Some Labrador feeding tips
Before we get to what you should be feeding and how much, here’s some common guidelines when it comes to feeding a Labrador puppy.
Never let you Labrador puppy get too heavy during the growth stages. They should have a thin layer of fat, but you should still be able to feel their ribs easily.
No forced exercise, jogging (especially on hard surfaces), jumping, field training or agility work, until the dogs are at least 18 months old and their bones are set.
When dealing with large breeds, They really are puppies until at least 18 months of age. I know it doesn’t seem like it, but they are actually quite fragile and need supervised exercise in a fenced in area and daily walks with you.
For strong bones they need normal moderate exercise. The generally accepted rule is that they can do about 5 minutes of walking per month of life. For instance, a 3 months old Lab puppy could go for a 15 minute walk.
Never leave food down all the time. Some dogs will only eat what they need, but very few Labradors will stop eating until all the food is finished. It is also a dominance issue – Dogs with free access to food are much more likely to decide that they are the alpha. It will make your life harder.
Don’t give your dog any calcium, vitamin or mineral supplements. If you are feeding a premium dog food, you most likely do not need to add supplements, and doing so can throw off the balance of the food preventing proper absorption of some minerals or vitamins. Only give supplements if your vet tells you to.
Be careful about the amount of “treats” you give your Labrador retriever. The calories does add up. Break Dog biscuits into smaller pieces or use tiny pieces of carrots and apples as treats. This should not disrupt the balance of the diet or add a lot of calories to the diet. If you do feed treats, adjust the puppies next meal to allow for it.
When you feed, make sure that it is in a non stressful environment. If possible, try feeding in a crate as it reinforces that the crate is a good place to be.
When you give them their food, measure out the correct amount (We’ll get to that) and put it down for them. Allow 10 minutes, and after that take the food away. If they ate most of it, you’re fine. If they didn’t eat a lot, try again in 60 minutes and keep doing this until they eat most of the food in one go.
If they keep just eating a little bit at a time, take it away for 2 hours before trying again. You basically want to teach them that they eat when you give them food, and if they don’t, they’ll stay hungry until you decide to give it to them again.
What to feed
Personally, I’d rather see a thin puppy during growth than a fat one. For a healthy Labrador puppy, you need a moderate protein/fat/calorie food. There is a myth that high protein/fat/calorie food will result in a bigger dog. This is simply not true. The only likely effect it will have is to cause your puppy to develop nutritionally caused bone diseases.
Never feed any food with a fat content above 15% as this promotes accelerated growth. In large breeds, accelerated growth is likely to cause growth deformities and early arthritis. You should also not feed low protein or fat food as they are not high enough in calories.
It is generally a good idea to feed the breeder’s recommended puppy food until the puppy reaches its adult weight. For female Labrador Retrievers, that happens at about 11-12 months old, and for males somewhere between 14 and 18 months old.
If you want to switch to a different puppy food, make sure that you switch the food slowly over the period of about a week. Over the course of a week, mix the old and new food together, slowly increasing the amount of the new food until after a week you are feeding the new food. Don’t be surprised if your puppy has an upset stomach during this period.
After this you can switch to an adult (maintenance) food for the rest of your puppies life. Try to stay on a food that has no more than 26% protein and 15% fat at least until the dog is 18 months of age. You should never feed a ‘Performance’ dog food to a puppy as it can cause all kinds of problems later in life!
A word about water
Always keep lots of fresh water available so the animal knows there is water around, and is less apt to over-consume. Some people will withhold water to try and make it easier to house break a puppy. This is not only cruel, but also totally ignorant. Puppies will naturally tend to gorge when they drink since they haven’t figured out how to tell when they’ve had enough. By denying water, you reinforce this habit which could lead to bladder infections, potential dehydration and painful muscle cramping.
Use common sense, and do not let your Labrador puppy drink excessively (Especially after exercise or dinner). If you always have water available, they tend to drink smaller amounts more frequently as they know that water is available when they need it.
How much should I feed my Labrador puppy?
This is unfortunately not an easy question to answer. There are many reasons for this, but the main reasons is the fact that it depends on your puppies metabolism and activity levels.
You should look at the feeding chart on your dog food’s bag and use that as a base to determine how much you should feed. Then use the information in the next section to keep an eye on your puppies weight and adjust the amount you feed based on this.
How much should my puppy weigh?
Once again, there is no clear answer. Adult Labradors will weigh anywhere between about 40 and 100 pounds. Because of this, you can’t say with any certainty how much they should weigh at a certain age, but a rule of thumb, between the age of 10 weeks and 10 months, the puppy should weigh about 2 pounds (1 Kilogram) for each week of their age.
So a 16 week old puppy should weigh about 32 pounds (or 16 Kilograms). Females might be up to a pound (half a kilogram) lighter and males up to 1 pound heavier.
This formula is only a guideline though – Nothing can replace having a good look at your puppy to see if it is carrying too much weight. A good way to check is that you shouldn’t be able to feel any ribs if you run your fingers over your puppies coat, but if you put a small amount of pressure, you should be able to feel them.
Likewise, the ribs should just be visible if they are standing in bright sunlight, but hard to make out if they are in the shadow.
You should evaluate the amount you feed your puppy about once a week based on the above observations. For example, if the ribs are becoming too defined, add 1oz (25g) of food to the normal amount and re-evaluate after a week.
What if my Labrador puppy is getting too fat?
If you see that it’s become difficult to feel the puppies ribs, decrease their food by about 1oz (25g) and feed them that amount for the next week. If they are still picking up weight, decrease it again. If they are losing a small amount of weight or staying the same, just feed the same amount for the next week and then re-evaluate.
Don’t give in to the temptation to put your Labrador puppy on a lite diet. They need the nutrients for their developing organs and brain cells and their coats will suffer drastically. Until they have finished growing, they need to be getting puppy food.
If you do need to cut back on the amount of food, you can add some (sodium-free) canned green beans to each meal. This will still fill the puppy up which keeps him happy, but without adding a lot of extra calories to the diet.
I hope this answers all your Labrador feeding questions. If there’s anything I missed, feel free to ask in the comments.
Some useful information on Labrador nutrition
This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 13th, 2010 at 2:10 am and is filed under Labrador Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
