Gun Dog Forum

i have a 14 week old black lab pup that weighs 30lbs. i want to start feeding her twice a day but i dont know how much to feed her. i am currently feeding puppy food and am going to switch to adult food as soon as the puppy food is gone. thanks

As long as the pup looks good weight wise now feed it the same amount. Half in the morning, half at night.

Can you post a picture?

What brand of puppy food are you feeding? Are you going to feed the same brand of adult food?

pedigree yes

I have been feeding my dog twice a day but there is some times she only eats a little bit and leaves it for the next time is this normal. And how much weight should she be putting on in a week.

Huntumup wrote: i am currently feeding puppy food and am going to switch to adult food as soon as the puppy food is gone.

Why



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Doc E wrote:

Huntumup wrote: i am currently feeding puppy food and am going to switch to adult food as soon as the puppy food is gone.

Why



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I would guess because the pup is getting older and doesn't need the puppy food that is higher priced than a good adult feed. That seems like the reasonable thing to do at least.

Ezzy

ezzy333 wrote: I would guess because the pup is getting older and doesn't need the puppy food that is higher priced than a good adult feed. That seems like the reasonable thing to do at least.

Ezzy

Uhhh -- It's a 14 week old puppy.


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Doc E wrote:

ezzy333 wrote: I would guess because the pup is getting older and doesn't need the puppy food that is higher priced than a good adult feed. That seems like the reasonable thing to do at least.

Ezzy

Uhhh -- It's a 14 week old puppy.

Old enough!

ezzy333 wrote: Old enough!

:roll: ... :roll: ... :roll:


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Doc E wrote:

ezzy333 wrote: Old enough!

:roll: ... :roll: ... :roll:


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It's a 14 week old puppy.

I've never understood why folks do this? Isn't puppy food especially large breed puppy food formulated to avoid rapid growth? A lab is a large dog.

Red wrote:

It's a 14 week old puppy.

I've never understood why folks do this? Isn't puppy food especially large breed puppy food formulated to avoid rapid growth? A lab is a large dog.

Not that I have seen. It is formulated to provide the right balance of minerals as they grow. My problem with puppy food is it promotes too fast of growth once the puppy starts eating a good amount.

Though I seldom used it past the first couple of weeks to get them started eating, I found the pups grew too fast and stools were too loose once they started consuming a goodly amount. And in recent years the pups get the same feed as their dam, with it being soaked in milk and water for a few days and a feeder where the dry food was available for them to chew on. And after a few days the wet food was withdrawn and they had free access to dry hard feed that provided their nutrition and something to chew on to help loosen their teeth and keep them content with something to chew on when they were hungry.

Then how old do I start to feed adult food.

A lot of people either A) switch when the pup comes home, or B) do half puppy and half adult for a bit and kind of ween off of the puppy for a few days or so.

Corry

ezzy333 wrote:

Red wrote:

It's a 14 week old puppy.

I've never understood why folks do this? Isn't puppy food especially large breed puppy food formulated to avoid rapid growth? A lab is a large dog.

Not that I have seen. It is formulated to provide the right balance of minerals as they grow. My problem with puppy food is it promotes too fast of growth once the puppy starts eating a good amount.
I found the pups grew too fast and stools were too loose once they started consuming a goodly amount. .[/quote/]

Red --- You are exactly correct.

EZZY --- With a quality Large Breed Puppy food, all of the amounts are very properly adjusted and you won't have any problems at all. If they "grew too fast", the problem was with you and not the food (unless it wasn't a quality food).



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How fast is to fast for my lab

Doc E wrote:

Red wrote:

It's a 14 week old puppy.

I've never understood why folks do this? Isn't puppy food especially large breed puppy food formulated to avoid rapid growth? A lab is a large dog.

Red --- You are exactly correct.

EZZY --- With a quality Large Breed Puppy food, all of the amounts are very properly adjusted and you won't have any problems at all. If they "grew too fast", the problem was with you and not the food (unless it wasn't a quality food)..

Doc you are right as you always are. It was my fault but I hate to see puppies hungry and loose stools. Also don't like to see puppies heavy. It was enough of a problem with other people also that many companies changed their formulas and some brought out the large dog puppy feed. I still see a problem though not as severe as it use to be but by feeding a good adult feed I have been able to slow them down a little, keep them a little thinner,and keep them much more satisfied and happier and also healthier in the long run. I still have the opinion, though I have no real good evidence to back me up, that hip problems are more prevalent when our larger dogs grow fast and are too heavy while our smaller dogs that do not have growth or hip problems. Right or wrong, it has seemed to work well over a lot of years

Doc I don't feel the need to tell you how or what to feed your dogs or to even tell you anything that goes on with them is your fault since we all know there is only one person to blame when any of our dogs have a problem. I am glad to tell you what I have found that works well and tell you the best I can why from the experience I have had. And I also want to help the newcomers to our dog world anything I can to help them get to the place we are now without making some of the mistakes we did. There are so many tales floating around about dog nutrition and all of the dog foods on the market today that are trying desperately to create a niche for their dog food that much of what they publish brushes very loosely on the truth and some is based on pure fantasy.

Ezzy

I have a 5.5 month old lab, i feed him about 3 in the morning and 3 at night, he looks great,