Feeding your new Puppy

The breeder where you have purchased your puppy should give you information on how they have been feeding and also what they are feeding. The following is the information on how we feed our puppies, but remember all breeders are different and you should follow their instructions. 

Your puppy is being fed Purina Puppy Chow Original flavor. We have been feeding the puppies 3 times a day: 8 am, 2:00pm, and 9pm. (Roughly 6 hours apart). We suggest you start with about 1 cup of puppy food moistened with warm water at first. You might have to mash it a little with a fork to mush it up. If he cleans the bowl totally, he could probably have a little more. You will have to play this by ear. Some of our larger pups will probably eat more. Keep in mind; you want to have healthy and satisfied pups. Also allow for the pup’s transitional period. Another thought is that the puppy no longer has “Litter Competition”. So again his eating habits might change. Please no less than 3 feedings a day until he is somewhere between 12-20 weeks old. He will let you know when he doesn’t want that middle feeding.  Have clean fresh water available at all times and wash his food and water dishes often.  A stainless steel bowl seems to be the best and is easy to clean and sanitize. Please adjust the feeding times to meet your needs.  This happens to be our own routine. Since we both use to work the night shift, this is what worked best for us. 

If you decide to change your puppy food you should mix the 2 brands together and gradually increase your new brand. This can be done in a period of a week. By mixing them together it will give your puppy’s stomach time to adjust. 

I would also like to mention something about water. We have well water and in the past a few of our puppies have had diarrhea after going to their new homes. Come to find out it was the change in water; there is a difference between well water and city or town water. After a day or 2 their diarrhea should clear up.