The Italian Greyhound, known as an IG for short, has a loving and affectionate nature and makes a perfect family pet. One of the best ways of keeping your pooch happy is through a good diet, which can keep it in great health and even extend its life expectancy.
In this guide, we’ve given you all the information you need to implement your own perfect Italian Greyhound feeding schedule, as well as some tips on the best dog foods out there.
How much food does an Italian Greyhound need at different stages of life? Understanding their dietary requirements is essential for keeping your furry friend healthy and energetic. Let’s break down the feeding guidelines for puppies, adults, seniors, and pregnant dogs to ensure they get the nutrition they need.
Italian Greyhound puppies will start eating puppy food when they’re around 8 to 12 weeks old. At this age, they should be fed a quarter cup of good-quality wet, canned food four times daily. Once they’re 3 months old this should be reduced to 2 meals a day, and at around 6 months old, they should be ready to transition to an adult dog’s diet.
Once it’s an adult, your Italian Greyhound’s diet should consist mainly of dry kibble with some wet food included. You should feed it between 1/2 and 3/4 cups of high-quality food daily, split into 2 meals. The calorie intake it requires will depend largely on your pooch’s activity levels.
Older dogs usually require slightly less food than younger adults to maintain a healthy weight as their activity levels decrease as they age. They usually need 1/2 cup of dry food a day split into 2 meals.
Pet owners with pregnant dogs will need to feed their IGs the same amount of food they would normally for the first four weeks and then increase this by up to 40% after this point.
Some owners favour a raw diet for their IGs and feed only raw Italian Greyhound food. Many owners believe this has certain health benefits, but this has not yet been proven, and it’s recommended that IGs and most other dogs are fed a mixture of fresh, commercial and raw food.
It’s perfectly fine to give your IG treats, but you should make sure this is limited and that you don’t give them lots of human food or unhealthy snacks, as this can lead to weight gain and health issues.
IGs need to avoid foods such as avocadoes, grapes, chocolate, cherries and stone fruits as these are all either poisonous to them or will not promote good potty habits.
Generally, IGs are not fussy eaters, and they actually tend to put on weight quite easily. However, if their feeding routine is interrupted, it can lead to them refusing to eat. So, sticking to their feeding routines is really important.
As with any dog breed, an IG needs to be provided with constant access to a source of clean and fresh drinking water. This is particularly important during warm weather.
It should be fairly easy to manage your IG’s diet and ensure it gets all the nutrition it needs to live a happy and vibrant life. There are plenty of great food options out there to suit the needs of every unique pooch, and it should be a breeze to keep them satisfied at meal times.
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