In this article we answer your concerns about feeding your Labrador puppy. You’ll find all the information that you need for choosing the best dog food for Lab puppies. Including how much to feed your Lab puppy and how often to feed your Labrador puppy. Together with schedules, quantities and even a handy puppy diet chart.
There are often questions on the website about feeding Labrador puppies. People ask if it is OK to give puppies eggs, or rice, or milk, and so on.
They also want to know how much to feed their puppies, and how often.
When I was small, puppies were fed on all sorts of things, including scraps, raw meat, canned puppy food, puppy meal, weetabix and milk, etc.
Nowadays feeding your Labrador puppy is usually much simpler.
Best puppy food for Labs
We all want the best for our puppies. But what is the best puppy food for labs? Most puppies are fed on commercially produced dry dog food known as kibble. We’ll look at different brands of dry puppy food in a moment.
But it is possible to feed a puppy on home cooked food or on a totally raw diet. You’ve probably heard of BARF or biologically appropriate raw food.
Feeding dogs this way is growing in popularity, and there are pros and cons to raw feeding puppies, which we’ll be looking at here.
The alternatives are
- Kibble (dry food)
- Barf (raw food)
- Wet food (cans and pouches)
- Home cooked puppy food
Let’s look at what the experts say
Experts disagree on puppy feeding
Even experts disagree on what is the best food for puppies, and people often feel very strongly that one way of feeding is better than another.
You will find veterinarians on youtube pronouncing that BARF is the only way to keep a dog healthy, and veterinarians pronouncing that kibble is the only way you should feed your puppy, with dire consequences if you attempt to go ‘natural’
Dog breeders too tend to be divided into those that feed a natural raw diet, and those that feed kibble. And you will find plenty of wild claims for the benefits of one method over the other.
The truth is, there is no good quality evidence that kibble is better for the long term health of your dog, or that raw feeding is better for the health of your dog. And there are risks and benefits to both.
Choosing which puppy feeding method to use
Some dogs and some families are better suited to raw feeding, and many dogs and their families are probably better suited to feeding kibble. And you can choose the method that suits you best.
If like most people, you choose to feed your puppy on commercial dry puppy food, you should not feel that you are letting him down in any way. Let’s look now at feeding puppies kibble. This is how most modern puppies are fed in the USA and the UK
Feeding your Labrador puppy on kibble
In most parts of the world you can buy ready-made pelleted puppy food of good quality.
Otherwise known as ‘kibble’, these dried, pelleted foods come in sacks or cartons.
They store well provided that you don’t get them damp.
Most vets and breeders believe that kibble is the best way to feed a puppy. And you are likely to get support from your vet if you decide to feed your puppy on dry food.
