Puppy Nutrition And Food

The puppy food you choose will help create the nutritional foundation for your puppy’s healthy life. So high-quality ingredients and proper nutrition are crucial, as is keeping your puppy at an ideal body condition. In this video, Mike Stewart describes what he looks for in a puppy food and explains why he chooses a Purina Pro Plan large breed puppy formula to fuel his exceptional retrievers.

Introduction To Puppy Nutrition : Video Transcript

Mike Stewart: The key to raising a healthy puppy is exercise, appropriate nutrition, and mental conditioning. The dog becomes what they consume. At Wildrose, we feed Pro Plan and they have a special formula for the large breed puppy that is our food of choice. Real chicken is the number one ingredient. And it has glucosamine for healthy joints. It has DHA for healthy brain and vision development.

One of the things we want to see in a healthy puppy is not becoming overweight. This condition follows the entire dog's life. Even in adulthood, we want to keep a trim waistline and a proper body condition.

Let's do a body weight comparison on a couple of dogs. This is an overweight dog. From the chest to her flanks is completely, almost barrel-like. There is no indention. We should see a nice tapering in the flank. You cannot see her back ribs. This would be considered a dog that is overweight, too heavy.

Now let's compare it to one that is in proper condition. This dog is in proper body condition. You can see from looking straight down on the dog, as it should be, that there's a slight indention at the flank, and you can just see the back rib. The waist can easily be seen from above, and this is what you're looking for for proper body condition of your dog.

An overweight puppy is not a healthy puppy. Provide a balanced diet, keep them on a schedule, and provide plenty of exercise, and you will have a puppy that will enjoy a long and healthy life.