Thank you to everybody for all the last minute advice. As per my earlier post we ended up collecting Rocky 2 weeks earlier than we had planned to and went into a bit of a panic. However Rocky has been a treat to have since we picked him up on Saturday. He slept in the car on the drive back to his new home (hour journey). When we got him into the house we let him discover the downstairs rooms and carried him upstairs for a further exploration. He has a few accidents on the Saturday (thankfully just pee) but nothing since as we have been taking him out around every 30 minutes or so and seems to be coping quite well. He had a fairly settled night on the Saturday, I did cover his crate for bedtime with him only whimpering once around 2.30am and then waking up properly around 6.45am (thankfully I am an early riser!). He had his first vaccinations yesterday afternoon and after that was pretty quiet and sleepy. Last night we was louder again around 2.30am and he had done a pee on the pad in his crate but I did take him out. At 5am again he was noisy and when I took him out he peed and then went straight back into his crate and settled until I came down this morning. He is 8 weeks and 2.7kg and guzzles his food in minutes - any tips on how much we should be feeding him? I don't want to overfeed because of the reputation Labs have with regards to food. So far so good. My husband is working from home today and already sent me this picture, he's been sat by our son's dressing gown and slippers since we left this morning
That sounds brilliant - love your positive post. There is an article on The Labrador site about feeding puppies and quantities (sorry not clever enough to a link but I found it easily) which I am finding useful. I also use a feeding ball at least once a day - this slows my puppy Red eating it all down at once and gives her exercise at the same time. I also hand feed her sometimes or sit on a chair near her bowl and just drop small handfuls in. This not only stops the scoffing at a rate of knot's but makes her sit patiently too. Think it has also helps the bonding process as it is a nice quiet time. (We have an older lab and it also means my husband can feed and see to her undisturbed too).
Didn't your breeder send you home with a bag of puppy food together with feeding amounts per day? Most breeders do to help new puppy parents over the first days - there's enough to worry us without worrying about meal size . Quantities are dependant upon the brand of food and the needs of the puppy. Some manufacturers over-estimate by a lot while some other puppy foods that I've used have been very good on quantity based upon age and weight of the pup; food quantity also needs to be recalculated as puppy grows so many of us feed according to puppy/dog body shape/tone rather than a random quantity from a manufacturer.
I was wondering how the arrival of Rocky went So glad to hear all was well and going as expected. Regarding the feeding, just as Atemas advised, we also used feeding balls, classic kings and a little later on a kong wobbler. She is now 6 months old and eats her food very calmly from her bowl. She was typically gutsy as a little pup, but she seems to have slowed down. All in all Harley will chose people over food but we didn't know that until she was older. A note on the classic kongs - when she was little we stuffed her kibble in there dry, so it was very easy for her to get it out, maybe just with a little bit of tinned food to act as a cork but it was super simple for her to get her food, but still slower than gobbling from a bowl. Good luck. I can't see your photo at the moment, so I hope someone will fix the link for you and please post more.
Yes they did but it seems like such as small quantity. I did ask the vet and he said 3 - 4 times a day small amounts and often but to check what the recommendations are on the food itself as each brand/make is different. I ordered a 12.5kg bag of the food the breeder users and looking at the amount that we were told to feed him, this bag will last us for months ! I also read a post about puppy weights somewhere on the forum and he appears to be one of the smaller puppies for his age
I think we will invest in a slow feeder as that seems to be key. Just conscious of the small amount and the speed at which he is eating - read something about gastro problems if they eat that fast. Funny when I had my first dog (a looong time ago!) we never bothered with anything like this; tin of chum and then left to go out on its own - how times have changed
I had the same worry with Mollie, but my supervisor wasn't worried - she just advised I used a really big bowl. Be prepared for the crocapup to arrive! If you read my early posts about Mollie you'll see she had me in a false sense of security for quite some time Here is the post in question - how wrong I was!! Mollie is out of the crocapup phase now, but it was FIERCE!
Don'the forget that it's not all about quantity, there's quality to be taken into account. A food with less fillers (rice etc.) will require less food for the nutritional value. My last pup was fed on Husse Valp Giant which at 1-3 months has an allowance of 35g per kg of body weight. As pup puts on weight you increase the food quantity. I used to make weigh often and recalculate after every weight check. Totally agree with your vet - you need to check on your particular food and work from there splitting it between 4 meals. It may not look much but then a puppy's stomach isn't very big either
Yup. Labs guzzle. We rotate from hand feeding to using a Kong Wobbler to using a slow feed bowl. It's shaped like a maze. Kong is slowest and most rewarding to him. Slow feed bowl is still fastest. We folllw the recommendation on his food bag. Using a high protein no wheat food ATM and adjust based on his weight gain vs. what we offset for training and his body changes. We have also just started m whistle training so we have gone back to feeding less food more times a day.
Excellent! It sounds as if Rocky's settling in very well. A slow feeder will slow down his eating. Be prepared, too, to adjust the amount of food if he doesn't seem to be gaining weight steadily or seems to be getting too tubby. It's really a combination of following the guidelines for his age but adjusting to suit the individual puppy. Even as adults my two have differing needs. I give Tuppence slightly more food than Wispa because, despite the fact that she's much slighter than her, she burns off more calories so she needs the little bit extra to maintain her weight. It could be, of course, that she's got that all planned because she's so food-orientated!
