Page 74 - K9 News Digital - Issue 11 May2020

THE

PRECISE

NUTRITIONAL NEEDS

OF PUPPIES

By the time most puppies reach adulthood, they
will have increased their birth weight by forty to fifty
times (Case et al, 2011). However, as there is a great
variation in dog sizes, from tiny Chihuahuas at around

2kg to Irish Wolfhounds at around 70kg bodyweight,
growth periods do vary. Small breed dogs generally
reach adult body size at between 9 and 12 months
of age and large and giant breeds not until they are
18-24 months old (Case et al, 2011). If one considers
that an adult giant breed dog may weigh the same as
an adult human, who would take 18 years to reach
maturity, this is a remarkably rapid growth period!

Figure 1. Evidence-based Puppy Growth Charts can be found
under the resources tab at www.waltham.com, separated into
size and gender, where you will also find a ‘how to use’ guide.
The growth period of puppies can be broken into three
stages – pre-weaning, weaning and post-weaning:
PRE-WEANING

Puppies are helpless at birth, unable to stand, hear or
see and totally dependent on their mother for the first
few weeks of life. During the pre-weaning stage, the
dam will ideally provide all the nutrients required via
her milk, unless she is unable to for any reason (such
as disease, death or low milk yield). Unfortunately,
according to the NeoCare Centre at Toulouse
National Veterinary School, this pre-weaning stage
carries the highest mortality rate at around 20%.
One important contributing factor to this, along with
maternal behaviour and the skill of the breeder, is the
quality of the mother’s diet during the last trimester
of pregnancy. Unlike we humans, who are generally
born with fairly robust immune systems, puppies

74 - K9 NEWS DIGITAL