Sorry for the nitpick – her weight might have exasperated you, but it exacerbated the condition.
Feed according to body condition. The quantities on the bag are a good place to start, but you need to monitor how the pup is maintaining weight. Pudgy puppies are not healthy, but nor is a skinny pup.
As others have said, many pups are hungry all the time and will eat until they can’t eat anymore. Then they grow up to be waddling, obese, unhealthy dogs.
Something to be aware of, and maybe you are already as you are feeding multiple small meals, is that small breed dogs are sensitive and susceptible to low blood sugar. Fasting them is not generally a good idea.
One of our dogs always eats like she is starving to death. We measure her food out with a measuring cup and keep an eye on her weight to make sure we’re not giving her too much, otherwise it would be very easy to let her get fat. (It doesn’t help that she’s constantly eating the fruit off the trees during fruit season.)
One tip a dog person gave us that really helps: put some warm water in the dry food. It both slows them down (so the meal isn’t over in two bites) and fills them up without giving them too many calories. And you really can’t give them too much water: our little glutton gets so much the kibble just floats on top.
Dog/Cat Body Condition Scoring. My dogs are 2.5s.
Our dogs eat horseshit. Apparently it’s delish. I can’t wait for the day we have no more horses.
:smack:
Thanks.