The food that puppies get when they are young plays a very important role in their health when they are older. A puppy that is well nourished, with a balanced diet, will grow into a healthy adult with strong bones and teeth. It is also in puppy hood that fussiness becomes established so now is the time to introduce good eating habits. Please Contact Us for advice on diets that correctly suit your pups through the weaning period.

Feeding Plan

Weaning to three months: Four meals daily.

We recommend the Hill’s Puppy Healthy Development. It can be steeped in cooled boiled water for the first number of weeks but once they are 3 months old it can be fed dry with plenty of available clean water close by.

3 – 6 MONTHS: (9 MONTHS IN LARGE BREEDS) Three meals daily.

6 – 12 MONTHS: Two meals daily.

Adult:

One or two meals daily. Very large and very small dogs are best fed twice daily but for most dogs a single meal daily is fine, usually in the evening because this suits most people but if another time suits you this is fine. We recommend feeding a complete balanced dry diet.

ALL DOGS OF ALL AGES SHOULD HAVE CONSTANT ACCESS TO A BOWL OF CLEAN FRESH DRINKING WATER

How much should you feed?

This will obviously vary a lot from dog to dog because of differences in size, rate of growth, level of activity, sex, breed etc. However it is hard to overfeed a growing puppy so generally give them as much as they eat in a ten minute period at each of the main meals. As time goes on if the seem to be getting too fat on this amount reduce it a little; if they are staying a bit thin, increase it a little. This may seem too simple but it really is as easy as that – continue like this throughout a dogs life and you will not go wrong.

A few words about dog foods.

As with many other things, with dog food you get what you pay for. Better quality dog foods use better ingredients, the food is more digestible and you will need to find less food to satisfy your dogs requirements. It is well worth buying the best and the difference in price is very little compared to the difference in quality.

Tinned foods have not been mentioned in this plan not because there is anything wrong with them but because they are expensive – you can feed a top quality dried food for what it would cost to feed a poor quality tinned one. Also dried food is better for dogs teeth and also has more fibre which is good for their digestion. There is less tendency for overweight in dogs fed dried food.

Please Contact Us if you require any samples of food or if you have any queries on Nutrition.