Puppy food is ridiculously important for your puppy in the early stages of their lives. This food provides the special nutrients that they require at such an early age so that they can receive everything that your puppy needs as they grow. And puppies grow ridiculously fast, which is why their puppy food is so important to substantiate that fast growth. But when is it time for you to change their food to the adult formula?
Usually as a rule your puppy should stay on puppy chow for at least 7 months to a year, before you switch them to the adult formula. But this can be different in many cases, and is dependant on a number of different factors.
First off, the size of your dog has a very large impact on how quickly, and how in general, your doggie will grow. The larger the dog the slower that the growth process will take place, meaning you actually want to keep them on puppy chow for a shorter period of time, as the higher amounts of amino acids and fats found in puppy food won’t be beneficial at all to the larger dog’s slower growth rate. Which is why you’ll want to shift a larger breed’s eating from puppy food to adult sooner rather than later, usually at about six months you’ll want to start making the transition. This applies even if your dog is on the puppy food formula designed for larger breeds.
Although it’s still best to consult your vet before making any major changes.
Otherwise for most small dogs you want to stick to the basic rule that they should be on puppy chow until they are at least 1 year of age. You want to feed them three times a day, leaving the food out for 15-25 minutes, after which dispose of any remaining uneaten food. You want to stay on that routine for about a year, after which you’ll want to begin mixing the adult food with the puppy chow to ease the taste transition for your dog, so that they don’t become apprehensive about the new food. Keep using less and less puppy chow until it’s been removed from the mix completely.
Tags: 7 Months, Adult Food, Adult Formula, Amino Acids, Array, Doggie, Fats, Food Formula, New Food, Nutrients, Period Of Time, Puppies, Puppy Chow, Puppy Food, Six Months, Small Dogs, Three Times, Transition, Uneaten Food, Vet
Spend time at any pet store and the choice of dog foods to feed your dog is in abundance. How do you know which to choose and which is good for your dog? The answer to that is simply, you do not, let your dog choose. Although there are some basics that are recommended.
If you have purchased your dog from a breeder, ask the breeder what they recommend to feed your new pet. A good breeder should be able to tell you what has worked best for their dogs. This is a good place to start. However, if you have adopted your new dog, then it will be up to you to figure out what is good for your dog and what is not. The dog will certainly help you in determining the right food for him.
Always read the labels on a dog food package. What you want to look at is the first ingredient. You do not want to see meat meal, this can be anything within the food including road kill. Chicken Meal or Lamb Meal is a good start. You also always want to see the word meal; whole meat without the Meal is mostly water. Most nutritionists prefer chicken based dog foods as they are easier to digest.
You may see corn or a type of corn product in the dog food. Corn is a protein source the dog food makers use to keep the price reasonable. Some dogs like corn and others do not. If you see your dog start itching, licking his feet, scooting his butt, or getting frequent ear infections, this could indicate a lack of tolerance for corn. Beware of wheat in a food. Wheat tends to be more of an irritant in dogs than corn is.
You need to inspect the label for the sentence “AAFCO feeding trials confirm that (dog food brand) is complete and balanced for adult dogs or all life stages”. This sentence alone will tell you that the dog food was fed to any number of dogs and was determined to meet the nutritional needs for all life stages of a dog.
When it comes to feeding your dog there are certain guidelines that should be followed depending on the age of your dog. For instance, puppies should be fed more regularly than adult dogs. Puppies should be fed as often as four times per day and with a quality dog food geared towards puppies specifically. Adult dogs should be fed twice a day.
In general, feed puppies and adult dogs separately so you can be sure the amount they are eating each time and to prevent fighting. Set a feeding schedule for your dog, but not one to where they become anxious if you happen to be late. It is a good idea to teach your dog to sit before placing the dog food in the bowl; this will prevent them from jumping to get the food.
Nutritionists suggest only allowing your dog 15 to 20 minutes to eat then removing and disposing of the remainder.
Tags: Abundance, Adult Dogs, Chicken Meal, Corn Product, Dog Food, Dog Foods, Food Brand, Food Corn, Food Makers, Food Package, Frequent Ear Infections, Irritant, Lack Of Tolerance, Lamb Meal, Meat Meal, New Pet, Pet Store, Protein Source, Puppies, Wheat
So you just got a new puppy, and that new puppy seriously needs toys, or else without which you’ll have a complete disaster on your hands. Seriously, puppies are just chock full of energy, and if you don’t focus that unbelievable amount of energy on the right things, like not destroying your house, then be prepared for a few pairs of chewed up sneakers. It’s not that puppies are necessarily destructive by nature, it’s just that they have so much energy that they don’t rightly know what to do with it all.
Which is where smart pet owner toy selection comes into play. The main thing you’re going to want at first is a good broad selection of toys, mostly so that you can feel out what sort of personality your puppy has, which will lead you to better toy selection in the future. Which means you probably want to start with a few tennis balls (which dog doesn’t love those), a nylon chew bone, and a few stuffed animal squeak toys. A pretty basic but tried and true compilation.
The things you want to stay away from with puppies, again because puppies chew and chew and chew, are things like rubber squeak toys, as dogs tend to rip those apart pretty quickly. Which is extremely bad for two reasons, on the one hand you’ll have a ton of rubber hunks littered around your house to pick up. Not to mention swallowing pieces of rubber toys tends to make your puppy sick.
You also want to stay away from tug of war ropes if the puppy is pretty new, as these will be bad for their baby teeth and adult teeth as they grow in. Not to mention, once again the chewing stage, where your puppy will likely pull out as many strings as possible and eat them, leading to more internal strife within your puppy. And more nasties to clean up, or worse.
After you’ve bought your first assortment of toys it’s as simple as paying attention to which toys your puppy seems to like best, and those are what you want to go for in the future. If your doggie is a squeak toy freak, then you’ll probably want to consider buying as many squeaky toys as possible, and so on and so forth.
And as your puppy gets older, into the not so puppy like stages of adult life, you’re safe to give tug of war ropes a try, and any number of rubber squeak toys and balls. That way you’re assured that your dog won’t accidentally eat something you’d prefer they didn’t.
Tags: Adult Teeth, Assortment, Baby Teeth, Doggie, Internal Strife, New Puppy, Pairs, Paying Attention, Pet Owner, Puppies, Puppy Toys, Right Toys, Rubber Toys, Sneakers, Squeak Toys, Stuffed Animal, Tennis Balls, Toy Selection, Tug Of War, Tug Of War Ropes
