Lifestages: Puppy
Puppy up to 18 Months
What should I feed my puppy?
To support a puppy’s rapid growth, its nutritional requirements vary significantly from that of an adult dog. It is therefore extremely important to feed your puppy a specially formulated puppy food that offers the following:
- More Energy: Growing puppies typically require about three times more calories than an adult dog of the same size.
- More Protein: To grow so fast puppies need food that is rich in protein to create new body tissues as it grows.
- Different Mineral Needs: Calcium and phosphorus requirements are higher to support bone growth.
- Different Antioxidant Needs: Puppies need more antioxidants to support their developing immune system.
- DHA: This is important for brain and vision development and improves trainability.
It’s important to remember that not all dogs are the same; there are foods available for all different sizes of dog, who each have different dietary needs.
Small Breed Puppies
(up to 10kg at maturity e.g. Corgi, Scottie, Cavalier King Charles Spaniel)
Feed a Small Breed or Standard Puppy Complete food.
Medium Breed Puppies
(12-25kg at maturity e.g. Airedale, Pointer, Bulldog, Border Collie and Dalmatian)
Feed a Standard Puppy Complete food.
Large Breed Puppies
(25kg-45kg at maturity e.g. Golden Retriever, Labrador, German Shepherd, Boxer)
Feed a Large Breed Puppy Complete food.
Giant Breed Puppies
(over 45kg at maturity e.g. Great Dane, Irish Wolfhound)
Feed a Large Breed Puppy Complete food.
Switching to Adult Food
Your puppy will reach maturity from 12-18 months and this is the time to move from a Puppy diet to an Adult diet. To make the food transition easy on your puppy’s tummy, introduce the new food in with the old over 4-5 days.
Click here for information on solving more specific problems with your dog's diet