The arrival of a puppy is an exciting event for both the little four-legged friend and its new family. Besides puppy training, proper nutrition plays a crucial role in the coming months.
Feeding mistakes can have fatal consequences for growing dogs, potentially causing long-term health problems. We will explain what you need to consider in your puppy's diet below.
To avoid future health problems due to errors in your puppy's nutrition, as a new dog owner, you need to consider several things and feed your puppy correctly from the beginning.
Note that the nutritional needs of puppies differ significantly from those of their adult counterparts. This fact is reflected in the composition of food for puppies and adult dogs.
To provide your young dog with needs-based nutrition, you must use specialized puppy food. Puppy food is particularly energy- and protein-rich, ensuring optimal support for your puppy during growth. Additionally, it has an adapted content of calcium and phosphorus, crucial for bone health.
Be aware that the puppy's move to your home is associated with significant stress. After all, the little four-legged friend has just been separated from its mother and must now adapt to a completely unfamiliar environment.
To avoid additional stress and associated digestive problems like diarrhea in your puppy, do not immediately change its food. Give the four-legged friend at least two weeks to get used to everything and warm up to you. Keep using the food that the puppy knows from the breeder during this acclimatization phase.
Once the little dog has settled in with you, you can gradually switch to a different puppy food. Take about a week for the food transition. Mix 80% of the old food with 20% of the new puppy food on the first day. Increase the proportion of the new food slightly every day until only the new puppy food remains in your dog's bowl.
It is essential to provide your four-legged friend with fixed daily routines from the beginning to give them security. This includes fixed times for the puppy's meals.
A fixed nutrition plan for puppies helps your dog digest its food optimally and reduces the tendency to beg between meals.
The digestive system of puppies is quite sensitive at the beginning. Avoid giving the four-legged friend too large portions at once. During the first six months of life, dividing the food amount for the puppy into four meals is advisable.
Afterward, you can then divide the food into three meals. For adult animals, one to two meals a day is usually sufficient. However, large dog breeds are an exception. To reduce their naturally increased risk of gastric torsion, it is advisable to feed them three times a day permanently.
The amount of food a dog needs depends on various factors such as age, weight, and physical activity. This applies, of course, to puppies, where an appropriate amount of food is of particular importance.
Feeding your growing dog too much food results in rapid growth. As the bones and joints of the young four-legged friend cannot keep up, there is a high risk of musculoskeletal deformities. This is especially true for large dog breeds.
To avoid this, it is crucial to pay attention to an appropriate amount of food for your four-legged friend and not leave it to the puppy to decide how much to eat.
The feeding guide on the packaging of our puppy food serves as a guideline for you, allowing you to estimate, for example, how many grams of dry food your puppy needs per day. Similar information can also be found on the packaging of wet food, with the recommended amount being higher due to the lower energy density compared to dry food.
When it comes to feeding your little four-legged friend, you are also faced with the decision of whether to give your puppy wet food or dry food.
Dry puppy food has the advantage of easy storage and portioning. Additionally, it is generally more affordable compared to wet puppy food. Therefore, many dog owners prefer giving dry food to puppies.
If the puppy food of your choice is labeled as a complete feed and has good quality, you can generally provide your puppy with a balanced diet using both variants. The choice of food for your puppy is therefore up to you.
To ensure healthy growth, it is crucial not to switch from puppy food to adult dog food too early. The right time for the transition mainly depends on the breed.
If you want to provide optimal care for your puppy from an early age, you are in the right place with puppy food from Bellfor. We offer you a selection of high-quality varieties for puppies and growing dogs, whose composition is perfectly adapted to the special nutritional needs of young animals.
In addition, our range also includes easily digestible puppy milk made from carefully selected ingredients such as goat milk powder. With Bellfor puppy food, you make a valuable contribution to the healthy growth of your dog.
Learn more about Bellfor Puppy Food.
In addition to high-quality puppy food and puppy milk, we have also developed Bellfor Immun Junior, a special supplement for puppies. Bellfor Immun Junior contains carefully selected ingredients that provide your little four-legged friend with numerous valuable nutrients, contributing to supporting the immune system of the growing dog.