Puppy food: what puppies really need!

Feeding a puppy is demanding because puppies are sensitive and delicate. Right from the start, you should choose a dog food variety that you can continue to offer throughout the puppy phase. There is a tendency to assume we are doing our pets a service by offering them a varied diet, but that is a misconception. Constantly changing food can easily cause irritation to a puppy's gastrointestinal tract and may result in vomiting and diarrhoea. So you should try to choose the right food for your young pup.

The crucial developmental phase for a growing dog takes place during the first few months of its life. It is important to adapt the puppy food to the relevant breed of dog. Small breeds exhibit a different growth curve than larger breeds. The speed at which a puppy grows can be influenced by its diet. Excessively rapid growth is not beneficial. If a puppy receives food that is too high in energy, it can grow too quickly and thus reach its final size too early. The skeleton may not be sufficiently mineralised or stable and this can result in bone damage because the puppy is too heavy for its age.

To ensure your dog grows in a healthy way, you should offer food that has been tailored to meet the dog's needs and contains all the essential nutrients. These include amino acids, vitamins, minerals and valuable fatty acids. All dogs need a healthy immune system and thus require food that contains adequate quantities of antioxidants, beta-carotene and vitamin E. Omega-6 and Omega-3 fatty acids are crucial for a healthy, glossy coat.

Essential criteria for high-quality puppy food:

• No added sugar
• Free from artificial colourings and flavourings
• Free from genetically modified ingredients
• Vitamin C and minerals in a readily absorbable form
• Supports healthy growth and strong bones
• Calcium to phosphorous ratio designed for puppies
• Valuable fatty acids

Apart from the factors just described, there are other considerations when selecting puppy food. Read on to find out what these are and why they are so important.

Your puppy needs energy, but not too much or this can cause growth disorders, which can have harmful health consequences. Excess energy accelerates the dog's growth, causing it to reach its full size too early. A dog's body size is genetically predetermined. Although you cannot influence the dog's adult size through its food, you can affect when this size will be reached. That is why it is all the more important for your beloved pet to grow at the optimal rate.

Excessively fast growth is often caused by an energy intake that is too high. Many puppies that consume too much fuel simply grow too quickly without also building up deposits of excess fat cells. However, this excessively rapid growth is by no means harmless and can result in joint abnormalities. Consequently, it is important to stick closely to the feeding recommendations for puppy food. These can generally be found on the food packaging.

Make sure you adequately cover the dog's energy requirements, but always avoid an oversupply because otherwise your puppy's skeleton will not have sufficient time to adapt to the increasing demands being made by its growing body mass.

It is important for your puppy to consume sufficient high-quality protein. This provides valuable building blocks required for healthy growth. As well as ensuring an adequate quantity, the quality of the protein is also vital. High-quality, easily digestible protein can be found in both plant-based and animal sources.

Animal protein sources are meats such as beef, lamb, chicken etc. and animal by-products such as offal. Plant-based proteins can be found e.g. in lentils, lupin, peas etc. Protein for dogs is rated depending on its amino acid composition and digestibility. High-quality protein for dogs is easy to digest and contains essential amino acids, such as arginine, histidine, lysine or tryptophan.

Calcium is well-known to be vital for strong bones. If this mineral is lacking, the result can be mineralisation abnormalities and thus skeletal disorders. However, an excessively high proportion of this substance in puppy food must also be avoided as this can foster deformities. This is one of the reasons why dog food for adult animals is often unsuitable for puppies. The calcium content in these products is not usually designed for the needs of a growing dog.

The ratio of calcium to phosphorous plays a key role in healthy bone development. Suitable puppy food should contain the right proportion of both these nutrients. Experts recommend:
Calcium : Phosphorous = 1.2-1.5 : 1

Specialist puppy food generally contains a balanced combination of all ingredients and has been specifically designed to meet the needs of your much adored pet. If you are not sure, you can seek advice from an expert, vet or food manufacturer.

Your puppy needs its junior feed to grow big and strong, so it should continue to eat this food at least until it has reached adult weight. The point at which your young dog is fully grown varies from breed to breed. Smaller breeds, e.g. Chihuahua, Bolonka or Pekingese, reach their adult size much faster than larger breeds. Some small dogs reach their full adult weight after 6 months, whereas large breeds, like Mastiffs, can take 15 to 20 months to reach full size. It is best for your puppy's stomach if the daily food ration is divided into several portions and spread out over the day. As the months go by, you can gradually reduce the number of portions and increase the quantity of food at each meal. Once your dog is fully grown, one main meal and one additional meal per day is enough.

A puppy's stomach has a limited capacity. As a result, you should ideally feed your pet several small portions over the course of the day, rather than one big meal. During the first two to three months, you can feed your puppy four to five meals per day. From the third month, the quantity of food can be reduced. Three meals per day will now be sufficient, but the portions should be slightly larger. From the sixth month, you only need to feed your puppy twice a day.

Remember: your puppy should rest after eating. This creates a healthy cycle of activity, eating and periods of resting.

Depending on whether you choose dry or wet food, there are a couple of things to note. Below you will find an overview of the pros and cons of different feeding options.

Advantages:

• Easy to work out the correct food quantity / daily ration using a measuring cup and the feed recommendation on the packaging
• Easy to handle
• Hygienic
• Relatively odourless
• Can easily be stored for long periods
• Also ideal for travelling, e.g. for office dogs, holidays, trips
• Does not go off as quickly, even if left in the bowl for a while
• Promotes natural dental abrasion
• Starch is unlocked in extruded dry food and thus easily digestible
• Sustainable due to minimal packaging materials

Disadvantages:

• Contains little water

Advantages:

• Easy to serve out portions
• Especially ready meals are simple to feed
• Easy to store for long periods if unopened
• Easy to take

Disadvantages:

• If one tin is enough for more than one meal, it must be stored in the refrigerator and used as soon as possible
• If wet food is left for too long or not eaten completely, these leftovers can go off quickly
• Poor quality food often contains sugar, artificial flavourings etc.
• Stronger smell
• Greater need to pay attention to dental health, due to lack of dental abrasion

Advantages:

• Possible to customise the composition of the dietary intake
• More transparent food origins
• A varied diet is possible

Disadvantages:

• Time consuming
• Expensive
• The precise composition of the food needs careful monitoring to ensure the dog does not suffer from deficiencies
• Some pets may be averse to the raw meat components
• The smell is sometimes unpleasant and may take some getting used to (e.g. for rumen)
• Raw meat can result in hygiene problems
• If the dog does not eat the raw meat in one go, the food will need to be disposed of after a while, or it will go off
• Bones can cause digestive difficulties and tooth fractures
• Raw ingredients are often more difficult to digest than ingredients that have been unlocked by cooking or extrusion

Note: if you want to make your own puppy food using raw meat, vegetables and fruit, you will need to pay careful attention to the composition. Every dog needs very specific quantities and proportions of different nutrients, such as the ratio of calcium to phosphorous. To avoid making mistakes, it is best to seek expert advice.

Are you wondering which puppy food is best? The most important thing is for your puppy to get a high-quality source of all the important nutrients to ensure optimal support for its development. A ready-made complete feed is recommended because this is a straightforward way to ensure the overall supply of these substances. That is why dry foods are particularly good for your puppy. Manufacturers of premium foods focus on a carefully formulated recipe. This makes it easy for you to offer your young dog a healthy diet.

A complete feed provides your dog with everything it needs. No additional food is needed. Offering other foods can even result in digestive problems. Another risk is that a spoilt puppy will grow up to be a fussy eater and will be difficult to please when it comes to food.
You should make sure you choose a high-quality product and try to add as few other food items as possible.

There are a few foods your puppy should never eat. These include:

• Milk products. High levels of lactose cannot be completely broken down in the intestine and excess consumption is often accompanied by diarrhoea.
• Chocolate is toxic for dogs. The substance theobromine affects the dog's central nervous system and can even be fatal. Other foods containing cocoa can also result in theobromine poisoning in dogs.
• "Eating food from the table" might be well-intentioned, but it can cause all sorts of problems such as diabetes, kidney and liver complaints, and obesity.
• Bones and additional meat can result in an imbalanced calcium to phosphorous ratio, which is so important for growth.

That is why you should only feed your dog the appropriate dry or wet food.

Your puppy breeder will usually give you a certain quantity of the food they feed to their dogs. You can either decide to continue feeding this to your puppy, or you can switch to a different variety or an alternative feeding method. If you want to do this, it is best to let your new four-legged family member settle in for a few days first. The puppy should be allowed time to calmly adjust to their new situation and new family before you switch foods. A sudden change of food can easily cause gastrointestinal problems. You should wait at least two weeks before changing the puppy food. When you do make the change, it is important to take it slowly, i.e. mix a small amount of the new food into the current food for a few days to ensure a gradual transition. This helps reduce the risk of digestive problems.

As already discussed, the supply of nutrients during the period when a dog is growing is different to that for a fully grown dog. Appropriate phosphorous and calcium levels are also necessary. Adult food varieties are not designed for a growing dog. That is why a growing dog should not just be offered adult food.

Once your dog reaches adulthood, of course, you can switch to an adult food variety. The length of the growth phase will depend on the expected fully grown weight for your dog.

Feeding a puppy correctly requires a high-quality puppy food but also the right quantities. Puppies need food four to five times a day because their stomachs are small, and their energy consumption is high. From the 3rd month of life, puppies need three to four meals; from the sixth month, two or three meals per day will suffice. For large breeds of dogs, in particular, it is important not to supply more energy in their food than they need or consume. Too much food can result in the dog growing more quickly, which can subsequently be a cause of joint problems. For small breeds, this risk is lower, but even these dogs should not be given free rein when it comes to food. Small dogs reach their adult size from about the ninth month – up until this point you should continue offering puppy food. For medium-size breeds, this stage is reached at about 12 months, for larger breeds it can take up to 20 months. You should only switch to a product for adult dogs once your pet is fully grown.

Puppies of all breeds need food containing antioxidants, beta carotene, and vitamin E to develop a fully functioning immune system. Omega-6 and Omega-3 fatty acids are particularly crucial for a healthy coat. An appropriate ratio of calcium to phosphorous is also vital.

To be on safe side, you can always consult your vet for advice.