Bailey is 10 weeks old today and last week he weighed 7.8 Kilos-we weighed him at puppy class. He has never been a 'typical lab' with food but now he is not finishing his meals. He is fed twice a day, a mixture of science diet & royal canin, one cup of each per meal. This is what the breeder did and so we have continued with that. He is a very happy, bouncy dog and appears very well. We have had a lab before and he was completely different, he practically inhaled his meals! Bailey is not given any other food apart from his training treats. He loves tiny cubes of cheese, ham and a puppy 'milky stick' broken into pieces. He is very enthusiastic with these. Am I worrying about nothing? I will weigh him again this week but he is certainly growing! We are socialising him and all the people who greet him at school remark on his growth! This is him from above, what do you think?
He looks fine to me. Definitely not underweight. Sometimes puppies don't love kibble, and not all Labradors are hoovers. I wouldn't worry
Thanks Oberon, I guess I'm comparing him to our only other Lab! Bailey prefers people to food and that's a lovely trait to have.
My Fred has never been greeded. Sometimes he still leaves part of his meal and he is 2 now. Now Annie his sister she could eat for England and would if you let her. Bailey looks great to me. You don't want a fat puppy or a fat dog. Just enjoy him because he is lovely.
Hi there, Just a though but wonder if having his food in 2 meals is too much for him if he's only 10 weeks? Young puppies can have 4 small meals a day.My dog came to live with us at 5 months and he was still on 3 .....I didn't drop it to 2 meals until he was 6/7 months. Might be something to try if you are worried x
Agree with @Dexter three or four smaller meals might not seem too intimidating to him , more manageable , but he does look good .
Hi I have a Bailey too that does not always finish his meals - we have kept to 4 smaller meals for him but he seems to be a grazer rather than a hoover - apart from on walks of course! My boy is now 12 and a half weeks old and was weighed today at the vets at 8.45kgs, so keeping to the small meals seems to work for him as that is a one and a half kilo gain in two weeks - and he is getting plenty of exercise and sleep. Your Bailey looks gorgeous and apart from the colour looks just like my boy did at 10 weeks. I am slowly learning to relax about his eating habits, as with you I used to have a lab x collie who was a dustbin on two legs! In fact I spoke to the vet about it today and she said if we were happy with him just grazing don't stress just keep topping up his bowl. Good luck x
Thanks to everyone! This is such a helpful community. I have things to think about. He sees the vet on Thursday for his second vaccination so I'll talk to the vet too. Thanks once again to everyone
@BevE He certainly looks a good shape to me. If you're worried about him not eating all of his meals take some the kibble ration and use that for treats for training etc., it could be that with the training treats, cheese, ham etc., he just isn't so interested in boring old kibble and is filling up on the other bits.
He looks just fine to me. He's a nice rounded puppy shape. My first lab always split her meal with a break of over an hour between "courses". I wouldn't get too worried.
I think he looks fine, not undernourished, very nice coat, well defined waist and most of all it's really cool that he can walk on the wall like that!!! I wish my Molly could do that
As suggested I would feed small meals 4 times a day at the moment; they usually decide to give up a meal themselves. Mine then went down to three and now as adult dogs have two meals a day.
He is very clever but not quite up to wall walking It sure does look like that though! I've changed his feeding to 3 times a day, but...I forgot to give him lunch He doesn't seem to have suffered.
We brought our Finley home at 8 weeks. We kept her on the same food as the breeder had her on and she had no problem gobbling it up for the first 2 weeks we had her. For whatever reason, at 10 weeks, she would only eat half her food and we couldn't understand why as normally she would have no problem eating it all. We started to put warm water on her food to soften it up a bit, and that did the trick! She is now 13-1/2 months and we still put some water on it for her.
Our second Lab, Tilly, was always a free feeder until we got Cooper. I don't recall what she did as a puppy, but when she was grown, she would just munch on her kibble all day. After we got Cooper we had to go back to scheduled feedings because Cooper would eat anything Till left.
It must be labs named Cooper! Our first lab was a Cooper and he would have eaten all day if you let him.
Bailey was weighed today at puppy class, I will not be worrying any more. He now weighs 8.85 kilos so a gain of 1.05 kilos in the last week. I am now giving him 3 smaller meals each day and he is eating well. He still has a break but finishes all the food he is given. Thanks to you all.
