How to Feed a Puppy Correctly

To know how to feed a puppy who is only a few months old, the first thing we need to know is their exact age. Because depending on that we will give them their food in liquid or solid form.

If we are lucky enough that the puppy is going to feed from their mother, we need not worry about their food until they are two months old. But if they have nowhere to nurse, we need to know what kinds of food they can have. Here at Soyunperro we are going to run through all the advice on feeding puppies.

When to Start Feeding a Puppy Solid Food

To answer this question we need to imitate, as far as possible, what any puppy would naturally do with their mother. Puppies feed on their mother's milk from birth until around eight weeks, which is when they are weaned — some puppies a little earlier and others a little later.

Weaning coincides with the arrival of the milk teeth in puppies, which means they could then eat solid foods that are not excessively hard. So, going by nature itself, puppies can start eating solid food from eight weeks of age. It is advisable to make the change gradually, as we explain further on.

Making the change gradually is ideal because otherwise it could affect our puppy's digestive system. A good way to make the change is through a purée, which means putting a little solid food (1/3) and a little mother's milk (2/3) in the blender and blending it thoroughly, like a baby food.

We can start giving the puppy this purée at six weeks of age and up to eight or nine weeks, which is when they should start eating solid food. We should not replace mother's milk with purée, simply swap one of the daily milk feeds for this purée, leaving the rest of the feeds as milk.

Once the dog is eight weeks old they can have purée alone and begin on solid foods, little by little. Their milk teeth should by then have come through completely, allowing them to eat.

How to Feed a Newborn Puppy

Ideally it should be the mother who nurses her puppy until they are around eight weeks old. Mother's milk, and colostrum in particular, provides the puppy with every nutrient they need, as well as protecting them from infectious disease, since among its components are immunoglobulins that reinforce natural immunity.

If we have this option available, we should let the puppy feed from their mother as often as they want throughout the day, until weaning happens naturally (at around eight weeks of age).

If we unfortunately do not have that option, we have to feed our newborn or few-days-old puppy solely and exclusively on special milk for dogs, available from any veterinary practice. We should never give a puppy that young cow's milk or solid food, since we could kill them.

This kind of puppy milk has to be given with a bottle, since the puppy will look for their mother's teat and the bottle's teat is the closest thing to it. Newborn puppies and other small mammals under a week old should be fed every two hours, about twelve times a day. After seven days, you can feed them every two and a half hours, and then after two weeks, every three hours. You can generally skip one or two feeds overnight.

The high frequency of milk feeds is because the newborn does not yet have mature mechanisms for regulating blood sugar (liver and pancreas), so regulation comes directly through their food.

The daily amount of milk is 15 ml of milk per day for every 100 grams of body weight. Remember to serve it at around 38 degrees (imitating their mother's temperature). Massage newborn puppies' bellies after each feed to help them along with their bowel movements, just as their mother does by licking them.

How to Feed a One-Month-Old Puppy

As we have explained above, puppies should have their mother's milk or special milk for dogs until they are six to eight weeks old, during which time they will also carry on having the special purée alongside it in order to make the switch to solid food.

Puppies at a month and a half old can start having purée for one of their feeds, while we keep the milk for the others. Once they reach this age we should feed them four times a day.

From two months of age we can start mixing solid foods in with the purée and gradually withdrawing the purée, until only solid food is left. From three months of age we can cut their feeds down to three times a day, ideally split between breakfast, lunch and dinner.

What Is the Best Solid Food for a Puppy?

This can be taken to mean which is the best kibble for puppies, since kibble is dry and hard. But what we actually mean by solid food is anything that is not mother's milk — that is, semi-moist kibbles and tins of meat are an excellent option for feeding our puppy too.

We need to take several factors into account in choosing the best kibble for our puppy, the first being the size of their breed. A kibble for small breeds is not the same as a kibble for large breeds. The size of the pieces and the ingredients are geared to the size of our puppy's mouth and to their rate of growth.

We therefore need to choose between puppy kibbles for small breeds or for large breeds. We can weigh up the best kibbles for dogs and choose their puppy version, or start out feeding fresh food instead, which is what is known as the BARF diet.