How Much To Feed A Golden Retriever
Golden Retrievers usually weigh from 55 to 75 pounds and reach their full height and weight when they are 12 to 18 months old. Keep in mind that every dog is an individual and that it can take more or less time for your Golden puppy to reach his adult size. However, your Goldens caloric needs will greatly decrease when he reaches 12 to 14 months and he will no longer need the same amount of food as before.
An adult and active Golden will need to eat between 1,300 to 1,700 calories per day. However, keep in mind that age, weight, activity level, health problems, and overall lifestyle will determine how many calories your Golden needs per day.
For example, nursing mothers and dogs that perform heavy work will need more than 2,000 calories per day in order to maintain their weight and stay healthy. On the other hand, if your pooch is more of a couch potato type than an athlete he will probably need around 1,000 calories a day in order to maintain a healthy weight.
During adulthood, your Golden Retriever feeding schedule should consist of two equally spaced meals ideally, you should feed your dog in the morning and evening. If you opt for feeding high-quality large breed dog food, an optimal Golden Retriever food amount will be:
- Females: 2 to 2 ½ cups a day
- Males: 3 to 3 ½ cups a day
- Active Males: 4 cups a day
- Nursing Females: 5 to 6 cups a day
What Is A Good Golden Retriever Feeding Schedule
For a Golden Retriever puppy, the best feeding schedule is one in the morning, noontime, and in the evening. For example, you could feed their first meal at 7:00 am, lunch at noon, then dinner at 5:00 pm.
Planning their mealtimes around your mealtimes will often make it easier for you and the puppy. Make sure to give them plenty of time after eating to got to the bathroom a couple of times before heading to bed. Hopefully, this will help them sleep for a longer period.
After about six months, your Golden Retriever can go down to two daily feedings. This usually occurs once in the morning and once in the evening. They can usually last about 12 hours between meals. If it goes past 12 hours, they could become nauseated.
How Often Should You Feed It
If you take a newborn puppy then for the first three months you should give meal three times a day and later on just feed twice a day as long as you have your dog. The perfect schedule is to feed the morning meal around 6 to 7 am then at noon around 12 and dinner by 5-6pm.
To get a little easy side in training, dont feed after 5 or 6 and restrain from giving water after 7 pm. If required, you can give an ice cube to chew on and around 10 pm take your puppy for a walk.
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The Golden Personality And Appearance
Although they look similar, these pups come in three different shadesgolden, dark-golden, and light-golden. A typical Golden canine has a tapered muzzle and dropped ears.
These medium-large gun dogs are great fans of exercise and outdoor activities. They have a natural tendency towards the water, so theyll enjoy swimming in the sea or pool. You should not consider taking these beauties as pets in case youre planning on confining them to small places. The Golden Retriever thrives on playing and exercising with their owners.
Patience and a fun approach are the keys to their training. These Golden beauties are not difficult to train, and they are considered obedient dogs.
It seems that their favorite hobby is chewing. Whenever they feel bored, theyll chew your slippers, cables, or your fingers, if they find you tasty. Now, this doesnt mean you should continuously put food under their muzzles. Kill their boredom by spending time with your lovely pooch. As for their nutrition, the best you can do is follow expert nutrition advice we are about to present to you.
Interested In Training Your Golden Retriever The Right Way
If you havent trained your golden retriever properly, then this is the perfect time to start. Whatever bad behavior your shepherd has, whether its barking at night or other bad behaviors, using the right training program is the key to having an obedient and happy pup.
The training program I love and highly recommend is Brain Training For Dogs.
With Brain Training For Dogs youll save yourself a ton of time and effort. Instead of banging your head against the wall trying to figure out why your dog wont listen, youll follow a path that has been tried, tested, and most importantly, thats given proven results. Not to mention the fact, youll be able to fit the course around your schedule, not fit your schedule around a trainer or obedience class.
So instead of worrying about whether theyre going to be well-behaved or not, youll only have to worry about how much fun youll have with them!
And in most cases its still going to be:
- Cheaper than hiring a professional.
- Cheaper than replacing everything they might break.
- And definitely cheaper than a lawsuit against you, if they decide to bite someone.
Just imagine how great it will feel to finally be able to trust your border collie completely and never worry whether theyll be naughty or not. Instead, youll have the peace of mind that you have a well-behaved pup, and the boundaries you set for them, will always be there, EVEN IF YOURE NOT.
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How Many Grams To Feed A Golden Retriever Puppy
They require more calories and frequency at this young age. You have two options for how to feed golden retriever puppy food:
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Feeding A Golden Retriever Puppy
Puppies need to eat frequently since they are fast growing and energetic. Feeding a Golden Retriever pup should occur at least three times a day on scheduled intervals, up to the age of 6 months. You should ask the advice of the Golden Retriever breeders or Golden Retriever adoption center from which you obtained your puppy and continue using the same Golden Retriever puppy food . If you want to use a different food the transition should be gradual to avoid an upset tummy.
Do not feed your puppy human food. Some foods such as chocolate are poisonous to dogs.
Chews made of hide are especially important during the teething months, they will help to keep your Golden puppys teeth clean and keep his jaws in good condition.
It is not recommended to leave food in your Golden puppys bowl. If your dog does not eat their food within 20 minutes, take it away until the next meal time. This practice establishes YOU as the pack leader, prevents obesity, and makes your Golden puppy easier to house train as they tend to relieve themselves after eating.
A healthy Golden Retriever requires his or her owner to commit to providing the best care and good quality Retriever dog food! Feeding a Golden Retriever from puppy through to adulthood is a rewarding part of nurturing your dog.
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Feeding A Golden Retriever With Good Quality Foods: Retriever Dog Food Ingredients To Look For Include:
1. Meat and/or meat meal provides protein for growth, and repair of body tissues and organs . It provides strength and flexibility in muscles and forms the essential components of the blood, hormone and immune systems. Good quality proteins are recommended to be the top or main ingredient in Retriever dog food.
2. A small selection of healthy grains brown rice, whole oats or barley. Carbohydrates are not an essential nutrient for dogs however, they can be useful in the diet as, when broken down during digestion, they become glucose and are used as energy.
3. Vitamins and minerals ensures complete nutrition.
4. Vegetables and fruit provide essential fiber for good digestion.
5. Healthy fats fat is a major source of energy producing twice the calories of protein or carbohydrates. It helps the body absorb and transport certain vitamins and is essential for reproduction and pregnancy. Fat provides insulation and maintains skin health. It protects and waterproofs the coat hairs via sebum secretion.
6. Natural preservatives many natural preservatives provide the fat soluble Vitamin E.
7. Prebiotics can be helpful when it comes to healthy digestion.
Read the package of Golden Retriever food the ingredients will be listed according to weight. The top ingredient will also be the main ingredient in the Retriever dog food.
You must provide plenty of fresh water to your Golden throughout the day.
How Many Calories Does A Golden Retriever Puppy Need
Even though Golden Retrievers are known to be active dogs, they can gain weight quite easily if their diet is not correct. To make the decision about how many calories you should be feeding your golden retriever, you need to look at his weight, age, and level of activity.
- When he is two months old, you should give him 1 ½ cups of food daily
- When he is seven months old, give him 3 to 4 cups of food daily
- Adult Golden Retrievers that are active, require about 1,300 to 1,700 calories daily
- Senior Golden retrievers require about 900 calories daily
Please consider these to be a guide and consult your veterinarian if you are unsure about anything.
Another method you can use to find the right amount of food to feed your golden retriever is the RER method. This is the resting energy requirements of your dog, found by multiplying his weight in kilograms to the power of ¾ by 70.
For instance, if you have a puppy that weighs 10 kg all you need to do is multiply this amount by the power of ¾ by 70. You should get an RER of 70 X 10kgs ¾ = 400 calories per day.
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Also A Raw Food Diet Has No Additives And Sugars So That Is Another Plus If You Want A Healthy Dog With A Slim Figure
How much raw food to feed a golden retriever puppy. After all, what we eat impacts how healthy we are. Even if you ultimately want to change your puppys food, veterinarians and breeders typically agree it is best to wait about a month before starting the food transition. The big advantage of kibble, of course, is that its available everywhere.
Weighing a golden retriever is likely best at the vets due to their size, no. Our boys will eat on average about 3 1/2 cups per day. Orijen and natures variety are two great golden retriever puppy food recommendations to look at.
On average, our adult golden retriever females eat about 2 cups per day of the tlc dog food linked below. We have had larger boys who have eaten close to 4 or even 5 cups per day during periods of heavy activity. It is enough to feed 1.5 cups a day spread over 3 meals.
However, with all the additives in kibble food, your. They avoid corn and wheat, which is generally considered a poor additive for dogs, opting instead for lentils to provide fiber. This is the gorging part.
If your golden retriever gains too much weight from your feeding program, you can cut a few grams from its regular amount of food and encourage more exercise. Royal canin golden retriever adult dry dog food. When applying the gorging and fasting method, you will, for example, double or triple the recommended portion and let your golden eat it all.
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But My Golden Retriever Puppy Is Still Hungry
Golden retrievers are really smart dogs. Your pup will learn quickly that mealtime is fun and tasty.
If your puppy snarfs down every morsel in 30 seconds and acts like hes still starved, dont rush to serve up another portion.
You may want to invest in a slow-feeder bowl, puzzle or a treat ball that will extend the mealtime fun.
When in doubt, always defer to your veterinarians guidanceif your puppy is truly underweight, you may need to increase the portion size.
Otherwise, try adding enrichment to mealtimes instead.
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What Human Foods Can A Golden Retriever Puppy Eat
There is a lot of human food that golden retrievers can eat in moderation. Humans consume protein, fats, and fiber. Dogs can eat these foods as well. Proteins like fish, eggs, beef, turkey, chicken, and salmon.
They can also have vegetables that are cooked and carbs in small proportions like pasta. They can even eat some dairy products.
Please keep that in mind that golden retrievers tend to gain weight, so it is always better to feed them more protein.
The vegetables are also good because they provide much-needed fiber for the digestive system, but give them carbohydrates only in small amounts, especially if they do not exercise that much.
Every Golden Retriever Has A Different Metabolism
One of the dangers of giving a standardized amount of food to your dog is that we stop continually monitoring our dogs weight. Every Golden Retriever is different. We have some Golden Retrievers that eat only 1 1/2 cups of food per day total and we have others that eat 5-6 cups of food per day. Just like people, every Golden Retriever has a different metabolismand that changes. Like humans, the older a dog gets the slower their metabolism normally is.
Their metabolism is also based on their activity level. Obviously the more active your Golden Retriever is, the faster their metabolism is and the more they can eat. Our average adult and puppy Golden Retriever gets 2 1/2 3 cups of TLC Whole Life Puppy Food to eat total per day. But thats average. Some will need more and some will need less. We recommend feeding your puppy twice a day. We feed them after training them at around 9 am and a second time at around 3-4 pm. The same schedule can be kept when they become adults. You could just feed them once a day, but the Golden Retrievers would rather eat twice a day! As your pup gets older, you can move the second feeding to later and even feed your adult after 5 pm.
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Best Food For Golden Retriever Puppies
There are so many options for Golden Retriever puppy food that it can be quite overwhelming.
And when you add in the strong opinions people have about dog food, the confusing marketing about whats good and whats bad, and the importance of choosing a high-quality food it can be downright scary to pick a food for your pup!
But heres the good news: this article will make this decision much easier for you.
Youll see two studies to help you choose the best food for your Golden Retriever puppy, as well as learn what makes a good dog food, what to avoid, and get answers to the most common food questions Golden Retriever puppy owners have.
Now before we dive in, heres a quick note: the best resource for deciding what to feed your golden retriever puppy is your veterinarian.
They know your puppy best and are most knowledgeable about their health needs.
Alrighty, now lets dive into that first study!
What About Feeding Your Golden Retriever A Raw Diet Or Homemade Food
You probably noticed that a raw diet was the fourth-most popular diet Golden Retriever owners feed their dog.
Heres what Dr. Lisa Freeman, from the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association study, had to say about it:
We also emphasize that changing to a raw or home-prepared diet may not be sufficient to improve cardiac abnormalities and may increase the risk for other nutritional deficiencies or infectious diseases.
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How To Switch Food Brands
The other day I was talking to someone who was complaining that her puppy was having lots of stomach issues.
She said shed tried several different food brands and her puppy had problems with all of them!
Well, in this case, its probably not the food thats the problem
Its the fact that she kept switching foods so quickly!
Dogs have sensitive stomachs so if you want to switch foods, you need to do it slowly.
You should take about a week to transition from the old food to the new brand.
For example, on day one, their meal might be 10% new food, 90% old food.
On day two, their meal might be 25% new food, 75% old food.
Youd slowly add in more new food, and give them less of the old food, until youve fully made the switch.
And this rule applies whether youre switching to a different brand of puppy food, or switching them from puppy food to adult food.
If you dont make this transition slowly, youll probably be dealing with a lot of diarrhea.
The Golden Retriever Guide: Food Personality Exercise And More
Year after year, the golden retriever ranks among the top three most popular dog breeds in the U.S. and its not exactly hard to figure out why. Known for their friendly and people-loving personalities, goldens are as famous for being the perfect family pet as they are for their picture-perfect looks.
The typical golden is SO friendly, SO easygoing, and SO adorable that they can give the impression that theyre a low-maintenance dog. But, like any breed, they demand ample mental stimulation, exercise, and training. Goldens can be pretty chill compared to some breeds but most wont be content to laze the day away on the couch.
Read on to learn the basics about golden retrievers and golden retriever mixes, and insight from owners and experts to help you live the happiest possible life with this sunny companion.
Basic golden retriever breed facts
Golden retrievers are medium-to-large sized, sturdy, and muscular in build but with broad heads, short ears, and friendly, intelligent eyes. What really makes these dogs stand out, however, is that lustrous golden coat.
As the name suggests, golden retrievers always have a golden coat, though it can range in color from a light cream-colored gold to a dark reddish gold . Dogs of this breed often exhibit a thick ruff around the neck along with feathering on the legs, stomach, and tail. Some goldens have slightly wavy fur while others have completely straight coats.
Typical golden personality profile
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Home environment
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