Feeding Your Maltese Puppy

A Maltese puppy weighs two or three pounds when it leaves us and has a stomach to match. It cannot eat enough in one sitting to last a day, and a toy puppy that goes too long without food can collapse from low blood sugar in a matter of hours. Feeding this breed is not complicated, but the small size changes the rules, and the rules below are the ones we give every owner.

What we send home

A week of the food the puppy is already eating. Keep it on that for at least the first fortnight, then change gradually over a week if you want to, mixing the new food in a quarter at a time. A diet change in the same week as a house change is the usual reason a new puppy gets diarrhoea, and diarrhoea in a two pound dog is not trivial.

How often

Never once a day, at any age in the first year. Up to about four months, a softened meal morning and evening, plus dry food available all day. From four to six months, one softened meal plus dry food down all day. After six months, most do well on dry food available at all times with one meal a day, or two small meals, for life. A very small puppy may need the softened meal twice a day for longer; judge by the individual, and if in doubt feed more often rather than more.

What

A good small-breed puppy kibble, which is sized for a tiny mouth and denser in calories than an ordinary one, and later a small-breed adult food. We use a widely available veterinary-grade brand and have for years; any of the premium small-breed foods will do, and none of them needs vitamins or supplements added. The softened meal is about half a cup of the kibble with a tablespoon or two of a plain canned food and a splash of warm water, left for ten minutes to soften. Serve it in a flat, heavy ceramic or steel dish, which lets a Maltese eat without pushing its whiskers and ear fringes into the food.

Water

Fresh water at all times, in a bowl emptied and refilled daily. We use filtered water, partly for the dogs and partly because mineral-heavy water is one of the things blamed for tear staining. A water bottle of the hamster-cage kind is fine for travel and dog shows, but we do not think it supplies enough on its own at home.

Low blood sugar: the one thing to memorise

Toy puppies burn through their reserves fast. Too much play, a missed meal, a stressful first night, a chill or a fright can drop a young Maltese's blood sugar in minutes. The signs are a puppy that goes wobbly, glassy-eyed, limp, or starts to tremble or twitch. If that happens, do not wait: rub honey or corn syrup, or a sugar-based puppy paste from the pet shop, straight onto the gums and roof of the mouth, a small amount at a time, and keep the puppy warm. It should come round within minutes. Then feed it and ring your vet. Keep honey or corn syrup in the house from the day the puppy arrives, and keep it somewhere you can find in the dark. Prevention is simple: food available all day, no marathon play sessions, and a puppy that is never left to go hungry.

Treats and table food

A puppy this size needs very little, and a bite of cheese is a meal to it. Keep treats to tiny pieces of its own kibble or a small dog biscuit, and read the foods a Maltese must not eat before anyone in the house shares a plate with it. Grapes, chocolate and xylitol sweeteners are not "bad for dogs" in the vague sense; in a five pound dog they are an emergency.

Teeth

Dry food helps keep the teeth cleaner, which matters in a breed that loses teeth early. Have the vet check the mouth at about six months, because Maltese often keep their baby canines after the adult ones come through, and retained teeth have to be taken out. Brushing from puppyhood is the other half of it, and the grooming page covers that.

When something is wrong

A puppy that will not eat, vomits more than once, has watery diarrhoea, or is quiet and uninterested needs the vet the same day, not a home remedy. Do not dose a two pound puppy with human medicines; several of the ones people reach for are toxic to dogs at any amount. If you are unsure whether it is serious, ring us, at any hour, and we will tell you honestly whether to go.