Have you got a chihuahua puppy? Get ready for hard work. In order for him to be distinguished by excellent health, it is necessary to provide him with not only a suitable diet, but also spend a lot of time and effort. And first of all for this you need to know how to feed a Chihuahua puppy in 2 months. Any mistakes, even, at first glance, insignificant, will lead to very unpleasant consequences - both for the dog and for the owners.
At what age should lure start?
Experts recommend starting to give the first food to Chihuahua puppies at about 1 month or even 3 weeks. Yes, at this age they still actively feed on breast milk and this is quite enough for successful development. But if you add a small amount of high-quality feed to the diet, it will make it easier in the future to switch to a new diet. Yes, and it will be much easier for mothers - the more puppies eat food, the less milk (and therefore calcium and other useful trace elements) will be pulled out of it.
Of course, at the first stages you need to give only the highest quality food and in a very limited quantity. Experts recommend starting with a brace. So called raw meat scraped with a sharp knife from a piece of frozen meat. You can also use a fine grater for this. The main thing is that it be thoroughly crushed, and then completely thawed. You can only use beef. Pork contains too many fats that are poorly digested by small chihuahuas and can lead to serious stomach problems.
In the early days, the serving should be just tiny - no more than 1/5 teaspoon. After this, you should take a break for a day and see if the lure has caused any consequences. If everything is in order - you can continue, gradually increasing the serving to several grams of meat per day. Of course, depriving puppies at this time of the main food - mother's milk - is impossible.
In a month's diet, the diet for feeding Chihuahua dogs can be supplemented with kefir, low-fat cottage cheese, and also liquid porridge cooked in milk. And after 1-2 weeks, switch to puppy food. And they themselves are already happy to drag pieces from their parents bowl, which is a good sign - they wake up a good appetite and curiosity.
Pros and Cons of Dry Food
When it comes time to decide how to feed a Chihuahua puppy in 2 months, many owners have a question - what to prefer: dry food or homemade? We will talk about the latter a bit later. In the meantime, let's focus on the storefront, examine its main advantages and disadvantages.
One of the main advantages of dry food is saving time and effort. At least officially it already contains all the necessary trace elements, vitamins and the optimal balance of proteins, fats and carbohydrates. So, the owner does not have to spend extra time weighing products on the scales, measuring vitamins or chopping vegetables rich in them.
In addition, dry chihuahua food is easy to store. Even in hot conditions (for example, if you go on a summer trip for a few days), you don’t have to worry that it will go bad without a refrigerator.
On sale you can see food for different age categories - both babies and adult dogs.
Alas, there are cons. Experts recommend immediately abandoning cheap feed - they have absolutely nothing useful for pets. Yes, they will not die of hunger. But a healthy fat is not exactly fed up, and long-term feeding can lead to various diseases. Even the most expensive ones are not easy. You do not know if all that is indicated on the package is really included in the composition. So it is possible that you will have to pay a lot of money for dog-hazardous waste.
Cooking yourself
That is why many loving owners prefer to make a diet on their own. Yes, you have to spend more time. But you will definitely know what kind of chihuahua food gets.
40% of the diet should consist of meat. Suitable rabbit, turkey, chicken, beef, lamb or horse meat. Once a week, instead of meat, offal should be given - the liver, heart or kidneys. The products are finely cut, after which they are poured with boiling water to remove parasites.
Another 25% is cereals. Suitable barley, rice, wheat, buckwheat or oatmeal. Of course, they are served not raw, but like porridge cooked in meat broth or water.
About 20% leave on fermented milk products that improve digestion. It can be fermented baked milk, kefir or plain yogurt.
Finally, the remaining 15% are vegetables rich in vitamins: cabbage, onions, zucchini, pumpkin, beets, lettuce and greens. You can give both raw and boiled, mixed with porridge.
Do not forget about nutritional supplements and vitamins
However, if you are wondering how to feed a Chihuahua puppy in 2 months, even with a balanced diet, you should not forget about vitamins and healthy nutritional supplements.
First of all, the problem of calcium and iodine deficiency should be solved. The first is solved simply - one crushed tablet of calcium gluconate is added to the diet. To obtain iodine, it is best to use seaweed - boiled or soaked in boiling water. You can add a drop of vitamin D to the feed - it is sold in a pharmacy and is inexpensive.
Finally, to strengthen immunity and support health, you can give a quarter of a spoonful of honey, diluted in warm (but not hot!) Water.
How many times a day to feed?
Another important question that breeders have is how much to feed a Chihuahua puppy in 2 months? He recently lost the habit of mother's milk, which he ate at will at any time. So, this factor should be taken into account when drawing up the diet. Servings should be small, but should be given often. At the age of 2 months, the optimal number of feeds per day is about six. At 3 months, you can reduce the number of meals to 5. Until six months, it will completely cost 4 feedings. Well, then - up to 3, like an adult dog.
Yes, this is troublesome. But if you feed a small puppy 2-3 times a day, the likelihood of developing intestinal diseases is high. A hungry puppy will constantly overeat, and this will not lead to anything good.
Do not pamper your pet!
Another very important rule, about which breeders often forget, who want to know how to properly feed a Chihuahua puppy at 2 months, is the routine. From childhood, teach your pet that feeding is strictly on schedule.
Of course, it is very difficult to resist hungry eyes and yelping a puppy, so as not to give a piece of sausage, chicken or just chocolate. However, there are several reasons for this.
Accustomed to beg for goodies, it will stop you from having a quiet dinner with your family or friends, demonstrating not the best manners. In addition, the routine is important because the puppy's body quickly gets used to eating at a certain time - gastric juice accumulates, a healthy appetite awakens. Constant snacks will bring down such a schedule that will negatively affect the health of the dog. And accustoming an adult pet to feeding on a schedule is much more difficult than a puppy.
Approximate diet for a two-month-old puppy
Now let's talk about the approximate nutrition of a Chihuahua puppy at 2 months, so that on the basis of such a diet, each owner can choose the right one for his pet. As already mentioned, there should be about six meals.
- At 7 o'clock in the morning. Curd mixed with unboiled milk. Porridge consistency should resemble sour cream.
- At 9 am. Finely chop the beef and cook with vegetables. Last knead with a fork. Add a little vegetable oil to the resulting porridge.
- At 12 days. Meat or offal soup. As a dressing, use cereals or vegetables that are boiled with meat.
- In 3 days. Hercules, buckwheat or rice porridge in milk with a small addition of honey.
- At 5 days. Pour warm milk into hercules, leave to insist for an hour. Add a spoonful of low-fat cottage cheese and finely shabby raw carrots here.
- At 7 pm. A serving of boiled meat or a boiled egg. Dinner should be hearty so that the puppy lasts until the next feeding, which will be only after 12 hours.
As you can see, feeding a puppy is a rather troublesome task.
What not to give a puppy?
It is important to know not only when and what to give the puppy. You must also remember which products are not suitable for him.
You can’t give pork - it is fat, and Chihuahuas are predisposed to obesity. Salty, pickled, and pepper dishes are also not suitable. Raw fish (especially freshwater) contains parasite eggs, so it must be boiled. Nuts and beans are also not suitable - they are hard to digest and can cause severe flatulence. Finally, you can’t give chocolate and sweets, although dogs love them very much, but sweets cause serious damage to health.
Conclusion
This concludes our article. Now you know how to feed a Chihuahua puppy in 2 months. We also learned an approximate diet and nutrition time, which will certainly be useful when caring for a pet.