Puppy Feeding  

·        If you have a teacup puppy, please refer to the Teacup Pups link for more information.

·        Check your puppy contract for the brand of puppy food your puppy is currently being fed.

·        For the first two weeks after purchasing a puppy you should free feed your puppy. This means leaving the food down at all times for puppy to eat. If puppy is too excited, scared, or curious after moving to a new environment to eat, put a little canned dog food (check your puppy contract for the brand your puppy is currently on) to the food to help entice puppy to eat.

·        Leave dry puppy food out at all times until the puppy feels comfortable in the new environment, after that follow the feeding schedule listed below.

·        After two weeks or when your puppy is eating well, your puppy needs to be fed 3 times a day to help prevent hypoglycemia. (See more information under Hypoglycemia.) It is good to spread feeding approximately 5 hours apart. For small puppies add approximately 1 tablespoon of the canned food and some water to the dry food 2 times a day (morning and evening).

·        When puppy is 3 months old, only 2 feedings are needed. When puppy reaches 6 months old, only 1 feeding is needed. This does not necessarily apply to teacup puppies. (See our link to Teacup Pups for more information.)

·        Puppies are considered to be adult dogs at 8 months of age and can be switched to adult food, until then continue to use puppy food.

·        Do NOT change dog food until your puppy is at least 4 months old. If you decide to change food before that, please do so gradually so the puppy doesn’t have diarrhea and get dehydrated. Mix the new food with the current puppy food. At first, mix a small amount of new food and then increase new food and decrease original puppy food.

·        After switching to a regular schedule for feeding, only leave the food out for 60 minutes. This will train the puppy to eat when food is put down, help with potty training (see more information under Potty Training), and help prevent hypoglycemia. Puppies can also put on too much weight if food is left down all day long.

·        Great Choice Puppy Treat Biscuits from Pets Mart and rawhide treats from Target are good choices for puppy treats.  

Puppy's Water

·        Please use filtered/bottled water for the first two weeks for drinking water.  

·        After that period, add your tap water to the filtered/bottled water for another two weeks until the puppy is use to your tap water.

·        If purchasing a puppy with a lot of white around the face, use filtered/bottled water to help reduce tear staining around the eyes. See more information under Grooming Tips.