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The doghouse

If you're worried about your pet's health, please speak to a vet or qualified professional.

Food

7 replies

Stoney666 · 16/05/2012 13:24

Golden retriever is four months old, according to info on net he should now go from four meals to three meals aday. I have been gradually changing the times and on Saturday he will change over properly. We give him the correct amount etc and his training is reward based so he gets that and half slice dry toast in the morning.........but he seems starving :(( I know it's a greedy breed and I use a king and have an anti gorge bowl but just wondered if any of u had any tips

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Stoney666 · 16/05/2012 13:25

P.s he is on dry food

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daisydotandgertie · 16/05/2012 14:38

Puppies often inhale their food - just because they can. I wouldn't worry too much about how fast it goes down! Just leave him to it. Mine could clear a bowl in nano seconds when they were little.

I also wouldn't rely on toast or anything at this stage. These dogs physically grow so fast that they need decent nutrition to build strong bones. And you will probably regret teaching him at such a young age about human food and the consequential begging every single breakfast time. Because that's what he'll do!

The only advice I'd give is be guided by your dog. If he's looking skinny, slightly increase his food. If he is acting as though he is starving to death, being obsessed by food and so on, give him a bit more to eat.

If he is looking like a barrel on legs, decrease his ration a bit until he evens out.

These quite big breeds do go through some very odd growing stages - leggy, plump, hot rod but you can feed by eye to a certain extent with all of it.

BUT - and you have probably already worked this out, labs and retrievers grow at a rate of at least an additional kg a week, remember to increase the daily ration to accommodate that. It's easy to forget how much bigger they grow in how little time.

Try increasing his ration a little if you think he needs it - rated that than toast, tbh. A raw carrot is a good thing for a teething pup to nibble on too.

daisydotandgertie · 16/05/2012 15:16

Rated? Rather.

Stoney666 · 16/05/2012 15:24

Thank u, he loves carrot, will give up toast. Will increase food as he is growing very fast x

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Stoney666 · 17/05/2012 18:31

Increased food today and have seen a difference already Grin

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Flatbread · 17/05/2012 20:08

I don't know what puppy food you are feeding him, but I usually supplement. Twice a week sardines with the dry mix. Twice a week scrambled eggs as a snack. And once a week, a big bone from the butcher, cooked with rice till all the marrow goodness comes out as a broth. I feed the rice and broth and then the big bone to gnaw on and clean his teeth.

And frozen carrots for teething.

I do this with my pup and also did this when my older girl was a pup. Both dogs are doing really well and the vet says they are in excellent health.

daisydotandgertie · 18/05/2012 09:18

I thought you might!

A hungry puppy is a very taxing puppy, I've found Grin.

I don't supplement with puppies. As long as you are feeding a good quality complete food, there is absolutely no need.

The food is designed to be fed as it is with no addition. The fast growing, bigger breeds need a careful balance of top quality nutrition to ensure they don't grow too fast and develop problems, but so they have enough nutrition to build strong bone and lashings of muscle. Supplementing can very easily upset that balance.

I've seen a series of x-rays recently showing the development of hip sockets from 8 weeks onwards (labrador) and I was startled by how much bone there is still to form around these joints at 8 weeks old. There is sooo much going on inside these dogs when they're little.

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