Proper Puppy Feeding Amounts

    • Bronze

    Proper Puppy Feeding Amounts

    Hi everyone,

    I recently rescued a lab mix puppy and was wanting some feedback on the proper daily amount to feed him. The feeding chart on the Purina ProPlan bag suggests somewhere in the neighborhood of two cups a day for a dog that will reach 50 lbs at maturity. He's a little over 4 months old now and just weighed in at 32 lbs. I've been feeding him 2 cups twice a day and I'm wondering if this is too much. He eats it fine and is definitely not overweight. He has tons of energy so I think he's burning it fairly quickly. Should I be closer to 3 total cups a day? Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!

    • Gold Top Dog

    I probably can't tell whether the amount of food is right for your dog, but if he's not fat or thin, it's probably a good amount. However, I would recommend that you might want to check out some other foods for him.  Purina Pro Plan is not really a high quality food. If you look at the first few ingredients, Pro Plan tends to have things like corn gluten meal, poultry by product meal, ground wheat, etc. I'm hoping someone can come along and provide some better info here. But, higher quality foods tend to be cheaper many times than some foods that appear to be cheaper. This is because these higher quality foods tend to have more calories per cup, so you feed less than if you are feeding a low quality food.

    http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/choosing-dog-food/karen-becker-choose-dog-food-2/

    • Gold Top Dog

    I usually go by how the pup looks.  If he's not looking too chubby or too thin, I'd stick with that amount.  I tend to keep pups and adults more toward the thin side but not to the point where their hip bones and backbone are prominent. One sign of overfeeding is loose stools so if you see that you might want to cut back a little.  His food requirements are higher as he's growing and you may find you will feed him less when he's full grown. 

     

    • Puppy

     I guess 2 cups twice a day sounds good. I had a puppy around 6 months back and I use to feed him a total of 3 cups a day. If your puppy is eating it completely without any problem then it is good and he will become healthy, of course.

    • Gold Top Dog
    It really depends on how the dog is looking. If it is not fat or thin then you are prob right on. I adjust my dogs food all the time based on how they are looking and how much they weigh. When they were growing, they went from 2 cups per day, to 3 then 4 (around 7 months seemed to be their highest motabolism streak) then back to 2 cups and now that they are all around 3 and 4 yrs old, they get 1.5 cups per day. They are all just under 50 lbs btw.