The Samoyed is a medium-large dog known for its friendly, intelligent behavior and its beautiful fluffy white coat. Being a medium-large breed, it’s important that you feed your Samoyed the right amount of food when they’re young, as this will help to control their growth and prevent injuries from growing too fast.
How Much Does a Samoyed Eat? Samoyeds tend to eat a lot if there’s food available for them, so it’s important to never free-feed your Samoyed. The correct amount of food for a Samoyed will depend on how old they are, as we’ll discuss in this article.
Today, we’ll be going over how much food your Samoyed should be eating at each stage of their life, what types of foods are best for them, and other information you may want to know about your Samoyed diet.
How Much Food Should a Samoyed Eat?
As we’ve mentioned, a Samoyed’s nutritional needs will change depending on its age. Puppies obviously need less food than larger dogs, but puppies also need to be fed more frequently throughout the day than larger dogs are.
It’s important to feed your Samoyed the right amount of food, especially when they’re younger. Overfeeding a young dog, in particular, a dog from a large-ish breed can seriously exacerbate the symptoms of hip dysplasia if your dog happens to have this condition.
Letting your Samoyed eat too much food can also sometimes have more immediate negative effects on their health. Most notably, dogs that eat too much and too quickly can sometimes develop gastric dilation volvulus (otherwise known as bloat), a potentially fatal condition where gas gets trapped inside a dog’s stomach.
If you want to make sure that you’re feeding your Samoyed the right amount of food, you should refer to the following chart for feeding guidelines. Bear in mind that each daily amount of food needs to be divided into the right number of portions; for example, a 2-month-old Samoyed needs 0.3 cups of food a day, divided into three 0.1 cup meals.
| Age | Amount | Timing |
| 2 months | 0.3 cups | 3 times a day |
| 3 months | 0.4 cups | 3 times a day |
| 6 months | 0.5 cups | 3 times a day |
| 9 months | 1 cup | 2 times a day |
| 12 months | 1.25 cups | 2 times a day |
| 14 months and over | 1.25 cups | 2 times a day |
Do Samoyeds Need a Lot of Food?
Being relatively large dogs, Samoyeds obviously need more food than small dogs do, but they shouldn’t be fed an exorbitant amount of food by any means. Even if your Samoyed is fully grown, you shouldn’t be feeding them more than 1.25 cups of dry food a day.
Overfeeding a Samoyed can have a lot of negative consequences on their health, as we’ve discussed. Aside from putting your Samoyed at a greater risk of hip dysplasia, overfeeding your Samoyed can lead to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and arthritis.
If you’re trying to determine whether your Samoyed is overweight or not, one way you can tell is to inspect their ribs. Ideally, you shouldn’t be able to see your Samoyed’s ribs through their skin, but you should be able to feel them if you run your hand over them.
If you can neither see nor feel your Samoyed’s ribs, this is a sign that they are most likely overweight. On the other hand, if you can both see and feel your Samoyed’s ribs, this means that your Samoyed is underweight and should be eating more.
What Food Does a Samoyed Eat?
There are tons of opinions floating around as to what is the best diet for a Samoyed. Some people swear that Samoyeds should only be fed a raw food diet, while others believe that Samoyeds are best off eating premium dry dog food. Still, others have the belief that a mixture of the two is the best diet for a Samoyed.
We won’t be taking a stance on this issue, but we will give you all of the facts about raw food and dry food diets for Samoyeds and let you make the decision for yourself.
Raw Food Diets for Samoyeds
A raw food diet is, as the name implies, a diet that consists entirely of raw food. This can include raw meat, raw eggs, fruits, veggies, dairy products, and bones. The intent of a raw food diet is to emulate what a Samoyed would have eaten hundreds of years ago, during the early days of the breed.
While a raw food diet might be more in tune with what your Samoyed would have eaten in days of old, a diet consisting strictly of raw food may not be the best option. If they eat something that’s not been prepared properly, there’s a much greater risk of them catching a bacterial infection from their meal.
However, raw food can have some benefits for Samoyeds. A raw food diet can give your Samoyed more energy, and in some cases can improve the condition of their teeth, skin, and coat. Eating a raw food diet can also result in smaller bowel movements, which are obviously easier to clean up.
Dry Food Diets for Samoyeds
Dry dog food, also known as kibble, is by far the most popular option in terms of what most pet owners feed their dogs. The exact composition of dry dog food varies depending on the manufacturer and the type of dog it’s made for, but in general, dry dog food is made from a combination of grains, cereals, and meat by-products, with added vitamins and minerals.
The process of actually making dry dog food from these ingredients is a bit complex, but basically, it involves grinding the raw ingredients down until the particles are the right size, at which point the ingredients are mixed together and then placed in an extruder, which cooks the kibble and cuts it into the right size.
Unless your Samoyed is a particularly picky eater (which is not an entirely uncommon trait among Samoyeds), you can totally get away with feeding them just a dry food diet. In fact, a dry food diet can have several benefits over raw or wet food diets.
For starters, a dry food diet is way less expensive than either a raw or wet food diet, and it can also be easier to meet your Samoyed’s specific nutritional needs with a dry food diet, thanks to the huge variety of dry dog foods that are available. A Samoyed that mainly eats dry food is also far less likely to have bad breath.
In addition, because dry dog food is hard, your Samoyed actually has to chew it in order to eat it. This will prevent your Samoyed from wolfing down their food, which in turn can reduce the risk of gastric dilation volvulus. Many dogs also enjoy crunchy food more in general.
Are Samoyeds Food-Driven?
Samoyeds are indeed a food-driven breed and can be easily be motivated by a nice treat. However, as we’ve stated, Samoyeds are known to be pretty picky eaters, and you may find that your Samoyed doesn’t tend to eat that much if they’re not being presented with something they enjoy.
As for why Samoyeds can be such picky eaters, this mostly has to do with the historical diet of the breed. Samoyeds were originally bred to be working dogs rather than companion dogs; specifically, they were bred to pull dogsleds.
As such, the diet of the average Samoyed a few hundred years ago consisted mainly of whatever meat scraps were left over after the hunt. Since Samoyeds at the time were much more active due to their status as work dogs, this calorie-dense all-meat diet was a lot more suitable for their needs.
These days, Samoyeds still retain their preference for meat and tend to favor meat-based meals. However, the average Samoyed today isn’t nearly as active as Samoyeds of old were, so an all-meat diet isn’t really feasible for a modern Samoyed.
If your Samoyed is picky to the point where they’re refusing to eat dry food, one thing you can try is cooking a bit of bacon or some ground beef and mixing some of the leftover grease or meat juices into their food. The added meat essence might make dry food a bit more appealing for them.
There could be several potential reasons why your Samoyed is a picky eater, aside from their historical eating habits. It could be that your Samoyed is not getting enough exercise, that they’re feeling stressed or unhappy for some reason, or that the food you’re giving them is of low quality.