Another food question (sorry!) Large breed puppy food or regular puppy food

[sunnylaz]

It was recommended to me that I should feed my pup regular puppy food as opposed to Large Breed Puppy version, that labs are considered a "medium" breed, not a "large" breed. I see most people post they feed Large Breed Puppy. Opinions and thoughts on this please? Also, what age do you switch your lab to regular adult food?

Thanks!

[Dawson Creek Girl]

Large Breed Puppy Food!!!

I switched Rowan to an adult food at 1 year of age. (that was last month)

[henrysmom]

I would feed a large-breed puppy food too.

[JacksAndLabs]

Ask your breeder.

My last two puppies, I have fed regular puppy food until about 4 months and then switched to regular adult food.

[HersheyK's Dad]

Our breeder says LBP for 1 year

[Baloo317]

Baloo is on an "all life stages" food, as per his breeder, and so far so good, he's had really steady, even growth so far.

[Snowco Labradors]

I have never fed a LB puppy food.

I switch to adult at 6 months.

You should check with your breeder as they know their lines best.

[Bob Pr.]

Snowco said "You should check with your breeder as they know their lines best."

Since many responsible breeders (I presume most) follow the scientific consensus and recommend a LBP food for roughly the first year, many others -- like Snowco -- do not or even DISrecommend it.

I seriously doubt that any responsible breeder sees Labs in sufficient numbers to accurately gauge the effects of feeding or not feeding a LBP food.

Puff's vet at K-State's CollVetMed specifically recommended feeding a quality LBP food; I didn't know why at the time but folloiwed her advice. Since then I've read and learned more.

Below is a post I've often made:

While there is not 100% agreement among Lab breeders or all vets, as far as I know there IS 100% agreement among canine nutritional scientists that large breed dogs (such as Labs) should be fed a formula especially formulated for LB puppies up to 12 months or when adult height is gained.

Labs are among the "larger breeds" that have a lot of joint problems -- about one of every 3 dogs among Labs.

Joint problems are caused primarily by 3 mutually interacting factors:

-- stress, injury, such as caused by jumping, leaping especially before adulthood

-- genetics such as caused by breeders not having their breeding dogs certified for hips & joints AND not checking for that in the pedigree line -- in short, puppy mills, backyard breeders, scam breeders

-- diet such as caused by feeding a large breed puppy a food that is not specially formulated for large breed puppies; a LBP food controls the amount of kcals per volume plus the per cent of calcium and its ratio to phosphorus that is delivered

Once you have your Lab, you CAN fairly much control the activities that could cause stress or injury AND you can absolutely control the diet your Lab gets. Doing both of those lessens the probability that your Lab will develop joint problems.

Below are a few references on the importance of feeding a Large Breed Puppy food for the first year. (There are NO scientific articles claiming the opposite.) The references are from a post I've made so often that I just recopy it.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

My very strong preference -- for all Lab puppies under a year old -- is to feed a Large Breed (formulation) Puppy Food, such as made by Diamond, Eukanuba, Nutro Natural Choice, ProPlan, or Science Diet, etc., for the reasons given in the articles below:

http://consumer.vetmedcenter.com/con...p?id=9808&dt=p

http://www.mediarelations.ksu.edu/WE...pies62403.html

http://www.petevents.com.au/news_articles/28.shtml

http://www.diamondpetfood.com/Jul03.html

http://www.newmanveterinary.com/large.html

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This (just below) is a technical article (but readable) that summarizes many of the canine nutritional and growth studies:

http://www.ilovemypet.com/jackart.html

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See also:

http://p075.ezboard.com/fjustlabrado...cID=3973.topic

Within it, it contains this statement and references:

"The scientific literature is very clear on nutritional changes to "help manage" the potential orthopedic problems in growing large and giant breed dogs. Here are a few citations for you. As you can see from the dates on these citations, it is “old” news to vets but pet owners and breeders are still making dangerous recommendations."

1. Nap, et al. Growth and skeletal development in Great Dane pups fed different levels of protein intake. J Nutr 1991; 121:S107-S113.

2. Hedhammer, et al. Over nutrition and skeletal disease: an experimental study in growing Great Dane dogs. Cornell Vet 1974; 64:1-159.

3. Lavelle. The effect of overfeeding of a balanced complete commercial diet to a group of growing Great Danes. In: Nutrition of the dog and cat. Burger and Rivers (eds). Cambridge Univ Press, 1989:303-316.

4. Hazewinkel, et al. Influences of chronic calcium excess on the skeletal development of growing Great Danes, J Am Anim Hosp Assoc 1985; 21:377-391.

5. Goedegebuure, Hazewinkel. Morphological findings in young dogs chronically fed a diet containing excess calcium. Vet Pathol 1986; 23:594-605.

6. Hazewinkel, et al. Calcium metabolism in Great Dane dogs fed diets with various calcium and phosphorus levels. J Nutr 1991; 121:S99-S106.




Edited to correct a spelling error ("kals" --> "kcals")

[Snowco Labradors]

Snowco said "You should check with your breeder as they know their lines best."

Since many responsible breeders (I presume most) follow the scientific consensus and recommend a LBP food for roughly the first year, many others -- like Snowco -- do not or even DISrecommend it.

I seriously doubt that any responsible breeder sees Labs in sufficient numbers to accurately gauge the effects of feeding or not feeding a LBP food.

Most of the breeders I know recommend a switch to adult food at 6 months. Do not feed puppy formula for a year.

All I said was I have never fed a LBP formula. I didn't recommend it one way or the other.

And yes, people should check with their breeders first.

Breeders talk to each other all the time and compare notes on what they feed and how their pups are maturing. So in that sense we get feed back on quite a number of Labradors.

There are a number of non LBP formulas on the market that have the proper "amount of kals per volume plus the per cent of calcium and its ratio to phosphorus.

[sunnylaz]

Thank you for your information!

Bob, those were some good articles, thanks for sending the links (two of them were no longer up though, just FYI).

Snowco, I appreciate your responses as well.

My breeder does in fact feed regular puppy, and that is what prompted this question (sorry I didn't want to put that in the beginning; I wanted to get some true opinions rather than either breeder smashing or just telling me to go with the breeder). I am one of those people that researches everything in great detail before I make a decision. I had assumed large breed puppy as that was what was always mentioned. Then the breeder did tell me to feed regular puppy, but are okay with me changing foods as long as it is good quality. When I first started researching foods, I was looking at large breed puppy grain free, not knowing what they feed or that they fed regular puppy. According to some of the articles Bob provided, a lot of it has to do with the ratios of phospherous/calcium as well as protien, as well as Snowco mentioned the same thing (that there are a number of non LBP formulas that have the proper amount).

I will continue researching, and thank you for all your information!