Common guidance says three times a day.
There’s even some guidance for the really tiny little teacup type dogs that they need to be fed every two hours.
Let’s really look at this. And let’s also look at when we should stop feeding our puppies like puppies and feed them like adults.
First thing to look at is why do we recommend multiple meals a day?
Certainly when puppies and kittens are born, they nurse every couple of hours. But by the time they’re weaned, their mom is not spending all day every day with them so they don’t get the nurse every two hours anymore. By the time they are weaned, they’re lucky if their mom feeds them three or four times a day. Which suggests that new owners should feed no more than three or four times a day.
On the other hand, look at how the breeder feeds puppies and kittens: they leave a smorgasbord of food available 24/7. Can you say buffet?
Yet nobody does this with their human babies. Maybe they shouldn’t. Maybe they do. Maybe human babies always have a bucket of cereal to chew on these days. My analogy might be failing!
But maybe you see my point. If these “babies” constantly have cereal available, they’re constantly carb loading. Which actually makes their body dependent on constant intake of sugar for energy. So if they go the least amount of time without eating, their blood sugar drops. Limp puppy syndrome. The problem is more pronounced in very little dogs.
I don’t think it’s because they are little. I think it’s because we baby them. And because we baby them, we don’t encourage their bodies to move and develop muscle, unlike a bigger dog.
I love having my little 4 pound mini dog. But she has muscle! She has metabolism. She only eats twice a day.
Proper nutrition, a meat-based diet for these carnivores, is how their bodies properly regulate blood sugar. (Meat is NOT 100% protein. Meat also has fat – we like fat – fat provides calories/energy and helps developing brains. There’s also quite a bit of water and nutrients in meat.)
By six months old, dogs and cats should be down to two meals a day. If you really want to baby them and insist on three. I’m OK with that. But let’s make sure baby isn’t getting fat.
Certainly by the time they are a year old, there’s no need to be feeding more than two times a day. It becomes a matter of the owner’s wanting to feed extra meals.
Again, I’m not going to disparage your desire to pamper your babies. But understand it’s not a requirement for their health to eat more than twice a day.
And certainly by a year old, there’s no need (except emotionally).
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