By Julie Lauzon, agr, MSc, Pet Nutrition
8 Weeks – 6 Months
First, Congratulations on Your New Puppy!
You’re at the start of a wonderful adventure and we wish you many years of love and health together. You are reading this blog because you are a well-informed pet-parent who wish to offer the best nutrition possible to your puppy, and we would like to support you in your journey of raw feeding for the life and health of your dog.
Feeding raw to your dog has many advantages. The very first thing you’ll notice is during the potty training stage that raw fed puppies produce a lot less poop than kibble fed puppies. Not only is there less, but the texture is much more firm making clean up much easier, especially in the case of an accident in the house. Because raw has no added salt, most raw fed puppies drink less water making it easier to train them to pee outside. Pointing to other health benefits later in life, there are also more and more studies supporting the early life raw diet for the health of skin and joints, cancer prevention and overall gut health (see blog about weaning puppies onto raw for reference).
During the first few days with your new puppy you may notice a reduced appetite and loose stools. These effects are not necessarily a result of the diet, but more likely a result of stress because of the huge life changes. Be patient, things will return to a healthy normal soon. You can offer our Raw Fermented Goat Milk and Thrive Pumpkin Powder to support any digestive upset, and to increase interest in food. Feeding the same proteins as the breeder can also help with the environment adaptation.
What Should I Be Feeding?
Until your puppy is 4-5 months old, the amount of food to offer will seem huge compared to you puppy’s current weight. The reason for this is that there is no such thing as puppy food when feeding raw: it is simply whole food put together with no filler!
Puppies should be fed at will, or 10% of actual weight, which should correspond roughly to 2% of their expected adult body weight. This means that your puppy, usually around 12-16 weeks old is eating their full adult portion of food daily. We recommend feeding 3 meals daily until about 6 months of age because they are growing rapidly and need a more constant supply of calories than a full-grown dog. If your puppy seems to be excessively hungry at mealtime and a little on the lean side, the best thing to do is to feed a little more. If you are noticing an increase in body condition score, or an excessively pudgy puppy, reduce a little. Obesity in a puppy is just as harmful as malnutrition.
In raw feeding, variety is key! We recommend a rotation of 3-5 Dinner recipes per month, a combination of red meats and poultry. The more variety you offer at a young age, the less likely your dog will become a picky eater or suffer from neophobia – the fear of new food. Offering a huge protein rotation also helps eliminate the risk of developing food intolerances or allergies.
Feeding Raw Bones
Did you know that you can already be offering raw meaty bones to you puppy? Your breeder (if they fed raw) may have already offered some meaty bones at 7-8 weeks old because they know that the younger your dog learns how to chew on raw bones correctly and safely, the easier it will be to feed them bones once they’re an adult! For now, you might feel like your puppy is a fluffy version of a piranha, so gnawing and chewing on raw bones can be helpful. It can relieve some teething pain as well as be an outlet for that seemingly never-ending puppy energy. Bones for puppies should be soft and thawed and served only 2-3 times a week. We don’t want to unbalance the diet and we want to be gentle on those puppy teeth. Some great options are necks and feet (chicken, duck, turkey) and flat rib bones. For now, marrow bones aren’t a great choice because the bone is very dense and hard and the marrow is high in fat which can cause loose stools. Feeding raw bones is an essential element of feeding raw for dental health, and it’s best to teach them early on how to eat bones safely.
Do you feel like you need some support to create the perfect puppy diet? Do you want to know if your dog might have specific requirements (ex: joint support for large breeds?) We’re here for you. Simply ask for a personalized meal plan, it’s free!
6 Months +
6 months to 1 year is better known as the teenage phase! During this phase, you might notice some undesired behaviours are making a comeback, but don’t worry, it will pass and before long you’ll have your dog back. Just keep going, reinforcing the training you’ve done so far.
As far as the diet is concerned, there are a couple changes that can be made during this teenage phase. By now, most of your puppy’s growth is done, and if you haven’t already, you can drop down to two meals per day – one in the morning and one in the evening. Some puppies will naturally drop the middle of the day feed by showing no interest in food, making it easy to start the twice daily feeding regimen.
Most dogs, especially large breeds, continue to grow until 2 years old, but the growth from 6 months onward is much slower and often not really noticeable. At this age, the joints aren’t yet fully developed and there is still room for a lot of muscle mass, commonly called “filling out”. During the 6 months to 2 years timeframe, your puppy could eat up to 5% of its actual body weight, which should still be 2% of their expected adult weight. For example, if your dog is expected to be 50lbs full grown, but is only currently 30lbs, you would still feed roughly 1lb per day.
During this phase, it’s still important to keep a close eye on body condition. If your teenager is on the chunky side, reducing food portions slightly, even for a little while, will help keep those joints healthy. And if you can see and feel ribs, it might be best to increase food portions a little – often as little as an extra 10% in the food bowl is all it takes. We suggest adding a Quail Egg a couple times a week for a small/medium sized dog or 5-6 per week for larger dogs. Some adult dogs will do better on one meal per day as well. Certain breeds, for example the husky, show little to no interest in food and can benefit from having one meal per day.
This teenage phase is also a great time to introduce interactive bowls and toys. Your young pup will need a lot of mental stimulation and bringing out some toys at mealtime is an excellent way to rid some of that excess energy. Simply thaw the food, fill your favorite West Paw Toy or Big Country Raw Lick Mat with raw and refreeze it to offer it frozen at mealtime. This type of mental stimulation can tire your teenage pup even more than physical exercise.
And we want to remind you, if you have any questions about a product we offer, or need suggestions for supplements or a meal plan, never hesitate to reach out. We’re always happy to help make raw feeding a choice you can feel confident in.
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