How Much To Feed Puppy - Page 1

We have a 5 month old male puppy.  He is a very large boned dog .  We are feeding him Royal Canine Puppy Food 4 cups a day along with 1/2 cup of raw meat a day.   This is broken up into 3 feedings.  I believe it is time to cut back on his food,and my wife is opposed.  The puppy will be going into the Sieger Show in April and I don't want him over weight.  Thank You in advance for your help.

It is hard to say "how much". I would go by how he looks. For showing, you do want him on the lean side. For normal weight, the ribs should be very easily felt but not seen. For the show ring, you want him leaner than that. Keep in mind if he is going to be shown, you will be doing more ring training, and more exercise equals more food. But you are correct, an over weight dog is frowned upon by the judge....you definitely want him on the very lean side of the scale, but also fit, and well muscled.

I would go by the guidelines on the bag as a baseline.  I fed my dogs Royal Canin, but since you're also feeding raw meat, you want to make sure you're not giving the puppy too much protein.  He's growing fast so you don't want to stress his bones.  I always go by how interested my dogs are in their food.  If they gobble it down then I might give a litle more; if they don't really want it, then I might scale it back a little back.  It's always good to also incorporate fresh veggies, fruit, etc. and all my dogs love yogurt.  Your puppy should look healthy; not too chubby.  It's always better to see a little rib, but again each dog is different.

When I was feeding Royal Canin to my puppy he was getting 2 cups twice a day at 5 months. Be careful with the Royal Canin puppy, we had problems and so did 5 other breeders we know with it causing Panno. It is a high protein and it is made to develope accelarated growth. I went to a seminar and a vet from Royal Canin was the guest speaker, so I asked about the issue with Panno and that was when it was mentioned about the growth issue. One of the breeders that advised me of the Panno problem was even in Germany. So if your puppy starts showing signs of limping beware it is most likely from the dog food. To get rid of the Panno we started the puppy on Hokamix and in about 2 weeks all signs disappeared.

Good luck hope this helps

I too go by how the dog looks and feels.  As Kandi said, for the showring they should be on the leaner side.  Activity makes a big difference too.  I don't remember how much they ate when on Royal Canin.  I'd watch the protein and fat levels too, as you don't want him growing too fast.....

I don't go by the bags at all, as just like people, every dog is different.  And in a lot of cases, what's on most bags, is way too much.  But hey, they sell the food.  LOL    Mine are all on the lean side, wish it were that easy to keep the people in the house on the lean side! The two younger work in herding and there's no way they can run as they do with any extra weight on them.   Especially in summer....

My 80 pound 7year old male eats 4 cups per day of Taste of the Wild.

My 58 pound 4 year old intact female eats 3 cups per day of TOTW

My other female who oddly weighs 58 pounds now too eats 2 cups per day.  She's 12 and spayed......