How Much Should I Feed My Pug Puppy? + Feeding Guide Chart

If you’re a first-time dog owner, it’s often difficult to know exactly how much food you should be feeding your new dog, especially if they’re only a puppy. For Pugs, this is no different.

While most dogs are able to self-regulate and stop eating when they reach capacity, Pugs don’t possess the ability to know when to stop. In fact, if they had it their own way, they’d be happy eating 24/7.

Therefore, it’s particularly important for Pug puppy owners to control their dog’s intake of food closely. If you allow your Pug puppy to eat whenever and however much they want, you’ll be left with a rather round dog in no time.

A Pug puppy should typically be fed three times a day. This feeding routine should be closely followed from eight weeks to six months old.

When your Pug reaches six months of age, you should then slowly start to reduce the frequency, changing their feeding schedule to two times a day. If you follow this schedule, it’s unlikely that you’ll experience any problems.

I’ll now look at the amount of food that should be included in each feeding session.

Feeding Chart For Pug Puppies

Produced by the Royal Canin brand of dog food, the following Pug feeding chart is excellent for providing some rough guidelines on planning and scheduling your puppy’s meals.

These guidelines state you should feed a Pug puppy of 8 to 20 weeks different cup sizes depending on their weight.

The typical cup of food is roughly 98g. In terms of regularity, the above amounts should be supplied three times a day initially, then twice daily as your Pug puppy grows beyond six months.

Early Age Pug Puppies

Before you feed your Pug puppy a standard dog food diet, it’s important to make sure that they’ve been weaned off their mother’s milk.

The vast majority of the time, this will have happened by the age of three weeks. It’s worth noting that puppies shouldn’t leave their mother until at least eight weeks of age.

All things well, this should mean that by the time you get your new Pug puppy home, they will already be accustomed to eating proper puppy food.

If, however, they can’t, this is a telling sign that they were taken from their mother too early.

When you start feeding your young Pug puppy, don’t be surprised at just how much they can put away.

Feeding them three substantial portions may seem a lot at such a young age, but with so much energy to burn, three times a day is the perfect frequency for a healthy puppy.

Calorie Intake

As mentioned earlier, the amount you feed your Pug puppy will need to be altered with each month they age. This all comes down to how much they weigh.

Vet guidance and the general belief is that puppies should be fed between 25 and 30 calories for each pound they weigh. Therefore, a Pug puppy weighing nine pounds should consume between 225 and 270 calories.

Admittedly, it’s hard enough to keep track of calories for a human diet, let alone a dog’s diet, so don’t stress yourself out too much about being one hundred percent accurate.

So long as your Pug consumes roughly the right amount, as depicted in the feeding chart, you’ll be fine.

Weight

A lot of people don’t have easy access to a set of scales, so weighing your pug can be a little difficult. However, most vets will have a set of scales in their waiting room.

Unsurprisingly, it’s quite a challenge to get your Pug puppy to sit still on the scales for long enough to accurately record their weight.

Therefore, it’s a good idea to weigh yourself first and then get someone to pass you your puppy to see what the difference is.

If you’re worried about your Pug being overweight, there are a few easy methods of finding out.

One effective method is to apply a little bit of pressure to their chest and see whether or not you can feel their ribcage. If you can’t, this suggests that there’s more fat than ribs to touch, and your puppy is likely overweight.

Other telling signs include fat deposits over the lumbar and neck, obvious abdomen rounding, and an unclear waistline.

Age

Some Pug puppies will take longer to adjust to commercial dry food than others. This slow adjustment is when they’re getting used to not having their mother’s milk.

All commercial food, however, should be packed full of enough calories and nutrients to make up for what they used to consume from the milk.

Therefore, if this adjustment period carries on for an extended period and your puppy refuses to eat what’s in front of them, it’s probably best to consult with your vet.

In terms of altering their meal servings in line with their age, Pug puppies of eight to 12 weeks can typically have one and a half cups of food per day, split into three equal servings.

Making sure these meals are small and regular also helps to keep their blood sugar levels in good condition.

As your puppy reaches the age of six months, they should be slowly moved to a regular eating routine of two meals a day. This schedule will then remain in place for the rest of their life.

Avoid Over-Feeding

Due to the speed at which their puppies consume the food, many Pug owners decide to increase the feeding routine to four meals a day slightly.

This is similarly the case for owners with super-small Pugs that may struggle with the quantity of food in three servings of half cups a day.

Overfeeding is something to be avoided. If you overfeed your Pug puppy regularly, they could be susceptible to gastric dilatation-volvulus – also known as a twisted gut. In certain cases, this condition can be potentially fatal.

This is just one reason why it’s extremely important for Pug owners to be vigilant and make sure they don’t give their Pugs the opportunity to overindulge and potentially harm themselves.

Excessive feeding regimes are often the chief source of a Pug’s problematic weight.

Overweight or Underweight

In the first few months of feeding your Pug puppy, it’s useful to use the average Pug weights as a guiding framework. The healthy weight ranges are as follows:

• 8 weeks: between two to four pounds.
• 6 months: between seven to 12 pounds.
• Adults: anywhere between 13 to 20 pounds.

If you have a Pug puppy that’s visibly underweight, you can add a little extra food to each of their daily servings until they gain weight and fall back into the healthy weight range.

Some of the best signs of an underweight Pug are visible ribs and tops of lumbar vertebrae, as well as prominent pelvic bones.

It’s worth noting, however, don’t add too much food to their diet at once as they could become at risk to the twisted gut condition mentioned earlier.

For overweight Pugs, it’s simple, just do the opposite. Reduce their portion sizes and try to get them to do more daily exercise. If you feel guilty about reducing their food, exercise alone can be enough to shed some weight.

In situations where your Pug puppy continues to either lose weight or gain weight irrespective of the changes to their diet, it could be a sign of something more serious such as an underlying health issue.

If this is the case and you’re worried, contact your vet and schedule a check-up for your pooch.

It’s worth remembering that all Pugs are different. So long as your puppy isn’t too far on either side of the weight spectrum, you should be okay.

Type of Food

There’s much debate about whether raw food is better for dogs than dry and wet food.

Raw food is becoming increasingly popular among many dog owners, with their argument asserting that dry and wet commercial food contains too many additives, as well as other ingredients such as preservatives, fillers, and wheat.

While this may well be the case, there isn’t any hard evidence as of yet that supports the benefits of raw food, so if you’re struggling to decide, it’s best again to get a professional opinion from your vet.

Admittedly, a raw food diet is going to be more natural. However, it’s not as easy as it may seem to judge the exact amount of vitamins and minerals that need to be included.

Pug puppies need a certain amount for healthy development, so for many skeptics, it seems a risk that isn’t worth taking.

Speed Eating

Another factor that can contribute to the health of your Pug puppy is the speed of its eating.

Most puppies are used to having to compete for food, so as a result, they often wolf it down in a matter of minutes. This can, however, cause discomfort, indigestion, and even vomiting.

The best method of slowing your Pug’s intake is using a slow feeder bowl. These specially-designed devices help to prevent dogs from inhaling air with their food the second you put the bowl down for them.

By significantly slowing down their rate of eating, these bowls also facilitate better levels of digestion, which can subsequently prevent bloating and obesity.

Another consideration to take into account is whether you have another dog in addition to your Pug puppy. If so, make sure they’re fed in separate bowls, removing the possibility of the Pug wolfing down both portions.

Specific Foods

In terms of choosing some specific foods well-suited for Pugs, it’s best to avoid foods with a significant amount of fillers, wheat, corn, and preservatives.

Not only are they less nutritional than others, but they can also cause allergies for some skin-sensitive Pugs.

The ideal dry foods you should be considering will contain a high percentage of meat and fish.

Other beneficial foods include plant-based proteins such as lentils, peas, and chickpeas. Omega-3s are also healthy fats, so if these are listed on certain foods, you’re good to go.

Senior Pugs

As Pugs get older, they’ll invariably become less active and, subsequently, less efficient at burning calories. As a result, you may start to see them gain weight with age, which isn’t too dissimilar to humans in this respect.

To help combat this, it’s important to amend and control their portion sizes in the best way possible.

A lot of professional advice recommends opting for a higher frequency of daily meals, albeit with smaller portions. This is similar to the approach used for puppies and helps senior Pugs with weaker stomachs.

Final Thoughts

Hopefully, reading this guide will have helped inform you on how much you should feed your Pug puppy, as well as some of the other important considerations to take into account.

So long as you stick to the guiding framework and keep your Pug on a regular feeding routine with regular daily exercise, your Pug will grow into a healthy and happy dog!

Other Frequently Asked Questions