Complete Guide to Adult Dog Diet Management: A Detailed Explanation of Scientific Feeding Methods

You only need to feed it once a day, let it eat until it is eight-tenths full after a walk, and in less than a year, the puppy has already begun to step into the world of dogs. After 8 months of birth, the number of feedings can be reduced to 2 times a day. For dogs over 1 year old, the number of feedings should be changed to 1 time a day. At this point the dog's physique has grown to be about the same as an adult dog, and its stomach capacity has also increased, so the food it eats in one meal is enough to provide the energy needed for the whole day. In order to maintain the dog's health, the principle of feeding is to let it eat until it is eight-tenths full.

The daily feeding time must be fixed.

The feeding time can be chosen in the morning or in the evening. It is best to feed it after coming back from a walk, after it has relieved itself, been brushed, and everything has been tidied up, so that its daily life is regular. A young adult dog that has just grown up is lively and active and burns a lot of energy, so attention must be paid to providing nutritious, high-calorie food. To prevent it from becoming overweight, try not to feed it anything other than its regular meals. However, to make its teeth, bones, and jaws grow stronger, you can occasionally give it ox bones or pig bones with high calcium content to gnaw on. Eating too many bones is also not good; giving it twice a week is enough. Usually indoor dogs live longer than large outdoor dogs. Although every dog is not completely the same, generally the period from 2-7 years old is called the active period, and after 8-9 years old it is already equivalent to the middle-aged age of a human.

From then on, the dog will slowly lose its vitality and gradually show the characteristics of an elderly dog. An elderly dog's metabolism has gradually declined, and the calories it burns have also decreased, so health issues must be put on the agenda.

During this period you can feed it some food with low protein content and low fat content.

Calorie consumption of small and miniature dogs

Compared with large dogs such as the Pyrenean Mountain Dog and the Swiss Rescue Dog, small dogs and miniature dogs such as the Pomeranian and the Chihuahua that are kept indoors consume more calories per kilogram of body weight on average. Therefore, although small dogs do not eat as much as large dogs, relative to their body weight they need more than the latter to meet their higher calorie needs. So diet management is even more important for small dogs.

How to calculate the amount of food to provide

You can observe the dog's food intake over 3-4 days, then average it to calculate the average daily amount of food to provide, then reduce it slightly from this amount, so that after it finishes eating it still wants to eat a little more. This is roughly what is called "eight-tenths full." If you let it eat its fill every day, it is very easy to cause obesity, so the principle of eight-tenths full must be strictly followed.

If after a dog becomes an adult you plan to change from feeding it home-prepared meals to feeding it special dog food, you can first halve the home-prepared meals and mix in some special dog food to feed it, then slowly increase the proportion of special dog food every day. If the dog really does not like to eat it, you can first fast it for 1-2 days. Doing this will not have much effect on the dog; as long as you persist for a period of time, the dog will become used to eating special dog food.

Notes on the diet of elderly dogs

After a dog gets old, you can also let it live more comfortably. An old dog's gastrointestinal function is poor, and combined with low activity levels, it is very easy to cause constipation, so you can add some plant fiber for it. If the old dog's teeth are not very good, you can change the hard special dog food to softer dog food to feed it.