Feeding your Maremma

For their size, Maremmas have relatively modest feeding requirements. Traditionally, living with the flocks, they would often have quite a sparse diet of bread, pasta and whey, supplemented by rabbits or what they could catch for themselves. Today most owners use commercial or home made diets. If you want to feed a commercial diet, we recommend Burns, Nature's Menu or NatureDiet. Choose the one suitable for the age and activity level of your dog. Maremmas also do well on a natural or BARF diet.

Feeding puppies
Maremma puppies grow a huge amount in the first six months of life. To sustain this growth they need a balanced diet with good sources of calcium, such as raw meaty bones, goat's milk, cottage cheese, yoghurt, whole eggs etc., to support bone development. At 8 weeks old puppies should be fed four times a day, reducing to three at about 4 months and two from 6-8 months depending on the dog (of course the amount of food given should increase with age - it is only the number of meals that decreases!). We continue to feed two meals until fully grown at least. It is difficult to indicate how much to feed as every puppy is different but as a guide a growing puppy may eat up to a kilo of food a day. If you are feeding a commercial diet follow the instructions for age and adjust by monitoring the pup. Growth rate should be regular (and up to 2kg a week) and the puppy be well covered but lean. We prefer not to use calcium supplements - a commercial puppy diet is already balanced for calcium; a natural diet based on raw meaty bones contains sufficent calcium from natural sources. Do not rush your puppy - your aim should be for steady, slow growth not as big as possible as quickly as possible!

Sometimes puppies go through phases of not eating. This can be alarming for owners, who often respond by offering alternative foods. This should be avoided if possible since it is likely to lead to a life long fussy eater. Make sure meals are offered regularly. If a puppy doesn't eat, remove the food after 20 minutes and give something fresh (and possibly different) at the next meal. Don't offer an alternative at the same meal. Try not to worry or fuss at mealtimes as this will be picked up by the puppy. It is a rare animal that will not eat enough to maintain it. Quite often refusing to eat a particular meal is an indication that it is time to reduce the number of feeds. If you are really concerned about a puppy not eating or if the puppy is losing weight, see a vet.

Feeding adults
Adult Maremmas eat between 500-800g food a day depending on age, activity level and type of food. Again the exact quantity depends on the individual dog - aim for a lean animal where the ribs can be felt but not seen. They are not usually greedy and may choose to miss a meal on occasion without incident. We feed our adults a smaller meal morning and evening rather than a large one once a day, as we have found that it suits them and improves their digestion. However, many adult Maremmas do well on one meal a day. Avoid feeding before or immediately after exercise as this is one of the known causes of bloat.

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Last updated January 2006