Hello everyone! I've just gotten my corgi puppy, Charlie, a few days ago. He's 14 weeks old! He's my first corgi, and well - my first dog that I'm raising by myself! As a first time owner, I guess I want to make sure I do the right things, feed him well, ect.
So for the past few days that I've had him, I've just let his food stay on the floor (along with his water) because it seems like he doesn't eat much (or maybe he just goes and eats when I don't watch him...)
Instead of doing this, should I feed him on a scheduled time? If so, how should I go about doing that (if anything helps, I usually wake up in the 7-10 in the morning range.)? How many meals should he eat?
Sorry for a bunch of newbie questions!
Tags:
I've done it both ways and they work equally as well. As long as you keep track and don't overfeed I would do what is easiest for you. He may be teething if he's not yet so watch for signs of him not eating as well and soften his food with water if this happens.
Good luck and congrats!!!!!!
At 14 weeks I would probably still feed 3x per day, probably about one-half cup each meal. Within a couple weeks I'd make the lunch meal smaller. So if Charlie eats a total of 1.5 cups of food per day, I would give half of a cup in the morning, a quarter cup at lunch, and three-quarters of a cup at supper. By 5 months or so you can switch to two meals a day, with a biscuit or something at mid-day. Once he's done growing, his food will probably need to be reduced or he'll start growing out instead of up. :-) Check with your vet about feeding schedule if you are not sure, but don't follow his advice about how MUCH to feed, just how often. My vet told me to feed Jack 3x a day, as much as he'd eat in 15 minutes each time. I laughed and laughed and laughed, and called the breeder and we laughed some more. He'd have eaten the entire bag in 15 minutes.... Most vets seem to not realize the low calorie requirement of Corgis.
I would leave it down for a half-hour at his age and then pick it up. Agreed with others that you may need to soften it up a bit if he's teething.
Leave water down all day, but take it up about 1.5 hours before bedtime and don't offer water overnight til he's completely house-trained at around a year or so. After that, leave water out at all times.
My corgis each had three meals a day until they were 6 months old (Ellie is still on three meals a day). Then I switch over to two meals (breakfast and dinner). My dogs LOVE to each to I break up each meal into three portions. They have to "back up", "Laydown", and "Stay" until I say go to get each portion of food. This has me controlling food, they get excited about it, and is a great training tool. To help prevent food aggression later I also recommend petting your puppy (especially around the face) when they eat. Good luck and congratulations on the puppy.
Dixie is 13 weeks old. I have her on a twice daily feeding schedule of 7AM and 7PM. At those feedings she gets 1.5 cups of Purina puppy chow and a total of 20 minutes to eat. The reason for the schedule is to make her poops more predictable, since she poops 20-90 minutes after eating, and the strict pickup ensures that she does not dawdle when eating.
As for treats I give in a little here and there with the granulated rawhide and bacon stix but I try to keep snacks to a single teenie Greenie's chew after dinner or a chicken flavored traditional rawhide so she has to work to get the treat. Also, I do my best to avoid table scraps, to break the begging habit and to avoid really smelly, inconsistent poops (human food, especially meat makes the worst stench).
So far she is 10 pounds at 13 weeks so this plan seems to be working well for us.
© 2024 Created by Sam Tsang. Powered by