My girlfriend and I just got a new 11 week old Chocolate Lab and we just want be be sure that we are feeding him to his puppy needs and getting him all he needs to grown big and strong. Anyone have good recommendations?
Congrats on getting a new puppy! My first question would be "did you get him from his breeder?" followed by "what was the breeder feeding the litter" if your answer to the first question was yes. : ) I ask because of our very recent experience; our Roamin' will be 15 weeks on Tuesday; he came home with us from the Breeder who has fed Eukanuba Lg Breed Puppy food to her lines for many years. Our dogs have all been fed Purina Pro Plan for years. She had no issue with my transitioning him over to our preferred food but let me know that her line appeared to suffer from loose stools on Purina. We waited two weeks for him to adjust to our home and our water before transitioning him over 7 days to Purina; 3 days afterward fully transitioned, he kept us up all night with pudding poo every 90 minutes. Thinking he may have eaten something in the yard, we did the bland diet for 48 hours until his stool returned to normal, and then began to reintroduce his Purina. The pudding came back immediately. Off to the Vet we went for a fecal test (negative) and came back with antibiotics, a probiotic and a "firmer" so that we could get some sleep. We had 8 days of "normal" firm stools, but within 12 hours of his last probiotic, the pudding poos were back. Off to the Vet again for another negative fecal. To make a long story short, after two weeks of this, with the Breeder's comment about her line having issues with Purina niggling all along in the back of my mind, I finally made the decision to transition him back to Eukanuba while giving him probiotics to help him along. The first day with a bit of Eukanuba added saw his stools firm...and today, his second day of full Eukanuba, I saw the best stool out of this boy yet. Unless you have a major objection to continuing to use the Breeders suggested food (or can't get it easily), my advise today, where it wasn't two weeks ago, would be to continue to use what works for her line of dogs.
Also If you’re question is regarding quantity, I think it’s around 5-10% of body weight for pups. We are feeding buddy 5% plus treats and he is gaining weight perfectly. If you struggle to weigh your dog, weigh yourself, then with you holding the pup, it should be accurate enough! We feed buddy raw which he is doing very well on, but as has already been said, ask the breeder and find a good quality kibble etc that he can tolerate and I’m sure you’ll be fine.
