How much & How often

[rana]

Hi,

My puppy is 4 months old. We have been feeding her 1 cup in the morning and 1 cup in the evening, but still she keeps on roaming around my wife for more food, only to her. She feeds her in the morning and I feed her in the evening.

Is it enough? or are we starving her! Some say just leave the food out as a buffet and they can eat whenever they are hungry! We only feed her kibbles. she is around 25/28lbs now. Occasionally she gets apples and carrots as well to chew on.

[jessi76]

what type of dog? different breeds have different nutritional requirements.

for example, when 4 mths old, my dog (basenji-X) was fed 2x a day (although we initially tried 3x - breakfast, lunch, dinner) my dog never liked to eat in the mornings though, so we cut him back to just 2 meals a day plus whatever we used for training treats. Now my dog is 3yrs old, and only eats one meal a day - kibble mixed w/ a couple tablespoons of quality wet food or homecooked food (in addition to a few daily treats).

You can add more food in a different way, other than kibble in a bowl. i.e. - make the pup a puppy KONG. you can layer in all sorts of good stuff - kibble included. the KONG company has recipes that come with the KONG toys, and they have recipes on their website.

[bendyfoot]

I'm not a fan of free-feeding at all. A lot of dogs will overeat, and you don't have any clue how much they're eating during the day.

Every dog is going to need a different amount of food. The directions on the bag are a very good starting point, but you have to adjust up or down depending on the dog's body condition. For example, we have two dogs about 55 lbs each...one eats 1.5 cups a day, the other eats 3 cups a day.

When you have a pup, it's a little different, because a pup's body condition will be a bit different from an adult...it's ok for them to be a little on the softer side. What breed is she? Puppies also have smaller tummies than adult dogs and often do better on 3-4 smaller meals a day rather than 1 or 2. I'd probably start with changing the frequency of the meals before adjusting the amount of food you're giving.