So you want a puppy part 2 (diet)
Continuing on from my previous post, here’s some more info about diet.
Diet
How much food?
There’s a formula that a friend had given me to figure out how much I should be feeding Murdoch as per the ideal size/weight. This is not an exact science (for us) and every dog’s needs are different. Other factors such as how often they get exercise, type of food, etc. also play into how much you should feed them.
Feeding amount formula I follow:
- 30(kg)+70 then times the answer by 1.6
- Murdoch is about 30 lbs which is 13.61 kg
Therefore formula is:
- ( 30 (13.61) + 70 ) * 1.6 = 765.28
- 765.28 is the total kcal per day Murdoch should need.
- Then I go to the nutrition label to see how many calories he gets per cup and divide accordingly
- One cup of his food is 480 kcal/cup so he should be getting about 1.59 cups per day.
- Currently we feed him almost 2 cups of food daily plus treats when training.
What food?
- We started with IAMs from the breeder.
- Got a free sample of Hill’s Science Diet (from the Vet) and Murdoch would just pick out the Hill’s from the IAMs and only eat those haha. Eventually he refused to eat the IAMs so we had to find another food. Hill’s from the vet were way too expensive.
- Doing some research, we decided on Nulo. He enjoyed eating Nulo for a while, but then the stores stopped carrying much of the stock. So we had to find another brand again.
- One of the PetSmart employee’s recommended Nutrience Sub Zero Fraser Valley. It’s a mix kibble + freeze dry which I thought was the best of both worlds. Since Murdoch seems to get a decent amount of exercise on a regular basis, the added protein in the diet would be good for him.
When to have food?
Typically as a puppy, we did 3 meals a day for about 7-8 months. Now we do 2 times a day: once in the morning before going to work. Second time when we have dinner. It’s approximately every 12 hours.
Transitioning foods
More often than not, the breeder will most likely be feeding something different than what you may decide. Just make sure that when transitioning food, it is done little at a time probably throughout the course of 1-2 weeks.
We learned our lesson big time when Murdoch had finished a bag of the Fraser Valley and I decided to have him try the Canadian Pacific (blue one) flavour. He had runny diarrhea every day when we switched (albeit I didn’t transition him very well). Fortunately since Nutrience guarantee’s satisfaction, I was able to return the product to PetSmart for full refund. In the end, we are currently feeding primarily Fraser Valley (Chicken/Turkey based) as well as a mix of Prairie Red (Beef/Lamb/Boar based).
Agh! Stomach problems
As much as you try, puppies will pick and eat things off the ground no matter how hard you try to prevent that behaviour. Or if you are transitioning food and say you need to transition a bit quicker than desired, a natural remedy to help settle the puppy’s stomach is pumpkin puree! As recommended by AKC, it’s advised to give 1-to-4 tables spoons (depending on the size of dog) if he/she is having lots of diarrhea. Reference URL. There are other benefits such as helping with constipation as well.
Just be careful to pick something little to no salt/sugar/spices when purchasing canned pumpkin. Those things may not help with the upset stomach.