For New Fur Parents: How Often Do You Feed a Dog?

Having a pet dog is a wonderful experience. You get to have a new companion and friend that you can spend your time with when your home feels empty or a great addition to the family where everyone enjoys their company. It can also be a scary time for the newbie fur parent, figuring out every possible way to give the best to their new friend.

Among the questions for dogs is about food. How often do you feed a dog? What is the right food to feed them with?

Today, we will look at these tidbits about the food dogs can eat. Time to take notes as these can give you a great time to care and bond with your new fur buddy.

1. How Often Should You Feed a Dog?

As we look at how many times to feed a dog, there are some factors to consider. One of these is in the dog’s age, which affects the frequency and intervals of feeding them. There are also other conditions to keep in mind, such as the current climate and the dog’s health.

First, we look at the dog’s age. As puppies, they will need all the nourishment that they can get. With this in mind, make sure to feed them four meals a day. This drops to 3 meals a day when your pup reaches 4 months and will continue to be the case until they reach six months.

Once they reach six months, adjust your feeding frequency to 2 meals per day. This will persist until they reach 12 months onward. At this point, an adult dog should do well with one meal in the morning and once at night.

Another factor that comes to play here is the breed of the dog. Smaller breeds can use up a lot more energy, so consider going for 2-3 meals per day. Larger breeds should do fine with 1-2 meals a day.

2. What to Feed a Pregnant Dog?

It becomes a different matter when you have to feed a pregnant dog. This time, you have to take note of proper nutrition during this period, especially when you have a nursing dog.

The usual case would be to feed a pregnant dog in the same amount of frequency as a healthy young adult would. However, you should also pay attention to their weight and ensure that they do not go overweight or underweight. These would provide complications if that happens.

As for nursing dogs, you might need to feed them more than usual. You would be looking at 2-4 meals a day. The reason behind this is that nursing dogs tend to use up a lot more energy when they wean their litter.

3. Feeding Methods

There are some feeding methods that you can use for your dog. These methods have some upsides and downsides. Here are some of those methods that you can peruse on.

Free-Choice Method

First, you have the free-choice method. What this means is that you let your fur baby run about while leaving the food out on their bowl. This works well when you have healthy and active dogs that run around the house.

For this method, make sure to use dry food. It does not spoil when left out in the open. This also works well with nursing dogs, ensuring they have a readily-available source of nourishment when nursing the puppies.

Your downside to this setup is that it could attract other critters if you left the dog food outside. You have insects and rodents that might go for the food. If you have more than one pet, you would likely have the pets bickering at each other for the food.

Controlled Portions Method

The next method is in setting it up for controlled portions. This works best when you have a dog that does not stop eating, and you want to control their intake. Before doing this, consult your vet about your dog’s ideal weight to help you target the portions they take.

Once you have the recommended portions noted, you can measure them and have the food placed in the bowl at specific intervals. You can look at Pet Feeder Tips to see how you can put up the right setup for your feeder and what works best for your dog and other pets.

Timed Feeding Method

You can also go for a feeding schedule. With this, you can put food on the dog’s bowl with the recommended portions at the right feeding time. This works well as you don’t have to leave the food out in the open.

For this setup, you need to follow a strict interval. This means you have to take note of what time you feed them during the day. Since we established some details about how often do you feed the dog, you can use that as your basis for spacing out the feeding times.

Consider going for 8-12 hours if you feed them twice a day. This gives your dogs enough time to digest their food and use it as energy. Also, by then, they come in hungry and ready to eat.

4. What Should They Eat?

Dogs tend to be carnivorous in nature, which means their food usually consists of meat. They can eat some omnivorous foods as well. With that in mind, you need to pay attention to what you feed them.

You can do well by providing them a pure kibble diet. You may also put in some cooked or raw fish, meat, vegetables, and rice.

There are specific human foods that work well with dogs and others that prove fatal. So, pay attention to what you give to your fur baby.

Learn How Often Do You Feed A Dog

How often do you feed a dog? That would be dependent on age, breed, and health condition. The average would be 2 times a day for healthy adult dogs. Feed your dog right and watch their health improve now!

Do you want to learn more about pet care and management? Check out our guides to help you learn more today!