Your choices of French Bulldog puppy food can make a lifetime of differences for your French Bulldog. Making sure your French Bulldog puppy has critical nutrients at every stage of development—and making sure your French Bulldog puppy will accept all kinds of healthy food later on, will give you a healthier, happier, longer-living pet.
In this article, we will tell you everything you need to know about 11 best foods for your French Bulldog puppy. These are all superior brands that will help your young French Bulldog thrive and grow active and healthy. But there isn’t any single food that should be the only food you feed your dog.
Instead, there are different foods for different stages of your French Bulldog’s growth and development, and a variety of foods to get them through these important stages.
We hope you will give all of these foods a try, at the right time in your puppy’s development.
1) Best Substitute for a French Bulldog’s Mother’s Milk: PetAg Milk Products
Newborn French Bulldogs are small and cute and cuddly—and unusually aggressive, for puppies, about getting their share of their mother’s milk. Even before a French Bulldog’s open and even when it has just enough coordination to waddle in the general direction of mother’s milk-filled teat, it will make very sure it gets its breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Usually this aggressive tendency isn’t really a problem for feeding French bulldog puppies. Female French Bulldogs typically have just two to four puppies in a litter. Five or more puppies is quite rare.
Conveniently, most female French Bulldogs have eight teats, four on each side. Sometimes a French bulldog will have three teats on one side and five on the other. As long as there is one teat for each bulldog, but when there isn’t, the less assertive French Bulldog puppies will lose out and may even fail to thrive and grow.
If you are keeping a litter of newborns, you need to make sure that each puppy is gaining weight every week. For those that aren’t, you will need to do bottle feeding. PetAg has several excellent products for mother’s milk replacement.
PetAg Esbilac Liquid
PetAg Esbiliac Liquid puppy milk replacement is a close match to the flavor, odor, and nutritional composition of a French Bulldog’s mother’s milk. Fortified with vitamin E, folic acid, biotin for healthy coat and nails, and vitamin B12 for your puppy’s brain health, you just open the can, warm up the product, and bottle feed your waiting puppy.
PetAg Esbilac Powder
One of the great features of Esbilac powder is that it keeps indefinitely. You can keep it onhand for emergencies for a couple of years, maybe long enough to meet the needs o the next litter of puppies.
Because you make this milk substitute by adding warm water to PetAg Esbilac powder, it doesn’t have the same taste and aroma of mother’s milk. But because it doesn’t have to be heat-treated before it is packed, it contains live probiotic bacteria to strengthen your puppies immunity in adition to the vitamin E, folic acid, biotin for healthy coat and nails, and vitamin B12 for your puppy’s brain health also added to ensure nutritional health.
PetAg has three more products for special situations. Their Goat’s Milk Esbilac Powder is a highly digestible milk substitute to be given to puppies that are dealing with parvo or digestive tract diseases. Their two PetLac products add vegetable protein to milk for a balance of amino acids that supports recovery from infections and wounds.
PetAg products aren’t just for nursing puppies. They are a great way to soften dry dog food when your French Bulldog puppy is just getting use to eating from a bowl after weaning. They are useful for emergency nutrition for older dogs who for any reason cannot consume their regular food. Keeping a few cans or dry powder on hand is a good addition to your emergency supplies for your dog.
2) Best First Dry Dog Food for a French Bulldog Puppy: Royal Canin French Bulldog Puppy Dry Dog Food
When your French Bulldog puppy is ready to be weaned, dry dog food is always a convenient choice. There are no cans to open and no leftovers to refrigerate, and it is a lot easier to clean up the inevitable spills.
Not just every dry dog food, however, works equally well for French Bulldog puppies that are just getting used to eating from a bowl. Royal Canin French Bulldog Puppy Dry Dog Food has several special features that make it a great choice for this breed.
- The most important feature of Royal Canin French Bulldog Puppy Dry Dog Food is that it is shaped so it is easy for dogs with short snouts to eat it from the bowl. Royal Canin French Bulldog Puppy Dry Dog Food is pressed into curved pieces, not flat pieces. Your French Bulldog puppy can use his tongue and teeth to grab onto the curve and pop the kibble into his mouth, something he can’t do with flat pieces of dry dog food.
- Royal Canin French Bulldog Puppy Dry Dog Food has a special antioxidant formula to support immune health. It contains added vitamin E, both tocopherols and tocotrienols, to recharge the other free radical fighters needed to keep inflammation in check.
- Royal Canin French Bulldog Puppy Dry Dog Food is designed to support wrinkly skin care. It has added biotin and other B vitamins plus just enough vitamin A to stimulate healthy growth and healing of skin.
This product should be your French Bulldog puppy’s main dry dog food. There are other products, however, that can help your puppy to develop a taste for variety that will make feeding easier for the rest of his life.
3) Best Alternative Dry Dog Food for Your French Bulldog Puppy: Wellness Large Breed Complete Health Puppy Deboned Chicken, Brown Rice & Salmon Meal Recipe Dry Dog Food
Wellness Large Breed Complete Health Puppy Deboned Chicken, Brown Rice & Salmon Meal Recipe Dry Dog Food isn’t an ideal choice for your French Bulldog puppy—unless Royal Canin French Bulldog Puppy Dry Dog Food is not available. For those times when it just isn’t possible to get your first choice, Wellness Large Breed Complete Health Puppy Deboned Chicken, Brown Rice & Salmon Meal Recipe Dry Dog Food is an excellent second choice.
Wellness Large Breed Complete Health Puppy Deboned Chicken, Brown Rice & Salmon Meal Recipe Dry Dog Food provides all the amino acids your French Bulldog puppy needs for vigorous growth. Its number-one ingredient is cooked chicken, without any of the dangerous bones. Its flavor profile, however, comes from salmon and brown rice.
French Bulldog puppies need the omega-3 essential fatty acids from salmon and fish oil to maintain heathy skin. And, as you are likely to find out, French Bulldog puppies are prone to constipation. The added fiber from brown rice helps them stay regular. You don’t necessarily have to buy a big bag of Wellness Large Breed Complete Health Puppy Deboned Chicken, Brown Rice & Salmon Meal Recipe Dry Dog Food since, after all, the Royal Canin product is your first choice. But keep a bag of this brand on hand just in case something goes wrong with your bag of Royal Canin.
4) Best Wet Food for French Bulldog Puppies: EUKANUBA Puppy With Lamb & Rice Canned Dog Food
EUKANUBA Puppy With Lamb & Rice Canned Dog Food isn’t formulated for French Bulldog puppies, but it has a number of features that make it a great choice for French Bulldogs.
Wet food doesn’t have to be molded into special shapes for your French Bulldog puppies. They won’t have any trouble getting it into their mouths. This wet food contains two flavors puppies of all breeds love, lamb and liver. These flavor are a nice contrast to the chicken or fish flavors that predominate in dry dog food for your French Bulldog puppy.
EUKANUBA Puppy With Lamb & Rice Canned Dog Food supports wrinkly skin health with natural beta-carotene from pumpkin. Your dog’s body can also transform the lycopene in tomato into the vitamin A it needs for healthy skin. The sources of the building blocks of vitamin A in this product bring two flavors not found in other products, giving your puppy something different. And the pumpkin in the product supports regularity, always an issue o French Bulldog puppies.
There is one more reason to give your French Bulldog puppy EUKANUBA Puppy With Lamb & Rice Canned Dog Food. It has added docosahexaenoic acid, better known as DHA. This fatty acid builds the membranes that protect the cells in the retina and brain. There is even evidence that dogs that get DHA as puppies see better and enjoy better mental performance later in life.
5) Best Treat for Active French Bulldog Puppies: EUKANUBA Healthy Extras Puppy Dog Treats
Every French Bulldog puppy needs to be trained to come, sit, fetch, lie down, and obey their humans even when there are major distractions. Good training can save a dog’s life in an emergency. The road to good training with every French Bulldog puppy is paved with treats, tiny food rewards given for good performance to reinforce lessons in your French Bulldog’s brain.
EUKANUBA Healthy Extras Puppy Dog Treats won’t give you French Bulldog puppy a new variety of flavor. Their first-named ingredient is is chicken. But they do provide your French Bulldog puppy with a different texture.
EUKANUBA Healthy Extras Puppy Dog Treats will go crunch as your French Bulldog uppy bites into them. They gives your puppy both a sound and a flavor to remind him of a task done right. In adidtion to their value as a reward in training, they have a texture that removes plaque and tartar from your French Bulldog puppy’s teeth between brushings.
Have abag of EUKANUBA Healthy Extras Puppy Dog Treats ready for rewards for every training session. Keep them nearby just in case your French Bulldog puppy performs a behavior that needsimmediate reinforcement. EUKANUBA Healthy Extras Puppy Dog Treats will never be a big part of your French Bulldog’s diet, but they can become a welcome reward for good behavior for the rest of your dog’s life.
6 & 7) Two More French Bulldog Puppy Treats: Wellness Soft Puppy Bites Lamb & Salmon Recipe Grain-Free Dog Treats and Wellness Crunchy Puppy Bites Chicken & Carrots Recipe Grain-Free Dog Treats
It is just good canine psychology to keep both Wellness Soft Puppy Bites Lamb & Salmon Recipe Grain-Free Dog Treats and Wellness Crunchy Puppy Bites Chicken & Carrots Recipe Grain-Free Dog Treats on hand for training your French Bulldog puppy. The academic term for it is intermittent reinforcement. Let us explain.
You can’t bribe your French Bulldog puppy to do what you want her to do. Canine brains just don’t work that way. Dogs don’t understand bribes or punishment. They just understand rewards for doing the right thing.
French Bulldog puppies aren’t the easiest breed to train. It can be hard to tell who is training who with French Bulldog puppies. You definitely want to reinforce each and every incident of good canine behavior with a treat. You want to do continuous reiforcement as far as handing out some kind of treat is concerned.
But you can be sure that your French Bulldog puppy likes one of the treats you have on hand better than the others. Some French Bulldog puppies will like chewy treats. Some will like crunchy treats. Some will like soft treats. Their favorite flavor may be chicken or liver or something else.
So keep your French Bulldog guessing what kind of treat they will get for performing a command. Your puppy will be thinking “Maybe I will get that really yummy treat next time” an pay more attention. Your puppy will try harder to please you. You can stimulate that kind of effort by adding both Wellness Soft Puppy Bites Lamb & Salmon Recipe Grain-Free Dog Treats and Wellness Crunchy Puppy Bites Chicken & Carrots Recipe Grain-Free Dog Treats to the treats you keep on hand. In fact we have two more suggestions for French Bulldog puppies older than six months.
8) Best New Treat for Older French Bulldog Puppies: Milk Bone Original Puppy Biscuit Dog Treats
French Bulldog puppies go through a stage starting at about the age of seven weeks and lasting for several months when they are exploring their world. They are looking for good experiences and tasty flavors that they will enjoy for the rest of their lives.
Then, at about the age of six months, a French Bulldog puppy’s brain starts laying down circuits to the feat centers of the brain. Your French Bulldog puppy will be especially sensitive to bad experiences. This is the time of your French Bulldog puppy’s life that he learns things he wants to avoid for the rest of his life.
Don’t let treats become something your French Bulldog puppy has a problem with. Give your French Bulldog puppy a large, tasty, crunchy treat as she masters new commands and shows more and more obedient behaviors. Give your French Bulldog puppy Milk Bone Original Puppy Biscuit Dog Treats.
Milk Bone Original Puppy Biscuit Dog Treats are easy to find, easy to keep fresh, and inexpensive. They have two nutrients that are especially important to your French Bulldog puppy during the second six months of life, calcium and vitamin D. This is the time that a French Bulldog puppy is building healthy cartilage in the hips and knees to cover healthy joints. It is a time when joint, bone, and connective tissue growth are critical.
Like some other products we have already mentioned, Milk Bone Original Puppy Biscuit Dog Treats help keep your French Bulldog puppy’s teeth clean. They prevent tartar builup. They give your French Bulldog a multi-sensor experience (taste, size, and crunch) of their reward for good behavior. But if you are really concerned about your puppy’s dental health, there is one more product we recommend.
9) Best Alternative Treat for Older French Bulldog Puppies: Get Naked Puppy Health Grain-Free Small Dental Stick Dog Treats
Remember what we said about intermittent reinforcement?
Variety in treats motivates performance. As long as you are maing your French Bulldog puppy accustomed to a variety of treats, why not add one more tooth-friendly product to the mi?
Get Naked Puppy Health Grain-Free Small Dental Stick Dog Treats are designed to encourage good oral hygiene in dogs of all ages. They will help freshen your French Bulldog puppy’s breath while they help clean the teeth.
10) Best Backup Dry Food for Active, Older French Bulldog Puppies: EUKANUBA Medium Breed Dry Puppy Food
French Bulldogs are really too large to be considered a small breed, but they are definitey not large enough to be classified as a large breed. For the purpose of of choosing a backup puppy food, EUKANUBA Medium Breed Dry Puppy Food is a good choice for a growing, active French Bulldog puppy.
Vets recommend EUKANUBA Medium Breed Dry Puppy Food because it contains the DHA older French Bulldog puppies need for continuing brain development. It offers the supplemental calcium and phosphorus older French Bulldog puppies ned for healthy bones and connective tissue. Hip dysplasia isn’t a common problem in French Bulldogs, but providing your French Bulldog puppy with bone-healthy and tendon-healthy nutrients at this stage of life reduces the risk of the condition showing up about a year later.
EUKANUBA Medium Breed Dry Puppy Food provides abundant amounts of vitamin E. Like the equally important vitamin A and the beta-carotene from which is it is made, vitamin E supports a lustruos, shiny coat. It supports wrinkly skin health, reducing the irritation that can lead to infections in the folds of your French Bulldog puppy’s skin.
EUKANUBA Medium Breed Dry Puppy Food provides all the DHA your French Bulldog puppy needs for continuing brain development along with complete protein without a lot of added grain. (EUKANUBA Medium Breed Dry Puppy Food contains some sorghum and some corn meal to give the product a crunchy consistency.) And because the predominant flavor in this product is chicken, even French Bulldogs who are picky eaters will enjoy it.
11) Best Food for an Almost-Adult French Bulldog: Royal Canin French Bulldog Adult Dry Dog Food
Royal Canin French Bulldog Adult Dry Dog Food shouldn’t be the only food you ever give your French Bulldog, but it can be the food you offer most often. The reason for buying this brand is that it has some special features that make it more digestible and nutritious for the special requirements of French Bulldogs.
- The pieces of kibble in Royal Canin French Bulldog Adult Dry Dog Food are curved, not flat. Your French Bulldog can’t move her jaw forward as far as some other breeds to grab a piece of dry doog food. Royal Canin French Bulldog Adult Dry Dog Food gives your dog a curve to grab with her teeth on a piece of kibble that won’t fall apart before your dog gets it in her mouth.
- French Bulldogs are prone to breathing problems that in turn affect their activity levels. Royal Canin French Bulldog Adult Dry Dog Food if formulated with L-carnitine that helps muscles use oxygen more efficiently so your French Bulldog can be more active.
- French Bulldogs are prone to itchy, inflamed skin, especially on their faces. Royal Canin French Bulldog Adult Dry Dog Food contains added biotin and omega-3 essential fatty acids to help maintain the integrity of the skin barrier for itch-free, irritation-free skin.
If you could only get one product for your nearly-grown French Bulldog, Royal Canin French Bulldog Adult Dry Dog Food would be an excellent choice.
Our Buyer Guide for the Best Foods for Your French Bulldog Puppy
You can’t go wrong if you just focus on the nutrition-packed, French Bulldog-friendly foods we have already mentioned. But we also know that the brands we want are not always available. If you can’t find a recommended brand of the best foods for your French bulldog puppy, at least keep these rules in mind.
Focus on brands that are specifically formulated for French Bulldogs
French Bulldogs are brachycephalic. That’s just another way of saying that they have short faces. This makes it harder for them to pick up their food, especially dry kibble. Curved pieces of kibble are easier for them to pick up. Buy dry dog food that has been molded into shapes that are easier for your French Bulldog to pick up and eat.
French Bulldogs sometimes also need highly digestible protein to compensate for a short bowel, precise amounts of fiber to prevent constipation and flatulence, and high-quality carbohydrate sources to avoid digestive upset. Always look for brands that have your French Bulldog’s unique health requirements in mind.
When you can’t find products that are made specifically for French Bulldogs, products make for Pugs will work.
Avoid puppy food that contains wheat for your French Bulldog puppy
If you don’t already know, it won’t be long before you find out that French Bulldogs have a significant digestive problem: They get gas. The reason for this is the way their faces are shaped. Their short noses cause them to take in lots of air as they eat. This causes gas. Wheat in their dog food makes the problem worse.
Look for French Bulldog puppy food fortified with biotin and omega-3 essential acids
French Bulldogs have inflammation and irritation issues with their wrinkly skin. The B vitamin biotin helps them maintain healthy skin. Omega-3 essential fatty acids from fish an fish oil help their bodies make the hormones that keep natural inflammatory processes in check.
There are some other guidelines that apply to buying food for puppies of any breed that, of course, also apply to French Bulldogs. Always buy puppy food that lists meat as its first ingredient. You don’t want to feed any dog, but especially French Bulldogs, too much grain.
Always have a variety of foods available for your French Bulldog. It’s a good idea to have a backup if a bag of dry dog food goes bad. Your French Bulldog will eat more if you provide a variety of flavors rather than the same thing every meal of every day.
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