Cutting puppy meals from 3 to 2, how to do it?

[Asinine]

our 13 week old lab is on 3 proper meals a day at 6, 12 and 6 with weetabix (recommended by apdt trainer at puppy class) at 10, as he was hungry at night and waking up.

I know he will need to go down to 2 meals at some point, but how and when? Do I gradually make lunch smaller, or cut it out just like that?

I also give him quite a bit of the measured out daily kibble as training treats and in kongs if he is left for any period.

Any advice please.

[Asinine]

He is on eukanuba puppy and likes to pretend he's hungry at all times like a typical lab

[Happymm]

No idea, will watch closely as have a 10wk old crocodile lab, though on pro plan. Think you keep going till 6months ish but am probably wrong!

[PurpleFrog]

Funny how it is only labrador owners that think that this is an issue!

We discussed this about 6 months ago here.

It was remakably painless when we eventually did it.

[Ephiny]

You don't have to go down to 2 meals. We give our adult dog 3 meals a day, tried it because when he used to have 2 a day he was sick quite often, and it seems to have worked. Sometimes more frequent, smaller meals agree with them better.

[midori1999]

I would probably cut the weetabix out, as it has no nutritional value and cows milk isn't great for dogs either, it's quite an old fashioned thing to feed puppies. Then spread the remaining three meals out and give the last one a bit later (maybe 8pm) if your dog seems hungry later on, then just give him a few pieces of kibble at bed time (literally two or three) as a 'bedtime treat'

Puppies should really be on three meals until 6 months and when you cut the last one out it will be the lunchtime one, but it's important not to cut the overall daily amount of food down, only tne number of meals. So, for example, if your dog is on 3 meals a day of 100g each, 300g a day, you'd just split that 300g between two meals rather than three.

Also, I know it's not what you asked, but Eukanuba, although largely thought to be a premium brand, is very expensive for what it actually is. It has poor meat content and a lot of cereal fillers. You could get a lot better for at least the same money or much cheaper.

[Happymm]

Hi Midori, know you suggested Fish4Dogs yesterday. kings roadies pup's on that, went to puppy school last night and mentioned that her pup's often thirsty, and the fish was blamed. Kings went home and ate some and said that yes it was very salty!

[Avantia]

Oh yeah , I started that other thread - yes very painless transition

Surprised about the weetabix - def cut that out , just give puppy a couple of small dog biscuits at bedtime .We did that we ours from day one and still do .

she is one year old at the weekend .

[midori1999]

I've just replied on the other thread.

I won't be tasting Fish4dogs (yuck, it stinks!) but there's certainly no added salt in it that I know of. I definitely haven't noticed an increase in drinking with my dogs since they have been on it. Some dogs do just drink more than others though.

[Happymm]

Just read the other thread thank you. Maybe it is just greedy pigs labradors! :o

[BitOfFun]

I'm surprised that some people still recommend weetabix when so many dogs are gluten-intolerant, and milk can cause allergy problems in a significant minority too

I would just start delaying lunch gradually until he moves to having an early tea, and increase the portions a bit. I'm not a big fan of fish4dogs because it really honks and I think it is a bit protein-heavy, but I know some dogs do well on it. I feed a mixture of quality dried food from our groomers' own formula, and nature diet wet puppy food. I wouldn't touch supermarket/big name stuff with a barge pole after advice on here. Quite possible my biggest volte-face on mumsnet

[Asinine]

Ok, thanks everyone. I wasn't putting milk on the weetabix, just water and only one biscuit. Will phase it out and start giving dinner later. I will look on the other threads for which food I should switch to. The eukanuba was started by the breeder. He is doing well with beautiful poos so was reluctant to change it, but if I can get better for my money I'll go for that.

[PurpleFrog]

Rory was 7 months old by the time we got round to cutting out lunch. I must admit it makes things a lot easier at the weekends - we can go out mid morning and have lunch out, without having to rush back to feed him.

We gradually cut down his lunch over a period of about a week, adding the excess food evenly to breakfast and dinner. We then cut out lunch completely, but he got a good walk with lots of training treats at his old mealtime for a couple of days.

Surprisingly, he didn't seem to miss lunch at all after that. His 3 favourite words are now "Breakfast", "Dinner" and "Biscuit"! We brought his dinner foward a bit, to 7.00pm. He still follows us around from about 6.30pm, but as soon as he hears the theme tune to "The One Show" he gets very excited because he KNOWS that it is TIME!

[AllTheYoungDoods]

If all's going well on the poo front I imagine the transition will be trouble free. Ours has ongoing digestive issues and a sudden change to 2 bigger meals a day was just too much for him, so we did it very gradually over 2 weeks increasing each meal by something like 30g a day, and got there in the end!

A very small amount of kibble in a kong at lunchtime is still a nice way to break up their day! {softie emoticon}

[multitask]

With this latest pup we had no trouble in dropping a meal she did it herself! As our dogs are RMB feed it seems they regulate themselves. She dropped her breakfast one and eats at about 1pm and 8pm now. She has most of her exercise in the morning so it has worked out great as timings are perfect. I do think she is too lazy to eat in the morning as she comes back to bed with me from 6 - 8am and then she goes out for a run. I worried a bit at first but realised it is just her way. There wasn't a big reduction in amount of food she eats, just split differently.

But she isn't a lab, maybe they are reluctant to give up a meal!!