Labrador puppy problems with feeding

[crazynell]

Hi we are wondering if we're doing thing right and if there's anything we could be doing differently. Our Labrador puppy of 20 weeks doesn't seem to have the food motivation of our previous labs. We struggle to get him to eat his 3 meals a day and he will often eat about half then walk away. He's not skinny nor is he a chunky Labrador. He has treats to encourage his lead walking and good behaviour bone shaped biscuits. He's on James wellbeloved puppy kibble and we mix some chopped chicken into it. One day last week he was sick and we put him on chicken and rice and he recovered but he's been having bouts of diarrhoea since and is on and off his food and spending more time on his bed snoozing. I wonder if we should change his food in case it's not agreeing with him? Any advice welcome.

I would speak to the vet about his sickness and diarrhoea.

How much kibble is he getting a day?

I would not add chopped chicken to it

Any training treats need to be taken out of his food allowance

How much does he weigh?

Thanks @PollyRoullson he's 20 kg. I think we'll take him to the vets tomorrow. He's a lovely happy healthy boy but his feeding is an issue.

I had a similar issue with my dog, it turns out he was allergic to chicken and had a sensitive stomach. I found a powdered probiotic each day really helped

Look up allaboutdogfood it’s great at working out what’s in the kibble. They shouldn’t get regular soft poo. We swapped from the breeder’s choice of food Beta to Wolfworthy based on quality and found his coat improved immensely. Ours has always been a goody though!
Interestingly our older dog is intolerant of chicken… she has to have a fish based protein.

We had this with our lab, the only did that sorted it was Markus Muller dry food. Its a good quality cold pressed food and pretty reasonably priced. We get it from Zooplus 15kg x2 bags for about £62. I'm sure they do a puppy version too.

*food, not did

He is the expected weight for a 20 week old lab so he is certainly eating enough.

I think maybe you are expecting him to eat more than he needs with all the extras you are giving him. But no medic so do speak to a vet if concerned re his sickness and lethargy.

Are you reducing the amount of kibble you give him to account for all the extra treats and chopped chicken?

Mine also dropped to two meals a day at that age as he stopped having any interest in lunch.

How much are you feeding? Our lab puppy is on James Wellbeloved and we don't feed the recommended amount which is quite a lot iirc.

@tizwozliz we're giving him about 300 to 350 per day

My lab puppy was never bothered by her dry kibble. We thought we had a defective Labrador!!

Now we mix with some wet meaty pouch with a bit of water and it's much better.

And far less then the food suggests.

Quick update. Thursday morning we came downstairs to diarrhoea all over his bed in his crate poor boy had tried really hard not to poo where he sleeps so it was on his toys and blanket. Massive clean up and trip to the vets for poor boy

Back from the vets and Poor Ddog has a bacterial infection he’s had an antibiotic injection- which he didn’t like one bit. He’s got probiotic paste, antibiotics and a wormer tab. He’s on light meals for a few days - rice scrambled egg chicken or fish. He’s lost a little bit of weight too, apart from all that, the vet thought he was in good condition and a good looking boy - proud parent😃