Health Guide

Feeding Labrador puppies

by: Pippa Mattinson

When you first bring your puppy home, your breeder should have provided you with a diet sheet, some food, and plenty of information on feeding Labrador puppies .

It is really important to stick with his familiar food for the first few days as moving home is quite traumatic enough for an eight week old pup without giving his tummy a shock too.

No cows milk

One common mistake made by new Labrador puppy owners is to feed their puppy on cows milk. Unfortunately cows milk is not well suited to puppies and may give your puppy diarrhoea. You can buy replacement for bitches milk, but an eight week old puppy is actually weaned and doesn’t need milk at all.

Water

Puppies and older dogs need water available to them at all times during the day. It is ok to take your puppy’s water away an hour before bedtime to help with housetraining provided that it is at least an hour since his last meal.

Kibble fed dogs drink quite a lot of water, raw fed dogs may drink very little. This is normal.

Several small meals

The amount of food that your Labrador puppy needs to eat each day must be divided into several portions. If you try and give him the whole day’s ration in one go, he will probably give it his best shot, but it will almost certainly give him diarrhoea and could damage his stomach as kibble swells after drinking.

From eight to twelve weeks your pupppy will benefit from four meals a day, breakfast, lunch, tea and supper. Space the meals at least three hours apart to give him chance to digest them properly. And make sure the last meal is a two to three hours before his last trip to the toilet at bedtime.

7am, 11am, 3pm and 7pm works quite well. It is fine to work out your own schedule to fit in with family life. Don’t ask him to go more than six hours without food during the day though, and make sure you get the four meals slotted in.

Once your puppy gets to three months old you can divide his daily ration into three portions, and by six months to two. Breakfast and supper.

Many dog owners continue to feed their dogs twice a day throughout their lives. Some people feed their dog’s once a day after twelve months of age, and that is fine if you decide to feed raw meat. But with kibble it may be too much dry food in one go. Very large meals may be associated with ‘bloat’ especially in larger breeds of dog.

Don’t leave food down

Some people leave food down for their dog’s to ‘graze’ on. I do not think this is a good idea. Take up your puppy’s bowl after ten minutes. He won’t come to any harm if he hasn’t quite finished, and will soon learn to eat up his meal at mealtimes.

Household scraps

Puppies need a very well balanced diet to grow up strong and healthy. Unless you are a very experienced dog owner and knowledgable about nutrition and the dietary needs of a growing animal, it is not a good idea to feed your puppy on household scraps. Complete puppy foods contain all the nutrients your pup needs to develop a healthy body.

Raising pups on raw

The same provisos apply to raw feeding. Raising a puppy on raw meat food requires some considerable knowledge of nutrition and is best left to experienced raw feeders, unless you have thoroughly researched the subject in advance.

Vet checks

All puppies need regular veterinary check ups and when you take your puppy to the vet for his vaccinations this is a great time to ask any questions you might have on his diet and welfare generally.