Puppy Feeding Clarification Help

[beendaved]

Puppy is pomeranian-mix female, 4 months, ~2.6 lbs or approximately 1.18kg. Her vet recommended food is: https://www.royalcanin.co.uk/products/dog/size-health-nutrition/x-small/x-small-junior/

It has 412 calories/Cup

Based on their feeding guide it states she needs around 33g of food/day or 1/3 cup per day.

Based on http://www.petpom.com/pomeranian-proper-feeding it suggests for around 3lbs its 1/2 cup/day so that makes sense with the feeding guide.

Using the calculation of 70 * (1.18kg)^0.75 = 158.5 calories/day which is a bit more than 1/3.

That also takes into account treats right? So 1 of her dog biscuit treats is 24 calories meaning if she were to get 2 of those in a day I would have to withdraw some of her 'main' food correct?

Also, for water it seems the general rule of thumb for a puppy is 1 ounce or 30ml/lbs/day - so around 78ml per day which seems like micro to me, but also mentions 1/2 cup every 2 hours.

Anyways - the question is... is that right? I know it's a common thing especially for small dog breeds to be surprised by how 'little' food it seems like they eat... but yea quite surprised visually by how small of a portion it looks.

Sorry if this all seems annoying or that I am incompetent, I'm still new to this but still want to make sure my puppy is set up for success.

Thanks for taking the time to look!

 

[jedi4christ]

@beendaved The calculator I use suggests a range of calories between 300-600 calories/day. You'll notice it is a range … so you can adjust within that range depending on what your puppy seems to need. You want her to be enthusiastic about food, but you don't want her ravenous. She is growing, so there is no problem erring on the high side for now. You can certainly reserve some of the kibble for training. You are correct, one of the challenges for training a tiny dog is tiny calories. Getting something lo-cal she can lick (a mixture of a little peanut butter and canned pumpkin?) and using a squeeze tube (like you can get for camping) to dole out a drop or two can help.

 

[beendaved]

@jedi4christ She doesn't seem to like peanut butter at all! Frozen or out of the fridge. She will lick it but then ignore right after.