Poodle Information
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Proper Feeding For a Poodle
Understanding Food Needs
Offering the proper food to your Poodle is one of the most important elements to keep your Poodle healthy, happy and to live as long as possible. Everything that your puppy (and then dog) ingests will directly impact their health. Some owners make the huge mistake of simply picking up a bag of commercial dog food while food shopping, without giving it much thought.
There are many elements to understand and then consider:
How often should you offer meals? How much should you feed your Poodle? What should you be offering to your amazing canine family member? All of these topics and more will be discussed.
The Importance of Switching Foods Properly
Before you even bring your Poodle home, it is very important to discuss with the breeder (or shelter worker if you are adopting a rescue) exactly which brand of dog food they have been feeding to your puppy. If a young puppy is switched to a new food very quickly, it can cause many health issues. If you are bringing an adult dog home, a fast switch to a new food will not usually cause health issues, but can cause your Poodle to resist the new food and have a hard time adapting.
Most breeders, even great ones, do not always offer the best food possible. Why? Because the best food you can possible give to a Poodle is home cooked food. While it is very easy for 1 owner to home cook food (it is inexpensive and meals can be cooked in bulk and frozen for weeks), breeders have approximately 10-15 dogs in their breeding programs and anywhere from 2-4 litters and many simply do not have the time to home cook. In addition, if you obtain your Poodle from a puppy mill type breeder (more on this is discussed in the Breeders section), your Poodle will have been eating very low quality food. A dog obtained from a pet store originated from a puppy mill and pet stores for financial reasons do not feed home cooked food.
Therefore, it is important to make a switch. We highly recommend home cooking, however even if you decide to switch to a commercial brand, this must be done in a controlled, slow yet steady fashion. You can do this the following way, mixing the “old” food with the new food:
Feeding begins with choosing the best possible food. All commercial dog food companies will try to make you believe that their manufactured dog food is the best. It is sad how some commercials on TV announce that their dog food actually has some “real chicken”. How disturbing! Your Poodle deserve all real food, not just a bit of real chicken added to the mix!
High Quality Food VS Low Quality Food
The main difference between “high quality” manufactured dog food and “low quality” manufactured dog food is the amount of fillers that is put into the mix. A dog’s digestive system is designed to process proteins, not fillers. What are fillers? Sadly, fillers are empty, completely worthless ingredients with zero nutritional value. They are added for 2 reasons:
This is one of the main reasons that dogs will:
We highly suggest home cooking. If you decide to give your Poodle manufactured dog food, we would then suggest Eukanuba or Purina (2 brands of manufactured food that contain less fillers than many other brands).
Some owners hesitate to home cooking, wondering about cost and time. It must be noted that it is less expensive than purchasing commercial dog food and time is usually not an issue, as most meals can be cooked in bulk with servings refrigerated and/or frozen for quite a while.
What to Feed Your Poodle if Home Cooking
You will want to have a mix of protein, carbs and starch.
Note: Dogs can and should have garlic salt. While you will see many sites that state that dogs are allergic to garlic, garlic salt is very healthy for dogs and even acts as a natural flea repellent.
Read more detailed information regarding home cooking for your Poodle
How much to Feed Your Poodle
How to Use Our “How Much to Feed a Poodle” Calculator
1. Enter the weight of your Poodle
2. Choose the proper % (see guidelines below)
3. This is the starting amount, to be adjusted as needed
Offering the proper food to your Poodle is one of the most important elements to keep your Poodle healthy, happy and to live as long as possible. Everything that your puppy (and then dog) ingests will directly impact their health. Some owners make the huge mistake of simply picking up a bag of commercial dog food while food shopping, without giving it much thought.
There are many elements to understand and then consider:
How often should you offer meals? How much should you feed your Poodle? What should you be offering to your amazing canine family member? All of these topics and more will be discussed.
The Importance of Switching Foods Properly
Before you even bring your Poodle home, it is very important to discuss with the breeder (or shelter worker if you are adopting a rescue) exactly which brand of dog food they have been feeding to your puppy. If a young puppy is switched to a new food very quickly, it can cause many health issues. If you are bringing an adult dog home, a fast switch to a new food will not usually cause health issues, but can cause your Poodle to resist the new food and have a hard time adapting.
Most breeders, even great ones, do not always offer the best food possible. Why? Because the best food you can possible give to a Poodle is home cooked food. While it is very easy for 1 owner to home cook food (it is inexpensive and meals can be cooked in bulk and frozen for weeks), breeders have approximately 10-15 dogs in their breeding programs and anywhere from 2-4 litters and many simply do not have the time to home cook. In addition, if you obtain your Poodle from a puppy mill type breeder (more on this is discussed in the Breeders section), your Poodle will have been eating very low quality food. A dog obtained from a pet store originated from a puppy mill and pet stores for financial reasons do not feed home cooked food.
Therefore, it is important to make a switch. We highly recommend home cooking, however even if you decide to switch to a commercial brand, this must be done in a controlled, slow yet steady fashion. You can do this the following way, mixing the “old” food with the new food:
- Week 1: ¾ old food, ¼ new food
- Week 2: ½ old food, ½ new food
- Week 3: ¼ old food, ¾ new food
- Week 4: Complete switch to new food
Feeding begins with choosing the best possible food. All commercial dog food companies will try to make you believe that their manufactured dog food is the best. It is sad how some commercials on TV announce that their dog food actually has some “real chicken”. How disturbing! Your Poodle deserve all real food, not just a bit of real chicken added to the mix!
High Quality Food VS Low Quality Food
The main difference between “high quality” manufactured dog food and “low quality” manufactured dog food is the amount of fillers that is put into the mix. A dog’s digestive system is designed to process proteins, not fillers. What are fillers? Sadly, fillers are empty, completely worthless ingredients with zero nutritional value. They are added for 2 reasons:
- To plump up the food so that it appears as if there is more “real” dog food than there actually is
- To fill up your Poodle’s stomach, causing your dog to feel full. The danger here is that a Poodle will feel full and stop eating, when in fact they did not ingest enough needed nutrients.
This is one of the main reasons that dogs will:
- Eat feces
- Eat grass
- Try to eat cat food
We highly suggest home cooking. If you decide to give your Poodle manufactured dog food, we would then suggest Eukanuba or Purina (2 brands of manufactured food that contain less fillers than many other brands).
Some owners hesitate to home cooking, wondering about cost and time. It must be noted that it is less expensive than purchasing commercial dog food and time is usually not an issue, as most meals can be cooked in bulk with servings refrigerated and/or frozen for quite a while.
What to Feed Your Poodle if Home Cooking
You will want to have a mix of protein, carbs and starch.
- Organs – Poodles love organs and these are extremely healthy. Liver, kidney and brain fit into this group
- Lean meats- White chicken breast, fish and lean hamburg offer great protein and are wholesome, real foods that Poodles love
- Vegetables – Meals cannot be complete without veggies! Poodles love potatoes, sweet potatoes, baby carrots (raw carrots are good for their teeth and steamed or boiled carrots are perfects for meals), spinach, broccoli (ignore any text that you have read on other sites that dogs are allergic to broccoli), string beans, peas and zucchini. It is recommended to not use corn kernels.
- Starch – This is an important ingredient to mix into the meal. Cooked white rice, brown rice or pasta should be offered. (Most Poodles absolutely love pasta)
Note: Dogs can and should have garlic salt. While you will see many sites that state that dogs are allergic to garlic, garlic salt is very healthy for dogs and even acts as a natural flea repellent.
Read more detailed information regarding home cooking for your Poodle
How much to Feed Your Poodle
How to Use Our “How Much to Feed a Poodle” Calculator
1. Enter the weight of your Poodle
2. Choose the proper % (see guidelines below)
3. This is the starting amount, to be adjusted as needed
Choose 2% If your Poodle is overweight
Choose 2.5% - 3% To maintain present weight
Choose 3.5-5% If your Poodle is underweight
CHOOSE 8% FOR GROWING PUPPIES
If You Decide to Give Manufactured Food
Quality
It is very important to never buy generic dog food that you find in the super market. The higher quality food will have less filler and therefore provide the better amount of calories, vitamins and protein. The less expensive the dog food, the more possibly overweight and unhealthy your Poodle will be. Depending on the brand, it could also bring down your dog's immune system, causing your Poodle to become ill more often as he or she will not have optimal strength to fight off illness.
Dry or Wet?
It is suggested to feed your Poodle mostly dry dog food with a bit of wet dog food mixed into the menu. Eating only wet commercial dog food may cause runny bowel movements.
High Protein?
Dog owners began worrying when studies announced that a high protein diets for dogs was unsafe. However, those studies were done on rats. These studies are not related to dogs at all. Dogs are carnivores. Your Poodle's diet should consist of about 40% or more protein. Meat should be the main ingredient of meals.
Changes
There will be times when your Poodle will need their diet adjusted. When feeding store-bought dog food, you will need to make changes for:
• Has vitamin rich fish oils
Begging
Quality
It is very important to never buy generic dog food that you find in the super market. The higher quality food will have less filler and therefore provide the better amount of calories, vitamins and protein. The less expensive the dog food, the more possibly overweight and unhealthy your Poodle will be. Depending on the brand, it could also bring down your dog's immune system, causing your Poodle to become ill more often as he or she will not have optimal strength to fight off illness.
Dry or Wet?
It is suggested to feed your Poodle mostly dry dog food with a bit of wet dog food mixed into the menu. Eating only wet commercial dog food may cause runny bowel movements.
High Protein?
Dog owners began worrying when studies announced that a high protein diets for dogs was unsafe. However, those studies were done on rats. These studies are not related to dogs at all. Dogs are carnivores. Your Poodle's diet should consist of about 40% or more protein. Meat should be the main ingredient of meals.
Changes
There will be times when your Poodle will need their diet adjusted. When feeding store-bought dog food, you will need to make changes for:
- Pregnant dogs: Should be given puppy food to give their bodies the needed extra vitamins and nutrients
- Inactive Dogs: If your dog is inactive due to an injury, health issue, etc, you will want to make sure that the manufactured dog food:
• Has vitamin rich fish oils
Begging
With many dogs, after you prepare their meal and set it down, your Poodle may behave as if they will just fall over and die if they don’t have a bit of the food on your plate. This happens even when home cooking, simply because many dogs think that whatever is on your plate at the table simply must be better than what is in their bowl!
Even though those “puppy dog eyes” are extremely tempting and even though you will have to use all the will-power you have and go against all natural human instinct to make your dog happy: Do not feed your dog food from your table, unless you want to begin a very strong behavioral habit that is very hard to break
Human bodies have adjusted to the additives, color preservatives, high levels of sodium and other ingredients in human food. Even so, millions of people die from heart disease, diabetes and other illness that can be linked to bad eating habits. Imagine what this food can do to your Poodle.
Finicky Eaters
If choosing manufactured food, you will just need to experiment a bit. Do not buy large quantities of dog food until you have discovered the flavor or flavors that your dog likes.
A Poodle may take food and hide, refuse to eat, and display many odd & frustrating behaviors while eating (or while you are attempting to feed them!). Details to handle all Poodle behavioral issues are in the AllPoodleInfo book, as seen below.
Taking Out the Guesswork:
To read about Poodle-Specific Information including:
• 20 Behavior Issues & How to Resolve Them
• 30 Health Issues You Must Know About in Detail
• All Training Needs
• Housebreaking without Stress
• Female Issues, Pregnancy & Breeding
• Socializing & Your Poodle’s Happiness
• Photos of Every Colored Poodle in the World and so much more... we have put together a giant AllPoodleInfo BOOK for you. A must-have for every Poodle owner. Find Out More Here
Even though those “puppy dog eyes” are extremely tempting and even though you will have to use all the will-power you have and go against all natural human instinct to make your dog happy: Do not feed your dog food from your table, unless you want to begin a very strong behavioral habit that is very hard to break
Human bodies have adjusted to the additives, color preservatives, high levels of sodium and other ingredients in human food. Even so, millions of people die from heart disease, diabetes and other illness that can be linked to bad eating habits. Imagine what this food can do to your Poodle.
Finicky Eaters
If choosing manufactured food, you will just need to experiment a bit. Do not buy large quantities of dog food until you have discovered the flavor or flavors that your dog likes.
A Poodle may take food and hide, refuse to eat, and display many odd & frustrating behaviors while eating (or while you are attempting to feed them!). Details to handle all Poodle behavioral issues are in the AllPoodleInfo book, as seen below.
Taking Out the Guesswork:
To read about Poodle-Specific Information including:
• 20 Behavior Issues & How to Resolve Them
• 30 Health Issues You Must Know About in Detail
• All Training Needs
• Housebreaking without Stress
• Female Issues, Pregnancy & Breeding
• Socializing & Your Poodle’s Happiness
• Photos of Every Colored Poodle in the World and so much more... we have put together a giant AllPoodleInfo BOOK for you. A must-have for every Poodle owner. Find Out More Here
