# Feeding amounts/rations for an 11 week old



## cdnchick

We're feeding Finley dry puppy food (Wysong Growth) and according to the instructions on the bag, she should be eating 1.5 cups per day. That's fine and all, except that she seems ridiculously hungry after every meal so we've increased her food intake to about 2 cups a day (in divided meals of three). 

She weighs about 16-17 lbs right now. We don't want an overweight puppy and from what I've read, she doesn't seem so skinny that her ribs are showing but I can feel her ribcage when I run my hands over her torso... so I don't think she's overweight either. 

Can anyone shed some insight into how much an 11 week old should be eating per day? 

Do spoos tend to overeat if you leave food out all day and free feed? (Our vet mentioned that Labs will tend to overeat when food is left out all day but that it's not so much of a concern for Poodles).

Also, is it concerning that she completely wolfs down every meal really quickly? How fast should a puppy be eating?

Thanks for any feedback in advance!

Cheers,
Jenne.


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## Lilah+Jasper

Feeding is a highly personalized subject - but for reference, my full grown standards get 2 cups per day each (1 cup AM & PM) of grain free high quality kibble (Acana or Orijen). I never follow the feeding guidelines on the package because they usually suggest way more than the dog requires.

Jasper is 55lbs & Lilah is 40lbs

That being said, they do get training treats daily along with a small amount of extras added into their meals (yogurt, cottage cheese, ZiwiPeak canned, Weruva Kobe Master canned, salmon, etc)

It's not necessarily a bad thing to leave a puppy a little wanting after meals - it makes them work really hard for training treats


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## cdnchick

Thanks for your input. In this case, it seems the packaging recommends less than what the puppy seems to need/want to eat. 

We're playing around with it to see where we can provide a good balance for just the right amount of food.


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## Lilah+Jasper

cdnchick said:


> Thanks for your input. In this case, it seems the packaging recommends less than what the puppy seems to need/want to eat.


I hear ya'! Jasper is always hungry and never really seems satisfied. The vet said he is the perfect weight for his build so I just keep a close eye on it. Jasper would eat himself sick if I let him free feed while I wish Lilah would eat more!

Also, if your puppy is super active or working, she may need more than is stated on the bag. Jasper is my couch potato compared to Lila who has an on the go-go-go personality! 

What does you vet recommend?


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## cdnchick

Well, we've been experimenting a little... we kept feeding her this morning in 1/3 cup increments (every 5 minutes) until we put the last increment down at 2 and 2/3 cups and she finally didn't show much interest in the food anymore. 

We've left it out all day so far (the last 1/3 increment) and she's been eating here and there throughout. She seems to be doing a good job in eating what she needs to eat and leaving the food when she's not hungry. 

The plan is to continue filling the bowl in 1/3 increments whenever she finishes what's in the bowl until the end of the day to see how much she'll eat in total and then make fine adjustments from there. 

As for what the vet recommended, she said (and it looks like she's right on the money) that poodles tend to self-regulate their food intake very well and that she won't every really overeat... especially as a growing puppy.

On top of it all, Finley is pretty active... playing all day with us and various toys and running around with us when she's outside, only to take breaks in between to sleep. 

We'll see how she continues to do with her food but I think we may be onto something here!


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## Lilah+Jasper

That is such a clever solution! I can't wait to hear all about your success


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## mdwcarolina

Thanks for posting this, cdnchick. Your timing was perfect for me, as I've been wondering exactly the same thing, and my pup is the same age as yours (she's 11-1/2 weeks this moment). At her last vet check at 10-1/2 weeks, she was 14.3 pounds, and I think she is heavier by the day. She's been a bit on the small side all along for her age, was pretty much runt-sized due to early nutrition problems with her dam and the rest of her litter (dam got very sick it took days before a foster dam was in place).

Ziva too seems really HUNGRY after the 1/2-cup 3x/day feedings (Blue Buffalo puppy kibble) I've been giving. Also, I've been using a tablespoon or so of yogurt in the a.m. and cottage cheese in the p.m. Further, I switched her over to white rice and chicken with broth baby food for almost a full week due to really soft stools (she got hold of a dead baby frog the cat had delivered to the door for about 10 seconds, though I don't think she did much more than mouthe it, and then too though I have been using what I think are very minimal puppy-suitable training treats or chews, I thought maybe even a few might have been overdoing it.

Well, she was instantly in love with the white rice-and chickenmash mixture, and all of a sudden her appetite is over the moon. As I've re-incorporated her regular kibble, she still is eating like a starving lumberjack.

I think I'll try cdnchick's approach to get it re-regulated! Though since the stools are still on the soft side, I've been thinking uh-oh, I might have to think about looking into all the other diets, I know some of the people here are really serious about raw and other super-high-quality feeding regimens that seem wonderful.


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## zyrcona

How often does your dog have a bowel movement and what are her stools like? If the stools are squashy rather than firm and the dog is pooing more than three times a day, you are probably feeding her too much.

Overfeeding young dogs has been linked in studies to the development of hip dysplasia (study) so it may be best to err on the lower side when feeding your puppy. The guidelines on the bag are usually on the high side. Most dogs will keep eating if you keep giving them seconds and thirds and so on.


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## zyrcona

mdwcarolina said:


> She's been a bit on the small side all along for her age, was pretty much runt-sized due to early nutrition problems with her dam and the rest of her litter (dam got very sick it took days before a foster dam was in place).


Your runt will catch up, but giving her extra rations probably won't make her catch up faster. It sounds like she is eating a lot simply because she enjoys the food. If her stool is soft, you are probably giving her more than her digestion can handle.


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## cdnchick

zyrcona said:


> How often does your dog have a bowel movement and what are her stools like? If the stools are squashy rather than firm and the dog is pooing more than three times a day, you are probably feeding her too much.


Hmm... some good points to consider. 

With Finley, her stools are on the squashy side... could her water intake be associated with how firm/loose her stools are? 

We now leave water out for her all day so she drinks as much as she wants. She's housetrained pretty well, so we don't have to worry too much about accidental peeing anywhere other than her pee pads and outside on the grass. 

Generally, even before we started this little bit of experiment, she was pooing more than three times a day even when we were underfeeding her (though, her BM's were a bit more firm... but we were also limiting her water a bit more, so hard to say in that case). 

So far it looks like she's petered out at about 4 cups of food for today. She was sitting at about 2 and 1/4 cups before today so we might go with a bit of a happy medium in between the two amounts tomorrow, leave her slightly wanting and see what happens.

She is a pretty active puppy as well so I'm not too concerned about her being overweight (I'm making the assumption that the link with overfeeding as a puppy and HD as an adult is due to excess weight bearing down on an overweight puppy's developing hip joints). In fact, the vet did mention we could feed her more as she was on the skinnier side during her last visit. 

I'll report back tomorrow (if anyone's interested!) with some of our adjustments and how Finley responds!

Cheers,
Jenne.


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## cdnchick

Also, we're doing this to determine what Finley _wants_ to eat (or what her upper limit is) throughout the day, not necessarily what she _needs_ to eat. 

What we now plan to do is take a more moderate amount and divide the entire amount over three meals and feed her accordingly.

Cheers,
Jenne.


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## cdnchick

Bit of an update:

We started again this morning with incremental 1/3 refills of Finley's bowl.

Noticed a couple of things:

1. She's eating much more slowly -- she really used to wolf down her food like there was no tomorrow. Now, she's actually taking her time... allows her body's satiety sensors to relay to her brain that she doesn't need to eat anymore if she's already full.

2. She's not eating nearly as much as she did in her morning feeding yesterday -- case in point, it's almost noon and she's only had half of what she ate in yesterday's morning meal alone (1 & 2/3 cups).

She stuffed herself pretty full yesterday and I suspect she's picked up on the fact that she'll always get more food when she's done eating... so there's no rush for her to eat and she doesn't have to eat _everything_ that's put down in front of her if she's full.

The observation continues...


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## mdwcarolina

zyrcona said:


> Your runt will catch up, but giving her extra rations probably won't make her catch up faster. It sounds like she is eating a lot simply because she enjoys the food. If her stool is soft, you are probably giving her more than her digestion can handle.


I didn't mean to hijack this thread with Ziva stuff, sorry about that. But yes, Ziva's stools remain a bit squashy though they are firming up more over this past week. I do think she was just "off" there for a bit, and I really need to get her off the rice/chickenmash additive.

She has 2-3 bowel movements a day, max. But I do think she is developing almost a wee pot belly, so I think it IS too much. This is hard, the feeding and treating stuff. At this young age, with training going on, and treats being appropriate for so many things (learning commands, acclimation to grooming and handling in sensitive areas, etc), and trying NOT to overdo any of them and be careful which ones I do use ... it's way too easy to overdo them.

But little Finley, for example, looks FAR from overweight. My little Ziva is chubbier. I'd best really rein in my feeding -- last thing I want to do is develop an overweight dog at any age.


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