The most important thing you must provide for a growing French Bulldog puppy is quality food with proper nutrients, but the second most important thing after that is creating eating schedule for your puppy. Dog is a creature of habit and teaching him to eat at a certain time of the day is important for more than one reason. First of all, young dogs need to be fed more often, because they are growing, second, you must get him used to eating schedule because his house training and potty habits, as well as sleeping habits, depend on his eating habits. Also, you don’t want your puppy waking you up in the middle of the night because he over ate and now he has stomach problems or has to go potty, right?
So here are some tips when it comes to making a feeding schedule for your Frenchie:
Growing puppy should have at least three measured meals a day. I say measured, because most dogs, even grown up ones, will eat all you serve them, so if you don’t want an overweight pet in your house, you should limit his meals to a proper amount of food. The best time for his first meal is around 7 am, second meal around noon and his last meal at 5 pm. His dinner time is especially important, because if you feed your dog at this hour, it will give him enough time to digest the food and go pee or potty before his bed time. This is important, so you can both have a good night of sleep. When your puppy is between 14 and 18 weeks old, you can start getting him used to two meals a day, unless because of some health condition your veterinarian advices you to keep him on a three meals a day diet.
You might want to take into consideration the fact that French Bulldog is a small dog and therefore every pound he gains will be more visible than in some bigger dogs. General energy and activity level is also something that dictates whether your dog needs food that contains more proteins and sugar, or, he has put on some weight and might want to skip a few meals. We leave this one up to you to decide.
When it comes to puppies, everything they eat not only affects their current health, but it also affects their future health and well being, so make sure your puppy has three quality, well balanced meals a day. This is not time to be cheap! They need proper puppy food, with enough proteins and vitamins and less sugar and artificial dry food. You can consult your vet or some experienced dog breeder on which type of food to buy for your little companion. I can’t stress enough that what you feed your puppy will influence his health in the future. If your dog doesn’t get the nutrients he needs, he might feel the need to eat between meals, he may develop digestion issues and the quality of your dog’s nutrition is visible on his bone strenght and coat as well.
One of the weak spots for French Bulldogs is that they can be allergic to industrial food and some kinds of additives, so the best way to feed them is as natural as possible, with many fresh ingredients. Avoid processed food! It is no good for humans, so why should it be any better for dogs.
His meal should contain protein that has nutritional value. That is the only way your dog will have the necessary energy supply throughout the day. When it comes to energy, complex carbohydrates are important, because they give your dog stable supply of energy. But, avoid giving him simple sugars and treats, it will only make his sugar levels unstable.
Don’t forget the vegetables! Yes, dogs are mostly carnivores, but some the most important vitamins and minerals can be absorbed from vegetables.We have mentioned before, but just to make sure- keep an eye on your Frenchies figure and no matter how much he begs for more food (some dogs don’t know when it is enough), you should give him the appropriate amount of food and not more! You don’t want him to become a big, fat couch potato, don’t you? Lols!
Since young dogs tend to pee and go potty more often (they are babes after all!), during the first few months you might want to take him outside every hour and a half or every two hours, but as he grows, he will go less frequently to eliminate. It might speed things up to give your dog some water to drink about fifteen minutes before you take him out.
After the meal, you should give your dog fifteen do thirty minutes to rest and digest his food before you take him outside to go potty and pee if he needs to. In most cases, he will give you some kind of a sign that he needs to go outside. Potty training is a process that takes some time and patience and if you need some tips on that subject, we wrote about that a while ago, so you can find the article on our web site.
