Amount of puppy food

[puppy4ever]

I have been feeding my puppy food based on how hungry he seems and not what the package said (I'll be honest, the package was too confusing for me!) When I finally took out the calculator, I discovered I am feeding my puppy 3 times more than the package says to give him!

The strange thing is that I don't think he is fat at all. He also seems to want even more after every meal and eats everything in less than 5 minutes. What's going on here? Is he is hyper because he is trying to work off those extra calories? Should I cut back to 1/3 of what I have been feeding him?

[StaceyB]

First have him checked for worms. If he is clear it may be that he is not satisfied after each meal. If he doesn't get enough at each meal he will take every opportunity to eat more when given the chance and in the end may end up eating too much. It doesn't have to be off by much, it could be 1/8 cup. How quickly does he eat, does he chew.

[Puppyluv]

WHen you say its three times what the package says, do you mean the amount that an adult dog that weighs the same as your puppy should eat? Or do you mean for an actual puppy of his weight? Becuase if it's the former, than it's ok, because puppies need 2-3 times what an adult of equal weight needs.

[Prin]

It also would depend on how much the dog is absorbing. Is the stool small and firm or huge and loose? Huge and loose means the food is not being digested either because it's not great quality or because you are feeding too much.

The bag is a guide, but every dog is different. It's basically trial and error. You should get the doggy checked to see if he has any parasites that might be sharing his food...

[StaceyB]

What kind of food is your puppy on?

[puppy4ever]

Thanks - you guys are fast!

He was on Nutram before but his stools were very loose (not fun to get out of the grass!), he was smelly and had gas so I switched to Purina One growth and development to try it out as it was free and looked decent from the ingredients. His stools are a little firmer now but I might try something for a sensitive system soon.

I won't even go into the Nutram package as it was far to complicated for me to understand Kg to Lb, grams into cup, etc.! I also don't know on that package if they meant puppies or full grown dogs. The Purina One package says 1/2 - 1 cup per day for dogs upto 50 lbs. (don't think he will be more than this) for fully grown..then weaning to 3 months. I wonder if I am supposed to multiply that for a puppy, Puppyluv? I've been feeding him about 4 cups a day! These calculations are driving me crazy!

He wolfs down the food fast. I used to take it away from him after 5 minutes to show him who was boss but I stopped because I didn't want to encourage him eating so fast. I often put his food in a big kong now so he eats slower (hoping for less gas).

He had worms before but got his 4th treatment a week ago (first 2 didn't work when he was a baby) so that should be fine unless he ate his stool or something. I really hope that isn't the case.

I'm not really sure what puppy stool should look like. He did have yellowish mucousy pudding/liquid like stool a while back...I think this was because of the worms (I found a long roundworm in his stool about a month ago) and the food. Now it looks more brown but there is about 1 cup to 1 1/2 cups as a guess but I have problems estimating that kind of thing. It also isn't as firm as I think it should be. Should a person be able to pick it up easily out of grass?

[TobsterMom]

Is it a puppy formula food?

[Puppyluv]

Originally Posted by puppy4ever

The Purina One package says 1/2 - 1 cup per day for dogs upto 50 lbs. (don't think he will be more than this) for fully grown..then weaning to 3 months. I wonder if I am supposed to multiply that for a puppy, Puppyluv? I've been feeding him about 4 cups a day! These calculations are driving me crazy!

Usually, the 1/2-1 cup a day would be for an adult dog <50 lbs, so your dog should be getting 1.5-3 cups a day, split between 3 meals. That's at least how all the foods I have used have been, and I imagine that Purina One is the same.
BTW how ols is he right now?

Originally Posted by puppy4ever

I'm not really sure what puppy stool should look like. He did have yellowish mucousy pudding/liquid like stool a while back...I think this was because of the worms (I found a long roundworm in his stool about a month ago) and the food. Now it looks more brown but there is about 1 cup to 1 1/2 cups as a guess but I have problems estimating that kind of thing. It also isn't as firm as I think it should be. Should a person be able to pick it up easily out of grass?

Stool should be farely solid and compact, a medium brown in colour, and should be farely easily removed from grass.

[buffytwin]

I don't know if this will help, and I'm not trainer or specialist, but might help... We just bought a boxer puppy, he's 10 weeks old now and have had him since 8 weeks. We took him to the vet just the other day for his regular vaccinations and of course had about 20 questions for our vet on different things, one being his food. We feed him Technical Puppy Food, and we were worried we weren't giving him enough b/c he would eat it sooo fast, and once even choked while eating it. So that super worried us. When we asked the vet she said what we were giving him was perfect, and every dog is different so its hard to go by the package. She said she has a huge dog (can't remember what he was) and she said him even being an adult doesn't get more then a cup of food at each feeding, twice a day. Where if you look at the package and if you went by it you would be feeding your dog about 4 cups by the time he's a year old. She said that would be too much. She said the fact that he eats so fast just tells her that he's a very healthy puppy, and that its good that he wants to eat his food, even if its that fast. She told us that just because he eats it fast doesn't mean he's not being satisfied, it just means he enjoys his food. She said if the choking concerns us, we can spread his feeding out more, and feed him 3 times a day rather then twice, but to still feed him the same total amount. Or she said to give him some of his food throughout the day in his Kong... So I don't know if that helps you, but hope it works out for you!

[puppy4ever]

The Purina One fomula is indeed a puppy formula. Our puppy is about 13 weeks...the puppy food bag says:

Upto 50 lbs: weaning - 3 months: 1/2 - 1 cup
4-5 months: 1 1/4-1 3/4 cup

I'm not even sure how we are supposed to know how big he will get because he is a mutt but between 35 - 50 lbs. is a guess. He is now 20 lbs.

Buffytwin - that is really reassuring about what the vet said! Nice to know that I'm not starving him and eating fast is a good sign. One thing that I do find that is very handy with my puppy loving food so much is that ordinary kibble is enough to motivate him for training even though peanut butter and liver are prefered.

[TobsterMom]

My dog (when he was a puppy) would eat anything you put in front of him...and fast. Puppies don't generally know when they are full. We had one puppy in our puppy class who was baby-gated in the bathroom, the owners had the bag of food in a cabinet that they figure they left open, and he gorged until he threw up!

I would say that feeding a bit extra won't hurt, but 3X the recommended amount seems alot to me. My dog would eat until he hacked out kibble, he didn't even chew half the time. What I did was feed him a handful of food from my hands, and then let him have the other half in his dish, it really worked for me!