How much do I feed my Irish Wolfhound puppy or my dog?

Overfeeding adult dogs leads to obesity and serious health conditions such as diabetes and heart disease. Overfeeding a puppy during the active, rapid growth period after weaning leads to skeletal problems.

I can’t give you exact amounts as this varies from dog to dog. Personally, I like to feed to appetite, but my rule of thumb is to aim for a little bit left in the bowl. However this said you might have a greedy one, who eats what they see and becomes the size of a coffee table! It is paramount not to have an overweight hound either. Our hounds eat approximately 500grams of Salmon and Potato per day, plus raw meaty bones. (You will need to take into account the calorific values in your feed and the amount of exercise and temper accordingly.

The goal for puppies should be controlled growth – not overgrowth.

Your hound should be lean enough to feel their ribs but not to see them, and during their formative years should have the correct balance of free exercise to create a certain amount of muscle. Over feeding your puppy with far too many calories, and a diet rich in calcium and phosphorus will lead to serious health problems. So much so that rapid growth by over feeding the puppy and making him fat could result in skeletal abnormalities.

Keeping your hound lean and fit is crucial to their health. So you have to judge for yourself the amount you feed and what suits your hound.

Free exercise does not mean road walking or lead walking none of which will help build the muscle or conformation required. Allow your under a year hound the luxury of bounding around on your lawn, and when that becomes too small, drive to a park or suitable exercise area where you can let them off the lead to run around, always tailor the exercise to the dog and not to your needs for a long walk. Letting off steam in a youngster should not exceed 30 minutes at a time.

Never allow your dog to go too long without food or not feed enough, that he gets so hungry he bolts his next feed down. We all know that after a three-course meal we would not be able to exercise, so neither should your dog!

You may or may not be able to read your dog, but try and apply common sense to their diet, that we should apply to our own. If you treat your hound with human food, they will hold out and not eat their food. If you treat your hound with food which is too rich they inevitably can get loose stools.

Feeding your dog the correct nutrition, which is a good kibble, with a healthy balance of exercise, is one of your major contributions to keeping your beloved hound fit and healthy; you could be helping to prevent unnecessary allergies, heart and joint issues and reducing the possibility of bloat.

The Irish Wolfhound can have very sensitive digestion and health, reacting to the wrong foods. Be safe and use a high-quality hypo-allergenic kibble and add in healthy extras.