Best Food For New Born Puppy: A Comprehensive Puppy Feeding Guide For You!

When a puppy is born, during the initial phase of its life, the only activities that it performs are feeding, being warm as well as developing social abilities. In many of the cases, most of the humans just observe the mother dog taking care of its puppies. However, if you have bought a new puppy that has been separated from its mother, then it is completely your responsibility to take care of the puppy. The best way to feed your puppy is to give it the same type of food and same brand food that has been given to it earlier.

How should you feed the new born puppy?

During the initial first 4 weeks of the dog’s life, it is mother’s milk that provides each and everything that a pup needs. But before you begin feeding your puppy, consult a vet regarding the same and bottle feed your new pup in a proper way, as you can cause it more harm by feeding it incorrectly. Sometimes the pups are required to be fed by a canine commercial milk replacer. Remember to choose the milk that is especially formulated for the puppies and not from cow milk or other types of milk, or else it can cause diarrhoea. Milk is very essential for puppies and they require it after every few hours for some weeks.

Further, you should prepare a puppy mush with the help of superior quality two cups of dry puppy food placed in a blender with a little amount of puppy milk replacer. Fill the blender with some hot water as well. Blend the mixture well till it is reduced to a cereal meant for human infants. Start the day of your puppy with this meal and serve this to it at least three to four times in a day. Try to increase the amount of the puppy mush every week and decrease the amount of milk replacer and the time that you take for blending the mixture. After seven weeks, your puppy should be prepared to eat dry food. It is better for it to eat more and more of solid food as well as drinking water. As the intake of its solid food increases, it will decrease the amount of milk intake. Slowly the intake of adult food is increased and the puppy food is decreased.

Types of puppy foods-

There are 3 types of commercially manufactured dog foods- semi moist in sealed packages, moist (canned), and dry kibble. Most of the vets and trainers suggest dry kibble food for the puppies. They rarely recommend the semi moist or canned foods. This is also due to the reason that canned foods are high in fat and usually contain eighty to eighty three percent of water. This makes the canned food very expensive. The semi moist puppy food is fifty five percent of water and contains a lot of sugar or salt levels for preservation. So, in this case also you are paying too much for the sugar, salt and water which is not required much by the puppies. Dry foods are usually made up of nine to eleven percent of water and the quality of ingredients that are used to produce them are the same. In addition, these dry foods are easier to use, more economical as well as much better for your puppy or dog.

With the dog food, you only get what you pay for. The economical brands contain ingredients that are of low quality, made up with low quality ingredients. So, their energy levels and digestibility is also low along with poor- grade proteins. Thus, making the economy branded food is not easy to absorb by your beloved pup. Further, premium brands that are mostly classified as “Super Premium or Performance”, essentially are made up of superior quality ingredients taken from the sources that are of biological high values. Better quality material ensures better digestibility, and gives your puppy the much needed energy levels and less waste is produced. Regular brands give normal nutrients and ingredients and thus, fall in between superior and economical quality.

Although, you should prefer giving your puppy the best and superior quality dog food, but you should consider consulting your vet for the best food for your puppy.

How frequently should a puppy eat?

As your puppy grows, increase the amount of food servings and intervals. As you make the transition of your puppy to the solid dog food, try to give it a superior quality dry kibble puppy food which is soaked in milk replacer and warm water and blend it well for a great consistency. Decrease the amount of milk replacer as you increase your puppy’s intake of solid dry food. Consult your expert vet for the exact amount of servings and food schedule of your dog.