How Much Should I Feed My Yorkie Puppy?

Ensuring your Yorkie has sufficient food daily is one of the best ways you can help it remain active and healthy. Knowing how much to feed your Yorkie puppy helps your pup grow healthy without being underweight or obese. 

How Much Should I Feed My Yorkie Puppy?

You should feed a Yorkie puppy with an age range of 3 to 12 months about a ¼ to 1/2 cup of food daily, equaling around 150 to 200 calories. Newborn Yorkie puppies under three months old should be free-fed until they are around 2.5 pounds.

Consider dividing the food into 3 to 4 meals a day, such as in the morning, lunchtime, early evening, and late evening. The following breakdown helps you know how much to feed your pup, depending on its health and food’s nutritional value. 

Dry Kibble

Dry kibble is a dehydrated puppy food that offers your puppy a uniform diet that consists of carbohydrates, proteins, minerals, and vitamins, all reshaped into small pellet-sized pieces.

Dry kibbles are calorie dense and rich in omega-3 fatty acids and animal proteins that are crucial for your puppy’s muscular development and joint health. They are also the most recommended when it comes to the health of the young pup’s growing teeth.

The food helps remove tartar buildup on the teeth and stimulate the gums, reducing the risks of your Yorkies developing bad breath, teeth infections, and gum disease. It is advisable to feed your Yorkies around 45 to 55 calories per pound of your Yorkie’s body weight. That means you can give the pup ¼ to 1/2 cup of dry kibble.

Homemade Meals

Preparing your puppy a homemade meal gives you full control over what goes into your pup’s body, providing them with the right nutrients and calories depending on their weight, age, and health conditions.

When preparing these meals, it’s important to understand that pups’ nutritional needs differ from humans and aim to incorporate the correct balance of minerals, water, carbohydrates, proteins, and vitamins to ensure healthy growth. The following are some homemade foods to feed your pup:

• Fiber-rich carbohydrates: Sweet potatoes, brown rice, oatmeal, or barley in smaller amounts.
• Proteins: Boneless turkey, chicken, beef, lamb, duck, pork, deboned fish, particularly salmon, and eggs cooked with crushed shells included for extra calcium.
• Fruits and veggies: Raspberries, pineapples, bananas, strawberries, blueberries, grapefruits
• Fat: Soybean oil and flax oil

However, although you can find homemade dog food recipes in books, online, or in magazines, it is advisable to consult your veterinarian to ensure one cup of your recipe has around 150 to 200 calories, which is enough to meet your pup’s nutritional needs.

Wet Foods

In most cases, wet food is preferable to dry food for Yorkie puppies as it’s soft and easier to consume, especially when the pup is developing teeth and transitioning to solid foods, as chewing and swallowing dry food is difficult. 

However, it is advisable to provide wet food in small amounts as they contain low-calorie and high moisture content. This might make your puppy feel full before it consumes sufficient calories to meet your Yorkie’s body’s growth and development needs. 

Also, keeping in mind that Yorkies are prone to dental issues, wet food might stick to the teeth and cause oral issues. Due to this, it is advisable to mix one-third of wet food to two third of dry kibble in the ¼ to ½ cup of food to ensure the puppy meets its nutritional needs. 

Why Won’t My Yorkie Puppy Eat?

Although Yorkie puppies can be picky eaters that will mostly eat everything provided to them or anything they find on their way, the following environmental and health issues might make your Yorkie puppy refuse to eat:

• Anxiety and stress: Stress or anxiety in pups might result from punitive punishment or training, changes in your pup’s environment or routine, and intimidation from other pets in the house.
• Bored of the food: If you notice that your pup is bored of the same type of food, it’s advisable to switch up the meal to another brand or make the food more enticing by adding some toppings.
• Hot weather: High temperatures decrease puppies’ activity level as they try to remain cool, making them reluctant to eat.
• Teething: Just like human babies, the soreness and discomfort Yorkie pups experience when teething may make them refuse to eat, particularly if it’s dry kibble.

Related Questions

Conclusion

Since puppyhood is the most vital stage of life, knowing how much to feed your Yorkie puppy helps it have strong immunity and improved vitality. It’s advisable to feed your pup a mixture of dry and wet kibble, depending on age. You can also include some homemade foods.