How much do I feed my puppy?

[jamiegirl]

Any suggestions on how much kibble I need to give to our puppy? She is on the Science Diet Puppy Large Breed and she is 45 lbs at 18 weeks. We are currently giving her about 6 cups/day of the dry food. It seems like she wants more after she eats but I don't want to overfeed her either. I've searched the internet and had gone to the diet's site but I wanted to hear from the doodle lovers and experts. = )The vet has suggested that I could decrease the feeding (time) to once a day in about a month or so but we really didn't talk about the quantity for each feeding. (I know I should have asked him when I had the chance but he seemed to be in a hurry).

Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Look at the bag for suggested feeding amounts. It is listed by weight.

[Denise, Winnie, and AngelAbby]

Six cups sounds like a lot to me... how much does the bag say to feed your pup? Abby is 6 months old about 45# and 23" high at the shoulders and is getting about 3 cups of dry kibble and about a cup or so of homemade dog food stew. But she is a grazer - the only thing she gobbles up right away is the homemade stuff - the kibble she nibbles on, and it takes her all day to finish it. I know vets say you can feed a dog once a day - but the dog would spend a good part of the day being hungry I would think. I have always fed any of my dogs twice a day. I wouldn't like eating just once a day... LOL Adding some water to the kibble may help her feel more full - you could try that.

[Adina P]

Every food is different, different amounts of calories, fiber, fillers, etc. There is no one amount for all dogs. YOU MUST read the back of the bag and look up her age and weight and it will tell you. 6 cups does seem like A LOT...what does it say on the bag for her age?

[Adina P]

Ok I looked here: http://www.hillspet.com/hillspet/products/productDetails.hjsp?PRODU...

It says about 4.5 cups for her age/weight.

If she is overweight, feed less.
If she is UNDERweight give a little more.

[Sally Rollins]

Personally, I think feeding 2X a day is much better than once a day. They start begging or handing near the table while you eat. I had one dog that I feed once a day and she would eat it up then get sick and spit it up. My vet told me to go to 2X aday. So after that, each pup I had, I just stuck with 2X aday. I do not have a problem with begging or hanging at that table.

[jamiegirl]

Thanks for all of the great info.

We did start out with the bag suggestions, however, we adjusted it slightly as we saw that our puppy seemed to want more. The vet did say that our dog is big but not overweight. I also really apreciate the insight on the once daily feeding. I could see the advantage of feeding once, pooping once but I also see Sally's point when she mentioned about the puppy being sick from trying to consume all of it at once.

I think that I will take all of your advice and try to customize the diet and frequency to what our puppy needs.

Thanks, again.

[Lynne Fowler-Oodles of Doodles]

You might want to join the Food Group, there's lots of food ideas. You may want to do some research on Science Diet also, it is not a very good food.