How many times a day to feed?

[Jodi Williams]

Hi,

I have a 5 month old Poo-Chi that is approx 8lbs. Should I still be feeding her 3x a day?

[Susan Bacon]

Jodi,

Yours is one of the cutest little puppies I've ever seen (other than my own babies--of course!!!)

I asked our vet this same question because at the time I was feeding our 4-month-old at the time, 3x a day. His opinion is that once they have reached the stage where most of their growing has occurred (generally with Shih Tzus they are at their adult size around 6 months, but I don't know if that's also true of your precious Poo-Chi), they can eat their daily allotted amount of food just twice a day. Panda was as solid as a rump roast and growing well, so we switched to feeding him twice at that point. It has not seemed to effect him at all and the most positive part is that it's easier to anticipate when he'll need to go out.

Hope that helps!

[Maria Juliano]

Most puppies will stop eating one of their meals on their own, mine stopped eating lunch at about 6 months.

[Jesse Cruz]

i have two shih tzu's and i have always fed them only 2x. 6am and then 6pm. they have done very well on this schedule.

[Jodi Williams]

Thank you, Susan, for the nice compliment. We love our Tina and think she's a cutie too, although she is a bit of a ragamuffin -- or a "wagamuffin" as my son likes to call her!

THanks everyone for your responses. I have been cutting down her lunch portion and she has even missed a lunch or two when it just didn't fit into our schedules. Maybe in the next month or so, she will be down to two.

Are all dogs at about adult size at 6 months? I was wondering how much bigger she will get.

Jodi

[Colleen]

Are all dogs at about adult size at 6 months? I was wondering how much bigger she will get.

Jodi

I didn't know any dogs were full size at 6 months. Even my dachshund was still growing at 12 months, although not very much. However, he was definitely not done growing at 6 months!

[Jodi Williams]

I didn't know any dogs were full size at 6 months. Even my dachshund was still growing at 12 months, although not very much. However, he was definitely not done growing at 6 months!

Susan mentioned in a pervious post that her Shi Tzu's were their adult size at about 6 months, but also stated that she didn't know if that was the case for all breeds.

I guess I should expect mine to do some more growing.

[Eric Vecc]

I always follow the suggestion on the back of the food bag. Each brand has different amounts because of different levels of nutrients in the food. We do 4 cups of food a day and that can be feed 2 or 3 times. Sometimes he only gets 1 cup for breakfast, 1 for lunch and 1 for dinner but he will get the other cup in the form of treats for a training session.

[Susan Bacon]

Hi Jodi,

My breeder told me about the 6 month/adult size thing for Shih Tzus and it seemed to be true for our older puppy who is now 11 months. But our younger Tzu is 5 months and his paws are still HUGE, so I don't think he'll be completely grown into them for quite some time-Ha Ha!

Sorry to throw you a curve ball when I said "generally"... Also, Eric's pointing out that treats during a training and/or play session as an "extra" meal is a good one.

Have a great day!

Susan

[Jodi Williams]

Hi Jodi,

My breeder told me about the 6 month/adult size thing for Shih Tzus and it seemed to be true for our older puppy who is now 11 months. But our younger Tzu is 5 months and his paws are still HUGE, so I don't think he'll be completely grown into them for quite some time-Ha Ha!

Sorry to throw you a curve ball when I said "generally"... Also, Eric's pointing out that treats during a training and/or play session as an "extra" meal is a good one.

Have a great day!

Susan

Interestingly enough, I spoke to a groomer yesterday and she said the exact same thing as you... Shih Tzus usually hit adult size at around 6 months!! She didn't know about Poo-Chi's though.

[Andre Mendizabal]

If I can recall, my mini-schnauzer Molly switched from 3 to 2 meals per day around her 7th month, when vet told me she had reach most of her size. Nala, the beagle, switched at 9 months old when she started skipping lunch.
The general rule is to wait until they reach almost their full size, there's a time were they seem to grow on a daily basis and that's when they need their food the most, when they seem to stop growing, then you can switch. For small dogs is mostly between their 6th and 8th month... since they reach their size faster than bigger dogs... Other dogs will tell you when its enough and start skipping a meal...

Good luck