Let’s face it, the most incredible superpower that young canines possess is the power to grow. By the time most puppies reach adulthood, they will have increased their birth weight by 40 to 50 times. As there is a great variation in dog size, from tiny Chihuahuas at around 2 kg to Irish Wolfhounds at around 70 kg body weight, growth periods vary. 

This means that they have a growth factor going from 20 to 100x, depending on the breed’s size. Toy and small furries will be around factor 20 and the gentlest of giants toward 100. In humans, we’re already happy with a maximum growth factor of 20x. 

The amount of time that a puppy takes to reach this staggering statistic is only 10 to 24 months whereas humans take around 16-24 years to grow. It is said that some of the humanoid species never reach the age of maturity and according to some sources. 

So what’s food got to do with all this? We know for a fact now that young dogs have a body temperature, they move and a lot of body processes happen of which we only can clean up the result. That requires energy.

We also know for a fact now that these little monsters have to increase the size of just about every structure except for individual cells in their bodies. That requires energy. 

So they require energy for two processes, whereas your average adult Fido only has one to take care of. They have reached their maximum potential in size so that task can be eliminated from the energy requirement. This implies that if you continue feeding your adult the same amount of energy, aka food, they will expand in the wrong direction. 

In our exclusive and innovative formula, we take the age of your best friend very seriously when we calculate the energy requirement. Even to the extent that for young dogs, months can matter. So the more accurate your input, the more accurate our output. 

We’ve developed 5 divisions in which 99.99% of the dogs on the planet can find a place. In those divisions, more subdivisions were made to accommodate the 0.01% as well. They are called Toy, Mini, Medium, Large and Giant and they interact directly with the time needed to complete the growing process as you now know. 

Most of the time, when your dog is in this stage of life, you can tell us with a decent scale of accuracy. It’s only when you adopt an older dog that it can be a bit of an issue, but then we are dealing with adults so it doesn’t matter that much anymore. The impact of the caloric intake is higher on a puppy than on an elder furry quadruped.

On the other end of the scale, pun intended, there is the lurking danger of excessive energy intake, especially a danger in larger breeds. This can result in too much body weight on an immature bone structure. 

In small-size dogs, the consequences of a high energy intake on the bone structure are less important but there is still a high risk for ‘dogbesity’. A lot of nasty names are linked to this condition and that’s why we want you to reach out to us if you think that your pup is on that track.

Early obesity and excessive energy intake in dogs can lead to several very nasty Latin names of conditions you want to avoid. Apart from these Latin names for illnesses and diseases, you also reduce the life expectancy by up to 2.5 years. 

One more golden nugget for owners of the big guys. Feed ‘puppy’ up to 6 months 3 meals a day instead of 2 to optimize digestion and fulfill the energy requirement. At this stage in life, the puppy isn’t capable of processing huge quantities of food at one time. 

As daily cuddle sessions are mandatory for puppies anyway, take a moment to consciously cuddle the ribs and the muscles on the back. We advise squeezing their back paws and pushing the side of the front paws as if they were buttons in an elevator.

You shouldn’t feel any bones in very young dogs and the ones that are in the crocodile stage (puberty) should start to shed that baby fat and bony structure should be felt when cuddled. Muscle mass should increase in time and also the definition of those muscles should become more visible.