Our pup is on Acana Large Breed Puppy. Breeder said poops were great - brown, firm, etc. We asked how much to feed him and he said 150g. And said to feed 3x per day. So we came home and gave 150g x 3 per day, total of 450g per day. Within 2 days the pup was pooping 4-5x per day, yellowey colour and a bit like Mr Whippy. We read it was likely overfeeding. In just 3 days he had started to look really fat and bloated, too. We checked the bag and for a 7.5kg puppy (his weight at 8 wks) it suggested 240g PER DAY. We'd been giving 2x that!! So we assume we misunderstood the breeder???!! We cut his food down to 60g x 4 feeds (240g /day). His poop turned great within a day. But now he looks SO thin. He's nearing 10 weeks now. I can feel his ribs but not really see them. But we can see his shoulder bones. I dont know if he is too thin. He is from huge parents (show not working) and at 8wks was 7.5kgs so pretty big compared to averages I think. How much Acana Large Breed Puppy do you feed your 10wk old? How do we know what's enough or too much?
Ignore what packets say is the right amount. Ignore what people say is the right amount. All you need to do is look at the condition of your puppy. If he's too thin, he's not getting enough. Give him more. If he's getting too pudgy, reduce it. Every puppy is different, has different activity levels and different energy requirements. No-one can tell you how much is right for your puppy, you have to go on condition. When you say "huge", what do you mean? I don't know what the breed standard is where you are, but in the UK, show line dogs aren't supposed to be "huge" - the breed standard actually gives the height range and it's shorter than many of the pet bred Labradors. Or do you mean huge as in very broad? Don't forget that the majority of Labs you see are overweight - some grossly so. Even the ones that go in the show ring. Here is a chart which shows and describes the ideal body shape: https://thelabradorforum.com/threads/ideal-dog-weight-chart.22542/ If you can't see his ribs, the chances are he's not underweight. That said, my youngest has a very thick coat which means that I can't see her ribs as clearly as I would with my other two. She's very slim at the moment, and I can often make out her last rib when she breathes in, eats and sniffs, but I can feel them very easily without applying pressure when I stroke her sides. With a very young puppy, I wouldn't be looking for them to be as slim as I'd like to see an adult dog, but I would also absolutely not want them to be too hefty - it's really detrimental to their development if they're too heavy.
Thank you. Yes I suppose huge is a misleading term as it is all in perspective. Both parents fit breed standard for size and weight (beautiful dogs!) but both are at tbe top end for height/length. Where I live most people seem to have tiny dogs or at most smaller mid-sized dogs (Yorkies etc - a dog that can go in a bicycle basket!). Labs are BIG dogs and most who have labs seem to be slimmer narrow headed hunting dogs. Ours is quite broad-headded and a show line. And at the big end of that range, if that makes more sense. I feel he looks thin for a puppy but not if he was say 6-9 months old. Maybe he just lost some of that "puppy fat" in two weeks. We weighed him today and he is exactly 9kgs. Was 7.5kgs twelve days ago!! So he's growing and I guess that's okay. It's finding the line between enough food, and not too much that he has diarrhea that we are struggling with. I'm going to up it a touch tomorrow and see how we get on.
If he is getting loose stools then he is probably having too much in one go. If you want to increase his intake you can add another small meal rather than increasing the size of his existing ones. Or feeding extra as training treats throughout the day. It tends to be larger volumes of food sitting in the stomach in one sitting that upset a puppy’s digestion.
