Questions about feeding

[melaniejane84]

Me again (sorry, got lots of questions)

How much should you feed a puppy BM? Toby is 9 weeks old and weighs about 8kg. I have been feeding him raw, but because I'm not really sure have to get the balance right, and because I keep hearing raw chicken-bone horror stories, right now I'm feeding him on NatureDiet. It comes in 390g trays, and according to their website I should be feeding my puppy over 2 of these trays a day (870g), moving up to 6-7 (2.3kg) by the time he's an adult.

That seems like an awful lot, does this seem right to you?

 

[USMC]

Hi there. If feeding raw you wanna stick with the 80-10-10 rule which is 80% muscle meat 10% bone and 10% organ with half the organ being kidney. As far as chicken bones they are a nonissue as long as they are raw and not cooked. Also when feeding raw you should feed 2-3% of his/her expected adult weight spread over 4 meals. If your pup is more active and has a high metabolism it could be even higher. The thing to know is know your pup and watch his body and stools. They will tell you what you should do. If hes getting thin up the amount. getting pudgy back it down a little bit. loose stools add more bone, hard crusty white stool reduce bone.

What I do is feed a chicken quarter in the morning and boneless meat for the other 3 meals. I feed 3lbs of meat a day split over 4 meals.

 

[DennasMom]

Short answer: "only as much as they need."

But, seriously - I agree with USMC.

Only I'd say instead of "half the organ being kidney" - I'd say "half the organ being liver"... that said, we pretty much do 5% kidney and 5% liver (so, we're both right).

The premade meals do offer some confidence of a balanced diet - but they can get expensive fast. And, I can't find details on NatureDiet - like what is the percent bone or calcium, and I don't see any liver or kidney on the ingredient list (unless that falls under the meat category).

The whole prey model 80-10-10 is what a lot of people wean puppies to, and offers a complete, balanced diet when done right (which is as easy as it sounds, 80% meat + 10% bone + 10% organ, noting that whole chickens are ~25% bone... so if you use chicken as 1/2 the diet, that would balance out to ~12.5% bone, by weight, a great starting place).

The other 'rule of thumb' I've heard for puppies, is to feed 10% of their current weight, which would be the 800g you noted. That would increase with the puppy's weight up to the point where you hit the 2-3% of expected adult weight value (For a 60kg BM, that would result in 1200-1800g) - then you'd feed the lesser of the two and stick with the 2-3% adult weight calculation. The 2.3kg (5lb) value seems high, to me... but if you have a very energetic dog, they might need that many calories to keep them going.

We feed Denna about 3lbs/day (1.35kg) now. She's a 2yr old, low energy, 145lb (66kg) EM.

 

[melaniejane84]

I think I'm just having a hard time getting my head round the fact that, even though he's going to go from 8kg to 60kg, he might not really be eating that much more. I've only been feeding him around 400-500g a day because that's what my breeder recommended, but I think I'm going to up it a little, he's seems to be looking a bit slim. Getting him weighed at the vets tomorrow.

I'm so nervous about feeding him raw. I keep reading that if you don't get the balance right you can do all this damage, and he won't grow properly etc. etc. But the pre-prepared stuff is so expensive. (I was going to feed him on Natures Menu, but if he's going to be eating 2kg a day that's gonna cost £6 ($10) a day.)

There's a pet shop near me that stocks a lot of raw/barf food. They recommend using a supplement just to make sure the pup gets everything he needs. Do you think this is a good idea?

Thanks for all your help guys, I just wanna make sure I'm doing the best I can for my little bundle of teeth and claws