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My dog is about 5 months old. His childhood teeth are already lost, and he has grown a new set of teeth. My dog is not a small breed kind. When fully grown up, he would be a bit bigger than a German shepherd, but currently he is less than half the size of an adult German shepherd.
First, I decided to feed him once a day. Is one-time feeding ok?
Second, I feed him each time 0.75 lt of milk and 150gm bread, which is his favorite food. Is that amount enough?
Your dog is still a puppy. He needs sufficient calories and the right balance of proteins, fats, carbohydrates, minerals and vitamins to supply everything he needs for the growth of his body.
For the feeding frequency, I would strongly encourage you to give him three meals now and two meals when he’s an adult. You can go down to one meal for adult dogs, but especially for large dogs large meals can be risky and cause gastrointestinal issues that can, at worst, be fatal.
As for the needs, there are official guidelines what ratios of the nutritions must be fulfilled. I realize that for the home cook this can be challenging (which is why pre-made pet food can actually be a good choice), but it’s possible. You may want to start your research here and determine how many calories your puppy needs (don’t forget that your puppy needs circa twice the resting calories shown in the chart).
So let’s check that for your dog, although I have to eyeball it somewhat. At 5 months, your dog should have reached about 70-75% of his adult size and slightly over 50% of his adult weight (good nutrition assumed). If he’s supposed be somewhat bigger than a GSD, that would mean 40 pounds, so he needs around 1200 kcal/day. (Not meeting the expected growth rate is already a warning sign, btw.)
0.75l milk (assuming full-fat) and 150g bread (assuming wheat) is less than 900 kcal, so just 3/4 of the needed calories.
According to the AAFCO the composition of a „complete“ pet food for still growing dogs should be composed of a minimum of 22% protein and 8% fat, plus value ranges for different minerals and vitamins - find a few tables here. Without running the numbers in detail, I am quite sure that your diet will not match. If you can’t use premade dog food, at least start with meat (including organ meat (offal)) and some vegetables, add starchy components sparingly and leave out the milk.
You should monitor his reaction to milk carefully. In nature, only babies drink milk, but adults don't. Milk contains lactose and the body needs to produce a special enzyme to be able to digest that. But most animals only produce this enzyme while they are babies and stop producing it when they grow up. So most mammals (with the exception of some, but not all humans) become lactose intolerant when they grow up.
The signs of lactose intolerance include stomach aches after consuming milk, bloating, producing gas and diarrhea. This can lead to constant discomfort and pain, and the diarrhea can lead to dehydration and malnutrition.
Before commercial dog food was available here where I live, people fed their dogs the leftovers from the kitchen. That includes bread, cooked potatoes, pasta or rice (whatever was available), eggs, leftover vegetables and any meat that was cut off and not for consumption (or let's call it "animal product", because it includes meat, skin, organs, tendons, cartilage and uncooked bones). The dogs basically got everything humans could eat, but didn't eat.
This type of food is not ideal for dogs, though. Too much starchy food like bread, pasta, potatoes or rice can make dogs fat while still causing malnutrition because it lacks vitamins and minerals.
The big problem is spices. Food leftovers usually contain salt and spices, but dogs shouldn't eat them or only eat them in very small quantities. So it would be best to set aside some surplus food for the dog that doesn't get seasoned or to wash off as much spices as possible before feeding leftovers to your dog.
