Talk to me about food for a lab puppy

[SallyBear]

We are getting a Labrador puppy next week and even though the breeder will give me the food she gives them and quantities, I wondered about what other foods are recommended. BARF? What is that exactly?

My old Labrador had a diet of cooked meat, fish, vegetables and rice. She didn't really get much wheat - only in dig food if we had run low on home cooked stuff. I wanted to see what others are doing with regards to feeding their puppies, and how many meals a day?!

4 meals a day until about 4 months, then 3 until 6 and then 2 from then on.

BARF is a type of raw feeding...here's a load of reading, with links. Raw feeding is IMO great, but, especially with a puppy you need to research it properly and make sure they're getting the right balance.

If you're after commercial food, then which dog food is a great site.

I raw feed. You are looking at their diet being made up of 80% muscle meat (which includes tripe and heart), 10% bone and 10% offal (eg liver or kidney)

The things I mostly feed bone wise is chicken wings and lamb or pork ribs. I also feed minces, diced meat and tripe. I do a mix of human grade reduced bargains and raw dog food. If you have a chest freezer there are lots of suppliers who bulk deliver. Raw eggs a couple of times a week too. And fish.

Some people feed veggies. I do sometimes as he enjoys them but not with every meal.

If you use facebook at all the group raw feeding uk is useful to join both for asking questions and the quick start guides.

Mine has just turned one now so is only fed once a day now.

I should point out I didn't do it from the start mind. He was about 7 or 8 months but we never looked back

Labs should be fed twice a day - large deep chested breeds are prone to bloat and that's one of the ways to minimize the risks.

I will only ever feed mine raw.

Dogs CANNOT digest carbs, so basically rice (which pet food is stuffed with as a filler) just gets shat straight back out. Vile.

I order 100 bags of frozen raw minced chicken, tripe and lamb from a company called TPMS. For my three pugs, they get 2 bags shared a day. It costs £44 delivered. So thats 50 days food for £44.

I bought a cheap freezer and keep it in the garage.

I also order chicken carcass, wings, necks, and lamb bones. Chuck them one each of the above every few days.

Simples.

Thank you, all of you. Plenty here to read about and think over.

Actually there are a fair few grain free dog foods nowadays.

Raw feeding a commercial mince for a large breed dog isn't cheap, people have tried to convince me I could do it for a £1 a day...I can't, not even with a cheap butcher who'll sell me big bags of chicken carcasses and various bones and offal for practically nothing to supplement it and a chest freezer.

That's because 1.5 kg of meat a day is a lot, lol. Where monkeyfacegrace is using 2 packets between 3 dogs, I need 5 a day just for 1 dog.

Raw is worth doing, I think, but a good quality dog food is also good.

Basically have a nosy, decide what you want to do and as long as you know that diet's important you'll not go far wrong.

3 packets is 1.5kg, and I pay 44p a packet= £1.32 a day.

And those grain free foods are still bulking agents sprayed with animal fats to make dogs eat it.

And considering you need to raw feed 2-3% of your dogs weight, you need a 50kg dog to feed 1.5kg a day.

Ok. Well thank you again for all the information, I will consider my options very carefully.

I have a rottie... but yes you're right, it is 3 - I think I added my 3 to your 2, lol.

Obviously a lab wouldn't be quite as big, but it is more expensive than with a small dog.

A rottie really shouldnt be more than 30-40kg. Doable for £1 a day if you add an egg every other day.

Seriously, you will be collecting gallons less of shit too.

Toby is from working stock, so he will be tall rather than stocky. Is it my imagination or have Labradors (on champdog site) gotten shorter and deeper chested?

We had a rottie type cross years ago, gorgeous boy He did have a very deep bark. SallyBear never barked!

I'll tell him you think he's fat, then he can look at you all mournfully (I mean it's just his normal look, but still, lol). He's actually bang on for his height - which means other people think he's skinny, lol.

I tried raw feeding, I absolutely couldn't do it for £1 a day...that's not why I stopped and if it had been just about cost I'd have carried on because I do think it's infinitely preferable to know what your dog is having. He gets wet food with some chicken backs and things like lamb necks and pigs feet to chew on.

But there are honestly some pretty decent dry and wet foods, you'll probably have to buy them online, but they are out there.

I fed my lab pup purine pro plan for robust breed puppies. I still feed her that at 15 months but for adult robust breed. She still gets fed three times a day as it suits us. She is doing very well and is slim and active.

I raw fed for a while too and could not do my rottie for £1 a day, and that was with boxes of chicken "snot" from the commercial butchers for free. In the end I stopped as I didn't have the space to make it viable and it was dn near impossible to keep weight on the cocker when he was working.
My dogs are all greedy so I had few worries about how balanced their diet was. I wouldn't feed a pup on home prepared stuff though, only pre- weighed packets so I could be sure the mix was correct.
I use Barking Heads now which is suiting us great in terms of price and poo :) We may even get away with not changing GingerDog to working formula for the season as it agrees with him so well.
In the past I have fed Burns which was excellent- cant think why we changed now and Skinners which suits my working dogs, is cheaper but ultimately has an effect on their poo- not ideal if you plan on walking in public :o

I'll hold my hands up and say I couldn't raw feed a rottie on £1 a day either. I have found a local supplier who does tripe, chicken or beef at 40p per lb, wings at £2 per kg and lamb bones at 30 - 80p so I reckon it would cost me around £1.30 per day. But space would be my downfall as I'd need an extra freezer for a huge dogs food!

I'm sure the breeder said she used skinners.... Not keen on nasty poo though. God I will be obsessed with whether his poo looks right! #needalife!

It's not bad sally just more of it and not quite as perfect as when on Barking Heads of course even my dogs shit is perfect :)

I like naturediet however I, like grace have pugs which are small. However their size belies their weight which together is a not instubstantial 18 kg. They have a pack each which works out (bulk online) at around £1.50 per day. High meat content and firm small poo so we are all happy!

It's not worth feeding anything that does not list meat as the first ingredient, and specify which meat it is. Don't feed animal derivatives, yuckeroo. Yes I know dogs eat shit and vomit etc but that's just an added treat to them when they can get it, it shouldn't be their main meal.

I would feed raw too however I've got no room ATM for a freezer, and plus my older pug is a guarder. She spends all day with one chicken wing, not eating it herself but daring the other one to come near. Ho hum.

I bought an 8wk old lab puppy on Sunday and the breeder said she had just swapped the pups food over. They were on pedigree puppy pouches and then she put them on Wainwrights puppy. Don't know if its the stress of coming home with us or the change of food but he had bad runs on Monday. My Mum gave me some Nature's Instinct and he is pooing a lot less now so I'll see how he gets on with it. She also gave me a bag of Millie's Wolfheart for my older lab and she said puppy can have that too once his tummy is better. It costs a lot but she said you don't feed that much because its so rich. It didn't agree with her 3 dogs though and gave them really soft poo so it's trial and error really.

Just checked and the breeder says its Burns puppy. Just discovered that DH chucked out our old dog food tub as we didn't really use it. Bugger!

Ok I'm liking the looks of Eden Multi Meat and Fish Kibble. here. Opinions please?

Sounds like you could wean a baby on that with those ingredients! Looks really good quality

It got great reviews and doesn't seem anymore expensive than the breeder's choice of Burns puppy food. I don't think that I could do raw food. I'm terrible with remembering to get food out from the freezer for us, let alone for a dog!

I know and it's the storing of it. I'm just keeping mine on Natures Instinct till his tummy settles down and then I'll start introducing the dry food with it. It's a minefield trying to choose a food, there are so many out there. My older lab has been on Wagg for years and my Mum always tells me its full of rubbish but he looks fab!