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What and how to feed a 5 mo puppy

Kimberly

Active member
Should I be using a mix of wet and dry (aka kibble?) ??

Is 1/2 cup twice / day a good amount ??

What premium brand is recommended ?? Innova vs Wellness ?
 
We have been feeding our puppy Cedar Adult Wellness Chicken. She has not had any negative reactions to it at all. Now, at 9 months, Cedar gets half a cup of kibble a day, supplemented with Mother Hubbard bone treats, and occassionally chew treats like rawhide sticks, lamb bone and pig ears. Cedar is also fond of baby carrots and scrambled egg. Another great treat is an ice cube. Those get her really excited. :roll:
 
how often do you feed Cedar? Twice / day? What would you recommend for a 5 month old? Maybe 3/4 cup kibble per day? Any wet food ???
 
Now we only feed Cedar once a day. She isnt a pig with food, so she pretty much stopped eating her evening meal. When she did that, we stopped feeding it to her. When she was about five months, she was probably getting two meals a day. I say probably because when she was really little, she got fed three times a day. But at 5 mo, she was probably getting two meals a day. Each time we fed her about 1/4 to 1/2 a cup.

Each puppy is a little different. I know it would be so much easier if there was a standard handbook about what to feed and how to feed, etc. Especially with a puppy, you want to do everything right. Dont stress yourself too much about it. Remember, there have been dogs that have been healthy and long-lived while on very poor diets. You are doing research and finding out new info, which is great! But you'll have to see what works best for your dog. Some trial and error will be involved, and that's fine. Your dog will probably always find rabbit doo much more tasty than anything you put in his/her bowl; they'll love you anyway. ;)
 
how much to feed

Cedar is toooooooo cute!!!!! I love this picture.

I measured Bailey's food this AM and he's getting about 1/3 cup, maybe a little more because it's a mix of wet and dry, 3 times daily now ... he wolfs it down in less than 5 min each time so I hesitiate to give him less ... plus his diet is supplemented w treats and bits of chicken or things off my plate.

Am I over-feeding? He doesn't seem overweight ... yet ... ???
 
Yes, that is a favorite pic of mine. <sigh> she's grown much more now. It's almost sad that she's practically an adult! :(

I dont if you are over-feeding or not. I am not a fan of wet dog food. I've always heard that it can promote tooth decay (dunno if this is true). Plus I personally dislike the look/smell of wet dog food.

I'd look at the dog's weight. Can you feel his ribs beneath his skin? You should be able to easily feel them and be able to count them. You shouldnt be able to see them, though. You should be able to see a defined waist. The link Karlin provided has photos of different dog's waists to show an example of what a trim dog's waist looks like. Just like people, dog's metabolize at different rates and some will put on weight more easily than others. Also just like people, you will get picky eaters and those who are little piggies (I'm a little piggy human, unfortunately. :roll: ) So even if your dog eats all his food quickly, that isnt the best indication of starvation. Put a bag of chips in my hand, and anyone would think I hadnt eaten in a month. :S

So consider the exercise your dog gets, his eating habits (healthy food vs fatty snacks), and his current weight. All his treats should count toward his dietary intake. If he's getting lots of fatty treats that dont give him as much nutrients, reduce the treats and up the healthy kibble. If he's a healthy weight body-wise, and you up the exercise, you'll want to also up the kibble. It's all just a balancing game. Some days the balance might be a bit heavy or a little short, but that's okay. Striving for balance is the key; somedays you'll hit it just right.

The one piece of advice I can give--for you to take or discard as you see fit--would be to watch the off-the-plate treats. I say this for several reasons. First of all, it's really hard to measure those types of treats and how it would figure into the dog's diet balance. Often it's done without too much consideration or forethought, which makes it hard to figure in. Another reason for my advice is that it can lead to begging for food during meals, which can really develop into a nasty annoying habit. Feeding a dog what many call "people food" as part of its regular diet is perfectly fine--as long as it is healthy people food of course--but it should be part of the dog's diet, not leftovers of yours. It should also be fed out of the dog's bowl, so the dog doesnt associate the food with your plate and your mealtime. Does this make sense?

Anyway, I hope I have helped some. I know when Cedar was little I was freaking out all the time over every little thing. I still do, to some extent. I try to remember now that diets are important, but they arent an immediately life-threatening thing. I strive to do better for Cedar than I do for myself (as messed up as that might be), but I have to remember that there really isnt a right answer here. Wrong ones, perhaps, but no right one. There's just what works well, and that's as close as I can get.
 
I changed my avatar b/c of the recent technical issues. So no more cute puppy pic. <sigh> it is time to shoebox that one anyway.
 
Ozzy is five months this month and is still on 3 meals a day - he is on adult James Welbeloved though and has 38 grams per meal. He has apprx 4 gravy bones per day and every other evening meal has a bit of banana missed in....... normally the food will go on the adult weight, and months old - then grams required per day - I then divide by the number of meal his has. Our vet has check this out and says it is great for him.
 
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