Best Food For Chow Chow Puppies And Adults| Comprehensive Guide
In our article, we give you a complete guide to choosing the best food for Chow Chow dog breed. The Chow Chow stands out not only for its size but also for its rich coat. At first glance, it seems that this is a real toy (very deceptive, by the way).
Rules for feeding Chow Chow puppies
However, a dog can achieve its true beauty only with proper care and following nutritional recommendations. The Chow Chow needs to be fed correctly. The rules for forming a Chow Chow diet and feeding schedule depend on the age of the chow-chow.
Puppies grow very quickly, so they need increased and frequent nutrition. A particular burden on the owners occurs at the moment when the puppy enters the house. This usually occurs at 2 months of age. Here is a sample menu and schedule for this time
| 8 hours | Fermented milk products (cottage cheese, kefir, yogurt, fermented baked milk) |
| 12 hours | Dry food soaked in water (soaking is necessary to preserve the delicate enamel of baby teeth) |
| 16 hours | Cottage cheese mixed with kefir, whey, fermented baked milk |
| 20 hours | Soaked dry food |
| 23 hours | Chopped raw meat with porridge |
Serving size 150-200 g. If food remains in the bowl, then the serving size is slightly reduced. However, the number of feedings itself should remain the same, as should the schedule.
When the puppy is capricious, the portion is removed and the same portion is offered again at the next feeding. Chow chow dog food can only be at room temperature.
Fermented milk products can be alternated with regular milk, but watch the puppy’s reaction. Occasionally, lactose intolerance to cow’s milk occurs, which will manifest itself in the form of diarrhea. In such puppies, milk is completely excluded, and replaced with fermented milk products. The daily norm is 150 g of cottage cheese.
You can cook milk porridges by mixing a drop of butter (or vegetable oil) into them. At the same time, milk or fermented milk products are not a drink, but a food, so they are not an intermediate snack, but serve as a complete meal.
Porridges are cooked from rice, buckwheat, and barley. If you notice that the puppy is gaining weight too quickly and shows a tendency towards obesity, then replace the usual cereal with pearl barley.
It takes longer to cook but allows you to lose excess weight without compromising the nutritional value of your diet. You can add vegetables during cooking. Everything both cereals and vegetables, is boiled in one pan, and then crushed in a blender until smooth.
Chow Chow puppy food at 2 months
If before this feeding the Chow Chow included meat in the form of minced meat, then the mature puppy is given it chopped. At first, the pieces are very small, 1×1 cm, then they increase to 2-3 cm.
The puppy may not be able to cope with large pieces. To disinfect, you can boil the meat, but it is better to simply scald it with boiling water.
The daily intake rate for a 2-month-old puppy is 70 g of meat. Before putting it in a bowl, the entire volume is flavored with a small amount of vegetable oil. Sunflower, olive, and corn are suitable. This should always be done, even when the dog grows up.
It must be taken into account that with age, the chow’s need for meat food decreases. Unlike many other breeds, this one is vegetarian.
Therefore, in the first year of life, you should pay maximum attention to the meat diet, choosing only the best meat for the puppy, because in the future he will need it occasionally.
Chow Chow puppy food intake at 4 months
At 4 months of age, the puppies’ diet becomes much more varied. They can already be given boiled offal (beef heart, kidneys, lungs). Boiled turkey is given 1-2 times a week.
When purchasing offal, you should pay attention to the manufacturer. It is recommended to give preference to domestic companies. Imported beef often contains too many hormones, which will harm your dog.
Chow chows love chicken. You need to choose only white meat, but give it carefully, little by little. It doesn’t have to be a chicken from a poultry farm. Your puppy will love a home-raised chicken that has been well-cooked until tender.
Eggs are not a necessary product in the Chow Chow diet, although dogs love them. They appear on the menu for six months in the amount of 1 piece per week.
They begin to give fish at 4 months, as it contains a lot of microelements that are very valuable for the puppy’s growth.
They produce exclusively boiled fillets without bones, spine, heads, tails, and fins. Pollock, sea bass, or any river fish are strictly not suitable. Mackerel, salmon, trout, and tuna are what you need.
If the owner does not have the opportunity to prepare suitable dishes for the puppy, then it is worth using wet food. Premium or super-premium pates are suitable, and preference is given only to well-established manufacturing companies.
Chow Chow dog food for Adults
The portion for an adult dog is selected very carefully. Our goal is not to overfeed the dog but to give it enough nutrients for an active lifestyle. You should follow the general rule the dog should eat everything within 20 minutes.
If there is food left over, then the portion needs to be reduced. You can increase the serving size only when the chow chow is losing weight. However, weight loss is an alarming sign that indicates illness or the appearance of worms.
You should immediately take your pet to the veterinarian. The optimal chow chow diet includes two feedings per day. As a last resort, if the owner has no time at all, then you can limit yourself to one-time feeding, especially if preference is given not to a natural diet, but to dry food.
Owners who have chosen a natural diet for their pets have many questions: Do chow chows eat this or that product? Let’s look into it in detail.
Natural diet
A natural diet does not imply a complete rejection of drying. If the owner does not have time, then it is quite possible to give the dog dry food, however, you should not abuse it. A pet that is accustomed to drying may subsequently refuse natural food.
How to choose dry food for Chow Chow
When choosing a new dry food, you need to carefully read its composition. The first position in the list of ingredients should be meat. In cheap feeds, meat is replaced with offal, so their cost is lower.
In high-quality feed, by-products account for no more than 10%. The Chow Chow diet usually includes one type of food, but you can combine different items from the same manufacturer.
Animal fats, preservatives, dyes, and flavors are all additives that reduce the cost of food and do not provide any nutritional value for the dog but can undermine its health.
High-quality drying has a neutral, pleasant odor and is absolutely homogeneous in structure. The diet for a chow chow can consist of 100% of such food, which is quite acceptable.
A very pungent odor that does not disappear after opening the package and pouring the food into a storage container indicates the presence of a large number of flavorings. Unscrupulous manufacturers add flavorings to the unpleasant smell of low-quality ingredients.
This technique can only deceive a person, but not a dog. Therefore, when your pet turns up his nose at a new food, listen to him and don’t buy that brand again.
Foods not allowed for Chow Chow
Here is the list of items that are not allowed for Chow Chow
- Bones and broths are made from them.
- Pork.
- Legumes (peas, beans, lentils).
- Potatoes (boiled, fried). You can occasionally give a piece of raw food, and nothing else.
- Sweets of any kind.
- Anything spoiled (and fresh too) from your table.
- Fatty and smoked.
- Sausages and sausages.
- Hot or frozen food.
FAQS about Chow Chow dog food
Is it possible to give bones to a chow chow?
It is strictly forbidden to give Chow Chow any bones, both beef and pork and especially chicken. They cause not only tooth damage but also clog the intestines, causing obstruction.
Breeders do not recommend giving chow chow broths cooked with bones. They contain too much fat, which is not good for a vegetarian dog.
Can vegetables be chow chow?
Even necessary. Sometimes dogs agree to pieces of fresh vegetables, but it is better to boil them together with porridge until they are soft. Good additions to your daily natural diet would be bell pepper, zucchini, cucumber, pumpkin, beets, carrots, and cabbage.
Is it possible to chow-chow kefir?
Need to! Fermented milk products are an essential source of calcium, which not only a puppy but also an adult dog needs. It is recommended, if possible, to prepare fermented milk products at home, fortunately, it is not at all difficult, to purchase home-made products.
This way you will be 100% sure that there are no foreign additives or sugar in kefir, fermented baked milk, or cottage cheese
Summing up
Now we know what chow chows eat. It remains to give the final recommendations formulated by the leading breeders of the breed:
You can store Chow Chow dog food in the refrigerator for a maximum of 3 days. Only frozen semi-finished products are stored longer. Cold food from the refrigerator should not be given immediately, since chow chows suffer from all colds, including sore throat.
The chow chow menu must include beef or lamb. Be sure to remove all bones, veins, and cartilage. Puppies especially need meat, but adult dogs should also be given meat regularly.
It’s also not worth limiting yourself to chow chow meat. Sometimes it is replaced with offal. Boiled liver is used as an additive to porridge (a little at a time). The kidneys and heart are also boiled and given chopped. Avoid imported organ meats as they may contain too many antibiotics and hormone additives.
From 4 months, give puppies fish. But it should always be sea fish, not river fish since there are too many small bones in it, which are extremely difficult to completely remove. Pollock and sea bass are also not suitable.
The main fermented milk product in the diet is cottage cheese. It is diluted with milk, kefir, whey, and fermented baked milk. If at the very beginning, you need to give such a bag every day, then for an adult pet 2-3 times a week is enough.
In addition to porridge, Chow Chows can be treated to bread, but only black bread. Usually, dogs love him very much, but you can’t give them free rein. Bread is a high-calorie product that can cause obesity.
You need to feed your dog after a walk. After eating, all chow chows like to rest.
A properly balanced Chow Chow diet is the key to a healthy dog. Pay no less attention to your Chow Chow diet than to caring for your Chow Chow.
