Feeding Your French Bulldog: A Complete Guide
Portion sizes, treat budgets, and why frenchies are picky in three different ways.
Frenchies have two contradictory feeding reputations: they're either picky eaters who walk away from premium kibble, or they're gluttons who will eat themselves sick. In my experience, the same dog can be both, depending on the week.
How much to feed
The bag's guidance is a starting point, not a prescription. Most adult French bulldogs need between 25 and 30 calories per pound of body weight per day. For a 24-pound dog at a healthy weight, that's roughly 600–720 kcal — and yes, that includes treats.
If you can't see your dog's waist from above when you look down at them standing, you're probably feeding too much. Frenchies hide weight gain well because of their build.
Two meals or three?
Adult frenchies do best on two meals a day, spaced 8–12 hours apart. Puppies under six months need three. Free-feeding (leaving food out all day) almost always leads to weight gain — they will eat out of boredom.
What to put in the bowl
Look for a food where the first ingredient is a named animal protein (chicken, lamb, fish, etc.) rather than a meal or by-product. Frenchies are prone to skin allergies, so a limited-ingredient formula is worth trying if your dog is itchy.
I personally rotate between two brands every couple of months. The dogs get less bored, and if one formula stops working (Pépin developed an ear infection after six months on a chicken-heavy food), I've already got an alternative they like.
Treats
Treats should be no more than 10% of daily calories. For a frenchie, that's about a tablespoon of training treats, not a bowl. I use freeze-dried liver broken into small pieces — high value, low calorie.
Avoid: rawhide, cooked bones, anything from the human dinner plate that contains onion, garlic, or grapes.