It is such an exciting time when you decide to make the commitment of bringing a puppy into your family. Lots of things to think about, where to sleep, toys, vets, training, and what food is best for growing puppies. There is so much to learn and lots of information out there which can be confusing and conflicting sometimes. So to help simplify things here are my tips for what I have done in the past with my own puppy and how I have guided many of my existing customer’s puppies to come across a healthy raw diet.

Step 1. When you bring your puppy home DON’T CHANGE THEIR DIET if you can help it. Ask the people you get your puppy from for a least a week’s worth of food or buy the exact brand and flavor they are feeding. The reason I recommend doing this is that your puppy may feel stressed coming away from mum, siblings, and everything they have known in life to strange surrounding and people/many other dogs they don’t know. So we don’t want to stress them further by changing their diet straight away, just let them settle in for a week or two and then go to step 2.

Step 2. Once you are happy with how your puppy has settled into their new home then we start the SLOW TWO-WEEK TRANSITION from old food to new food over onto the Canine Country Puppy Mince is specially formulated for a puppy up to 14 weeks of age. The reason why we just bring the new raw food in slowly because we need to build up your puppy’s good gut health to be able to process the new food properly. If you choose not to do this step and just do a straight switch from old food to a new food you may cause your puppy to have tummy upsets which could lead to diarrhea or vomiting so that is no fun for you or your puppy especially if that happens in the middle of the night!!

Step 3. When you start your transition DON’T mix the raw food with dry/processed food. They break down at different rates so this can also cause tummy upsets. Do it in separate meals ie a little bit of puppy mince for breakfast then dry food at lunch and dry food for dinner. Then once that is going well, puppy mince for breakfast and lunch and dry food for dinner then once that is going well puppy mince for breakfast lunch and dinner. Job Done 🙂

Step 4. Weigh your puppy each week as they grow quickly and adjust the quantity of food they are eating as they grow. Use this chart as a guide to calculate the amount of raw food a day to feed.

PUPPIES (UNDER 4 MONTHS OF AGE)
5% OF CURRENT BODY WEIGHT (WEIGH WEEKLY)
PREFERABLY SPREAD BETWEEN 3 MEALS PER DAY.

PUPPIES (OVER 4 MONTHS OF AGE)
2-3% OF BREEDS EXPECTED AVERAGE ADULT BODY WEIGHT.
PREFERABLE SPREAD BETWEEN 2 MEALS PER DAY.

If you have any questions or concerns about your puppy’s diet please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. Jo-Aunty Jo’s Canine Catering