How often should I feed my dog?

If you’ve just brought home a new puppy or adopted a furry friend, one of the most pressing questions you’ll have is “how often should I feed my dog?.” 

Nailing the right feeding schedule is key to keeping a waggy-tailed pup, but it’s also important to know how much food to feed your dog at meal times as well. This’ll chop and change as your new best friend ages, but there’s no need to worry, as here at Pure Pet Food we’ve got the know how to keep your dog properly fed through every stage of their life.  

So how often should you pop a bowl of Pure down for your dog to enjoy? Let’s find out just how often you should feed your dog, puppy, or elderly dog, below. 

How often should I feed my dog?

In general, you should feed your dog 2 meals per day – one in the morning, one in the evening. However, this can change depending on your dog’s age, size, and health. 

For example, you should feed a puppy more often as they require more energy throughout the day but can’t manage big bowls in one sitting. Similarly, older dogs might prefer to have smaller portions fed to them more frequently, as this can help them finish full meals.

Some dogs with underlying health conditions, particularly illness affecting their digestive system, might need to follow a similar eating schedule - smaller meals, but more frequently.

You can judge how much to feed your dog by their weight (kg) – around 2 to 3% of their body weight per day is best. However, we’ve created our own feeding guide calculator to help you find the perfect portion for your pup, so you don’t need to do the maths yourself! 

Make sure you monitor your dog for weight gain or loss to avoid deficiencies or diabetes, adjusting their food accordingly if needed. 

How often should I feed my puppy?

Wondering how much you should feed your puppy? Well, in general the answer is: you should feed a puppy between 2 and 4 times a day. 

However, the perfect amount for your precious pup will depend on whether they’ve been weaned or not. So, let’s discover how to feed your puppy properly, both before weaning and after. 

Puppies before weaning

Puppies below 3 weeks of age will be entirely reliant on their mother’s milk. They feed as often as they need and won’t go longer than 3-4 hours without a meal.

How often you should feed a puppy older than 3 to 4 weeks is similar - small portions of soft food several times a day. However, the puppies should still be feeding on their mother’s milk, as well as this soft meal.

To start weaning them off milk, you can feed your puppy a porridge-like meal made from soft food mixed with water, milk, and puppy food. Once they figure out this is food and learn how to lap it up, you can start to decrease the amount of water and milk in the mixture each day over the course of a week, so the food becomes more solid. 

Then, as they age, you should gradually increase the amount of food in the puppies’ diet to gently wean them off milk.

Weaned puppies

Once puppies are over 8 weeks old, they’re usually weaned and ready to go to their forever homes. At this point they should definitely be eating solid food and eating small meals of puppy food 4 times a day. 

Once they’ve reached the grand old age of 3-4 months, you can start reducing how much you feed your puppy to 3 meals a day. Then, once they’ve reached 6 months old, you should feed your puppy 2 meals a day – this will carry on through their puppy and adult life!

When your puppy reaches 12 months old, they should be eating their 2 meals per day but can also transition to adult dog food.

How often should I feed my senior dog?

How often you feed your dog once they’ve reached their elderly years will depend on their appetite and habits. 

Some senior dogs don’t have a big appetite and leave some of their food behind. If they do, just take their bowl away and offer them the remaining food later to give them a chance to finish their meal. 

Alternatively, you can adjust your dog’s meals to offer them smaller but more frequent portions of food to make sure they’re eating enough to stay healthy and active.

Older dogs have lower caloric needs compared to adult dogs, so you should reduce the number of calories they’re eating to prevent weight gain. This means adjusting the volume of food they eat or switching to a diet formulated especially for older dogs. They should still stick to their regular meal times though.

Are regular meals important for dogs?

Now you know how often to feed your dog, you might be wondering why exactly these regular meals are important. 

Of course, having regular meals will keep your pooch happy, but it also helps provide a structure to their day, prevents anxiety, and helps regulate their bodily functions. What’s more, giving your pooch regular meals can actually help with toilet training too! 

As eating a nutritious meal kickstarts their digestive system, it often means your pooch will need the loo afterwards. This is especially true for puppies, who usually toilet within 15-20 minutes of eating. Feeding your dog regular meals can help you predict when your pup needs to go, meaning you can take them outside before any accidents occur. 

How long can dogs go without food?

Dogs can actually go up to 3-5 days without food, given they're drinking enough water.

However, if your dog is off their food, then don't wait this long before consulting your vet as there might be a serious reason behind why your pooch has lost their appetite.

Feeding your dog with Pure Pet Food

Wondering how much you should feed your dog with Pure Pet Food meals? Well, our in-house nutritionists - Dr Lucy Williamson and Emma Passman – help us formulate the perfect amount.

In terms of Pure, a 15kg adult dog should eat 4 scoops of food per day. That means those 4 scoops should be divided up to make their usual number of meals. For example, if your dog eats 4 scoops of food per day, and has two meals per day, they’ll need 2 scoops at breakfast and another 2 scoops at dinner.

You can see how much you should feed your dog by using our handy feeding guide, or you can join Pure Pet Food and let one of our expert pet panel members do the calculations for you! 

Alternatively, if you want to learn more about how diet can impact your dog or what to do if your dog won’t eat their meal but will eat treats, head over to our blog.