How much do I feed?
Common sense will tell you that a healthy dog is slim, athletic looking (ribs covered) and has a good exercise routine.

How much and how often is a function of your lifestyle.  However, we do recommend feeding your dog twice daily.  Please remember over-feeding and giving snacks between meals is not an act of love.  In fact, over-feeding can and will harm your dog in the long term.  Heart disease, stroke, cancer and severe arthritis are all common problems brought on by obesity.  If you require assistance with a feeding regime, please feel free to contact our office or refer to our feeding recommendations below.

No one knows our food better than us!

The Canine
Bones are important to all canines, from the puppy to the adult dog.  The earlier we begin our dogs on bones, the more nutrients they are gaining from a very early age.

The bones that we suggest are “raw consumable” bones.

Sadly we are seeing too many dogs these days not given the opportunity to chew on a real bone.  People have become afraid to feed a bone due to a bad experience, something they heard or even being advised against them.

Feeding a consumable bone to your dog has so many benefits.  It not only assists to keep teeth clean, it strengthens the jaw and muscles around it, it assists the body to release “feel good” hormones throughout the body – just like we get when we read a book, do yoga, take time out for meditation or do something that makes us “feel good”.
By providing a bone as a meal, we ensure the bone is finished before we leave the home.  Dogs should never be left unattended when eating a bone.

Please never leave bones lying around and never feed bones that crack teeth.  Your butcher and vet may love you, but the end result will be pain for your dog and pain for your back pocket.

We recommend a bone a day (as the breakfast meal for adults and the middle day meal for puppies).  Yep, that’s right, 365 bones per year.  Puppies can begin on bones as soon as they are eating solids.  They love them.  The sooner we get puppies onto bones, the more chance we have of dogs not protecting bones or scoffing bones.

How often do we feed?

  • 4 times a day from 8 weeks to 3 months of age
  • 3 times a day from 3 months to 6 months of age
  • Twice a day from 6 months onwards

How much do we feed?
Please be aware that the following information is only a guide to your feeding regime.  We do not give exact quantities for weight as quantities will depend on levels of exercise, health and breed.

The easiest way to work this out is on the percentage of body weight according to age.
A good rule of thumb is to remove approximately 100 grams (adult dog only) of total daily requirement for the bone.

Puppies (Small to Medium Breeds)
4% – 4.5% of bodyweight per day
or
40 – 45gr per kg of bodyweight per day

An example of this would be:
A pup weighing 3 kgs x 45 = 135 grams per day divided into 3 or 4 meals depending on age and health.  Please refer above for feeding requirements.
Always feed a bone as one of the meals.
This meal would look like: approximately 35 grams of Complete Meal + 1 bone per day.

Puppies (Large to Giant Breeds)
3% – 5% of bodyweight per day
or
30 – 50gr per kg of bodyweight per day

Healthy Adult Dog
2% – 3% of bodyweight per day
or
20 – 30gr per kg of bodyweight per day

An example of this would be:
A dog weighing 40 kg x 25 = 1000 grams (1kg) per day.
Usually we would feed approximately 1 bone in the morning + 900 grams of Complete Meal in the evening.

Healthy Adult Dog Doing Excessive Exercise
3% – 6% of bodyweight per day
or
30 – 60gr per kg of bodyweight per day

Health Issues
Please speak to our friendly staff at The Complete Pet Company.

The Complete Meal has been designed to assist with all sorts of health issues including pancreatitis, kidney failure, liver disease, obesity, skin conditions, behaviour and more.

We work closely with Canine Vitality – Naturopathic Service for dogs and together we are able to design a programme just right for your dog.