When Should I Feed My Puppy Solid Food?

 

In order for your puppy to receive all the calories he need, he should start getting solid food at around 4 weeks.
 
By the sixth week, most puppies will wean.
 
For puppies younger than eight weeks, it is advisable to moisten dry food until spongy.
 
 

0 to 3 weeks

The puppies should stay with their mother and nurse.
 
The mother’s milk has the nutrients necessary for the puppies and protect them from diseases.
 
At this point of time, the mother will take care of her puppies and you do not have to worry.
 
 

3 to 4 weeks

 
You can start feeding puppies wet food at around 3 to 4 weeks.
 
During this period, puppies will start to grow teeth and wean off their mother’s milk.
 
You can provide 50% canned wet puppy food and 50% milk replacer in a flat saucer.
 
Gradually, you can transit to provide them only puppy food.
 
It is normal for puppies to take time to adjust to the new food.
 
 

4 to 6 weeks

 
By this time, puppies should be fully transitioned to puppy food.
 
 

6 to 12 months

 
At this point of time, you can begin to have your puppy adapt to adult food.
 
Smaller breed dogs can switch between 7-9 months and larger breeds around the 12-month mark.
 
However, it is perfectly okay to keep your dog on puppy food on a longer period to ensure he gets all the nutrition he needs to develop.
 
 

How Much To Feed Your Puppy By Age?

How Much To Feed Your Dog By Weight?

You can consider to feed your dog more if he has a high activity level.

How Often To Feed Your Puppy or Dog?

For puppies, you can feed them twice or three times a day.
For adult dogs, once a day will suffice.
 
 

Homemade Dog Food

 
You might want to prepare homemade dog food to have more control over their dog’s diet, vary food choices, overcoming food intolerance issues, concern over food quality and recalls, or simply for the joy of preparing a home-cooked meal for your beloved dog.
 
However, here are some mistakes owners might make while cooking for their dogs.
 
Some recipes found online are unbalanced, resulting in either deficiencies or excess in specific nutrients in your dog’s diet.
 
This can result in malnutrition, obesity and can be fatal in some cases.
 
Since most recipes share the same deficiencies, it is insufficient to rely on multiple diets to achieve balance.
 
Furthermore, some of the ingredients might be carelessly used, and potentially lethal and toxic for your dogs.
 
This include avocado, chocolate, garlic, grapes, macadamia nuts, onions, raisins, xylitol etc.
 
Furthermore, it is important to factor in your dog’s eating history, weight, and overall health to ensure your food has the desired impact on your dog’s well-being.
 
 

Homemade Dog Treats

 
It is always heart-warming to prepare homemade treats for your dog.
 
However, similar considerations as above has to be made for any home cooked dog food.
 
 

Raw Food

 
A raw dog food diet typically include muscle meat, often still on the bone, bones, either whole or grounded, organ meats such as livers and kidneys, raw eggs, vegetables like broccoli, spinach, and celery, apples or other fruit, dairy products such as yogurt.
 
Feeding dogs with raw food is a controversial topic.
 
Racing dogs have always been eating raw food diets and some believe that grain-based commercial pet food are not beneficial to a dog’s health.
 
Some potential benefits that raw dog food diet supposedly improves include shinier and smoother coats, healthier skin, cleaner teeth, higher activity levels and smaller stools.
 
However, other vets believe that raw food diets carry risks such as having an unbalanced diet, potential for the dog to choke, break his teeth or cause an internal puncture on whole bones.
 
They argue that a shinier coat is achieved due to the higher fat composition of the typical raw diet.
 
Commercial food and supplements can also be used to provide for higher fat content, while reducing the risk of an unbalanced diet.
 
Too little fat means a bad coat; but too much fat and not enough protein can result in mild anaemia.
 
Also, since the raw food diets are usually higher in protein, they are not suitable for dogs with late-stage kidney or severe liver failure.
 
Dogs suffering from pancreatitis or other digestive issues, with cancer and are on chemotherapy, or facing immunosuppressive diseases also should not eat raw food.
 
Finally, puppies are advised to avoid having a raw diet as they can suffer from bone deformities and growth issues if the calcium and phosphorous ratio are not done correctly.
 
Both commercial raw food and dried food carry risk of the salmonella. E. coli bacteria, which can be found in the dog’s feces, resulting in human infection.
 
During the preparation of homemade raw food, it is important to clean up your counter and your knife.
 
 

Why Can’t I Feed My Puppies Adult Dog Food?

Compared to adult dogs who are maintaining and sustaining their bodies, puppies need plenty of nutrients to grow their bones, muscles and organs.
 
Therefore, they have different dietary needs and should not be fed with the same food.
 
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