Creating a Puppy Feeding Chart for Your Practice

According to the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention, nearly 60% of dogs are either overweight or obese. Despite this, about one-third of Americans with overweight or obese dogs believe their four-legged friends are in the “normal” range when it comes to body weight and body condition.

Is your veterinary practice doing enough to teach dog owners how much food to give their dogs? Creating a puppy feeding chart is a fantastic way to educate them on how much to feed a puppy from the start.

By feeding puppies the proper amount and providing a complete and balanced diet, dog owners can ensure their young puppies grow into healthy adult dogs. This will benefit your vet practice by limiting the time you spend tending to overweight dogs.

Help owners put together plans by learning how to create a chart for your practice below.

Why a Chart for Feeding Puppies Is Important

When pet owners bring home growing puppies, one of the first things they typically do is pick up a bag of something for them to eat. However, people admit they aren’t always sure how long they need to continue to provide puppy food. A 2020 study found that almost 50% of those with small-breed dogs didn’t know they need puppy food for up to a year, while over 90% of those with larger dogs didn’t know they need it for up to two years.

Owners also admit to not being aware of when to feed a puppy or how much food to provide to meet a puppy’s nutritional requirements.

Your veterinary practice can assist owners by setting them up with a puppy feeding chart and saying, “This is the right amount of food to feed your puppy or puppies.” It’ll provide the following benefits:

• Helps growing puppies develop (vision development, hearing development, etc.)
• Allows them to monitor the food puppies eat and make adjustments
• Stops them from overfeeding or underfeeding pups and failing to meet their nutritional needs

An owner can better understand a dog’s body weight and body condition when you have a chart on the amount of food to give a puppy. It’ll provide the perfect response when they ask, “How much should I feed my puppy?” and motivate owners to pay attention to their pups’ overall health.

Understanding Puppy Nutritional Needs

There’s a reason why puppies need to eat puppy food and not adult dog food. It’s specially formulated to meet a puppy’s nutritional needs.

As a veterinarian, you should push owners to provide dogs with the right dry food, like dry kibble, or wet puppy food options. These puppy foods can help their growing bodies and deliver all the nutrients they need.

Generally speaking, this food should provide a blend of proteins, fats, carbohydrates, and vitamins and minerals. Here is how they will positively impact a puppy’s body weight and body condition and create a healthy life:

• Proteins: Puppy food contains 27% protein, while adult dog food has just 21% protein. The extra protein in balanced puppy food helps with bone and muscle growth.
• Fats: Puppy food is filled with fats, including essential fatty acids, that aren’t always found in adult dog food and provide pups with energy. They also help their bodies absorb vitamins and create healthier coats.
• Carbohydrates: While fats can provide young puppies with energy, they’ll get most of their energy from the carbohydrates in their food. Owners can keep their pups active by giving them wet and dry formulas with enough carbs.
• Vitamins and Minerals: Every complete and balanced dog diet must include vitamins and minerals, including calcium and phosphorus. They keep a puppy’s immune system strong and help with the development of their growing bodies.

Giving puppies the right foods and figuring out how much to give them is vital to healthy development. Your veterinary clinic can teach owners more about these topics with a chart. It’ll give them a schedule they can use when they wonder, “How much should you feed your puppy?”

You can also teach them how to feed a dog based on breed. They’ll need to change the amount they feed a puppy depending on whether they have small breeds, large breeds, or breeds that produce medium-sized dogs.

How To Create a Chart for Feeding Puppies

If you Google phrases like “feeding plan for pups” or “puppy feeding chart weight,” you’ll find varying veterinarian opinions on which balanced puppy food to provide and how much to feed a puppy. It’s why many owners struggle to answer the question, “How much should you feed your puppy?”

Your veterinary practice can add to the conversation by creating a chart. You can use everything you’ve discovered while treating pups and adult dogs to come up with recommendations on what to feed puppies and when to feed them to maintain a puppy’s weight.

As you do this, keep these factors in mind:

• A puppy’s age
• A puppy’s expected mature weight
• A puppy’s breed
• A puppy’s activity level

Puppy Feeding Schedule by Weight

Puppies grow quickly. The average weight of a puppy will increase by about 10 to 15% each day. For small breeds, this means gaining 0.5 ounces per week, while for larger breeds, it means gaining 2.5 pounds per week.

Many small and large breed puppy owners who patronize your veterinary practice might prefer a chart that tells them how much food to provide based on breed size. Here is a detailed feeding schedule that takes body weight and breed size into account while providing guidelines for a puppy’s first six months:

Sneak a peek at the American Kennel Club’s Breed Weight Chart to see how much small breeds, giant breeds, and all breed sizes should weigh. Owners should give pups about 5% of their estimated mature body weight daily.

Puppy Feeding Schedule by Age

Body weight isn’t the only thing to consider when creating feeding schedules for puppies. Owners will also want to account for their ages when deciding the right amount of food.

It might make sense for your veterinary practice to provide your patients with a chart based on age. Here is a detailed feeding schedule that showcases how much to give puppies as they grow:

Your veterinary practice should highlight how often to feed pups as they age as well. They should receive three to four smaller meals per day when they’re between four and 12 weeks old. This can drop down to just two meals per day with more food after 12 weeks, though this is only a guideline for those asking, “How often should I feed my puppy?”

How Much Food To Feed a Puppy Chart

A 2018 study revealed almost 90% of owners give a pet “roughly what they think it needs” at feeding times. As a veterinarian, make it your mission to advise people against guessing how much to feed a puppy.

The simplest way to do this is by preaching the importance of feeding pups based on their weights and ages. You can also pinpoint the mistakes owners sometimes make when feeding puppies. They include:

• Giving puppies smaller meals or larger meals with more food than they need
• Providing them with dog food at inconsistent times
• Storing puppy food improperly and allowing easy access to it

Many owners also make the mistake of giving human food to dogs. Even a small piece of human food can provide small dogs with significant portions of their recommended daily calorie intake and cause weight gain.

Dog Food Tips for Proper Feeding

Do more than just give meal charts to the dog owners who trust your veterinary practice. Provide them with proper feeding tips as well. Here are a few:

• Establish an eating schedule for a puppy.
• Select the right type of puppy food and don’t give a puppy adult food until they’re old enough.
• Introduce different foods into a young dog’s diet, such as dry food, wet food, homemade food, raw food, etc., to find the right option.
• Monitor a puppy’s weight between veterinarian visits and speak with a vet about weight gain issues.
• Discourage your puppy from begging for food before they become an adult dog.

Encourage owners to use your chart, too. It can work wonders for those creating complete and balanced puppy diet plans.

Common Puppy Food Problems and Solutions

As long as puppy owners stick to your veterinary practice’s chart, they shouldn’t encounter issues when providing puppy food. There are, however, several common problems pup owners deal with. Read through them and see possible solutions:

Make Your Veterinary Practice’s Operations More Manageable

People who rely on your veterinary practice to keep their puppies in good health can benefit from using a complete and balanced puppy feeding chart. Why not create one so they can put it to good use? They’ll thank you for it, and you might see a decline in the number of unhealthy dogs with health problems.

Would you like to secure other tools that can help your veterinary practice thrive? Get a demo of Weave’s solutions to streamline veterinary practice management, including online scheduling, reminders, digital forms, and more.