Our little Dawson eats twice a day at 7am and again at 7pm.The food is gone in seconds!!! Should I give him tiny treats in between under the guise of training?I will not comfort feed him but I feel blimmin guilty eating near him and go and hide. I will weigh less than him in a fortnight!!!!
Puppies are usually fed four times a day until they are 3 months old, then three times a day until 6 months. You don't necessarily have to feed more, but more frequent smaller feeds are a good idea because their stomachs are so small.
How old is your puppy? We fed ours four meals a day until he was about 4 months. Then 3 meals a day till about 6 months. Puppies need to eat frequently - they're still babies. Even now that Snowie is 5.5 yo, he gets a raw carrot to munch midday if I'm making myself lunch. But I get the guilt of eating in front of the dog!! I feel the same. Sometimes we creep around so that he doesn't wake up while we're taking a snack - oh, the guilt!!
Pongo has always had just two meals a day - that was his breeder's recommendation (we got him aged 10 weeks). Mind you, Pongo has always been a big lad. He also, however, has always had snacks during the day - just a few, and usually during our lunchtime. He certainly considers himself part of the pack and expects to share when we are eating, even if only a few crumbs. And yes, I know this is a bad habit to encourage but....hey.....
We fed Harley 4 meals a day until she was just over 4 months old. On advice of our vet we waited until Harley showed less interest in her midday meals. Harley is not a foodie lab so she did start showing less enthusiam, then we made it 3 meals a day until she was about 6 months and again she showed less interest in the mid day meal. It wasn't like she was ignoring her food but she just wasnt as excited. Now she is 9 months old and eats twice a day with her kibble also used for Kongs and some training.
Yes, agree with the above. Puppies of this age should be on four meals a day. It's far better for them not to overload their tummies. Not only can it lead to gastric distress, it could also increase the risk of bloat, which is a very serious condition that can be life threatening. Absolutely, you can start using treats for training between meals. You can use his kibble at this age if you want - just measure out his daily allowance and take it from that - or introduce other types of foods as treats if you wish. That depends on the puppy; Willow and Shadow were a lot more sensitive and took time to get used to new foods, but my latest puppy has a rock-solid constitution and was eating a wide variety of training morsels from a very young age. Again, you want to make sure they come out of Dawson's food allowance for the day.
Yes, puppies should be on at least three meals a day until 6 months. Mine all started on four meals a day.
Yes the breeder told us two times a day and I trust his wisdom.He impressed upon me the importance of weight control and the negative effect on hips legs etc if they get overweight. Thanks for all your comments they are very valuable and I am going to look very carefully over the next week or two at his needs. That said he sleeps wees poos plays for ten minutes and never whines or seems sad about going 12 hours without.
The same amount of food is split into four meals - it's much better for their tummies. This is our schedule - 'tho most continue on two meals at 12 months and onwards.
I do understand trusting your breeder - you spend a lot of time researching a good one, after all. But some breeders, even brilliant ones, do have some wacky ideas and don't necessarily keep up to date with current research. We do often hear "I've been doing this for 30 years..." etc, but that doesn't mean that it's the right thing to do. After all, a lot has happened in the last thirty years! We can only advise from afar here, and ultimately the decision has to be yours, but as there is absolutely no harm to be done by splitting his allowance up into two more meals, and only positive outcomes (not least, the chance to have twice as many opportunities in the day when he thinks you're absolutely amazing for delivering a bowl of yumminess), then I would strongly recommend you to reconsider. It's likely you'll have no serious problems from continuing to feed him twice a day, but, just like human babies, puppies really do thrive on little and often. What's to lose?
I feed my puppy 3 times a day and have done since we got her at 8 weeks. I used to split her allowance into 3 equal portions and feed at 6 am, 1 pm and 6 pm. I do it differently now as she has 3 kongs between 'meals'. Her small portion lunch and tea kibble are used for training.
Ah Dave, you are so right! I discovered this forum just after Pongo arrived, and there is such a huge amount of knowledge, wisdom and support here - it is a fabulous resource. I was a first-time dog owner and knew absolutely NOTHING despite reading all the right books! I do hope you find it as great a lifeline as I did. Incidentally, I think @snowbunny and others are probably right....although I only gave Pongo two meals a day, I think if I had another puppy (even from the same breeder) I might shift to three or four while he was very little. I can understand the logic of "small tummies" benefitting from small meals.
My pups have always had four small meals per day, up to around four months of age , then three meals up to six months when its dropped to two meals . Having said that, Sam was mortified when I cut out his lunch , so he still has a few biscuits as a token gesture ! I do think its much better for their digestion to have more frequent smaller meals as young pups though x
My Bailey was on four meals a day from 8 weeks old but he never showed much interest in kibble. We kept him on four meals until he was about 6 months old (increased quantity in each feed) as he was more of a grazer. We then went to three meals, then two but he really was never keen on kibble. We swapped to raw feeding when he was 13 months old split into two meals. Breakfast is usually around 7am and then dinner is around 7pm. He does have treats in between times, and he does usually have a corner or two of my sandwich at lunchtime. He does now eat both meals within five minutes, but unless it is a "treat" dinner (when we have a roast chicken he gets his dinner as a roast chicken and veg dinner instead of his raw food) then it is gone in seconds with him pushing the bowl around the kitchen!
I only fed Axel two meals a day and I do wish I had been on the forum then because then I would have known it may have been the reason for his tummy upsets. I think it was just too much for his little tummy. Next time I get a puppy I will do definitely 3 meals a day and maybe even 4. You can be fun with it to by using stuffed frozen kongs. Keeps puppy busy too and gives them lots of fun (and you a bit of a mental break when the crocopup emerges)
My girl had terrible tummy problems which I think would of been worse if she only had 2 meals a day. We started with 4 meals until she was 6 months old - I tried to decrease to 3 meals at 4 months old but her tummy became worse. At 6 months it went to 3 meals, then at a year old to 2 meals. She has frozen kongs through the day so her 'meals' are smaller to compensate for this
