Pet Food Amounts

sarahv

Hi, we are going to get a bichon frise puppy. I am planning to use Acana Puppy Food. It says a 2kg dog should get 40g of food. I think they mean 40g a food in 24 hours. It seems like a tiny amount when I measure it out! Am i reading this wrong, should it be 40g twice a day so actually 80g (They suggest feeding twice a day but i was planning to spread out his food out over 4 feeds). Can anyone help? I know he is tiny but 40g isn't much at all.....

DBB

Hi. I don't think you can overfeed a puppy, within reason. I'm a huge fan of feeding young pups very regularly (5 times per day at least), and giving them as much as they'll eat at each meal. They are growing at a ferocious rate between 8 and 24ish weeks, and growth burns a savage amount of calories. Add to that how active pups are, that accounts for a lot more calories that they need to take on during the day. So, I wouldn't worry about the guidelines on the bag of food... just lorry the grub into him!
For an adult Bichon, their meals will be pretty small... their tummies are tiny, and don't take much filling!
Most pups naturally stop eating the full amount at each meal, and this is when you can start to reduce the frequency of meals, until you get to 2 per day from 6+ months of age. From about this time (6ish months), maybe a little older, then it's time to start considering daily allowances to prevent weight gain.

sarahv

Great, thanks a million. I will follow that advice.