Five Month Old Standard Poodle Puppy Always Hungry

by S.V.
(Columbus, OH)

Hi there,

I have recently "adopted" a nearly 5-month-old male standard poodle puppy. His former owner only fed him twice a day (one cup of puppy food) and now we are feeding him three times a day because of the recommendations on the back of his dog food package (Pedigree Large Breed Puppy food). We give him one cup three times a day, morning, noon and evening and he STILL acts like he is starving! Is this normal? Do we need to feed him four times a day or should we change his puppy food to a higher quality brand?

Thanks,

SV



Hi SV
There are a few things I'd recommend here. The first is to have your pup thoroughly checked out by your veterinarian to make sure that he doesn't have puppy worms. These are pretty common and are easily treated by your vet, however a pup who has them will often seem ravenously hungry all the time. That's because the worms get all the nutrition from the food - not the puppy!

At 5 months old he doesn't need to be fed three times a day, but you can do it if he needs 'feeding up' (ie he's not been well taken care of and is skinny - which can also happen with worms), but a healthy 5 month old large-breed pup is perfectly fine with 2 meals a day.

I would also definitely recommend that you change him over to a more nutritious and better quality food, but do it slowly to avoid any digestive upsets. Take a look at my 10 Best Dog Food Choices page to see some of the best foods on the market, and also check out my Dog Food Comparisons page to learn what to look for in a quality food. There's also an excellent page on the best puppy foods at Best Puppy Food (it applies to all large breed pups).

Hope this helps. I wish you the best of luck with this puppy.