Puppy's Feeding Schedule

This decision is by far the hardest one, and also the one most fraught with advice from all corners. Puppies from 8 - 12 weeks typically need 3 meals a day, progressing from 12 weeks to adulthood on 2 meals per day with bigger portions.

The most important consideration is that what goes in, must come out - and that said, would be preferred not to come out at the odd hours of the morning. What they don't tell you is that when your puppy eats, aside from the obvious, also determines your puppy's waking (playful) hours. In the first few weeks, I scheduled a 24 hours divided by 3 = once every 8 hour routine. Big, big mistake. Bailey ended up being bouncy and playful starting at 1am in the morning, resulting in a bedside siege every morning in the hours of 1am-3am by a 1.5kg white furball.

More research later, I decided on a 3 meal schedule as follows...

• 8am: Breakfast with the dogs, feed Bailey as Beanie got breakfast.
• 1pm: Lunch for Bailey while Beanie got a treat to avoid jealousy.
• 7pm: Dinner with the dogs, feed Bailey while Beanie got dinner.

The tip of removing water and treats 3-4 hours before bed time also worked wonders in ensuring that puppy didn't wake up in the middle of the night to do their jobs, hence allowing me to let the puppy sleep through the night without waking me up for a night time play time.