Feeding Your New Puppy

General Info on Diet and Feeding

What kind of food should you feed your puppy?

Our dogs have always done well on Purina dog chow.  If you choose to switch brands, we also recommend Iams (including Eukanuba) and Science Diet.  Purina, Iams, and Science Diet are the leading pet food manufacturers for good reason.  Their food is of good quality and a lot of research goes into making food that is nutritionally complete.  We do NOT recommend using store brand dog foods – the protein sources are often not adequate and you will likely end up needing to supplement your dog.  We also do not recommend home-cooked, home-recipe dog meals, as they may be lacking in the full nutritional content that is required for dogs to live a long and healthy life.  If you choose to feed home-cooked meals, you should consider vitamin supplementation to make sure that your dog receives essential vitamins and amino acids necessary for maintaining health.  Please discuss all non-commercial diets and vitamin supplementation with your veterinarian prior to initiating.

While your puppy is under 1 year old, he or she will require a large amount of high quality, high fat, high protein food.  For this reason, you should use a food made specifically for puppies.  You will want to use the recommended feeding amount on the bag as a guideline, but may need to adjust this amount depending on how hungry your puppy is.  Because puppies grow in spurts, much like children, you may notice that the amount of food your puppy eats fluctuates from time-to-time.  Often, right before a growth spurt, your puppy's appetite may suddenly increase.  For growing puppies, if in doubt about how much to feed, lean towards feeding a little extra.  A young puppy should never be put on a calorie restricted diet.

As your puppy reaches adulthood (around 1 yr old for beagles), you should switch the dog over to an adult food.  It is ideal to split the feedings between 2 meals, although one meal daily is acceptable.  For most beagles, it is not advisable to provide food free choice as they tend to be chow hounds.  Instead,  you should exercise portion control for your dog.  Decide how much food to feed on a daily basis using the amount recommended on the bag as a guideline.  Then adjust the amount of food you offer, based on his or her activity level and metabolism.  You may need to play around with the amount a little bit to get it just right.  Remember that the feeding amounts listed on the bag are suggestions and not set in stone!  Every dog is different.  Our indoor beagle normally gets ½ c to ¾ c of food per day.  On the other hand, during rabbit hunting season, we frequently feed our kennel beagles 3 c of food per day (the bag would never tell you to use this much for a 20-25lb dog!).  Keep in mind that beagles are prone to weight gain, especially indoor beagles.  An overweight beagle is more likely to develop health problems, just like people, so keep your beagle trim.  If you have any questions about how much to feed or what the proper weight for your dog is, please consult with your veterinarian.

Dry food or wet food?
We recommend feeding a dry dog food, as it provides a rough texture that can be helpful in preventing the build-up of plaque and tartar on your dog's teeth.  However, canned food is also nutritionally complete and may be fed as your dog's regular diet.  Just make sure to double check the fat content, as some canned food is high in fat and may make it difficult to keep the weight off of your dog.

Table scraps and "People" food

Limit snacks and table scraps where possible (or don't feed them at all if you can help it).  If you choose to feed occasional table scraps, please realize that certain foods are particularly bad for your dog's digestive system, especially spicy foods such as peperoni and sausage, while other foods can actually be toxic to dogs.  Foods that are toxic to dogs include garlic, onions, grapes, and chocolate (especially dark chocolate, cocoa, and baker's chocolate).  For more information on food toxicity in dogs, please click on the following link.

A word on bones

Never feed your puppy or adult dog bones, even those sold in the meat department of the grocery store for that reason.  The bones are likely to splinter and, once ingested, they may puncture your dog’s digestive tract or cause intestinal blockage, which will result in an expensive surgery at the best and the death of your dog at worst.  You can offer “bones” such as Nylabones and Velvabones or treat your dog with rawhides and dental chews made specifically for dogs.   As a precaution, all dogs should still be observed when they are chewing on these items. 

Regarding the recent pet food scare 

Recent news stories about the recall of pet foods due to reported health problems in cats and dogs were linked to the selection of a new Chinese raw material supplier by Menu Foods.  The causative agent was found in wheat gluten.  A common protein source found in pet foods, called melamine, reacted with a contaminant in the wheat gluten to form a toxic product that concentrated and crystallized in the kidneys of cats.  Cats were the only animals affected by these products as a result of differences in the way that cats metabolize and process food.  NO DOGS were affected by this, despite any reports otherwise (a statement that is backed up by the FDA).  Voluntary recalls of dog food made and/or processed at Menu foods were precautionary in nature, until a full investigation into the cause of reported pet health problems and death could be completed.  Due in large part to leading edge research performed by IAMS, in cooperation with the FDA, the science behind this tragic situation has been fully uncovered.   Reports of rat poison in pet food were also demonstrated to be false.  What should you take away from this?  99.9 times out of 100, commercial pet foods are safe to use for your puppy!