Everyone likes to eat; this attitude includes your poodle. Dogs love to eat as they get bigger, stronger, and healthier. Making sure your pet poodle eats right is a big responsibility. Sometimes because you love your pet it is easy to over-feed them.
To learn how many times or when you should feed your poodle, just continue to read our article. It has that information and more. Take a few minutes to see how this important information can help you with your new poodle puppy.
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How Many Times a Day Should a Poodle Eat
There is a little bit of leeway in their feeding schedule as all standard poodles are not the same. Each individual dog will require different amounts of food at different times of the day. The following information is a guideline as there is no set rule on when or how much to feed your pet each day.
Before they are 6 months of age, you can feed your little pet up to 4 to 5 times. After they reach the age of 6 months, you can lower that total to 3 times every day. Just because you serve them multiple times throughout the day, it does not mean their serving size is huge.
You are looking at feeding your puppy about 2 cups of dog food each day. This serving size can be equally measured out so that your little feller or gal gets enough food at each meal.
If your standard poodle is about 2 months of age, they should be getting around 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups each day. If he or she is 4 months old, they should get between 1 7/8 to 2 1/3 cups each day.
When they reach one year old that total rises to 2 2/3 to 3 1/2 cups of dog food every day.
The Type of Dog Food to Feed Your Treasured Pet
There are a lot of good dog food brands on the market today. It will take a little research to find the perfect food for your pet. If you are in doubt, you can always ask your vet what is the best type of dog food to use.
The key to feeding your dog its food is that you cannot change it from week to week or day to day. You must pick one and stick with that brand. Changing the food often and without mixing it with their old dog food will upset their stomachs and cause accidents to happen.
If you are worried about the number of calories your puppy is eating, those are listed on the side of the package under the heading kcal. Just look at the number next to that box to get the actual number of calories your dog is receiving.
Also, the amount of food you feed your pet depends on how active they are. If they are not very active you can cut their portions down a little bit. This will help avoid your pet from becoming overweight.
If he or she is very active, then you should feed them a little bit more food than the recommended amount.
Puppy Food Tips
There are some guidelines to help you find the right pet food for your puppy. Here are a few of those guidelines to direct your search:
1. Try to Avoid Fillers and Additives- Look for those options that contain more meat and vegetables
2. Grains are Good- Unless your vet recommends against it. Grains help your pet have more energy.
3. Be Heavy on Glucosamine and Chondroitin- These ingredients will help your pet if it has a family history of dysplasia or joint problems.
4. Make Sure the First Ingredient is Meat- The first ingredient tells you that it is the dominant ingredient and the more meat the better for your puppy.
5. Look for Vegetables as Well- These ingredients provide needed nutrients your puppy needs to grow healthy.
6. Provide a Mix- A little wet food on the dry dog food will help your picky eater build their teeth and get needed nutrients. Wet food alone will not do this but it does help with dry dog food consumption.
What Foods Not to Feed Your Poodle
There are some ingredients you should avoid so that your puppy gets the healthiest meal possible.
1. MSG- It is not good for humans, and it is not good for pets. In fact, not only can it give you a UTI, it can do the same for your dog.
2. Artificial Colors and Preservatives- These are hard to avoid but try if you can. BHA, BHT, PG, Yellow #5 and so on are not considered healthy for pets.
3. Foods with Animal By-Products- The reason to avoid this ingredient is that you do not know where those by-products came from.
Some final words
Be careful when you feed your pet. There is always the danger of over-feeding them. If they act like they are always hungry, give them something else to do. When your pet doesn’t eat, there are often legitimate reasons for this behavior.
They could have just arrived in your home, have a toothache, upset stomach, or they do not like the taste of the food. When you give your pet a bone, there is always a chance that bacteria may be on it. So be careful when raw feeding your pet any food item.
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