New pugs can eat an incredible amount of food, and some pug owners aren’t quite sure when to stop them. Unlike the rumors and old wives tails your pug puppy will not eat himself to death.
In fact although some pug owners give too much table scraps and make the dogs overweight, most pugs get enough exercise to stay at the right size for a good portion of their lives.
From the time you bring your puppy home until he or she is about six to seven months old they are doing some serious growing. This means that they need some serious food.
We have always tried to leave puppy kibble down for them all the time, rather than to restrict their intake. If you do, they will usually eat just when they are hungry and if you dont’, the fact is that they will very often gobble their food when its not available at all times.
Pugs as a breed seem to have a tendency toward guarding their food. This is especially true if the food is not always down and waiting for them. If you feed at regular intervals reather than using as self feeder or other means of having food down constantly, they can tend to misbehave when the food goes into the bowl.
In our house this isnt’ acceptable behavior and you need to work with them fairly consistently as pups to prevent it.
Do be careful to restrict the amount of different foods that you give your pug until they get a bit older. In all honesty, we’ve found that pugs have cast iron stomaches and will eat a wide variety of things, but when they are puppies, you do want to prevent those tummy upsets and keep them to one type of food. If you change it, introduce the new variety over the course of a few weeks by mixing hte new with the old in greater proportions until they are accustomed to the new food.
The only caution that I would offer is to restrict the variety in your pup’s diet. Pugs have very sensitive tummies, especially at a young age, and will often become ill (diarrhea/vomitting) if their diet is changed. Best to keep your pup on a dry food if they are doing well on that and try not to introduce snacks or people food.
Pug puppies, according to the vets we talked to, said that the pug stomach when he’s a pup will hold just about a tablespoon or more of food. Thats not a lot for an energetic dog. Because of that, he wants to, and needs to eat more often than some other puppies do. Let him. He will normally maintain a healthy weight. Because pug pups have such tiny stomachs we try to leave food down all the time to prevent them from being hungry and not having access to a meal.
