Feeding your whippet from puppy to adult

At Aureate our puppies are started on a diet of 25% raw and 75% kibble. They transition to 100% kibble by the time they are ready for their new homes. We feed exclusively Purina Pro Plan Sport chicken and rice three times a day. This can be transitioned to twice a day when they go home up until they are 12 -18 months of age after which we recommend their owners switch to feeding once a day. All our adults are fed daily in the evening.

We discourage free feeding for a number of reasons. First off it encourages fussiness where the whippet never learns to eat their meal all in one sitting. This can be become extremely problematic when you have more than one animal at home. Cats will often steal dog food and it isn't formulated with their nutrition in mind. Additionally it becomes impossible to regulate your dog's diet, either increasing their consumption or decreasing it when you free feed and have more than one dog at home. There will come a time in every dog's life where their diet might be more specialized for either weight management food or supplements. If you free feed you won't be able to ensure the right dog is getting the correct supplements.

All our puppies raised at Aureate have learned to eat their meals in their crates and we highly encourage families to continue this at home. One, it teaches the puppy to make positive associations with their crate and two they are easy to feed and will learn to eat their meal all in one sitting. Once the puppy has either finished their meal or shows no more interest in eating let them out of the crate and pick up their bowl. If they haven't finished their meal they can be offered the remainder of the kibble overnight.

One thing new owner's need to keep in mind when feeding their puppy is to completely disregard the feeding volume recommendations. Whippets have rapid metabolisms and growing bodies need calorie dense food to meet their daily requirements. It's not uncommon during the first year of your whippet's life for them to go through significant growth spurts! When this happens your puppy will all of a sudden look thinner than normal and will require additional food to make up for their losses. Don't fixate on amounts of food over the body condition of your whippet. The ideal body condition you should strive for during puppyhood is slightly different than adulthood. Ideal body condition for an adult whippet is 3 spinous processes visible when the whippet is viewed from the side and the last 3 of their ribs should be visible. Remember the whippet is a running breed. An adult should be muscular without ever being fat.

Our dogs thrive on Purina Pro Plan and we ask our puppy families to feed the same. We absolutely do not support grain free or boutique diets. If you want to feed raw, we are happy to work with you, but it must be a balanced diet.

***If you don't have a whippet from us, please consult with their breeder about food recommendations.