How much to feed our 5 month old puppies?
Well, after 3 months I finally found a food they will both eat!
Before I was feeding them Iams when they cam home, which they ate reluctantly then stopped when they were 2 months old. So I switched toHalo Puppy, which they loved at first but then started to backoff of it. So now I have switched to Canyon Creek Ranch.
Before they were eating out of the same bowl, and not much. They have refused to eat out of seperate bowls since I brought them home at 7 weeks old. In the morning I would put down 1 1/2 cups and they would maybe eat 1/2 cup if I was lucky. Then at 5pm I would tell them dinner and add maybe another 1/2 cup. It would be 9pm, before they would gobble down the rest.
This was resulting in one of our pups getting having bad reflux becasue he would go all day wothout eating.
I finally decided to switch foods and now they gobble it down. I have had to start feed them in seperate bowls as now my female will not let the male neart the food to eat, she wants it all for herself.
I have been feeding them 1 cup in the morning and 1 cup at dinner for a total of 2 cups each.
Is this too much?
My male weigs in at 19.8 lbs and the famale at 17.4lbs last time we had them weighed a few weeks ago.
Any suggestions?
Thanks in Advance!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Tracy Marie on
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It sounds like too much to me, but if they are getting plenty of exercise, then it could be just fine since they are growing. I'm a new corgi owner myself, my pup is just shy of 15 weeks (~3.5 mo) and he only gets a cup a day + treats. He weighs 12.6 lbs (just weighed him Saturday). He goes for 2 20 minute walks daily, and gets roughly an hour throughout the day of rough and tumble play.
When you look at your pups top down, do they have a waist right behind his hind legs? See the photo below:
If they have a waist, then I wouldn't worry about it. Keep doing what you are doing. Every pup is different and how much they are fed depends on how active they are. But if they are a little roly-poly, definitely scale back.
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It is, but not when you consider that his training treats are a combo of hot dogs / cheese / and regular puppy treats.
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Permalink Reply by Jane on
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Eh I still think it's too little personally. My adult dogs get 1 cup a day and that's just for maintenance, and I still use similar treats. They only need tiny pinky-nail sized pieces, one hot dog can be cut up into like 50 treats.
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Really? Like I said, I'm new to this corgi business too... at his last vet visit, the vet said he was too chub chub and I needed to cut down on his intake. I was giving him just under 2 cups a day.
I think I'll increase his food a bit and see... thanks for the advice, even though I'm not the original poster. :)
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Permalink Reply by Ludi on
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If the vet is properly feeling the dog out (checking for ribs, hipbones, etc.) under that plush puppy fur coat and is still telling you that the dog is a bit chubby, then I would follow his advice. My corgi couldn't put weight on for ages, and then he hit a year old and now he gets fat if he even looks at food. So it's a pretty difficult balance.
You know your dog best, his activity levels, and can check him every day to make sure you're still able to feel ribs easily. You don't want them sticking out, but they should not be "hidden" under fat.
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Permalink Reply by Rachel Givens on
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Perfect! thanks for the info. According to these photos they are definitely ideal. I may bring it down 1/4 cup, but this reference is great. Thanks again!
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Permalink Reply by Wilson Waddlepants and Joyce on
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First of all, I'm sure someone with more experience than me (we've had two Pembroke puppies over an eleven year period) will be able to answer your question better. However, I'm going to offer my personal experience in case there's something you can glean from it. Your pups seem to have a good weight despite your struggles with finding a food they like. Breeders free feed their puppies when they're being weaned so they can get used to eating dry kibble, and I would imagine that because you brought siblings home who were used to free feeding together that's why they refused to eat out of separate bowls. We have a 14 pound, almost 15 week old Pembroke. We just increased his food intake to 1 3/4 cups per day (from 1 1/2 a day) split into three meals. His dry kibble has 466 calories per cup (California Natural Chicken and Brown Rice Puppy Food) As a general rule of thumb I believe that adult Corgis are fed way too much food, but puppies who are growing need a lot of food. I find the whole subject rather frustrating because we're told not to follow the feeding guidelines on dog food bags because they usually suggest feeding too much, but at the same time we don't want to underfeed our puppies. My current issue is how to go from feeding three times a day to twice a day. Wilson has been eating 2/3 of a cup of kibble with 1 tablespoon of plain greek yogurt at 7:30 am, a scant 1/2 cup with yogurt at 2:30 pm, and 2/3 of a cup with yogurt again at 9:30 pm. The night "feeding" was recommended by our breeder. He has slept from 11:00 or 11:30 pm until 7:00 or 8:00 am since the day we brought him home with no accidents and I have to wonder if the late meal has helped with that (the sleeping, not the peeing). I do make sure he goes outside to pee and do his business before I put him in his crate at 11:00 or 11:30 pm. As we begin to try to remove the middle of the day meal, I'm going to push the 9:30 pm meal back. One other thing our breeder suggested was feeding our puppy in his crate. We have two other dogs so I liked that suggestion because I didn't want to complicate things by having to keep them away from each other's food. We have a larger soft-sided crate with a zipper opening on the front and the top. When he was little I would set his food in the crate and put him in it through the top opening. Now that he's older, I leave the front door un-zipped, slide his food in through the front door and he runs in and eats it and then runs out when he's done. You might consider feeding yours in their crates so they're not all up in each other's dining experience.
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Thanks for your reply Joyce. I think I am going to bring their food down by 1/4 cup. I was wondering about feeding in their crate. I figured that since they use their crates for sleeping, feeding them in there would confuse them at this rate. But I may try it. Currently i am feeding them on either side of our kitchen island and they are fine with it, but as soon as my female is done eating she sneeks over to his bowl to eat and he lets her! SInce i have them both in Obedience I am trying to use commands on her to stay put until he is done. We will see....
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We have a soft-sided crate that's larger than the one he sleeps in and we keep it in the living room. When we first brought him home we used it as a playpen/secure napping area and because our breeder had recommended feeding him in a crate we used it for that too. He has a separate smaller crate in our bedroom where he sleeps at night. I agree that your pups might find it confusing if you tried to feed them in the same crate where they sleep. We use to feed our other Corgi in the bathroom so he'd be separated from our beagle foxhound because he'd literally inhale his food and then try to run over and eat hers which she was not eager for him to do !
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It sounds like a fine amount to me as long as they look okay. I wouldn't worry about feeding too much until they're close to a year old - then the metabolism starts to slow down a bit and you need to watch that they don't get chubby.
I always fed my puppies 1.5 cups a day to start, and went from there. Luke was up to 2.5 cups a day at one point, and still looked ridiculously scrawny. It really depends on the dog.
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Thanks Jane.
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