How Much Food?!?!

[MY BOY LOU!]

I had been feeding my chocolate male 3 cups per day of the Science Diet Large Breed puppy food. He's 12 weeks old and about 23 pounds, so that is exactly what the Science Diet food bag prescribed for him. I just switched to Purina One, but the food bag isn't as specific about how much to feed him for his age and weight. Does anyone have any suggestions?

[imported_bacatherine]

I would start out with what your feeding and go from there it's hard to say exactly how much they need since every puppy grows at a different rate and they will need more when going through a growth spurt.

[jzgrlduff]

Why did you switch foods?

At that age, 3 cups a day is good. My boys are doing great on the Purina One, although it's frowned upon by alot of people. Whatever, if it works it works!!

[MY BOY LOU!]

To be honest, I didnt buy the Purina One. I had my mother pick up food and that's what she brought home. He loves anything to eat, though, and it hasnt affected anything else either.

[Bob Pr.]

Puppies start off needing about 2X the amount an adult dog at that same weight would need and then the multiplier gradually decreases until about 10-14 months age.

Most bags suggest feeding more than is most healthy for a dog.

A number of studies have shown that when littermates are diveded into 2 groups, one getting a "normal" amount of food while the other gets only 75% of what their littermate ate, the animals in the reduced food group lived significantly longer with significantly less health problems. So it's healthier to err on the lesser intake of food side.

Also, the amount of cups needed depends on the amount of energy per cup in that food. The measure of that is the kcals per cup and if it is not listed on your food bag, a call to the food mfr's customer service # will quickly supply it.

For a food with 360 kcals/cup, the amount a 22 lb. pup would need daily would be about 3 cups. (That's about 1100 kcals/day; divide the # of kcals/cup of your food into 1100 to get the approximate # of cups for this stage of growth.)

As he grows, the amount of food he needs will increase up to a point (although the multiplier will also be going down).

My Puff is one of the rare, "mutant", self-regulating Labs. Her appetite gradually increased up to 5 cups/day at 7-8 months and then she stopped eating for a couple days. When she resumed, she ate less. We went through that several times until she leveled out at 2 1/2 cups/day.

[Bob Pr.]

Some members of this forum recommend not feeding a Large Breed Puppy food while there are considerably more who insist on it.

Most all scientific studies on puppy nutrition recommend a Larger Breed formula for Large and Medium breed dogs like Labs. (Vets consider Labs as "large breed dogs.) I'm not aware of any scientific studies done on sufficient numbers of dogs which found in favor of non-LB adult foods for Lab pups.

Below is a copy of the first part of a post I've often made. (But since some of the links no longer work, I'll edit this and include a few that do work.)
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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 calcium 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.

Added with edit

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

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

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

My thanks to Nick for the following:

http://www.breedsmartpartners.com/br...P&articleID=62
http://www.breedsmartpartners.com/br...0?pageID=RLAPC
http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/.../11_Suppl/S107

[jzgrlduff]

To be honest, I didnt buy the Purina One. I had my mother pick up food and that's what she brought home. He loves anything to eat, though, and it hasnt affected anything else either.

You should really find a food that works and stick with it, instead of buying "whatever". It could be hard on their system. olice:

[Tanya]

To be honest, I didnt buy the Purina One. I had my mother pick up food and that's what she brought home. He loves anything to eat, though, and it hasnt affected anything else either.

You should really find a food that works and stick with it, instead of buying "whatever". It could be hard on their system. olice:

I completely agree. Has the pup done well with the "cold" switch? (no loose stool, no upset tummy?) Most stores will let you return an unopened bag of food if an error occurs.

[MY BOY LOU!]

I was hesitant to do the "cold switch", as well. I had already been planning to ween him onto Iams or Purina One, when the mix-up occurred. I just went with it, though. He switched about 8 meals ago now, and I havent noticed any changes at all. His bowel movements have been just as regular as they were before and he doesnt seem to have upset stomach.

He is always looking for food. Science Diet, Purina. It doesnt matter.

[cinderbay]

I have switched a few of my dogs in the past doing a cold switch. I have never had an issue with doing it. Where I have seen a problem is where someone is switching from a not so quality food to another not so quality (IMO) or from a NSQ to a higher quality food.

and my other opinion is Purina One is soo better than SD.

He is always looking for food. Science Diet, Purina. It doesnt matter.

Well thats a Lab for ya!