Feeding question

[Hamedee23]

I am a new owner to a 3 month old female giant. I have never owned a giant schnauzer before. I feel like she is a little bit skinny was 20 pounds at 12 weeks old. I am feeding her 3 cups a day of large breed puppy food mixed with adult food (what breeder recommended). Can you guys please share your input on how much you recommend feeding your giant, and the brand you use?

[Dawnspell]

Hi and Welcome
Would love to see a photo of your puppy.
The amount depends upon what food you are feeding. If talking about kibble something like Royal Canin which isnt a very good quality food is full of fillers so for 10kg, 3 month old you would feed 292g per day but if you were feeding higher quality eg Orijen puppy it would be 230g per day. You pay more for higher quality but you feed less, its better for your dog and you get less out the other end

I got all this info from https://www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk Have a browse through the website to get an idea of what you might like to feed. Jasper gets different types of food but as a rule of thumb I dont feed anything scoring less than 75% on the website

If you feed freeze dried raw, cold pressed, wet food or raw again it will be different amounts

[zeta1454]

Welcome to the Forum

I have no experience with GS but generally puppies do go through a skinny phase during adolescence and then bulk out more as they mature and giant breeds do mature more slowly than smaller dogs. Much also depends on the amount of exercise your pup is getting as young dogs can burn off the calories quickly if they are very active. You will want to take things slowly anyway with exercise as she will need time to develop her muscles, bones and joints and you don’t want to over-exercise at this age.

Regarding the food, I always recommend feeding raw food to dogs or, if not raw, then as fresh as possible. Dried foods especially kibble are ultra processed and are often high in carbohydrates and little meat which are not ideal for any dog. If you do or want to try raw feeding you may be best advised to start with a prepared raw food from a specialist dog food company to ensure it contains all the nutrients needed for a growing GS puppy. There are some links re this kind of feeding below:

https://eastcoastschnauzers.com/helpful ... ng-giants/

https://www.prodograw.com/raw-feeding-g ... ing-guide/

https://www.schnauzerfriendsza.com/feed ... -diet.html

[Rambuddy]

Welcome to the Giant Schnauzer family! Your pup is 12 weeks and weighs 20 pounds, but you're still worried and it's understandable to be concerned. It is a good start to feed her 3 cups a day, but it could be better to adjust the number based upon her activity level and growth. Many Giant Schnauzer breeders insist that you should get a high-quality large breed food like Royal Canin, Hill's Science Diet, or Purina Pro Plan.