Puppy survival thread September and the pups just want to eat all the leaves!

[cheeseisthebest]

Omg I never start ongoing threads like this!
Back to school for my lot tomorrow. Taken pup for an evening walk tonight, desperately trying to tire him out! He's struggled to nap today as felt too hot.

Lots of accidents here too - including pup deliberately peeing on her bed last night grr. On the plus side she slept 10.30pm - 6am again last night!!

Can I ask how much people are feeding their pups? Pup is 13 weeks now and a sprocker spaniel. I've been feeding her a mix of wet and dry, but it seems to be either too much or too little. Some days it goes in the bin and other days she's licking the bowl clean. Do others find this? I'm used to dogs that wolf down their food and always want more!

Same here. A handful of dry plus a bit more now and a v large tablespoon full of wet on top. Three times a day. If he wolfs all his tea down in seconds I do put some more dry in so he doesn't go to bed hungry.
Sometimes eats it all and sometimes leaves lots of kibble.

I think my pup really missing the kids today. Feel sad for him.

@MightyMeerkat I have been wondering how much to feed too. The breeder told us to give 200-220g a day when he came home at 10 weeks, which was too much for him, but at 15 weeks I am only just thinking about upping it as he now has most of that plus a chew or two and some training treats… there seems to be a wide range on the packet and I can’t work out how much treats/chews work out at to deduct from it…

He’s a sprocker and weighed 6kg at 12 weeks. No idea what he weighs now 🤷🏼‍♀️

I agree it always feel quite vague with the feeding guidelines.

The amount to feed varies hugely between different foods, unless you're feeding the same dry food attempting to compare is not going to be helpful.

I've just asked our breeder about food as he was also licking the plate clean.
He said to up it to 40g per meal.

@TheBigMacDougal Our pups sound similar. Mine was 6.3kg at 12 weeks.

The breeder told me 300g a day split over 3 meals - it was Harrington's dry - but pup wasn't eating even half of it. I've reduced the biscuits and added maybe 50g of wet and she eats more now. But mixing two types of food means that the guidelines are fairly useless. I'm tempted to switch to something like tails.com where it all comes together and is idiot proof 😂

Good point @tizwozliz!

I find he’s not hungry until about 9ish and post first walk, even though he has his last meal between 5&6pm.

I also discovered this morning he’s definitely not waking earlier than us either. We generally get up about 7, but I had to be downstairs at 6.20 this morning to go in to London for work, he was fast asleep and not arsed about going out for a wee. He never wants to go out past 9pm for a last one either and I typically carry him out 😂🤦🏼‍♀️. It makes up for naps having to mostly be enforced through the day I guess?!

He’s had his first day at day care today and I’m desperate to know he’s been alright. We also have to leave him 4 nights later this week as we’re heading to a wedding 300 miles away ☹️

TheBigMcDougal how old is your pup?

MaePup is 17 weeks now and still wakes at 5 for a wee. Goes straight back to sleep after but would be nice if she could hold on a little longer!

For dry food feeding guides should be on the back of the packet based on age and weight. It does get more complicated when you add wet in on top and I confess I'm basically guessing that bit of it

@TheBigMacDougal How did your pup do at daycare? Mine started daycare last week and back this week. She's loving it - I picked her up tonight and I swear she didn't want to come home!!

Feeding is such a minefield, I don't think I appreciated how much choice and options there were before pup arrived home. I think partly there isn't a one size fits all solution, even with the same food, the quantity you feed for pup of the same weight can vary a lot depending on the particular dog. We're going to switch food in a couple of weeks to something better quality but I do start wavering as she's doing absolutely fine on what she's on, but it doesn't score great.

And then of course I stuff pup full of treats at training class, JR Pate saved me here, as so many treats say max 5 a day. She'll do stuff in the house/garden for kibble but out in the real world it just doesn't cut it!

Hahaha I can't get much for kibble here!
It's JR Pate or chicken liver treats or primula cheese for H.

He has 100gm of Eden a day so a little under his weight recommended amount but add in the pate, a little sardines/mackerel/pate on his food and I'm hoping that's about right?

He's certainly the right shape and full of energy and vet said he was fine weight wise. It's so hard to know what's right!!

We do half kibble and half butternut box. For the kibble we just halve what it says on the bag. For butternut we said we wanted to feed half and Hat we used treats 3-5 times so they adjust for that. We just keep an eye on his shape as suggested by the vet - he’s nearly 25kg and then his kibble drops a bit after that!

Re the sleeping a baby monitor definitely helps. Think we’re unusual because we slept downstairs with him until he was 17 weeks then moved upstairs - but then he had stopped needing to wee at night long before we left him. He is a toilet training freak though I think and never went inside.

We were doing Butternut and kibble, but Elmpup is spitting the kibble out. She's a bit off her food generally, we think because she's teething.

My puppy been very quiet this afternoon and tonight and took himself to his crate at 8!

Arden grange and he's just having kibble. He's a healthy weight. I'm not weighing but filling a small bowl and lifting when he gives up eating. If he starts to put on weight I'll work out what he should have. He was nearly 14kg at 14 weeks.

He's reverted to peeing in the kitchen so barrier is up again. We are now leaving him alone for short times as he has stopped chewing absolutely everything but that's when the pee occurred and he's quickly gone back to same spot

@BaconAndAvocado @MightyMeerkat he’s 15 weeks.

He seems to have had a good time. The doggy van drop off said he slept the way back and was very chilled. He has been lovely this evening. No jumping, no mouthing 😯. Wondering now if we’ve not been doing enough with him as even when we’ve walked too far a couple of days or done training he’s not this chilled… 🤔

@MakeMeCleanTheHouse ours went back to peeing inside a lot and then after a weekend of reminders and treats it seems to have clicked again.

It's not perfect but it's all toileting bar one (protest) wee outside today.

So weird.

Doggo has had far too much exercise today: 2 school runs and 2 park mooches. Second park mooch we met loads of other dogs and he had SO MUCH FUN.

I feel bad he's done about 40 minutes but then much of that was on grass and he's also had a great socialisation experience with older dogs too.

Maybe a quieter day tomorrow!

@TheBigMacDougal I think the mental stimulation of "new stuff" exhausts them!

@TheBigMacDougal - assuming there are other dogs at daycare you'll never match what playing with other dogs can do in terms of wearing him out so I wouldn't take it as a sign you haven't been doing enough

cheeseisthebest our puppy is also in his crate now but it’s definitely not for the night!