When you’ve got an adult pug as your dear canine friend, it’s also important to know that a big part of keeping their health in good condition is maintaining their good health. This can easily be accomplished through keeping your pug happy, with their meals, and with proper exercise.
One of the inherent traits of pugs, however, is that they’re voracious eaters. So you can be sure they’re going to look you in the eye and convince you that they’re starving multiple times a day. Like how it is with other breeds, eventually, you may run out of dog food for pugs to feed them.
If you’re in this situation, you’ve come to the right place. Here you’ll have an ultimate guide for your adult pug’s diet so you’re never at a loss with what and how you can feed them to keep them healthy. Because this is your ultimate guide for caring for your pugs, you’ll also have bonus insights on general dog care to keep your pug happy with your love and care.
High Tendency To Become Overweight
Why do pugs become overweight? This is a question that’s asked quite frequently, especially by pug owners who’ve also struggled with their pugs’ weight.
Food is almost always on a pug’s mind, and whenever you feed them, it’s so hard for them to refuse a good treat. So if that habit carries on, given their small size, it’s not surprising that they can easily be very prone to becoming overweight.
The danger with this, however, is that pugs are identified as brachycephalic dogs, which means they’ve got very flat faces. Especially if you’re coming from a country or region with high heat, your pug is intolerant to heat, resulting in difficult breathing. For this reason, you must keep your pug on a healthy diet, to avoid their natural tendency to fall overweight.
Dealing With An Obesity Problem
Perhaps you’re reading this because you’re already caring for an obese pug. This may seem challenging because pugs are a somewhat vulnerable breed, but as with most dogs, they’ll react to your loving and caring. And with your help, your beloved pug can lose those extra pounds. Just follow these easy steps:
- Make Your Homemade Food. When you make homemade dog food, you’re certain about what goes to your dog in every feeding. Just in case your pug has certain allergies, then you can factor that in too, to ensure that your pug won’t eat any ingredient that they’re allergic to.
If you don’t have time to make your pug’s own dog food, you can always meal prep. But never feed them human food. Make their food ahead of time and make it in batches. Don’t forget to make a note of when you made them too. - Take It Easy On The Treats. When your pug looks at you, it can be so easy to fall for their puppy dog eyes as if telling you that they’d love to have more treats. Remember that you’re trying to curb an obesity problem. You can’t do this if you also spoil your dog with too much treats.
If you’re still training your pug or you absolutely want to give treats, do so but only when they’ve done something good. Not only will you be able to control their treats, you’ll also be able reinforce good behavior for it. - Measure Their Meals. Like you would with a human being who’s on a diet, it pays also to measure your pug’s meals. This means making sure that every time they eat, your pug is getting only what they absolutely need. Calorie count, if possible.
If you’ve got a fast eater (yes, pugs can gobble up their whole meal in as fast as half a minute), you may also want to start looking into buying a slow feeder bowl. These are special bowls that can prevent bloating, which is dangerous and deadly for pugs.
Toxic Food For Dogs
If you do decide to feed your pug with some scraps or make their own homemade food, it’s important now to touch on common human food that’s toxic for your pug. Otherwise, you may mistakenly think that a certain food is healthy for your pug when it’s actually very dangerous.
Especially if you’ve got children and other family members at home, make sure everyone is on the same page so they know what to and what not to feed your pugs.
Here are some of the foods you’d have to keep an eye on:
- Chocolate And Caffeine. This first on the list is no stranger to the toxic food for dogs. Chocolate and caffeine are bad for your pugs. There’s no way to get around that. Even a small amount can be very dangerous, so you’ve got to be careful. The general rule for you to follow is, the darker the chocolate, the more dangerous this becomes for your pug.
- Alcohol And Raw Bread Dough. Even small amounts of alcohol used for cooking food or found in some syrups and raw bread dough are very poisonous to your pug. So don’t feed them any food that you’ve cooked for dinner that has alcohol in it.
- Onion And Garlic. When it comes to onions, think anything in the onion family, from shallots, to scallions, and even chives. These are all harmful to your pugs. It can cause anemia, gastroenteritis, and can damage their body’s red blood cells. The same holds for garlic, which is so much more potent than onion is.
Set A Feeding Schedule
When your pug is already more than 12 weeks old, it’s best to put your pug on a scheduled feeding arrangement rather than just free feeding. With a schedule, this means you’re only offering a certain number of meals at certain times.
When you’ve got an adolescent and adult pug, you can feed your pug at least three times a day. When you space out their meals that way, this can actually avoid their stomachs from getting upset, as they’ve been too hungry. So when they’re offered food, they’ll compensate and eat too fast.
If your pug is still sleeping, however, or if you notice that they don’t exhibit any enthusiasm for a midday meal, then you can spread it out a bit. That way, you can have only two healthy meals, one in the morning and another early in the evening.
How Much To Feed Your Adult Pug
Now that you have a sample feeding schedule, you may also start to ask, how much is too much? To keep your pug healthy, you’ll want to feed them optimally, which means feeding only what they need, nothing more and nothing less.
For younger puppies, typically, the average food requirement is 50 calories per pound of body weight. Now that you’ve got a fully grown adult pug, you can lower this to only 40 calories per pound of body weight.
The less physical activity your pug has when they’re older, the less calories they’re going to need. That’s because they don’t have any kind of physical activity to burn those extra calories. If not, then your pug is at risk of becoming overweight.
You can feed your pug any of the following foods:
- Lean meat
- Spinach
- Brown rice
- Broccoli
- Peas.
Guide When Choosing Dog Food For Your Pug
If you can’t commit to make homemade food for your pug, there are many healthy options of dog foods now out in the market. It’s up to you to learn to check the label and choose thoroughly to ensure that you’re feeding your pug with the best options.
Make sure the dog food brand you’re eyeing for your pug has the following ingredients:
- Natural preservatives
- Protein levels in the mid to high 30% range
- Natural flavoring
- Healthy carbs between 30% to 40%
- Gluten-free grains
On the other hand, be very keen with reading the label to ensure that you’re not feeding your pug dog food which contains ingredients to which your pug is allergic. There are some ingredients too that do nothing else but are detrimental to your pug’s health.
Avoid dog food brands with the following ingredients:
- Generic meats and oils
- Preservatives like BHA, BHT, and TBHQ
- Byproducts of animal parts unfit for consumption like the brain, lungs, and undeveloped eggs
- Artificial coloring dyes like blue #2, yellow #5, and yellow #6
- Artificial flavoring like MSG
Conclusion
Pugs are very charming dogs to have. When you look at their melancholic faces, often they tug at your heartstrings. Being a pug parent is a privilege in itself, but it also comes with a big responsibility to keep up with their seemingly bottomless appetite. This guide should be enough to help give you ideas how to get a good start on taking care of your pug. But if there’s anything that still isn’t covered here or that you’ve got unanswered questions, never hesitate to consult with your trusted veterinarian. By doing so, you know what you need to do to keep your dear canine friend cared for and loved.
Pugs are very adorable family dogs when they are on tip-top shape. We give you guidance on how to maintain your pug health condition, eating habits and exercise routine. You need to know this stuff as a responsible pug owner.