I have a 5 month old maltese puppy. I am feeding him with Royal Canin brand dry food, because that’s what the breeder was feeding him with before I got him.
The puppy is currently 1.9 kilos and expected to reach about 2.5 kilos adult weight. If I am reading the label correctly
I should be giving him a total of 55 grams of food, split in three portions throughout the day.
Yet the puppy seems hungry with that amount. He empties his plate in seconds and then turns to me like he’s asking for more. I gave in and gave him another portion and he ate that too.
That is a really confusing feeding-regimen label. It recommends feeding a pup less at 10 months of age than at 5 months. How’s that meant to work?? Surely as the doggy gets bigger and older, his appetite should increase, yes?
Now IANAVet, but perhaps you should jump onto one of the mad animal-lover messageboards to ask the same question? My personal thing with doggies is to allow them to eat whatever they like in one sitting (with a few tid-bits during the day as well). I’ve never had an obese or otherwise unhealthy dog.
When we had kittens that age, the vet told us to ignore what the can said and just feed on demand. I don’t have experience with puppies, but I would definitely check with your vet. The label on the food can/bag, in my experience, is often wrong for an individual animal’s situation.
Our 8-year old Golden is at her recommended weight, and gets her recommended diet - and she always seems hungry also. If we fed her what she wants she’d be a fat Golden. Dogs are descended from wolves, and we all know about how hungry wolves are. Plus, dogs have evolved to know how to push our buttons for feeding.
Since when we raised her Guide Dog rules were no treats, we never gave her treats on walks. But fellow dog people do give her treats now she is retired, and she remembers each one and is right there saying I love you, feed me.
I recommend doing that the vet says tracking weight just in case, and getting a hard heart, since that is the only way to train a dog.
Yeah, but Labs are notorious gutses. Way different to a Maltese terrier…having lived with both breeds, I can assure you that it is really HARD to over-feed a Maltese. Fucken fussy buggers they are…either the food is served too early/late, or the bowl is in a slightly different position, or you haven’t said ‘Please eat your dinner’ with the right inflection.
Labs and Golden Retrievers? ***“OOOOOH, FOOOD, GULP”. “That was my entree, where’s the mains??” ***
It’s hard to overfeed a small-breed pup at that age. All that energy requires a lot of fuel! Try increasing the food just a bit (say 25%) and see if the li’l hound is satisfied. You can also try feeding a greater amount just twice a day. All my tiny dogs—I’ve had several—have been raised with free feeding, and I’ve never had an obese dog. You might want to try that. Also be sure that your pup has access to a tough chew toy and adequate fresh water.
BTW, how dare you post a pic of the food label and not a pic of the puppy? :dubious:
IME, puppies and kittens eat more for their size than adults - they’re growing and active and need more calories than you might find on a weight chart. I would feed on demand up to 8 to 10 months and then assess weight in regards to what that size dog should weigh as an adult. A small breed dog should be darned close to full adult weight before a year of age.
At any rate, here’s a weight guide. Assessing body score is probably a better way to make sure your dog is within proper weight limits, rather than trying to feed by weight for a growing puppy that should be still gaining weight weekly. You could feed according to ideal adult weight if you really need a number for your daily top feeding limit, and if he doesn’t eat it all that’s just fine. He will also grow in spurts, so will be hungrier some days/weeks more than others.
Once your veterinarian assesses that your dog is at his fully-grown stage and (hopefully) at a proper weight, you can ask him/her to calculate a calorie range to which you should feed for the remainder of your dog’s young to middle-aged adult life. The range will depend on his activity levels and stage of life. You can then check whatever food you’re feeding for its calorie content and measure accordingly.
Right now, as a growing puppy, I would tend to let him eat what he wants unless he starts to get really fat, I haven’t really seen that happen until they’re over a year old, though.
Some dogs eat to live, others live to eat, sounds like your little guy is the latter. I would not get into the habit of feeding him too much because you feel sorry for him. Learn to access his weight…puppies will eat more during growth spurts and that’s OK but don’t get in the habit of overfeeding or giving in to his demands otherwise you could end up with a fat adult dog.
Growing puppies eat as much or more while growing as they will as an adult, but mealtimes are more frequent. I’ve had a few dogs in my life that I believe would eat until they exploded, given access to enough food so I’m not a fan of “free feeding” (especially since I always have multiple dogs) although it works fine for many.
How is he doing? I remember your thread when you got him…has he come out of his shell now?
First, at five months of age, your dog is going through puberty/sexual maturity and sometimes there is an accompanying increase in appetite. If the dog hasn’t been spayed/neutered, that should be done soon.
Second, in a number of health/longevity studies done in the dog, slightly under feeding is preferable to over feeding.
Third, it is a good to avoid making food a big deal to the dog. I keep our three dogs at their desired weight. I feed a high quality diet, but I avoid predictability in feeding. Over the course of a month, they get the calories needed to maintain weight, but each day there is some variability including short fasts.
Fourth, all calories fed in a day should be considered. High quality treats (I cook turkey liver and feed small portions as treats) are an idea for in between meals.
Oh, and since this is a new dog, consider food time a god time for obedience work. Our dogs have to sit/stay while the bowls are being placed into position. Also I interrupt them eating, remove food from the dish, etc to avoid any kind of food related aggression.
Also, there is no rule that an adult dog needs to eat precisely x amount for every meal. I’ve noticed my “live to eat” dogs have been quite satisfied after a very large meal (happy protein-coma nap!), so they may get a humungous meal, followed by a couple of “snack-type” meals the next two times I feed them.
Balance over time, and as long as they’re getting what they need and maintaining a good, lean weight, it’s all good.
I’d say your question is one for the vet. The first time I took my Bichon to the vet, she said he was 1.5 pounds overweight (don’t I wish I could say that!). She asked what brand of food we fed him, and we told her. She looked up the calorie level for that food, and the recommended intake for our age/size/breed, and told us to feed him one third of a cup twice a day. We did, and he’s been spot-on his target weight ever since.
Cheezus, thank you! But now that we’ve gotten to the important part, aww, what an adorable little fuzzball. Sorry, I have no advice to contribute. I just saw a thread about a puppy and opened it because I wanted to see pictures.
You should have seen here when she was pregnant. 2 cups of food three times a day. We hosted a Golden stud from Down Under who was picky - but we were told that he got to eat raw meat, as much as he wanted, at home, so our dry food was no match for that.
But we’ve never owned a picky dog, so free feeding has never been an option for us.
ZOMG WHO’S A GOOD BOY?!?!?!?!
Re: food … my Jackabee has acted like he’s never been fed since the day we got him; he’d eat until his tummy exploded if we let him. As long as yours isn’t losing weight or otherwise acting sickly I wouldn’t change anything.
He may well be heading into a growth spurt at his age. Also, young puppies do play a lot, thus burning calories.
If he’s finishing his meals that fast and asking for more, he very likely needs it. I don’t think in metric, so did the conversion, and you’re giving him less than 2 OUNCES of food a day? That does not sound adequate to me (my 12-lb. full-grown cat eats more than that, and is NOT overweight). I seriously dispute that chart on the bag, especially with feeding the dog less as he/she matures. That just doesn’t even make sense.
Anecdote: We have two dogs, an Olde English Bulldogge (I hate the spelling of that) and a pug. The pug could free feed all he wanted and stay the same weight. In fact, when we put food out, he might eat then, he might wait til later or just skip the meal altogether. He stays at a healthy weight. The OEB on the other hand was 35 lbs at 3 months, 70 lbs at 6 months, and at 9 months she was 90 lbs. The vet became concerned about this weight spike, but the dog seemed happy and hungry. At a year, she started sitting more, not really interested in walking and in fact, would sit down a half a block away from home. After taking her to the vet, she weighed 105 lbs, she was almost a year old, and has congenital hip dysplasia. Her weight was exasperating the condition.
Fast forward 6 months later. She’s off of her expensive prescription diet food, her Rimadyl dosage is cut in half. She’s also now running around the house, happy to go on long walks, and drools. A lot now. She’s terribly hungry at 75 lbs and she didn’t drool when she was free-fed. We even had to move the pug’s food to a place she can’t get to it or else she’d eat his. The vet doesn’t believe she’ll need the expensive hip surgery anymore as long as we keep her at this weight.
Anecdotally, I don’t know if the pug’s ileum give off more peptide YY than the OEB’s. Or if their leptide level is the same. I am not a vet. But I do know that with the knowledge of our vet that our dog’s life because of the diet is greatly improved.
I would not get into the habit of feeding him too much because you feel sorry for him. Learn to access his weight…puppies will eat more during growth spurts and that’s OK but don’t get in the habit of overfeeding or giving in to his demands otherwise you could end up with a fat adult dog.