What’s the best dog food for puppies? You’ve just adopted your puppy. You’ve got all his chew toys, his crate and blanket. He’s got his shots from the vet. But what do you feed him? You’re not sure which brand is the best dog food for your puppy.
Your vet is pushing the brand she carries, but you’re not so sure. How do you choose the best dog food for your puppy? In this article, I’ll show you how to choose the best dog food for your puppy so that your pooch can grow up to be healthy and happy. I’ll show you what ingredients to look for and what ingredients to avoid at all costs!
Don’t Wean Your Puppy Too Soon
It’s really important that a puppy stay with his mother at least until he’s 8 weeks old. Why? Because a puppy needs to nurse from his mother at a minimum until he’s 8 weeks old. The mother provides the best nutrition and antibodies, which protects the puppy from disease. So hopefully, your puppy is past 8 weeks old before you’ve adopted him.
If, however, your puppy has been separated from his mother before 8 weeks, you can get milk replacer bottles from any pet store designed especially for puppies and continue to feed him his milk until the weaning process begins.
The Weaning Process to Solid Food
So let’s say you’re past the 8 week period. What do you do? First, you pick out the right puppy food. Once you pick the right puppy food, you have to add their milk into the puppy food to avoid gastric upset. Gradually, you put less and less milk in the puppy food until he’s eating solid food.
The Best Dog Food For Puppies
So whats the best dog food for puppies? The best dog food for puppies are high in protein and calcium. Here are the top three things the best dog food for puppies should have:
- High in Protein
- High Calcium
- High Calorie
How to Read a Dog Food Label
When reading the ingredients on a dog food package, look at the first 4 ingredients on the label. The first 4 ingredients tell you in what concentration those ingredients are in your dog food. The higher the ingredient listed, the higher concentration that ingredient is in the product.
Example of a dog food label ingredient:
Here’s an example of a dog food label. I happen to buy this for my dogs (they’re adults, but I’ve fed them the puppy version) because it’s quality dog food. The ingredients are demarcated by commas.
Ingredients:
Turkey, Chicken, Turkey Broth, Chicken Broth, Chicken Meal, Herring, Carrots, Whole Eggs, Salmon Meal, etc.
As you can see, it’s very high in protein, calcium and calories.
What To Avoid in Puppy Food
Here are ingredients you should absolutely avoid at all cost in not only puppy food, but in dog food.
- Meat-by-Products
- Corn
- Fillers
- Grains
How Many Times a Day Should You Feed Your Puppy?
Puppies should be fed 3-4 times a day. Since puppy food is nutritionally and calorie dense, you’ll want to make sure you switch to adult food once your puppy turns 1 years old. You don’t want your puppy to get fat.
Conclusion – The Best Dog Food For Puppies
To sum up, the best dog food for puppies is one that is high in protein, high in calcium, high in nutrition and calories. Lastly, some of the best dog food for puppies is homemade dog food.
As a matter of fact, homemade dog food for puppies can be a cheaper alternative to commercial puppy food as well. With homemade dog food you get to control the ingredients and the calories your dog eats. For some really tasty homemade dog food treats and puppy treats, visit dog food secrets!
