Hello all. I have a 12wk pup , we changed the food that his breeder was feeding him (skinners field and trial puppy) to Orijen large puppy food as recommended by Pippa in the Lab handbook. I'm now a bit confused as the trainer at the class we have just started has a info sheet on feeding and recommends a food that has up to 25% protein such as Nature Diet, Denes, Burns or Arden Grange, she states that feeding on higher up to 38% can add to growing too fast , hyperactiviity and potential liver and kidney problems. I would love to hear other opinions . Thanks Jane
Hi Jane, welcome to the forum This is definitely a topic which tends to solicit a lot of conflicting opinions! I think this is still the most useful article I've read on feeding large breed puppies, and protein levels are specifically addressed at the top of the 2nd page. As far as I am aware, there hasn't been any more recent research which has contradicted the research this article is based on, but if anyone else reading this has seen something I've missed, I'd love to hear about it!
Hi Jane, My puppy was also on Skinners when I brought him home at 9.5 wks but the food really was not agreeing with him, so I have recently (about 3wks ago) switched to Orijen and he is doing so much better. I personally have not seen my lab grow too quickly, hes on the lower end of lab size and at 18wks hes only 13kg, bless him! And with the hyperactivity I haven't noticed him being any more hyper on Orijen than he was on Skinners. I was recommended to use allaboutdogfood.co.uk to help when choosing a new food for my pup .
