# How much food should my puppy be eating?



## beckyp15 (Jun 7, 2013)

My Jack Russell is 6 months old and weighs approx 6kg.
He is constantly asking for food, begging and savaging whenever he can get some off the table or our plates he will try.
I feed him Pedigree wet food from a tin as he prefers this to dry food. At the moment he is eating half a tin at breakfast and the other half at tea time, he is on a schedule so he know exactly when he will be getting food. The tins are 400kg, not sure if this means the weight of food or tin aswell?? He is very active and probably burns off this food with his hyperness. Just wondering if I should be giving him more, he seems quite small for his age? or am i giving him to much, at the wrong times? He eats it so quickly and looks at me as if to say "is that it?" 

info much appreciated.

becky


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## Dog Person (Sep 14, 2012)

First off, Pedigree isn't great food so you may think about switching.

On the dog food is a "recommended amount" which tends to be too much but every dog is different. Here's a food calculator but even they may give dogs too much: http://www.mycockerspaniel.com/mer.htm

Feeding 2x a day is OK, I still feed my adult dog 2x a day usually about 12 hours apart. Puppies tend to need a little more food than their adult counterparts. Although this may not apply 100% to puppies, here is the best way to tell if your dog is at a good weight: http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-evaluate-your-dogs-weight.html (please disregard the "for Dummies" part of it) 

Dogs/puppies tend to be scavengers and most are usually looking for food.


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## Shell (Oct 19, 2009)

Many dogs will beg and grab for as much food as they can, especially tasty human food, even if they aren't actually hungry and don't _need_ more food.

6kg is about 13 lbs, or right at the low end of the typical adult weight of a Jack Russell. So unless he is very tall and long, I wouldn't think he is small at all. Every dog will eat a different amount of food to keep a healthy weight, just like humans and it depends on how much they exercise and their own metabolisms. The best way to know if a dog is eating enough is to watch his body condition. He should be lean, without extra fat around the shoulders or belly, you should see the last rib and be able to feel the other ribs if you run your hands lightly over his sides. You shouldn't see his spine poking out and he should have a "tuck" in his belly by his back legs.










400g can is the weight of the food, which remember includes water since it is a wet food. That's about 14 ounces so it is about the same size as our tins so depending on the formula, he's eating about 400-450 calories of food each day. That's a little less than what I'd expect an active puppy to be eating, but about what I'd expect a moderately (2 walks per day type) active adult dog of his size to eat. 

If he looks thin, feed a little more. If he looks pudgy, feed a little less.


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## domika (Jul 1, 2012)

I would feed based on body composition like Shell mentioned. My dog would never eat close to the amount bags recommendation when he was a puppy, and now I feed him more if he's thin, and less is he's getting too heavy.


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