strict guidelines with regards to raw food.

Feed your puppy 4 meals a day up until he is four months of age this can then be reduced to three meals a day then 2 meals from 6 months onwards. Begin by feeding 5% - 8% of his body weight per day split between the meals. This amount will increase as he grows, you will need to have him weighed regularly and continue to feed him on this method. Alternate the chicken and beef mixes.

Smaller breed puppies generally require a higher percentage than larger breeds. For example an 8 week old Bichon Frise weighing 2kg would require approximately 7% of his total body weight = 140g per day spilt between his four meals. Whereas a 8 week old Rhodesian Ridgeback weighing approximately 8kg would require approximately 6% which would equate to 480g per day. It is important to remember that as your puppy grows so indeed does his daily intake. So for example once your puppy Rhodesian Ridgeback weighs 9kg is daily intake would increase to 540g per day. Your puppy should gain weight at a nice steady pace; he should be nicely covered but not fat! This is especially important in larger breed puppies; we do not want any unnecessary strain on growing bones and joints. Many skeletal disorders are caused by inappropriate diet and feeding so we can help to avoid such conditions as hip dysplasia.

No supplementation of calcium is required when using this method of feeding. Once your puppy reaches his junior stage at around 9 months you can introduce him to the Wolf Tucker Adult range, 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 body weight. This can be further reduced to 2% if required.

We recommend feeding:

1. A daily intake of 5% - 8% of your puppy’s weight, across four meals a day, until they are four months of age.
2. A daily intake of 5% - 8% of your puppy’s weight, across three meals a day, until they are 6 months.
3. A daily intake of 5% - 8% of your puppy’s weight, across 2 meals a day, until they are 1 year old.
4. From 1 year old, in terms of feeding, you should move your puppy onto the adult feeding plan.

You can use our calculator to easily calculate your pup's daily requirement

Use the chart below to calculate how much raw food to feed your puppy for a given weight and age.

Should you feel that raw feeding is not for you then please introduce an alternative gradually, your puppy’s digestive system has only known raw feeding so you will need to be careful not to cause any upsets. Other food’s that compliment Wolf Tucker are scrambled eggs (made with goat’s milk), Goats milk and natural yoghurt. Your product will be in a frozen state when you receive it, it should be defrosted either in your refrigerator or at room temperature. It will happily keep in your fridge for up to 3 days.

Keep in mind Wolf Tucker is raw meat so precautions should be taken to ensure the hygiene of work surfaces etc.

For new puppy owners that are overseas, please ensure you start your puppy off with a suitable alternative (being ideally a raw food)