[RescueDaneMom]

I looked at the link you provided. According to the analysis, it is a very calorie dense food. It has 537 calories per cup. I’m not sure how many calories growing puppies need but 1/4 cup would only provide 134 calories. This seems low to me but I’ve never had a dog from a small puppy. I’ve always used a formula I found in a PetMD article to calculate about how many calories I should be feeding.
http://www.petmd.com/blogs/fullyvetted/2009/april/counting-calories-fat-dog-weight-loss-and-role-intelligence#.UnGbJPljum6

The bare minimum you want to feed is the calories needed in resting state.
Base calories/day (resting energy requirement) = 30 x (your dog’s weight in kg) + 70

Going by the feeding guideline in the link you provided, you are in the first category of 2-5lb (1.2-3kg) which recommends feeding a puppy 1/8-1/4 cup per day.

Using the low weight of 1.2kg:
30x(1.2)+70= 106 calories

Using the high weight of 3kg:
30x(3)+70= 160 calories

The bare minimum to feed is 106-160 calories. Because this is a growing puppy I think you could safely multiply the amount of calories by 2 (an active intact dog can have a multiplier of 1.4-see article). I think you would be safe feeding 212-320 calories per day which would be just under 1/2 cup (2/5) to a little more than 1/2 cup (3/5).

If you are worried about your puppy getting overweight, you can cut back on the food and see if she is still acting hungry. I would feed her based on her body condition. Feed her enough to keep her from being hungry yet still looking good. You don’t want her to look like a roly poly puppy. If she is really active and burning a lot of calories you may be feeding her exactly the right amount at 1 cup per day.

Good luck and I hope this helps!

• This reply was modified 12 years ago by RescueDaneMom.