Amount of food to feed?

[thegilby]

Hi all, I've got another dilemma. The breeder who I bought my puppy from said that I should feed her 1/4 cup of food every day, two times a day. I thought this was kind of sketchy at first because it sounded very small. I bought some dog food and it says for my puppy I should feed her 1 and 2/3 cup to 2 and 1/2 cup of food every day. Which one do I believe?

[Taeric]

Our breeder had us nearly starving our pup. After doing some research and talking to our vet, we about tripled her food. She was much healthier for it. Now that's she's full grown, she's dead on average for her breed, age, and height.

The moral of the story (in my limited experience) is that breeders underfeed their dogs, especially if they're breeding show dogs.

[Cheetah]

I don't think that is true of the good breeders. I would think an underfed bitch would not do well with pregnancy and birth. Shippo's breeder advised me to feed him (a Corgi) as much as my 55lb Border Collie mix (2 cups a day) until he gets older, and then just adjust his feeding to his weight to maintain it.

I think you should just feed what turns out to be the right amount for your dog. All dogs are different and have different metabolisms etc. Don't go by what the bag says either. Most dog food companies (if not all) will recommend that you overfeed.

[sheltieluver4]

Yes I agree, I am difently going to ask the breeder, I mean every sheltie she owns has won no lower place than 3rd, so I will ask how much she feeds her pups and dogs. Like Cheetah told me in the past, the amount it tells you on the back of the bag of puppy food maybe over feeding the pup. So ask your vet or breeder a good amount for your pup

[Cheetah]

Another option would be to consult with a professional canine nutritionist. I did this for Eevee. >^^;<

[Taeric]

The issue with breeders and feeding is that they want puppies to develop slowly. They, the good ones at least as you noted, will not starve their dogs for their entire lives. We got our pup from a very reputable breeder, but their feeding recommendations early on were ridiculously low.