how often to feed a young puppy treats?

This might be a dumb question but I was just wondering how often you should feed a puppy treats? Obviously it isnt going to be very often but should I cap it at a certain number? THe treats will probably be charlee bear treats and possibly like a kong filled with a kong paste.


Also what week can puppy's start chewing on bully sticks or is it whenever?

Hi Jon,

Just wanted to let you know.. I got to see Waffles and Bruster(?!) this Sunday and they're absolutely adorable. I'm sorry I got a chance to see her before you. Please forgive me!!

Waffles is such a sweet girl and you will absolutely adore her. She is so tiny right now --- she's only a handful but I'm sure she'll grow a lot by the time you pick her up. She and her brother would play hard for 5 minutes, then they would all of a sudden collapse and pile onto each other and fall asleep.

I'm sure you cant wait to see your little girl. I couldn't get any sleep in weeks leading up to picking up Ginger.

Oh, as for the treat, when I first got Ginger, her trainer recommended this low-fat treat jar from Natural Balance. We had to do a lot of training on Ginger but didn't wan to feed her too many treats so we cut up each treat into tiny little nibblets. Hope this helps~

Veronica

Also regarding bully sticks, I woudln't feed them yet... I'd think Waffles would be too young to digest bully sticks but other people may say other things..

I know that with Ginger she has diarrhea when we feed her these kinds of thing (bully sticks, jerkey, etc) and at nine months of age she still has problem digesting those..

Hi Veronica,

Im jealous you got to see the pups!!! As we speak right now I am at the airport about to board my flight back to the US to go see Waffles!! I cant wait to see her!!!

My goodness, I'm so excited for you --- I wish you a very safe flight back home. I don't want to sound like a nanny but you should get some good rest at home before heading out to see Waffles... don't want you to get into any accident or anything on your way. Let me know how the visit went!!!

Battie4 said:

This might be a dumb question but I was just wondering how often you should feed a puppy treats? Obviously it isnt going to be very often but should I cap it at a certain number? THe treats will probably be charlee bear treats and possibly like a kong filled with a kong paste.


Also what week can puppy's start chewing on bully sticks or is it whenever?

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Gosh, I think that is a tough question (though a good one) and probably depends upon what is being fed as treats & also what is going on that day, for example a heavy training session etc. I tend to make my youngsters earn their treats and I kind of work it into their daily food allowance... in a kind of unscientific sort of a way. So if they got some high calorie treats like cheese then I would reduce their night-time dinner a bit to compensate. However if it is something like fruit/veg or a big bone with little flesh on it, then it probably doesn't matter so much.

I think the main consideration is keeping the daily calories at the correct level & ensuring that they don't start getting fussy & refusing their meals in order to hang out for the treats.

I couldn't comment on the charlee bears & the bully sticks as I don't think we have them here in Oz so I don't know what they are.

People might have different ideas but I never really put a cap on how many treats either of my dogs have gotten. Granted, I don't throw them garbage, but I do give them charlee bears (sometimes a lot) on a regular basis. If we're in a training session, they will get quite a few. I also give yogurt drops and chicken chews cut up into small squares. Faith still gets potty treats occasionally as she's 5 months and still not totally house broken.

Good luck

I would think if you are planning on giving a excessive amount of treats that may put them of food.

I would stick to Charlee Bears and fruit and Veggies can never go wrong.


The more treats you give the less kibble they will eat IMHO.

I wondered this myself when we brought Charlie home about a month ago. He wasn't very interested in treats at first but now he really like Sam's Yams Bichon Fries and Wellness salmon/liver treats. The Wellness treats work well because they are soft and you can break them into smaller pieces. I also started giving him frozen green beans to help with his teething and they have been a big hit. I was unsure about the bully sticks but his teething really kicked into high gear about two weeks ago so I had to give him something to chew on. I had my husband take a 6" bully stick and saw it in half. I like the bully stick because Charlie can chew and chew and chew and the stick never really gets any smaller. Just kind of smelly and gooey. So far he hasn't had any tummy problems with anything he eats. Good luck and I can't wait to see more photos of your puppy.

The kong paste is really fatty and is basically junk food, so I would limit the use on that. There are lots of other fun things to put in their kongs that are much healthier and more tasty. (If you do a search through the old threads you will find a TON of ideas) small amounts of peanut butter (fatty), chopped carrots or apples, cream cheese, brocolli etc... work really well!

I second the Charlie bears and Wellness treats. My dogs love them!

o didnt know the kong paste was fatty it said it was "formulated for puppy" but I guess anything that comes in a can has to be somewhat bad haha.

:lol: unfortunately so!

When Kodee first got here, a the baby kong was to hard for her to actually get anything out of. I used their puppy dental kong and filled the lines with plain low fat yogurt (um yes messy so stick to tiled area or xpen) and then inserted things like frozen green bean silvers, cherrios, low fat cheese, kibble on top. Kept (and keeps still) her happy for a bit!

During the early potty training she always got a charlie bear to get her leash on, immediately while going and to come in to get leash off! Now she just gets them while out on walks to encourage her to come (called back to me to try and discourage pulling) and doing a bit of training at pit stops on your walks. Arasara mentioned in a post once her dogs got more tired from working them (training) than physical workouts so I tried it, and by gosh the girl is right So we walk, stop do a few sits, down, walk, call come ... while out and about. Does she dive for her bed on return for a nap!

She gets one cookie a day - but broken in half and feed 2 times. They are about an inch square. She is not big on any type of treat - liver etc.. frozen green beans are my girls chocolate so calories and fat I dont have to worry about!