How to Feed Street Dogs
Most people who start feeding street dogs stop within a month. Almost never because they stopped caring — usually because nobody told them the practical parts.
How much to feed
About 100 g per dog per feed is a sensible handful — roughly a small bowlful of biscuits. An adult street dog scavenging on its own does fine with one supplementary feed a day; you are topping up, not replacing everything it finds. A 4 KG pack is about 40 such feeds.
Puppies and lactating mothers need more, and more often. Break the biscuits into smaller pieces for anything under about four months.
Where to feed
- Off the road. Never at a kerb or a junction. Dogs that learn to expect food near traffic get hit.
- Away from gates and doorways. A feeding spot outside somebody's house is how a feeder becomes a neighbourhood dispute.
- The same spot, every day. Dogs learn a place and a time within about a week, and then they wait there instead of following people.
- Clean up. Take the wrapper, sweep the crumbs. The single fastest way to lose permission to feed is to leave a mess.
When to feed
Pick a time and hold it. Early morning or after dusk works best — cooler, quieter, and fewer people around to be startled by six dogs arriving at once. Consistency matters more than which time you pick.
Water matters more than food in summer
From March to June, dehydration kills more street dogs than hunger does. A cheap earthen bowl refilled every morning, in shade, does more good than any amount of food. Put it somewhere it will not be kicked over.
What not to feed
- Leftover curry, sabzi and dal. Far too much salt, oil, chilli and onion. Onion and garlic damage a dog's red blood cells.
- Chocolate, grapes, raisins. Genuinely toxic to dogs.
- Cooked bones. They splinter.
- Cow milk for puppies. Most street puppies cannot digest it and it gives them diarrhoea, which is dangerous at that size. More on this here.
- Spoiled or mouldy food. If you would not eat it, it is not kindness.
Why dry biscuits work for street feeding
They keep for months in the pack, carry in a bag without leaking, need no cooking or refrigeration, and are portioned by the handful. Bhau Bhau biscuits are 100% vegetarian and 412 kcal per 100 g, made for exactly this and nothing else. That is the whole product.
The dog is sick or hurt. Now what?
Feeding is where most people start, but it is not where it ends. We have written guides on helping a sick or injured street dog, the signs that need urgent vet help, approaching an injured dog safely, and sterilisation and the ABC programme.
Your neighbours
Feed away from doorways, keep the spot clean, never feed on a staircase or in a lobby, and talk to people before they complain rather than after. Feeding street dogs is legal in India and recognised by the Animal Welfare Board of India — but being right is far less useful than being tidy and reasonable.
Keep going
A dog fed once in June is not a dog that has been looked after. One 4 KG pack a month, one spot, one time of day — that rhythm is the entire thing.