Puppy feeding guide: how often, how much, 5 mistakes

As a puppy, Nami was EXTREMELY active – she even chewed the wall when we left the room for a moment. 4 small meals a day were a must, otherwise she was hard to handle.

Per kilo, puppies need considerably more energy than adult dogs: up to about four months, around three times their resting energy requirement, and after that twice as much. A puppy weighing 5 kg at three months therefore needs about 700 kcal a day – around 195 g of dry food or 700 g of wet food, split across four meals. Because puppies grow quickly, you recalculate the amount every one to two weeks.

Imagine you're picking up an 8-week-old Labrador puppy: 4.5 kg, soft paws, a huge appetite. In the first few days with you, they may hardly eat – usually that's just excitement. But feeding in the first months plays a part in how they grow and how their joints develop. Here's what really counts.

The calculation is the same as in our puppy food amount calculator: resting energy requirement 70 × current weight^0.75, times a factor of 3.0 up to about four months and times 2.0 from about four months until the end of growth. The gram figures apply to dry food with 360 kcal per 100 g.

Wet food: with a puppy wet food of around 100 kcal per 100 g, the number of grams roughly matches the number of kcal – so a 5 kg puppy under four months needs about 700 g. The pack figure is what counts: many puppy dry foods have more than 360 kcal per 100 g. Divide your puppy's kcal by the kcal per 100 g on the pack and multiply by 100 – that's your number of grams.

A few examples:

• French Bulldog, 3 months, 5 kg: around 700 kcal ≈ 195 g of dry food
• Border Collie puppy, 4 months, 8 kg: around 665 kcal ≈ 185 g of dry food
• Bernese Mountain Dog puppy, 5 months, 18 kg: around 1,225 kcal ≈ 340 g of dry food

These figures are starting points. Puppies grow in spurts and at different rates. Weigh your puppy every week to every two weeks and check that they're gaining weight steadily and staying slim – ribs you can feel, a visible waist. For breed-typical figures, there's the food amount by breed overview.

Puppies have a small stomach and high requirements. That's why you split the daily amount across several meals:

Three meals until their first birthday won't do any dog harm. Very small breeds may even need more than three portions, because their blood sugar can drop more quickly. More on the everyday rhythm is in our guide to how often you should feed your dog.

A puppy needs calcium for their bones. But too much is just as harmful as too little – especially in large breeds such as the Labrador, Golden Retriever, German Shepherd, Bernese Mountain Dog or Great Dane. Calcium and phosphorus also have to be in the right ratio to each other.

A good complete food for puppies is designed for exactly that. Large breeds should get a puppy food that is explicitly intended for the growth of large breeds. If you cook for your puppy yourself and add bone meal or eggshell “by feel”, the ratio quickly gets out of balance. The consequences of getting the supply wrong often only show months later in the bones and joints.

For large breeds, the following also applies: it's better to let them grow evenly and rather slowly than too fast. A puppy who looks round isn't a success, but a risk. Feed towards the lower end and adjust according to weight and body shape.

Puppies start trying solid food at about four weeks old. So if your puppy comes to you at eight weeks, the switch is largely done. Even so, for the first two weeks let them eat exactly what they were given at the breeder's. Stomach and gut problems in a new home are often down to stress, not a food intolerance. If you want to change food, do it after the settling-in period and gradually over seven to ten days – as described in our guide to changing your dog's food the right way.

1. Too much at once: the puppy seems small, so people give “a little more”. The result: soft stools and growth that's too fast.
2. Switching to adult food too early: you give puppy food until the skeleton has finished growing – for small breeds usually until 9 to 12 months, for large breeds often until 12 to 16 months or longer. The details are in our guide to when to switch to adult food.
3. Bones as a calcium source: impossible to control and risky. Veterinary professional bodies warn that raw and cooked bones alike can lead to broken teeth, constipation and injuries.
4. Not recalculating as your puppy grows: the requirement changes with every kilo. If you stick with the amount from day one, after a few weeks you'll be feeding too little or – after the change from a factor of 3 to a factor of 2 at about four months – too much.
5. Forgetting the snacks: chews and training titbits count too. All treats together should stay below 10% of daily calories – subtract them from the main food.

Weigh your puppy today. Note the date and weight, calculate your puppy's food amount in grams and weigh them again in one to two weeks. If you cook for your puppy yourself, have the recipes checked by a vet or a canine nutrition adviser – with calcium in particular, it's well worth it.

The DoggoMeal app automatically adjusts amounts, meals and nutrient values to your puppy – breed, age, current weight and activity go into every recipe. Get the app.