Hi there all.. I'm getting my lab puppy in 3 weeks and just wanted some advice on puppy food. I have been speaking to the breeder and they are starting them off on beta puppy food, just wondering if this is a good choice, I've had smaller dogs in the past and now finally got the lab I've wanted and glad to find this site for info. Many thanks
I’m interested in this thread. Our 10.5 week old was fed on beta puppy by the breeder so we bought a couple of bags and have continued. Just about to start the second bag and wondering whether to gradually move on to something else. I have seen decent reviews of it but also comments that it’s nutritional value isn’t the best and I believe there are better foods out there. Elsa seems to do well on it though with good formed stools but she is very regular (even needing to go twice over night) but that could be her age rather than the food
Have a look on the website below. It is great and you can compare different brands and find something in your budget. This way you will be able to see ingredients and nutritional value https://www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk/the-dog-food-directory
Hi there I stayed on the beta food and at first I was really happy with it, simba enjoyed it and i treated with kibble plus sardines in training and walks, not much, sometimes just a lick of the flavor, now thinking of ways to give this in an easier form. I've read a few posts that suggest baby food pouches which is what in going to do. After a few weeks I noticed he was needing more and more, the vets weren't really helpful and not being able to go in with them in check ups etc has been hard and a conversation at the doorway outside while the next person is waiting isn't great and quite rushed(going to another vets ) I found the site that is mentioned above and had a look and noticed raw was high up on the site. Ended up looking into raw and reading a few posts on here and decided to change- very nervous about it as i would never have thought about giving raw meat especially chicken bones. Decided to start off with ready made raw and went with able with the plan to start doing it myself. Simbas now 17weeks and started him at 16weeks on raw. He loves it, I've only had 1 loose stool which i think was when i added a fresh sardine for lunch one day and to many different things to quickly. I have a smaller bag of the beta for emergency but hoping not to use it as doesn't seem to fill him like raw(although I think he would just eat and eat) He's always been excited about his food but now he's even more so and the look on his cute face in the morning is a pleasure. I will eventually start on chicken legs carcass etc and been looking for sites that sell a mixture of things like rabbit and venison, just need a an extra freezer now
We made the decision to go onto raw and never looked back, Luna loves it and is so excited for meal times! We use Natural Instinct and have also found Henley Raw Dog Food. Luna loves both and we have decided we are going to do them month about now to keep it mixed up and different flavours. With you on the freezer! We bought an American fridge freezer but whenever her order came it still took up 95% of the freezer so just last week we got a chest freezer that is just for dog food!
i even had to bin a bit of my food to make sure i fitted it his in the freezer, my daughter thinks I'm mad and really hates the smell and the look on her face when i said he can eat chicken wings etc and didn't think dogs could. Well im certainly happy I've changed, and a bonus is the poop, simba was having so much kibble the size was getting silly, he's very lean and every so often he looks a bit skinny so kept upping amounts and the vets weren't very helpful with advice. Other than that he doubled in weight in 4 weeks , I thought that was quite alot but he was sill a little slim. Able seems to be very good and I'm happy but will look at the others to as I also want him to have a bit variety. I found a site that does some different things so will pop the link up as will also do some other bits in time once i feel a bit more confident in getting the 80-10-10 right.puppy raw seems to be more expensive so will just do the ready raw and let it flow and mix it up
Mine was weaned on Purina Beta puppy large breed. He had bouts of upset stomach for 18months. I switched him to raw partly because he has cancer and I wanted to reduce his carb intake but also to try to get to the bottom of his constant scratching. I use Nutriment complete meals Duck,Salmon and Turkey and Turkey. I also add raw broccoli and blueberries. We have never looked back. Not a single upset stomach since last October when we switched. I am too nervous of bones to go down the whole carcass route but there is a Facebook group called Raw feeding U.K. that has lots of good information.
We used to have to do the same bin ours to make room for the dogs! Luna loves chicken wings and she is very good at chewing through the bone to break it up. You will find that Simba will put on about 1kg a week maybe more in the early months. Raw is more expensive but so worth it, our girl is now so big and muscly that people think she is a male and surprised its a girl.
The Henley raw looks a good site and not badly priced either with a good selection. Pretty sure simba will love everything on there-love the variety- thanks for that and is more what i am looking for than the one I had found. That's the only thing im worried about will be his size, I had always wanted a black lab girl but this cute little red fox chose us. The vets has said he's going to be on the larger size of labs so with the raw he will be a power machine- I've trained him from after a week of getting him to walk with me off lead, as after going through alot on this forum i have found so many handy tips that i never even considered, and im not going to be pulled and walked myself haha..yI have a patch of grass opposite house so clicker trained, whistle and treated so now just working on distractions as he wants to jump up at everybody, he is very good and quite easy to train other than the biting which has actually got worse but less frequent, teething so hopefully soon will calm down. I'm just happy to have found this site as I think I would have struggled with some of the behaviours and not considered things like raw as very different to my previous dog but now totally see where we went wrong with my first one!
