Beagle Feeding Tips

Providing a proper diet is crucial to maintaining your beagle in excellent health. The amount, type, and quality of the food provided, as well as when it is offered are all important considerations. Your beagle has a traditional life expectancy of from twelve to fifteen years. By providing a proper diet, you can help to ensure that your pet lives a long active life in good health.

As with all dogs, the type and amount of food offered is determined by the age of the dog. For the first two months of the beagle’s life, the mother’s milk provides all the nutrients needed. Toward the end of this period, after about five weeks, you can begin to wean the pup from its dependence upon the mother and on to eating solid foods.

Beagle Dog well trainedThe period that begins when your beagle becomes dependent upon solid foods, usually at eight weeks, until about six months of age will be one of rapid growth. During this period proper nutrition is critical. Feeding should be scheduled for three times a day. Scheduled feedings are usually logistically easier for the owner, and provide the dog with a dependable regimen that is a great component of improving behavior. This is also the period during which the time allotted for eating is limited, with the food being available for no more than one half hour at each meal.

After six months, you can begin to reduce the number of feedings per day to two: one in the morning and one in the evening. At the age of one year you can further reduce the meals to one a day supplemented by occasional snacks as rewards for training or good behavior.

The puppy phase, which comes to a close during the second year, should be over by the dog’s second birthday. You’ll then have a healthy, well behaved, and happy adult beagle for your constant and loyal companion. Your feeding routine should now be well established for both you and your dog. For the remainder of your time together, the major concern in feeding the beagle should be not to feed it too much. A fat dog is not a healthy dog.

As an adult, your beagle will not need as much food to grow. Watch your dog’s diet and go easy with the snacks. Back when your beagle was just a pup entering your life, you would have had to make a decision whether to feed the dog a mass produced manufactured dog food or a homemade food from your own kitchen. Either one is acceptable, with a few caveats.

Store bought prepared wet or dry foods vary in quality and in price and the two are generally in direct proportion to one another. If you decide to go with the prepared dog foods, keep in mind that both the lower priced and higher priced foods contain fillers which are empty calories. The major difference is in the percentage of fillers included. Generally the more expensive brands have less filler.

Homemade food does not mean table scraps. There are some foods eaten by humans that can be harmful, even deadly for your dog. If you should decide to feed your beagle with homemade foods check with your veterinarian for advice and go online for recipes tailored for dogs, some specifically for beagles. Generally, the homemade food should be slightly under 50% lean meats, approximately 30% of certain vegetables, and the remainder starchy foods like rice and pasta.

If you should find a nice piece of chicken left over after a family meal, you can give it to your dog as one of his reward snacks, but never do it from the table. Put the food in his eating bowl and present it to him at the usual eating location. Serving snacks to your beagle from the table, even if done only a few times, will create a boldly begging beagle, which you certainly do not want.

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