As a new dog owner, you probably have hundreds of questions going through your mind. Should you feed your Frenchie with a raw diet, canned food, or dry kibble? What is the exact amount of food your Frenchie needs? What ingredients to avoid? These are only some of the dilemmas we often hear from pet parents. How to feed a French bulldog doesn’t need to become your dead-end tunnel. Besides asking your vet or a breeder for advice, monitoring your dog’s body language is one of the most important things to do.
How to choose the best diet for my French bulldog?
If you’ve just brought your furry friend home, thinking about the diet is the first task to accomplish. The rule of thumb is to continue feeding a puppy with the same food as when it was in the kennel. That’s how you’ll avoid digestive issues, diarrhea, vomiting, and other potential problems. However, if you’ve noticed that your dog refuses that type of diet or he/she developed an allergy to a specific dry kibble or canned food, it would be best to switch him/her to a raw diet.
Raw diet probably sounds like the best choice for Frenchies because they’re on a higher tendency to suffer from allergies. Another solution can be homemade meals that will include boiled meat and other ingredients. However, most dogs accept quite well raw food as long as it’s fresh and safe. In other words, you have to be very careful when buying meat for your dog because it can carry harmful bacteria if bought at unreliable butcheries.
How to feed a French bulldog puppy? How much food does my puppy need?
A Frenchie puppy should have 3 meals a day during the 6th month of age. Dogs older than 6 months should have 2 meals a day. For measuring the food for your Frenchie, you can use a cup of 250 ml. Dogs between 8 to 12 weeks of age should eat 1,5 cups of food 3 times a day. The prescribed amount may also depend on your dog’s activity. Active puppies may need more food, however, it’s a topic for a vet.
If you’ve decided to feed your Frenchie with dry kibble or canned food, then you can follow the guideline on the label. Not all dog food brands contain the same amount of calories, so we can’t tell you exactly how much food your puppy needs.
Counting calories can be difficult
Calories are hard to count especially if you’re feeding your Frenchie with the BARF diet. For every pound, your dog should get approximately 30 calories. However, this amount can be bigger if your pooch is active, loves to play, and run. Senior French bulldogs will need fewer calories because they won’t be as active as they used to be. Try to cut your senior Frenchie’s diet to 500 calories per day, otherwise, you’ll live with an obese and seriously ill pooch. Obesity harms the dog’s breathing and ruins his/her joints and hips.
What ingredients to avoid when feeding a French bulldog?
Unfortunately, some Frenchies will develop a food allergy to specific ingredients throughout their lifetime. They can also suffer from digestive problems such as flatulence, so you have to be very careful when choosing ingredients for their diet.
Most Frenchies show allergy to by-products, corn, soy, eggs, wheat, and dairy products. They can also inherit the allergy from their parents, so when buying a puppy, make sure you know a lot about the puppy’s health history.
If you’re feeding your Frenchie with the BARF or homemade diet, then we recommend you to avoid broccoli, cabbage, beans, green beans, and all other veggies that cause gasses. Frenchies are naturally prone to flatulence, and these ingredients can only make the ‘farting explosion’ in your house.